Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"W |  | BL6 6SL |
The symbol shows the location of the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter which serves 2,690,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) mast?
Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 20/01/2025 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Winter Hill transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
| Mux | H/V | Frequency | Height | Mode | Watts |
| PSB1 BBCA | H max | C32 (562.0MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others | |||||
| PSB2 D3+4 | H max | C34 (578.0MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada), 71 That's TV 3, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | H max | C35- (585.8MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, plus 1 others | |||||
| COM4 SDN | H max | C29 (538.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 GREAT! mystery, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTR, 74 U&DaveJaVu, 81 Blaze +1, 83 That's TV , 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 208 POP MAX, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 28 others | |||||
| COM5 ArqA | H max | C31 (554.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama 1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others | |||||
| COM6 ArqB | H max | C37 (602.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 Al Jazeera Eng, 12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! player, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's Melody, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 207 Tiny Pop, plus 18 others | |||||
| LM | H -20dB | C40 (626.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 1,000W |
 from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester, | |||||
| LL | H -17dB | C24 (498.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 2,000W |
 from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool, | |||||
| LPR | H -20dB | C56 (754.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 1,000W |
 from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire, | |||||
| GIM | H -20dB | C57 (762.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-2 | 1,000W |
 Now 90s, Spotlight TV, Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment , Classic Hits MCR, 77 That's Melody MCR, 78 That's Fabulous, 79 That's Dance MCR, 80 That's TV (UK) MCR, 86 That's TV 2 MCR, 88 TV Warehouse, | |||||
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Winter Hill transmitter?
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast (139°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.
How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1956-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 20 Feb 2020 | ||
| VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | W T | W T | ||
| C9 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| com7 | (-12.9dB) 25.7kW | |
| com8 | (-13.4dB) 22.6kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-16dB) 12.5kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 10kW | |
| LL | (-24dB) 2kW | |
| GIM, LM, LPR | (-27dB) 1000W |
Local transmitter maps
Winter Hill Freeview Winter Hill DAB Winter Hill TV region BBC North West GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Friday, 5 July 2024
J
js9:48 AM
Karl:
Yes, fixed by removing "uklocal.tv" from the start of the CRID strings.
The fix:
https://ibb.co/Sy2sGby
This time the CRIDs were valid, but not so on previous occasions.
Sony should have fixed the firmware long ago.
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K
Karl2:12 PM
js: I did wonder if the firmware could be altered (it is available on the Sony site) and rewritten and given a higher version number... I know, dream on...
It would be great if it could though. I just wonder how long Freeview will keep accommodating those of us that still have these models. They have outlasted pretty much everything else around.
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Saturday, 6 July 2024
J
js11:33 AM
Karl: I looked at the firmware file, it's encrypted.
I hadn't noticed before that the UK DTT spec, which is not freely available, and which has been uploaded to wikileaks, was filed there under Sony!
https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/?q=DTG&filter=3
It's what I used to try to understand the legality of those dodgy CRIDs:
D-Book 7 part A v 1.pdf
It refers to "ETSI TS 102 323" for the basic definition of CRIDs:
The content identifier descriptor (CID), defined in ETSI TS 102 323 [98], is used to associate a CRID with an event and is placed within the event loop of EIT.
https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/metadata/ts_102323v010401p.pdf
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J
js9:55 PM
I had a real hard time locating those wikileaks files.
One gets the impression of wikileaks data being blocked.
A search, using DuckDuckGo, for "D-Book" site: wikileaks.org said "No results found for "D-Book" site: wikileaks.org."
Fortunately, nobody posted direct links here:
BBC Four HD | free and easy for 21 years
nobody knows who nobody is and he's not telling.
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Sunday, 7 July 2024
S
Steve9:14 AM
My refresher post from last year, in case anyone still can't get their Sony's to work. Set up 4 recordings to repeat every day from 1 min before and 1 min after these hours - 3am, 5am, 10am and 2pm. Use the SEP minimal quality setting and delete each of these short 2 min recordings regularly to minimise HDD space used. This forces the Sony to be busy each time it wants to trigger an update. Don't let it get to a full HDD. You'll need to have got it working properly again first. I manage this by doing a retune with the aerial out and push it in after approx 10% to 15% complete, to avoid the unit seeing the rogue channels that come up early in the retune sequence that seem to be the culprits for this update locking problem. Hope this helps keep your great Sony RDR HXD-870 unit usable. P.S. I have never had any luck trying to update the Sony firmware so I don't know if that route solves the problem. (I receive from Winter Hill in the SK22 postcode area.)
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K
Karl8:10 PM
Steve: Thanks for posting Steve. Your timer method works well during the time we have to set these up using Belgium or France region. Fortunately the EPG has been fixed again and all is back to normal.
The Firmware is updateable by burning it to a CD/DVD (I've done four now) but actually creating the discs can be an issue. Using old versions of Ashampoo Burning Studio (which are available on the web) and using the 'Create ISO-9660 Level 1' data disc option. Versions up to around 2016 or so have that option. It seems to have been removed in later versions when I last looked.
https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/home-cinema-projectors-players/hard-disk-rdr-hxd870-lost-digital-channels/m-p/2485025#M15050
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Wednesday, 18 September 2024
D
Dave Barter8:01 AM
No HD freeview channels this morning in LA14 area. Non-HD are fine.
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D
Dave Barter10:03 PM
Dave Barter: Sorry, false alarm. Not an issue with service as playing HD channels tuned from DVD player works fine. Aerial feeds into DVD player. DVD player links to TV but HD channels tuned on TV fail to work, so some connection issue between player and TV set that only feeds non-HD channels.
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Thursday, 19 September 2024
C
Chris.SE12:42 AM
Dave Barter:
Whilst it is possible that it's a connection issue, it won't be specifically to do with the channels being HD. The HD channels are carried on the BBCB HD multiplex on UHF C35 at Winter Hill.
It's possible reception of this multiplex (and possibly others at vary times) could have been affected by current Tropospheric weather conditions that have come with the High Pressure. The BBC have a current warning about this -
High pressure could affect TV & Radio services across parts of the UK from 16th September | Help receiving TV and radio
IF perchance you had No Signal or badly pixellated pictures AND went and retuned then it may have cleared your correct tuning. It is never advised that if you were previously correctly tuned you should NOT retune when you have No signal etc. You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded. Check in your TV Tuning section that you are tuned to UHF C35 for the HD channels.
It's also possible that you may have inadvertently got tuned to the relay at Barrow-in-Furness on C47 which may not give reliable reception in your location - as you haven't given a full postcode, we can't confirm that, and it could also be disrupted by the current weather conditions. There was a report from the BBC that it was affected on Tuesday.
However, do check your coax connections/flylead between the DVD Player and the set. Also make sure you don't have any other leads like HDMI, power etc running close to your aerial or flyleads as sometimes interference can be picked up from them.
Another possibility is interference from a new/upgraded mobile phone mast. Have you received a postcard from Restore TV?
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Monday, 21 October 2024
Transmitter engineering
10:47 AM
10:47 AM
Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 21/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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