Arqiva press release on Oxfordshire switchover
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV From Arqiva press office:
NEWS ALERT
Date: 28 September 2011
DSO completed for Oxford transmitter group
The Digital Switch Over process for the Oxford transmitter group, serving Oxfordshire and parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, has been successfully implemented by Arqiva.
The public-service multiplexes are now being transmitted at full power from the main station at Oxford and, for the first time, from its five dependent relays at Ascott under Wychwood, Charlbury, Guiting Power, Icomb Hill and Over Norton.
The 'commercial' multiplexes (Oxford only) do not reach their final DSO powers until April 2012, as planned.
Following the analogue switch-off for BBC Two on 14 September, the remaining analogue signals for BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 ceased by 00:01 on Wednesday 28 September. The new digital signals entered official service at Oxford at 06:00, with the last of the relays completed by 12:33.
Help with Freeview, aerials?
In this section
Friday, 30 September 2011
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Suzanne11:02 PM
Bicester
Like Simon, I have lost signals to channels I was picking up perfectly before switchover. Regardless of what I do, factory re-set, re-tune and re-tune I cannot retrieve Really, Dave, Food channels, which I now believe is C59. Even manual tuning there is nothing C59.
What has happened..surely this should all have been resolved before the final switchover. I don't remember having all these problems with Analogue. I would really appreciate some advice or if anyone knows if this is just a temporary problem. Thanks.
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Saturday, 1 October 2011
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Chris.SE11:44 AM
Hi Suzanne: There are no problems with the transmitter and the switchover went fine.
If you are using any form of booster/amplifier you could have too much signal take it out of circuit and try again.
It's always best to then do a full factory reset/New Installation first with the aerial unplugged - this clears all previous settings. then repeat that with the aerial plugged in.
Let us know how you get on.
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Chris.SE12:08 PM
Suzanne: Also do you have a video recorder (or sky box or similar) plugged in, if so bypass this whilst doing the resets & retune.
It's possible the RF out from these may be set to a channel that is interfering with one or more of the MUXes that Oxford is now on, you may need to change it to a low channel eg 21.
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Simon 2:44 PM
Buckingham
I have tried the full factory reset as described a number of times. I have also removed my signal booster from the circuit as suggested but still no Mux C59.
As it happens, without the signal booster now the signal appears to have improved, but I'm just getting nothing on C59.
Are there any digital boxes that could struggle after the switch over?
Thanks
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Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Simon 2:53 PM
I've found this article TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice which suggests my box may have a problem,
"Boxes that do not support both 2k and 8k modes
Some boxes are having problems during switchover supporting both modes at the same times:
Sharp TU-R160H
Humax 9200T
Thomson DTi 1000
The workaround appears to be to add the "8k" channel manually (C62 for Selkirk, for example) and then to do this procedure after switchover is complete: My Freeview box has no EPG, is missing Film4, Channel 4+1, no sound on ITV3 or the channel line up is wrong - ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002"
My box is the Sharp one mentioned. It's only C59 I don't get, I don't understand how I can add it manually. I've gone into Manual Channel Scan and typed in 59 but the signal received is None.
any ideas?
Thanks (MK181JE)
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Suzanne3:26 PM
Bicester
Hi Chris.SE, thanks so much for taking the time to give some advice, I really appreciate it. I have none of the items you suggest ( booster, skybox or video) I have a brand new BUSH Digital HD ready tv BTVD91216B, working perfectly before switchover. New digital outside aerial installed July along with the TV. Everything was fine until 2 minutes past midnight the 28th. I have re-set to factory default, scanned without the aerial in to clear any channels that may be remembered. Also unplugged from the socket, left for 30 seconds as suggested by one post, and re-tune again. Still nothing for channel 59. In fact I'm missing channels 20,43,44,45,46,49 through to 60 so of course 59 cannot be received. I've checked signal strength and it's all good except for the missing channels, even with manual tuning, it tells me no signal. I really don't know what to do next. It's so disappointing as I'm basically left with just the old Analogue and +1 channels, sky news and sky sport. Switchover has certainly NOT improved viewing for me, nor a lot of others so it seems. May it's me, but if the whole country is to be digital, then these issues should not arise. Any more advice or light you can throw on the situation would really be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Suzanne
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Chris.SE4:36 PM
Simon: If you have a very high gain aerial you might still be getting too much signal even without the booster. You might need an attenuator.
All MUXes at Oxford are now 8K so the mode issue should not be a problem.
If you are getting ITV1,Ch4 & Five etc OK they are on C60-, so the -ve offset on C59- shouldn't be an issue.
Try one or both of these tricks - select C59 on your setup menu - as you say it shows no signal, whilst it's doing so, unplug the coax and then plug it partly back in, the idea being that the outer is making contact but not the centre pin, but it'll be close enough to give some coupling so working like an attenuator - you will probably have to keep holding it for this test. See if you've now got a signal.
OR
If your booster has a variable gain control, try it with it back in and keep turning it down, it may give attenuation at the lower settings, see if you get a signal.
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Chris.SE4:55 PM
Hi Suzanne: Try the same trick with the coax plug as I've just suggested for Simon, you may still have too much signal.
Just so there's no confusion, when you say you are missing channels, you presumeably mean Freeview channel numbers 20,43,44,45,46,49 which should also include 11,19,29,32,36,37,82,87 etc all broadcast on MUX Arq A (COM5) on UHF C59- at Oxford. (the "59" won't be on your freeview channel list, also known as LCN's - locations).
Also LCN's 50-59 are for the HD channels on the HD mux on UHF C57 at Oxford which you probably don't get as I don't believe that set has a built in HD tuner, just a standard SD one.
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Simon 5:23 PM
Buckingham
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your suggestions, I have tried partly plugging in the coax but there's no glimmer of signal on C59 still. My booster is not variable controlled so I can't attenuate the signal using that.
I have also tried plugging the aerial into the TV's inbuilt tuner which returns the same results so as you say it's not a fault of my digital PVR.
The signal strength of the channels I am receiving is only medium-good so it's not receiving it full strength which makes me wonder if it could be too strong to block a channel after all?
I appreciate your on-going support.
Kind regards,
Simon
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Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Suzanne7:22 PM
Bicester
Hi Chris, thank you for your further posting and advice, but I'm afraid like "Simon" partly plugging in the coax proved to hold no joy! I really don't know what the answer is. I have spent over £300 with new TV and aerial, and I'm not much better off than I was with analogue. Does this mean I will have to prescribe to Virgin or Sky to retrieve these channels I had working perfectly till the 28th. I don't want a satelite dish, but will I be forced to consider this due to the moving of these channels. I'm utterly fed up with it. But really appreciate the support you are giving - Hopefully you will continue to offer HOPE to both Simon and I..:-)
Thank you. Suzanne
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Suzanne's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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