East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire switchover "ends"
Viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire that use the Belmont or Olivers Mount transmitters and their relays will have no analogue television from Wednesday 17th August 2011. Unless you use cable or satellite to watch television, if you don't use a Freeview box or set, your screen will be blank.
Most people need only perform a "full retune" on their Freeview box or TV, but it would be impossible with 747,300 homes covered by the transmitters, for no-one to have a problem.
From Wednesday 17th August 2011 you MUST have a digital television device to watch TV. If you do not have a digital receiver, from Wednesday will have a blank screen.
Do not expect a terrestrial television service from midnight until 6am - or a late as lunchtime on relay transmitters.
Switchover help scheme
If you are over 75, get (or could get) Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance or mobility supplement; or have lived in a care home for six months or more; or are registered blind or partially sighted and need assistance, please see The Switchover Help Scheme.Cable and satellite
Cable (Virgin Media) and satellite (Sky, Freesat, fSfS) viewers are not affected by the changes. Remember, however, that you may be using analogue TV to watch on a second or third set and it might need a Freeview box.Existing "full" Freeview users
If you already use Freeview, and can receive all the channels now, check your TV or box is not listed here - TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode. If it is, you will need a new Freeview box.If you are not on the list, you should scan your box from around 6am.
When you now rescan, you MUST do a "first time installation" or "factory reset" scan (sometimes called "shipping state"), not a simple "add channels". Do the procedure you did on September 30th 2009.
If you can't recall what this was, please see generic clear and rescan procedure.
If you scanned during the first phase of switchover on Wednesday 3rd August 2011 - you will have to do it again on Wednesday 17th August 2011.
Restrictions on Arqiva A and Arqiva B multiplexes at Waltham
Arqiva A and Arqiva B not launch at full power, but will only get a 3dB power increase from the old Multiplex C and D levels. The switchover finally ends for Waltham on 23 November when these two multiplexes increase to 100kW - this date is when C53 and C60 stop clashing with the Tacolneston transmitter.Using Freeview with Windows Vista
Please see Switch over and PC-based systems because you need some updates for your system to work.Boosters and amplifiers
If you live close to the transmitter, you may have to disconnect any "boosters" from your aerial system. The new, more powerful digital signals may overload any amplifiers and result in no reception! When looking for them include a check for distribution amplifiers, loft boxes, set back amplifiers, bypass Amplifiers, hidden masthead amps in a loft space and any dodgy active splitters.Homes without Freeview now have Freeview Light
If you had no Freeview service before, you will have the BBC channels digitally from Wednesday 3rd August 2011. This is a single multiplex of the BBC channels (radio, television and text) for most people.However, if you were on the fringes of reception from one of the main Freeview transmitters, you will now get all the Freeview channels.
If you didn't get this limited Freeview service on 3rd August 2011 then you may need a new aerial.
If you are served by a public service (relay) transmitter - Grimsby (by noon), Hunmanby (9am), Lincoln Central (by 9am) or Weaverthorpe (by 6am) relay transmitters - you now need, from lunchtime on 17th August 2011 to rescan, and you will get a second Multiplex with ITV 1, ITV 2, ITV 1 +1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Channel 4+1, E4 and More4. And that's your lot if you have a standard Freeview receiver, see Freeview retune - poor public service transmitters.
You may wish to install Freesat for more channels, see Compare Freeview Light and Freesat TV.
Everyone who has digital-only terrestrial TV now has the ability to receive Freeview HD, see below.
Digital regional overlap
The old analogue TV signals provided lots of nations and regions for the public service channels, and these have large areas of overlap.The old low power digital TV signals were at very low levels and reception of signals from more than one transmitter was a rare event.
All Freeview boxes automatically scan the available broadcast frequencies looking for channels, and they do this from C21 to C69. Most older Freeview boxes will, if a duplicate version of a channel is found whilst scanning, such as another BBC One region, placed it in the 800-899 channel range.
Some of the latest Freeview boxes will pick the strongest signals for the "primary" number positions, and some will detect the different regions providing a choice when you perform a "scan for channels".
The 800-899 is easy to access by pressing CH- from 1, and in most programme guides is just a single scroll up.
Freeview HD
Freeview HD will start on Wednesday 17th August 2011 from Belmont, Olivers Mount and all the relay transmitters. You will need a Freeview HD - DVB-T2 receiver to watch the channels. An HD TV set with Freeview is not enough.3:03 AM
Nottingham
Belmont, Mux BBCA (Ch 22), D3&4 (Ch 25), BBCB (Ch.28, HD) and SDN (Ch.30) have all been on-air since just before 2 a.m.
Not sure about Arquiva A (Ch.53) and B (Ch.60) as I'm using a Group A aerial.
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Jim's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
8:03 AM
Jim J (NG14 6**): You possibly wont receive them very well anyway in your area, as these two channels are remaining on low power(4Kw) until November 23rd.
(Digital UK's trade view shows no reception being possible on them!)
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10:54 AM
Instead of new equipment users can use TVCatchup - Never Miss A Show Again on their Laptop, PC, iPhone, iPad or Android - its free.
Shameless advertising ~ TVC_H4U
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11:52 AM
Everything working OK here in East Yorkshire. Freeview HD looking pretty good too in 1080i/50Hz. I had expected 1080p/25hz but I would imagimne the lower temporal resolution might not be good for sports. I like the colour rendering in HD, reds especially are less "fizzy" and more natural.
No complaints so far.
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12:57 PM
Nottingham
jb38: Thanks for your info. The lack of Arquiva A and B muxes from Belmont doesn't worry me, because I already receive their equivalents on channels 42 and 45 (with a Group C/D aerial) from Waltham.
Hopefully, things will stay the same when they move to channels 56 and 57 on Aug. 31.
Thanks again.
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Jim's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Steve: The BBC HD channels automatically switch on a frame-by-frame basis between 1080i and 1080p depending on the type of material the encoder finds in the source.
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8:01 AM
Sleaford
on the 17th i rescaned my free view box and recieved all the channells perfectlly , this morning the 18th i have fracmented pictures on all bbc channell why is this happening please help ?
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victor's: mapV's Freeview map terrainV's terrain plot wavesV's frequency data V's Freeview Detailed Coverage
9:08 AM
Sleaford
Switchover went well. However, I now live in South Lincs but hail from East Yorkshire. I would like to watch the Hull version of Look North on Freeview but can't find it. Is that to be expected or can I manually retune to it and if so how?
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Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage