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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
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
G
Gary8:17 PM
Update for my aerial issue...... i should say that i live in stoke on trent and am about 1 mile from the nearest transmitter.
Many thanks. Gary
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Gary: I Googled and the results suggest that "Philex SLx Pro" is in fact a model or range of distribution amplifiers.
If the aerial has an amplifier mounted on it, then this will need to be powered in order for any signal to come out of it.
I found this manual for the SLx6 which is the 6-output distribution amplifier. On its input (the one you connect to the aerial) it can supply the power to the aerial's amplifier.
If you have good line of sight to the transmitter (is it Fenton??), then I wouldn't think that an aerial amplifier was necessary.
With your set-top aerial, confirm which you are tuned to. For each of the following, bring up the signal strength screen and see what UHF channel it is tuned to:
BBC One = C24
ITV1 = C27
ITV3 = C25
Pick TV = C22
Yesterday = C28
These channel numbers are those of Fenton. If any are different, then let us me and I will identify which it is that you are picking up.
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Gary: Sorry, I missed the link to the Philex manual:
http://www.philex.com/ass….pdf
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Thursday, 3 May 2012
N
Neil Bell12:33 AM
Big Mart
Yes I too can still remember 405 line tv! I think a smaller number than 1080 just means they are transmitting a lower definition signal but don't quote me on that because I'm not certain!
I still use the text service on Czech tv to get the weather forecast without having to wait for my laptop to boot up and can even access it in the UK on their website Teletext T — Teletext — esk televize on page 171 etc but I use GMT: Greenwich Mean Time - World Time / Time in every Time Zone for checking my watch wherever I am.
I don't think the reference to channel 101 or 1 is that misleading. The point surely being that you need to retune to your local BBC1 SD channel to see the local news. I've moved BBC1 HD to the channel 1 position on both my satellite boxes and on freeview with BBC1 London SD in the channel 2 position so its easy to move up a channel for the news and down again afterwards. I even have some of the regional flavours of BBC1 saved in a favourites list on my satellite boxes so I can watch the local news in e.g. Cardiff or Glasgow if I want but then I'm probably a bit of a sad case! Alas here in the Czech Republic I don't have a satellite receiver so can't watch any BBC programmes.
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Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Sandy Heath VHF 31
I live in a town in a dip. Since Christmas 2011, Sandy Heath VHF 31 is intermittent 10-30% signal (mostly 10%) which means Freeview programs such as CITV (for the children), Quest, etc are unavailable or broken up with intermittent sound and picture. All other transmissions on 21 (HD), 24, 27, 48, 52 have a 75% signal. I have a signal amplifier which improves ALL the signals by 25% in general, except for VHF 31 which appears to regularly remain on 10%. Does anyone know what is wrong with Sandy Heath VHF 31 please? Will the 09-May re-tune resolve it, or are we likely to loose more channels? (52N,0E)
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Dino: The change on 9th May will mean that the transmission power of CITV, ITV etc (which are currently on C31) will go up and move to C51.
You may or may not need a signal booster after then. The important thing about digital signals is quality. So long as there is enough signal strength to produce a "good" quality picture all the time.
Siting a booster behind the TV set where it only feeds a single receiver (or where more than one is daisy-chained) can cause issues. If this is what you have, then come 9th May I suggest that you remove it and see how you go and not make an assumption that it is needed.
Different receivers have different scales. But "if" the strength is 50% and quality is reliably at 100%, then you have the best picture you can get.
Contrast this with analogue where the signal strength needed to be as good as it could be in order to improve the quality of the picture.
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A
alex patterson11:24 AM
For the past 3 years I have had perfect reception from a moderately powerful loft Aerial being only 6.5 miles from Blackhill transmitter.
Yesterday I lost ch 10 and today the picture is either blacked out or breaks into pixels.
Thhe same applies to a TV in the living room from a second loft aeriel which is every bit as good.
What is wrong please?
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M
Mark Fletcher12:51 PM
Halifax
Alex Patterson.If you leave a full post code preferably or a nearby location where you reside we should provide more valuable assistance to you.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
M
Mike Blackmun3:39 PM
Reading
My postcode is RG5 3LQ. Purchased a new TV aerial anticipating the changeover and had no problems prior to the changeover on either of my TVs. However since changeover, cannot get channels 4 and 5 on the television I have in the kitchen with a digibox, but signal OK on my HD television in the lounge.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb385:16 PM
Mike Blackmun; Your problem can be caused by variety of different reasons, but with problems of that nature its always best to carry out a factory reset on the box, also called "default setting" or "first time installation", then follow this by carrying out another auto-tune.
Should this not make any difference then try the offending box on the aerial used by the lounge TV, coupling the box into the lounge TV via a scart lead and selecting that scart input on the TV's input selector menu, that is "if" the box doesnt switch the TV over automatically.
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