April 18th - retune at Rowridge, Oxford, Stockland Hill and Hannington
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV If you use the Rowridge transmitter, you will need to retune today as the commercial multiplexes have changed frequencies today to their final allocation.
SDN is now on C25 (506.0MHz), ArqA on C22+ (482.2MHz) and C28 (530.0MHz).
In addition, the commercial multiplex are now being broadcast at full power (200kW) with vertical polarization (the elements on the receiving aerial going up and down) and at 50kW with horizontal polarization. This means that for some viewers, it may be possible to improve their Freeview signal quality by rotating their aerial.
It is necessary, once again, to perform a "first time install" on your Freeview equipment if you use Rowridge.
At Stockland Hill, the commercial multiplex increase in power from 10kW to 25kW today. If you could not receive the SDN, ArqA and ArqB multiplexes from the transmitter before today, you should retune your Freeview equipment to see if you now can receive the services.
At the Oxford transmitter, the commercial multiplex increase in power from 12.5kW to their final level of 50kW today. Again, if you could not receive the SDN, ArqA and ArqB multiplexes from the transmitter before today, you should retune your Freeview equipment to see if you now can receive the services.
And the same applies for the Hannington transmitter, where the levels increase to 25kW today. So, if you could not receive the SDN, ArqA and ArqB multiplexes from the transmitter before today, you should retune your Freeview equipment to see if you now can receive the services.
Help with Freeview, aerials?
In this section
Saturday, 21 April 2012
P
Peter Ball8:37 AM
To: John Winch, Southampton
In case you are still not receiving HD from Rowridge, may I offer the following:
I also have a Fox HDR T2/Sony Bravia. Is it possible that you are using the wrong setting for inputs to the TV.
Under the heading 'Viewing pictures from connected equipment' see 'input AV4 AV5. Digital audio/video signal is input through the HDMI IN 4/5 socket.'
The clue might be that you are using a SCART cable in addition to HDMI cable. The SCART is not needed.
I am in Warsash and get a good HD signal.
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J
jb382:34 PM
Paul Hazzard: As you are located at only 15 miles or so from the Rowridge transmitters you could well be receiving an excessively strong signal which is blocking your HD reception, overload conditions usually affecting HD before SD, so if you have any type of booster in line with the aerial socket it has to be by-passed, if though you do not have a booster in line then for a test try using a set top aerial followed by either a rescan or just manually tune in Rowridges HD service on mux Ch21.
By the way, if you can not access a set top aerial then use a piece of copper wire about 12" long or so pushed into the inner part of the TV's aerial socket, if you get results by doing this then you will require to purchase an attenuator to place in line with the TV's input, a variable type of about zero to 20db being a better bet as you can adjust it for best results.
However, if none of these measures has helped the situation then come back with the model number of your TV and it spec can be checked on in case its not fitted with a DVB-T2 tuner, this being necessary for HD reception.
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Paul6:32 PM
So much for an uneventful cut over in Hartley Wintney (Hampshire) to Freeview. One minute the channels are there the next breaking up. Had 113 channels 15 minutes ago, now have 31 and then 10 of which most don't really exist with the exception of ever present ITV. BBC absolutely the most eratic. Local mast is Hannwell who always seem to report that everything is fine - go figure, not good publicity to admit that it was a total mess up(stronger words do come to mind).
Is this signal going to stabilise or is the only real option ditching and going to freesat?
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Paul: I presume that the transmitter is Hannington.
If you are carrying out repeated automatic retunes in the hope that this will solve the problem, then this is unlikely and more likely to be a waste of time and effort to resolve the problem.
The first thing you need to do is to confirm that the channels being picked up are those from Hannington and not from another transmitter. Having established that they are all correctly tuned, then you should not retune because that will achieve nothing except perhaps undoing what has been done. Where there is poor reception on channels that are tuned correctly, then the problem must lie elsewhere.
Refer to "After switchover configuration" here: Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
You will see that there are six groups or multiplexes, one of which is HD. For one of the services from each multiplex, bring up the signal strength screen and ensure that the UHF channel that it is tuned to is that of Hannington:
BBC One = C45 (23 is Crystal Palace;55 is Midhurst)
ITV1 = C42 (26 is Crystal Palace;61 is Midhurst)
BBC One HD (if applicable) = C39 (30 is Crystal Palace;58 is Midhurst)
ITV3 = C41 (25 is Crystal Palace;62 is Midhurst)
Pick TV = C44 (22 is Crystal Palace;59 is Midhurst)
Yesterday = C47 (28 is Crystal Palace;50 is Midhurst)
Should it turn out that any of these are not Hannington, then run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial lead unplugged, plug in at 30% and unplug at 56%. This will have the aerial unplugged for Crystal Palace (which is below 30%) and for Midhurst (which is above 56%) and plugged in for Hannington.
Having done this, then check each of the above to ensure that they are Hannington. For any that are missing, use manual tuning to add them if it will allow. If it manual tuning won't allow them to be added, then make a note of them and add them later.
If the problem of poor signal prevails, even though you are tuned to Hannington, then I suggest that it could be too high a signal level which is overloading your tuner. See: Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The thing with Hannington is that before switchover, the amount of signal it put out in an easterly direction was restricted. So the signal you got at your side of the transmitter was less than someone on the opposite side at the same distance.
Now switchover has completed, the signal is omnidirectional. Hence the difference between the low power pre-switchover and high power post-switchover signals at your location is quite great. Consequently, in order to pick up the weak pre-switchover signals you may have had an aerial installed (perhaps with a booster) that was sensitive enough for the weaker signals, but is now OTT.
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J
jb388:37 PM
Paul: Purely on the aspect of signal level, as you are only located at 12 miles from Hannington it would in theory be very easy to suffer from tuner overloading problems caused by an excessively high level of signal being received, this of course totally dependant on any local obstructions that may exist as reception predictors cannot cater very well for this type of situation.
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Sunday, 22 April 2012
S
Sion6:03 PM
Reading
On Sony Bravia TVs, the retune method does not work if it can 'see' CP, for example, it will choose CP over Hannington. Putting the cable in after 30% is OK and all will be well and good until it does an autoscan in the night and re-picks the CP signals!! (grrR) The Sony Bravia TV I have had has been a pain from day 1 deciding that CP (which must be on the edge of signal quality is the one to watch). I think I need an attenuator or an aerial w/o a head amplifier.
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Sion's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb386:59 PM
Sion: On the technical set up screen isn't there an option to disable the "auto service update"? as that would stop the problem referred to from happening.
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Sunday, 6 May 2012
L
Len Moss9:47 PM
Hi,
Hope you can help. Last Sunday(1st May) I lost all ITV andBBC channels, just had channels 11 up wards with gaps.
These seemed okay. And worked fine.
My tv had been set up for 2 years like this.
So retuned the set from set up,this is a Sony Bravia.
Now I get nothing,I cannot even get channels 11upwards. Aerial seems sound and checked ,do i need to move my aerial or something.I am 4miles south of Swindon. I am confused,hope somebody can explain.
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Monday, 14 May 2012
T
Ted11:07 AM
Hi all, recently moved to Exebridge, fitted a new ariel on the roof of the property and set it at 51' and retuned set top box and sons tv (with built in free view) ! Only receive 21 tv channels with 96-98% reception on set top box ! Fitted a mast head amp and still no better, I have fitted my new ariel horizontal ! will moving it vertical improve reception or am I stuck with just 21 tv channels ? Or moving my ariel to point towards Stockland Hill help ? Ted
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Ted: If your aerial is at 51 degrees, then you're not pointing it to Rowridge. I guess that you're on Mendip.
A more specific location might help us, e.g. post code or nearby post code. It may also be helpful to see where nearby aerials are pointing for ideas as to what might be possible and what might not be.
As a test, I found the post code for the Anchor Inn and put it into the Digital UK Tradeview predictor. It suggests that Brushford transmitter is the only one. This is a Freeview Light transmitter as it only carries Public Service channels.
So what transmitter is your aerial pointing to *and* what channels has it tuned to? The latter part of the question will help us establish which transmitter the signal(s) are coming from.
Refer under the heading "After switchover configuration" on this page:
Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
For full Freeview, there are six multiplexes, one being for HD services.
So, for the first service in each one, go to it and bring up the signal strength screen and read off the UHF channel that it is tuned to.
E.g. Go to BBC One, bring up the signal strength screen. If it says 61 then it's Mendip, if it is 27 then it's Brushford, 26 is Stockland.
Then do the same for ITV1, BBC One HD (if applicable), ITV3, Pick TV and Yesterday. Brushford doesn't transmit the last three.
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