Feedback
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
Saturday, 12 January 2013
J
Joan5:34 PM
can i connect an inbuilt freeview tv to a freesat box
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 13 January 2013
C
Craig1:28 PM
I've been trying to find a way to split a single dish to 2 receivers. Every post so far says it's not possible with multi LNB's and extra cabling. Luckily I have quad LNB, but before I start adding cables I was wondering how apartment blocks share one dish over multiple receivers?
| link to this comment |
C
Craig1:31 PM
..my last post should have read '...it's not possible withOUT multi LNB's and extra cabling'....
| link to this comment |
J
jb388:56 PM
Craig: This is simply because that its achieved by using a sophisticated device called a radial multi-switcher, the dish used on this type of system having to be fitted with a quad LNB for standard operation (Quattro for Sky+) the four inputs from the dishes LNB only being used to supply the multi-switcher with a H & V signal on the low band and exactly the same on the high band, these inputs being buffered from being altered by any commands that might be made from a Sky box by an isolation circuit within the multi-switcher, the reason they do not require to be altered on the dishes LNB in the same way as they normally would be in a normal installation being that each of the numerous outputs on the multi-switcher acts as though it was an individual port on an LNB, this meaning that the actual LNB on the dish never changes.
By the way, in cases where a Sky+ box is being catered for this is done using a special wall pate in conjunction with the multi-switcher.
Whats said being somewhat simplified to save an over legthy posting.
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
I
ian from notts8:08 AM
Nottingham
stephanie- not sure why bbc1 has gone but there are all the british regions of bbc1 in a skybox channel list starting at ch 951.
have they all gone ?
| link to this comment |
ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
I
ian from notts8:11 AM
Nottingham
eldred- does the led light on the back of the magic eye go out ? are there any more m/e's in the house? and what sort of problem are you getting ? ie- random channel change? box or tv turning off? no signal message ?
| link to this comment |
ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
I
ian from notts8:13 AM
Nottingham
joan- using an hdmi or scart cable and watching it thro input or av button on the tv remote.
a freesat box needs to work with a sat dish
| link to this comment |
ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
P Thompson10:32 AM
Rotherham
I have a Hitachi TV with inbuilt Freeview. After the changeover I received all the channels I should have and everything was fine until a few weeks ago when the pictures were completely breaking up on some channels ( eg 10 ITV 3, 11 Pick , 12 Dave , 23 Bid ). Retuning both from the Installation menu and removing aerial, retuning and retuning again with aerial connected had no effect. Once the retuning resulted in losing all the effected channels. These were recovered using the aerial removal method. My daughter who has a different make of television with inbuilt Freeview but was tuned to a different transmitter also received all channels after changeover but after 6 months started to loose channels. Eventually despite numerous retuning she lost all of them. ( She solved the problem by changing to Freesat.
The query I ask is, is it possible that tuners fail because of the amount of retuning done ?
A further reason I ask is that I have found that if I connect a Freeview Set Box between my Aerial and TV certain of the effected channels are OK ( eg 11 Pick , 17 Really, 29 E4+1 ) whilst the rest the sound is fine and there is only minimal breaking up of the picture. Any help or advice would be appreciated over this problem Thanks
| link to this comment |
P's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P Thompson: The COM channels have inferior coverage to that of the PSBs. Those services you have identified are those carried on the COMs.
For a list of all Freeview services, including which multiplex (mux) they are carried on, see:
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
Each mux is a single signal and occupies the frequency space of one former analogue channel.
The PSB (Public Service Broadcaster) networks are designed so as to serve all those that the former four-channel analogue did. That is, the signals are powerful enough to serve the same areas as the former analogue which means that viewers should be able to receive them with the aerials installed for analogue.
The COM (Commercial) networks do not have as good a reach as the PSB channels. They broadcast from 81 of the largest transmitter (largest by viewer population) and, according to predictions, a proportion of people using those transmitters will also only receive PSBs reliably. In some cases these people may be able to use a different aerial (and sometimes a different transmitter) in order to get the full service. Others may be served, but require a replacement aerial because the frequencies used for the COMs (from their transmitter) are outside of the range of their aerial (out of the aerial's Group).
Due to the terrain in your area, going in the direction of Sheffield, there are a number of transmitters that are used, some of which are small relays which carry only PSB channels.
The Sheffield (Crosspool/Tapton Hill) transmitter carries all channels, but a replacement aerial may be required because the COM channels are out of the frequency range of the former analogue. However, Channel 5 analogue was so, which means that some will have already had their aerial replaced.
The same goes for Belmont (which is in Lincolnshire) where two of the three COM channels are also "out of group" of the former four-channel analogue. COM4 (ITV3 etc) is in Group, but is on the lowest power, so I suspect that there may be some viewers who will be without it. COM5 and COM6 are higher power than COM4, but lower than the PSBs and I suspect that their are differences at the transmitter which means that those further away, such as in Rotherham and Sheffield, may be struggling to get them.
Retuning can not break or otherwise wear out a tuner.
Retuning in cases such as yours can only ever have the two outcomes you discovered:
1. neutral: you get the same channels with the same level of reception, or reception improves, but it would have anyway because it is to do with the signal.
2. negative: you end up with less services stored in the tuner's memory because the signal(s) isn't good enough which is probably what caused the poor picture in the first place.
The issue is usually a signal one rather than a fault in the receiver.
In summary, retuning where the receiver is tuned to the frequencies of the desired transmitter can only ever either be a waste of time or shooting oneself in the foot!
| link to this comment |
P Thompson: The reason that the COM channels are inferior is because the channels (frequencies) that they use are re-used by other transmitters in closer proximity to those of the PSBs.
Belmont's COM5 and COM6 are a case in point where the small relay at Conisbrough uses the same channels. Nearer to you, the Blackburn transmitter also broadcasts on those channels, albeit vertically and in a north-westerly direction at only 2W.
The signals are therefore "limited by interference" and not necessarily because they don't travel as far. In such cases it may be possible to resite or use a different aerial which is better at not picking up the interfering signals.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please