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Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV For the last six years, I have answered many thousands of personal emails that you have sent to UK Free TV.
Sadly, I am unable to offer this personal service at the moment.
Until I can restore this service, please can you leave any questions you have on an appropriate page, where they will be answered as soon as possible, or below, if you can't figure out where to ask.
I look forward to your questions!
Help with TV/radio stations?
In this section
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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jb385:29 PM
dave bridges: Are you meaning that you have Freeview box that you have been recording from (on whatever), or is it a PVR?
The main thing is that you can use both at the same time with the aerial either looping through one and on to the other, or each device being separately fed via a two way splitter, latter being the best but powered if not in a strong signal area, both the devices being coupled using a scart connection.
Maybe you could come back though with what the devices are, TV, box and recorder, as other connection possibilities exist.
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Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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John Fisher9:26 AM
Spalding
Briefly mentioned this before but have now seen it for myself and hoping for some advice.
Visited a friend yesterday to confirm what he had told me.
His freesat box is set up with the correct post code PE15 8QJ, which is March in Cambs,
and he gets ITV1 Anglia on 103 but on 101 he gets BBC1 London for his local progs.
We both think he should be getting BBC1 East on 101.
Any ideas please.
Thanks
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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jb389:59 AM
John Fisher: Are you sure he did actually enter his correct post code when setting up the box? as what you say suggests he hasn't.
However if indeed it was set up using the PE15 post code I would try giving it another factory reset scan and see what transpires, as something could have glitched along the line when the original was taking place, if still no joy try picking another post code from the yellow pages, maybe something from the Peterborough area.
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John Fisher10:26 AM
Thanks jb38
The reason I went there yesterday was to make sure he had the correct postcode in the setup.
The box had originally been setup by the dealer but on advice a factory reset was done with the same result.
The confusing thing is that he gets the correct ITV1 local area.
I was wondering about using another postcode and a you mention this I will suggest this to him.
Thanks again
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jb3812:30 PM
John Fisher: Yes, as it would be interesting to know the result of using an alternative post code.
That said though, if another factory reset scan has already been carried out and this problem still persists, then its inclined to point to a problem being with the actual box itself, especially as the post code has been recognised as far as Anglia TV is concerned.
Matter of fact I have to use a post code picked from the PE6 area (PE6 7ZX) to guarantee I have Anglia as my news area, as using my PE9 area one results in Central TV.
(Ask your friend to try using PE6 7ZX)
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Mike Dimmick2:21 PM
Michael: Whether you are affected will depend on exactly where the 4G transmitters end up being sited, and how powerful they are (how large an area they are intended to service), and the aerial group and polarization of your target transmitter.
The problem that will occur will be intermodulation, which is caused by having too much signal overall. Transmitting the 4G signals in a band that many aerials are *designed* to pick up well (Groups C/D, E and Wideband) means that, when the 4G signal is added to the TV transmissions, it could cause distortion in amplifiers and/or in the receiver's front end (which contains an amplifier). That distortion results in frequency-shifted copies of each transmission appearing as well as the original, which when added together, result in too many errors to be automatically corrected.
If you are using a transmitter that uses horizontal polarization, which most of the main transmitters do, you are less likely to be affected, as the 4G transmitters are expected to be using vertical polarization. Aerials pick up much less signal from the opposite polarization (Digital UK's predictor conservatively assumes 16 dB less, about 40x, most real aerials are better though it varies across the frequency range).
Vertically-polarized aerials generally have a wide acceptance angle in the horizontal plane, that is, signals arriving to the side of the aerial. If you're using a relay, you're more likely to be affected.
People using a transmitter that transmits in Group A or Group B should use a Group A or Group B aerial. In Group A the gain for a grouped aerial is far better than a wideband, for the same size aerial. If your transmitter uses Group A *and* Group B, a semi-wideband Group K covers both groups but cuts off well before reaching the 4G frequencies. Often Group K aerials are sold as Group B or Group B/K.
If you start to have problems after 4G services start up, the first step would be to remove any amplifiers you have, or turn them down, depending on whether the intermodulation is happening in the booster or in the receiver itself. If that doesn't help, add an attenuator to reduce signal levels.
I suspect Ofcom are saying that filters may not help if your transmitter uses C60, because filters steep enough to cut off all of C61 while avoiding C60 would need to have many tuned elements and are likely to be expensive. You would only need a filter if the received signal strength from the 4G transmitter was substantially higher than from the TV transmitter. With the clearance programme still in the early stages of planning, it's hard to say exactly who would be affected.
I do think their 30,000 homes is likely to be an underestimate, due to the overuse of extra-high-gain wideband aerials (frequently where a smaller grouped aerial would have delivered more gain, and where high gain wasn't even necessary) and viewers' tendency to add a booster when any reception problem occurs.
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Mike Dimmick2:29 PM
Michael: I see from your previous posts that you're using Waltham. This is mostly a Group C/D transmitter but SDN will be transmitted down at C29, Group A, so you do need a wideband aerial. When the transmitter switches over at the end of August, I would recommend removing any boosters at that point.
Digital UK's trade predictor already shows a prediction of 100% across all six multiplexes, so you're likely to have problems with too much signal at switchover if you do have a booster, or a high gain aerial.
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David Hughes6:25 PM
My TV is HD Ready, If I get a HD box will all the programs watched be in HD or only the ones that are shown in HD?
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Thursday, 30 June 2011
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Shar11:35 AM
I have just returned from caravanning in France. My Philips DVDR5500 worked very well in all areas of the country. It tuned in to lots of French TV stations just as Briantist said it should. I was able to get the local weather forecast,my main need, and plan where to go next. Many thanks for the help.
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Ian Hill6:19 PM
with a new sky package you have to leave the box connected to a phone line for the first 12 months. Do you have to leave the card in the box as well or can it be removed?
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