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?
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Thursday, 6 October 2011
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Tim10:42 PM
Didcot
Interestingly, all of my channels have come back as well. So Really, Challenge etc are all back and displaying a good picture.
The odd thing is, I haven't made any changes. All of the good advice I've received above is still on my to-do list for the weekend.
Something has definitely changed though - the signal was rubbish last night and was fine at 7pm tonight.
Any ideas?
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Suzanne10:44 PM
Bicester
JB: Thanks for your message. I should have made more of a personal thank you to you as well, it was only that I was communicating with Chris today. I didn't enter my mind not to report back. How awful that some may do this after all the help they receive. I'm very grateful!
22.33 and I've lost the channels again, well they are pixelating. Not too worried, as all the channels are showing in the channel setting line up, whereas they were'nt before. My thoughts, it could be the weather, it's quite windy outside and rain has been heavy this evening. Will see what it's like tomorrow morning - and yes, I will report back if any problems still exist.
Oh yes, I have noted that there is warnings about weather conditions for Digital, aerials etc, that snow, wind,rain etc can affect. Hmm, if that's the case the UK is not going to be watching much TV over the coming months. Surely someone should look into this, as our viewing shouldn't be reliant upon having good weather. This is the UK!
SIMON: When you read this post, you will note I've lost them again, hopefully only temporarily. Now to you - The aerial cable I changed was much thinner than the digital one i have now. Also the old cable had lots of thin copper strands when peeled back, but the inner central wire was NOT copper and it too was very thin, like one strand of silver wire. Digital cable has copper wiring and what seems like a copper rod for it's center, so quite different.
I hope you can resolve this, as it's so frustrating and you feel it's all beyond your power to control. Still think digital seems very temperamental. Keep us posted.
Once again thanks JB.
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Friday, 7 October 2011
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Chris.SE8:35 AM
Suzanne: What did you put in the G&T :o I need some asprin ;)
Well I'm glad it's mainly resolved. First, which programmes were pixilating, was it just those on the Arq A C59 mux (Pick,Dave,Really etc) or was it others as well? (are you sure it wasn't the G&T :)))
If it was others as well, you could try the attenuator next time it does it, on the set affected if only the one, or before the splitter if both.
There really isn't any difference between analogue and digital when it comes to aerials or cable, it's just the quality that matters dependant on the circumstances. Your old cable sounds like it wasn't one of the best low loss types and the losses on the higher channels would be far greater. The centre core &/or braid would most likely be tinned copper from your description - I haven't seen any of that about for years.
Double screened Satellite quality (CT100) cable is best, helps reduce impulse interference as well as being low loss.
The weather conditions (tropospheric) are unlikely to affect you greatly unless severe (which they haven't been recently, nor expected to be in the next few days) as you are so close to the transmitter. Very heavy rain/snow may affect the weaker C59 signal but it also should have some effect on C62 (SDN - ITV3,5*,5USA etc).
Keep us posted on any changes or resolution.
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Chris.SE9:16 AM
Simon: Just checking back on everything, what sort of signal did you have on Mux2(PSB2/D3+4) before DSO - that's the ITV,4,5 etc programmes?
It's certainly worth checking the quality of the coax and have a quick gander at the aerial - does it look newish, in particular does the connector box look ok, if that's deteriorating/letting in water it will have a significant effect on the higher channels C59/C62 in particular.
Being further away from the transmiter (as is Tim) tropospheric conditions are more likely to have an effect on the marginal signals but again there hasn't been much of a lift recently. Normal high pressure conditions usually give the better local propagation, but it is likely the very heavy rain on Wednesday evening was what affected your C60 reception BUT if it was on the Sharp box there is another issue.
The Sharp box is a Vestel T810 clone and you need the latest firmware v5.7 otherwise it has -ve offset problems (amongst others). See the following Digital UK Retail - Troubleshooting guides and click on T810 negative offsets.
See also Unofficial Vestel PVR Information (UK) - T810 Freeview Recorder where if you click on the red v5.7 button you can get instructions and a download of the firmware.
HTH.
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Simon 9:25 AM
Buckingham
Chris,
That's really helpful information, I will do that, although I'm away again for a few days so will report back when I can.
I think ITV, C4 and 5 have been ok, I don't watch them often to be fair. actually I know that 5 is usually quite bad but it's fine watching through my TV tuner now.
Interestingly, on my Samsung TV tuner, I noticed that C59 was searching on 778.000Mhz so I changed it to 777.8000Mhz as I believe this is what C59- is on, but it still didn't find any signal.
I'll write back with my findings as soon as I can
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Chris.SE9:41 AM
Tim: You've probably read my comments above about weather conditions, the heavy rain being the likely cause of your rubbish reception on Wednesday.
Never did know if your are using a Booster and what sort of aerial have you got?
It's certainly worth check out you coax and connections etc.
If you aren't using a booster, it's possible the Humax may need a stronger signal & conversely if you are using a booster the signal may be too strong for it. If the latter, you can try it without the booster but also check what's happening on the TV - if you start losing stuff you need the booster.
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Chris.SE9:56 AM
Ron Valentine: Did you see Mike Dimmick's suggestion to you about too much signal? If you are using a booster, you could try it without, but first I would try a full reset with the aerial unplugged and then try a MANUAL tune of the Oxford channels which are C53,C55,C59,C60,C62 and if you have an HD tuner C57.
Boxes on automatic tune start at the lower channels and with you will find the Sandy Heath transmitter first.
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Suzanne10:57 AM
Bicester
CHRIS: Good morning!
Thanks for update about cables etc. The pixelating was only on Ch59,(Dave, Really, Pick,Challenge etc) every other channel was perfect. Which is why I happily sipped my way through a couple of G&T's looking forward to full viewing pleasure today on Ch59, and guess what I was right - just tried them all, and the picture is perfect on all of them. So as you explained, with the lower power on Ch59 until April 2012 is it..if the weather is really bad it might affect (Pick,Dave, really,etc)which seems to be the case with the heavy wind and rain of last night.
Will keep in touch if anything more to report. Until then, thank you.
Suzanne.
PS. Good luck Simon with resolving your Ch59 problem.
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Chris.SE12:09 PM
Suzanne: Glad all is OK. The Ch59 signal does seem poor, it seems worse than 9dB below the PSB powers from some quick checks I've done, but I can't be certain at this stage, I was using a length of cheap old coax :-o. I'm not in the Oxford geographical area, but supposed to get a good 100% signal from the transmitter. I shall do some more tests which I can't do until Saturday sometime and I'll post back if I discover anything of interest with a large G&T to hand ;) which I haven't had for ages.
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Suzanne12:24 PM
Bicester
Chris: look forward to your update(s)tut.. tut,using a length of of cheap old coax ;-)you should know better :-))
You must try a large G&T they are known to have "digital stress busting affects" keep me posted.
Suzanne
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