Changes to UK Free TV
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV The purpose of the site is to provide independent (from the broadcasters, infrastructure companies and Digital UK) information about the choice people can make to watch free to air television services in the UK.
Having many years of technical, managerial and communications experience - and particularly after seeing at first hand the failure of ONdigital to communicate the technical difficulties - I thought the would be plenty of people who would need straightforward technical digital TV assistance.
When the site launched the only form of "feedback" was a personal email service, but on 7 October 2005, I introduced a direct commenting service. This has on the whole been very successful and popular - over 88,000 comments have been posted since then.
Many people have assisted people from all over the UK and around the world, and these contributions have made the site a lively and helpful place.
However, 28,500 of these posting are mine, and it is taking an increasingly large amount of my time.
In addition, the number of occasions where personal attacks are being launched on me and my professional knowledge, or I have to deal with uninformed and incorrect answers being given to people has increased.
The main upshot of this is that I spend very little time doing the "top line" site tasks, such as writing articles, upgrading the database information, adding in new sections such as the radio transmitter and YouView pages and so forth.
Whilst I appreciate that visitors can reasonably think that "in a democracy we are free to discuss pros, cons and preferences", this site is not a democracy, UK Free TV is my project.
Therefore I am proposing that:
1. Certain sections pages will be closed to further comments. I really do not have the time to spend going round and round in the same loop discussing same things, such as with the tedious digital radio haters. Such discussions add nothing to helping out people with their reception issues and will be moved to a holding page or deleted if they are insulting.
2. Some sections will be pre-moderated. Comments will not appear until I approve them.
3. Off-topic comments will be deleted or moved. For example, questions posted about Freeview reception in Jersey posted on the Winter Hill page. I will normally move them to the general purpose Feedback page.
4. I will then will have the time to improve the resolution and accuracy of the transmitter coverage pages, upgrade the radio transmitters section and provide information about the upcoming local TV, IPTV and YouView.
I will instigate these changes shortly.
Bold indicates changes made from feedback.
3:01 PM
Reading
Ashley: sounds like it could be too strong a signal, overloading an amplifier or the TV's tuner. If you have any amplifiers, try removing them or turning them down. If not, or that doesn't help, try adding an attenuator.
Many people have installed high-gain aerials who simply did not need them.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
11:21 AM
Stoke-on-trent
Hi
Since the digital switchover last week i am now missing ITV CH4 CH5 and all associated channels, it says no signal, i have tried configiration and manual installation but has not made any difference.
Any ideas please
Thanks Michelle
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michelle's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
7:58 PM
Bedford
Hi there
Since the change over, channels 12, 15 & 22 picture keeps freezing. All other channels are fine. I am on the Sandy Heath Transmitter, post code MK42 7PB
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Jon's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Jon Foster: You may have to wait until the ArqB multiplex moves to the final allocation of C48 on 14th September 2011.
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4:01 PM
Wrexham
JonF - try a cheap booster amp. But don't tell Brian - he does not like them!
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Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
5:51 PM
Northampton
I was told that after the changeover, all would be fine with Digital Channels, when the transmitter would be switched 100%. Absolutely wrong, as bad as ever and some Channels not available. Who do we complain to
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Kath's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
6:27 PM
Wrexham
Whoever told you.
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Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Kath Pye: You will need to wait until September to have all the services at full power. There is no one to "complain to", reception is YOUR responsibility.
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1:49 PM
Edinburgh
COMMENTS DISPLAY ORDER MOST RECENT SHOW AT TOP...
This would be my suggestion. Trsnsmitter pages can have very extensive comments per page and currently they are displayed upside down I.e you have to scroll down many many screen views (especially on a mobile/tablet)
One of the easiest fixes. You do show the most recent comments tab first as default which puts you ahead of a lot of other web'masters' but you didn't follow through and have the display order as Descending by default so that the most current user post on a transmitter is the first post you see. I assumed until I posted actually that no-one had posted since 2011!!
Lots of people would probably also assume likewise unless they scrolled down a lot. Shame as it is otherwise a great site. Apart from that a great site :-)
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Ford's: mapF's Freeview map terrainF's terrain plot wavesF's frequency data F's Freeview Detailed Coverage