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Film4

The best of British film-making, US independents, Hollywood blockbusters, guilty pleasures, foreign films and cult cinema. Great films you know, great films you don't.

Main TV standard-definiton channels

How to Watch: Film4


Below is a list of all the television and radio channels that you can watch in the UK using one of the free services: DAB (for radio), Freeview, Sky No Card - Sky without a viewing card (Freesat from Sky (or fSfS)) and Freesat.. Where a channel can be watched for free, the channel number is listed below. In addition, if you can watch (or listen) immediately online, press the button in the "web" column.

As some channels are exclusive to one service alone, you may need to get receive more than one service to get all the channels you want. The coverage for Freeview differs too - those channels not provided by the public service "Freeview Light" transmitters the current coverage shown thus (54%), taken from Connected Nations Report 2017: Data analysis'

Key: wb_sunny daytime; watch_later nighttime; account_box funded from the TV License; flags show Freeview channel limits.
Choose from four options: ■ Show everything ■ Just on Freeview ■ Just on Freesat ■ Just on Sky
Main TV standard-definiton channels
Channel name arrow_drop_down web radio Freeview Sky Freesat
Film4 live_tv   14   300

Regional content: National channel with no regional content or variations.

media.info: For full details of broadcaster contacts, see the media.info link icon media.info Film4 page.

Official site: See the www.film4.com link icon Film4 website.

From Wikipedia: edit Programming Film4 did not originally focus on broadcasting blockbusters, but nowadays broadcasts many mainstream Hollywood movies. The channel frequently has themed nights or seasons in which a number of films centred around one genre, director or actor are shown. As Channel 4 also owns a film production company, Film4 Productions, it shows many of its in-house productions. - en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org link icon read more about Film4 on wikipedia (summary by Clipped).

Freeview multiplex: Film4 is on multiplex PSB2 in england flagscotland flagnorthernireland flagwales flag.


This channel carries a subtitles service for the deaf, hard of hearing and quiet environments.

Comments
Sunday, 29 July 2012
F
Floyd
3:28 PM
Luton

jb38
I live in Luton. My postcode is LU3 1BE. Does this help? Please tell me now what could be the problem and what you reccomend to do. Thank you very much.

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Floyd's 18 posts GB flag
Floyd's: mapF's Freeview map terrainF's terrain plot wavesF's frequency data F's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 7 September 2012
F
Floyd
3:40 PM
Luton

I have made several comments in the past about my poor TV reception. Ever since the swichover I cannot enjoy my TV anymore!
My post code is LU3 1BE.
Many times I get no signal at all. When I do I usually get only BBC, Channel 3 and 4. Even those channels always ha ve a lot of piccilation. Film4, Yesterday and many other freeview channels I usually cannot get at all!!! I am asking again what is the problem? Before the switchover I seldom had any problem.
I am getting very discouraged about this. I know it is not my flylead because I had it changed and also changed my settop box several times. I have a Goodmans box.Is there a government agency who can look at tis situation? or what else can I do?



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Floyd's 18 posts GB flag
Floyd's: mapF's Freeview map terrainF's terrain plot wavesF's frequency data F's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:45 PM

Floyd: If you had good reception before switchover it suggests that you might now have a signal which is too strong if you have amplification or a very large aerial. Alternatively, in the face of stronger signals being available, your tuner might have found and stored weaker signals that were not available at your location before switchover. The symptoms experienced with signals that are too strong or too weak to give robust reception are similar when viewed on the TV! Which transmitter is your aerial pointing to? As you had Freeview before switchover this would be either Sandy Heath or Crystal Palace. Check that the correct frequencies have been tuned in by the STB for the transmitter to which the aerial is pointing, note there is now a third possible transmitter, the Luton relay serving your location. This only transmits the three PSB muxes (Freeview Lite), but could have been selected in error when scanning for channels. Regarding agencies to consult over reception problems, the BBC now has responsibility for investigation of interference problems, but would only be expected to be consulted after the viewers aerial/receiver and tuning were all correctly set up and interference was still being experienced.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
Friday, 21 September 2012
F
Frazer Ashford
9:07 PM

Hi
I have free view on 3 television sets in my home. All are fed through the same aerial via professionally installed sockets which they have check for correct signal strength. The 3 sets have their own freeview tuners (built or box).
I receive all channels on allsets except for Film 4 on our main lounge set. I have retuned several times but the set in question only shows channels 14 or 16 (NO 15).
I would like to watch Film 4 in the lounge and not necessarily in the bedroom or kitchen. Please help.

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Frazer Ashford's 1 post GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:52 PM

Frazer Ashford: Its really quite impossible for anyone to give advice on your problem when you have not revealed your location, this in the form of a post code or one from nearby, as only with this info can the signal levels expected at your location be assessed and the appropriate advice be given.

Just as a matter of interest, other EPG programme numbers that are also on the same transmitter are: (19) Yesterday / (24) ITV4 / (22) Ideal World / (55) Argos TV.

The other point is, when you previously carried out a retune was it only that? as a "factory reset" followed by a retune is always the best the best policy as only that procedure corrects any corrupted data that may have been picked up.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Friday, 5 October 2012
S
Sam
8:59 PM

Hi everyone,

We live in the BH9 area (Bournemouth, Dorset, South Coast). For the past few months, we have been having trouble accessing Film4 and the other channels that are on the same carrier/ bandwidth etc.

We have retuned, reset and retuned and even bought a new TV. We will check out the booster in the loft this weekend, but not convinced yet that it will be the issue. For a while I have just assumed that it is a poor signal from that particular aerial mast (which I think is located in either Poole, or Southampton), but can't see anyone else with a similiar issue (yet) in the same radius...

Any suggestions, ideas or help will be much appreciated.

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Sam's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:21 PM

Sam: The relay transmitters at Poole, Westbourne, Luscombe Valley and Canford Heath are "Freeview Lite", meaning that they only carry Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) multiplexes, and so they don't carry Film4.

If you are receiving Film4 in the Bournemouth area, then I imagine that you are likely to be picking it up on UHF channel 28 which is from the main Rowridge transmitter which is on the Isle of Wight.

Rowridge is unique among the high-power main transmitters in that it broadcasts all signals vertically as well as horizontally (from April 2012). The Commercial (COM) channels (COM6 carries Film4) are lower power horizontally. The power of the PSBs is equal horizontally and vertically so as to be compatible with existing aerials (which are horizontally polarised).

Switch your aerial to vertical polarisation to take advantage of the 200kW COM signals (which is the same as the PSBs).

There shouldn't be any need to replace an aerial on Rowridge. There is a possible need to replace aerials on some other transmitters due to the UHF channels (frequencies) used by COM channels, but this isn't the case with Rowridge as PSBs and COMs are within the range used by former analogue.

I would also try without the booster (unless it's used for distribution).

Wideband yagi aerials from DIY shops are less sensitive on UHF channels used by Rowridge. The advertised gain will be on higher channels. For this reason, you may be best to stick with the former analogue aerial.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Sunday, 7 October 2012
A
Andrew Haddow
3:21 PM
Darwen

I've been having some freeview problems and I was hoping someone here may be able to help me out. Sorry if this isn't the correct place but I couldn't see a topic that covered the problems I had.

I live in Darwen (postcode BB3 2SN) in North West England. At the moment we aren't able to get some of the Freeview channels, which are:

11 Pick TV
12 Dave
15 Film4
17 Really
19 Yesterday
24 ITV4
46 Challenge

I may have missed one or two out.

The problems started just before the Olympics when we retuned the TV. We had the above channels before the retune (except Dave, which we've never been able to pick up). After the retune they vanished, and we haven't had them since.

The specs of the equipment are:

Digital Panasonic TV, model no. TX-L32X10B
Toshiba DVD player model no. SD5010KB
Humax Recorder model no. PVR-9150T

The aerial cable is plugged into a small Antiference box, which has a cable from it leading to the Humax, which has a cable running into the TV. Before the Olympics, we also had an LG video recorder through which the antenna cable went too, and we were able to receive the above channels with no issues. I removed the video in case it had something to do with the problem. I don't know what kind of aerial we have.

In the last couple of years, we have had vanishing channels on and off - the likes of Film 4 and ITV4 disappearing - but we've always got them back, usually by getting a technician to come and have a look at it. This time I'd like to learn myself how to fix it permanently so that we don't have to keep calling people out and giving them a fee.

I had a look at our postcode on ukfree.tv and I was surprised to see that our transmitter is classed as Freeview Lite. How can this be when we were able to get all the channels above bar Dave until recently? We used to have most of the channels above. I'm guessing that when we were able to receive the missing channels, we were tuned in to the Winter Hill transmitter, not too far from us, which offers the full service.

Can anyone sugest a solution? Thanks.

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Andrew Haddow's 2 posts GB flag
Andrew's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:38 PM

Andrew Haddow: The full list of the six Freeview multiplexes along with the services they each carry are listed here:

DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex

The COM muxes are carried on the main transmitters and some larger relays which means that they do not have as extensive a coverage as the PSBs.

If your aerial points to the Darwen transmitter, then it only carries PSB channels. This means that if you ever received the COMs then you were receiving them off-beam of the aerial. As such, there is no advice to offer on reception because the aerial was being used to receive a signal that it wasn't installed for.

Whether you can reliably receive the COMs is another matter.

On the basis that Pendle Forest is vertically polarised, which is the same as your aerial (which it should be for Darwen), then I think that it is most likely to have been providing the COMs rather than Winter Hill, which is horizontally polarised.

You should be able to identify which transmitter(s) you are receiving from by viewing the signal strength screen whilst tuned to one service from each multiplex.

The three main possibilities at your location are suggested by Digital UK as Darwen as excellent and an outside chance of Pendle Forest and Winter Hill.

Channels used by these are:

PSB1 | BBC One | D=C45 | WH=C62 | PF=C28
PSB2 | ITV1 | D=C49 | WH=C59 | PF=C25
PSB3 | BBC One HD | D=C42 | WH=C54 | PF=C22
COM4 | ITV3 | WH=C58 | PF=C27
COM5 | Pick TV | WH=C61 | PF=C21
COM6 | Film4 | WH=C55 | PF=C24

I've abbreviated the transmitter names: D=Darwen; WH=Winter Hill; PF=Pendle Forest

The services you've mentioned are carried on COM5 and COM6. If you have ITV3, then bring up the signal strength screen and see if it is tuned to C27 (which is Pendle Forest) or C58 (which is Winter Hill).

Having established whether it is Winter Hill or Pendle Forest that is providing COM4 (if at all), then you may be able to manually tune COM5 and COM6 from the same transmitter.

As I say, reception of such signals is using the aerial for something that it wasn't installed for and therefore you may be prone to intermittent or no reception as a result.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Monday, 8 October 2012
M
Matt
11:14 PM
Exeter

I have also been having problems with my freeview in Exeter,

Annoyingly I don't seem to be able to get film4 or ITV4,

My TV is an old Panasonic TX-W28R4
with an equally dated Goodmans GDB3S

Any help would be greatly appreciated!



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Matt's 1 post GB flag
Matt's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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