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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
Friday, 14 June 2013
J
jb3810:55 PM
Floyd: With reference to your latest up date, but also referring back to your posting on the 9th @ 7.46pm where you had mentioned that both buildings have a rooftop aerial, the masts of having been observed as being mounted on the gable ends of each block which are positioned at right angles to each other, this then suggesting that both blocks have their own identical communal aerial arrangements.
This being the case, then rather than your problem being caused by an incorrect type of aerial having been fitted its far more likely to be caused by a defective connection somewhere on the aerial system starting from the aerial itself downwards.
However, I do suspect that the fault is likely to be located on only the section from the aerial to the distribution amp or indeed even the distribution amp itself being defective, the reason for saying this being that each of the three apartments in your block are likely to have their own feeds from the dist / amplifier, but by your investigations having revealed that no-one in your block gets good reception then the problem has to be prior to the dist / amplifier output feeds, as it would be a bit too coincidental for all three feeds to be faulty.
As far as the wire that's seen linking across the roof of the blocks is concerned, if your block is not fitted with a dish and yet the apartments have a satellite connection? then the wire referred to could be for the purpose of carrying the four feeds from the dish mounted on the other block across to your own blocks multi-switch unit, a device that's always used to supply satellite feeds in apartment blocks.
Hope this helps to clarify the
situation a little.
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Saturday, 15 June 2013
C
CRJ34310:28 AM
MikeP
Thank you for your excellent explanation !
What surprised me was that my Technomate was indicating a signal quality of 93%
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C
CRJ34310:34 AM
Ian from notts
Thanks Ian but the connection Technomate -> TV was HDMI and no other device turned on. Weather was clear and I have a large dish (1.25m). With 93% signal quality I was a bit surprised. No other HD channel had this problem
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Thursday, 20 June 2013
N
Nick Anderson4:13 PM
Would it not be an idea for all the existing or forthcoming Channel 8 local freeview TV stations to post their contact details, i.e. their e-mail address and phone number both for advertisers and viewers alike on their respective sights?
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Friday, 21 June 2013
K
Ken Morrison12:46 PM
I have a Sky hd subscription and they left the old Skybox when they put in the new HD system. Can I use this old box at my caravan to get freesat? I dont have a card for the old box. I do have a satellite dish that I can connect up.
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Ken Morrison: You can receive free-to-air channels with your old Sky box. You should be able to try it now, with your dish at home.
"Freesat" is the brand name given to a free-to-air satellite service not associated with BSkyB.
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Ken Morrison: Also see:
TV Aerials for Boats and Caravans
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Sunday, 23 June 2013
S
sheila8:16 PM
Hello.
Help would be very much appreciated as I am a complete novice when it comes to setting up TVs etc.
I currently have a Samsung UE40C600RK television connected to a Pace (white) sky+HD box and satellite dish, with a blueray in the living room.
We barely get a reception with free view but I am thinking of cancelling our sky subscription. Would this mean losing all the programmes we have saved on our sky box?
We also run 3 other TVs (kitchen, daughters bedroom and daughters sitting room) with the intermittent freeview signal - BBC channels are never watchable but we sometimes can watch stv and almost always can get radio and channel 4 and e4. We live in the north of Scotland .
WiFi is not great either, but I think that is due more to the fact that it is a traditional house with thick stone walls, than anything.
What would be the best way to still be able to utilise our TV, satellite dish and be able to record, pause and series link? We listen to music and watch TV and films and but not really sports.
I am prepared to spend a couple of hundred pounds as a one-off if need be and have been drawn to as humax free sat box just by reading reviews. Although friends use free view and an HDMI connected hard drive.
I had also been toying with the idea of a cheaper subscription such as love film? But would prefer a one-off payment.
I feel we are not really utilising our main TV to its full potential and certainly don't use all our appliances in conjunction with each other.
Thanks for any advice.
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M
MikeB11:56 PM
sheila: lets start with the basics - your freeview signal seems rubbish, but if you include your postcode there might be a way to work out why. If its not really fixable, then Freesat/Sky would be a perfectly useable way of getting TV, but obviously Freeview is slightly easier, since all TV's and most recorders have Freeview tuners. I'm assuming for the moment that Freeview is unuseable.
Ok - Swapping out a sky HD box for a Humax Freesat PVR is perfectly fine (whether you can keep your programmes is something only someone who knows about Sky can answer!)and there are instructions on this website. If you want to stay with Sky, thats up to you, and you can do the Sky multi-room thing.
My brother has the Humax Freetime PVR (the latest), which he says is well made, but the software is 'buggy'. My parents have the Freeview equivalant (YouView), and have no problems, so hopefully Humax will learn and sort it out....
There is (in theory) no problem about making your other TV's receive Freesat as well. Although Freesat equiped TV's are relatively uncommon and are not cheap (as I pointed out here Freesat reception - all about dishes | Free satellite - general | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice a Freesat box is much cheaper, and even an excellent Humax receiver can be had from Humax itself for £69 - HUMAX UK Direct Sales Website .
You will of course have to wire them all up. This is the theory, since I've had to do it personally, but I'm sure there are loads of people who have who can guide you.
You have twin LNB's on the end of your Sky dish already (which you use for your main TV), and its possible you may have an extra two unused connectors as well (check underneath the bit where the wires come out - for more details look at Satcure's information http://www.satcure.co.uk/…tm).
Assuming you just have two connectors (which is fine for a Freesat recorder, but no more), the easiest thing to do is to put up another dish with a quad LNB, which means you could connect up to 4 Freesat receivers (from your other TV's). You could buy all the stuff from Satcure, etc, and do it yourself, or get someone in to do it, but I'd read Satcure's info and perhaps ATV's as well - both very useful sites. In fact if you ring Satcure they might give you advice on a particular point.
Dont go to your local DIY shed - you'll get better and possibly cheaper by going to Satcure, etc.
If your going down the Freesat route, its £249 for a Humax Freesat PVR retail (a graded one from Humax is a bit cheaper), plus around £70 for a Freesat receiver (various brands) (Humax graded around the same price). You'll need one for each TV (connect via scart/HDMI - try 7dayshop for the latter - very cheap on multibuy).
The dish is £36 from Satcure (includes a quad LNB), with the fittings for fixing it to the wall not being especially expensive.
To connect it to the various rooms, you'll need satellite quality cable ,grommits, plus inside wall plates to connect the cable up to the boxes, and F connectors. Most of the bits are not particularly pricey, and WF/WT100 coax cable can be bought in 50m reels for about £21. If you have anything left over you can make very nice cables to connect up your boxes.
You sound like you have thick stone walls, so drilling the holes for the cable might be the hardest part of the job...
If your Wifi is rubbish (thick stone walls...) then the Powerline type things might be fine, and you can use your hub to give you wifi in areas which make the most sense. You dont say how fast your broadband is, but if your in a rural area (if your Freeview isn't good...) its probably isn't going to be very fast. If its OK, and your blu-ray is a year or two old, then it might be smart, which means you could get Iplayer and possible Netflix/Lovefilm. If your broadband is very slow, don't bother.
Your TV is about 4 years old (BTW - where did you get it - I don't recognise it at all, I assume its European rather than UK), but its unlikely to be able to record to a HDD via USB. Plus the fact that is a vaguely rubbish and inflexible method anyway.
A Samsung TV that age should have 3/4 HDMI's plus a scart (but not smart), and so your fine for a PVR, Blu-ray, sound system/soundbar and possible Apple Tv and the like.
Connect your Blu-ray up to the net and see if you get anything. A cheap modern blu-ray (preferably with wifi) will have the same smart functions as a modern TV - a relatively cheap way to make your TV smart and wified at the same time, plus you get bluray!
Go and ask a local installer what they think (they will know the Freeview reception in the area and tell you if its worth it). They can also quote for any installation. Satcure/ATV will be helpful (and you may want to do any job yourself), and if your near Aberdeen, the TV dept of a certain large store will give you unbiased advice.
Plan thinhs on a big bit of paper, and see what works for you. Good luck
(PE12QN)
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Monday, 24 June 2013
J
jb386:16 PM
sheila : Although obviously the provision of a post code or one from nearby (e.g: a shop / post office) would greatly assist in determining the signal levels expected in your area, plus whether or not you are covered by a main "full service" transmitter or that the reception you do get is from a PSB only relay, i.e: no commercial channels other than ITV1 / Ch4 / Ch5 etc.
But though on the subject of cancelling your Sky subscription, be aware that should you do this then the entire recording / playback side of your Sky box will be deactivated by Sky at or around the same time as you lose your ability to view Sky's dedicated package channels "unless" that is you take out another subscription at the same time costing £10.25 per month purely for the purpose of retaining these facilities, this being one of the snags of using a Sky+ box and why many prefer to go down the Freesat route and purchase a twin tuner PVR.
Freesat, and especially a Freesat twin tuner PVR as mentioned by MikeB is a perfect non-subscription alternative to a Sky+ box, although on the other hand by your TV (0 missed from model number?) according to its manual being capable of receiving HD channels then this would enable a more flexible less costly system all round as the devices used in the other rooms would not require to be updated, but though it all depends on whether or not you are genuinely in a bad area for reception or that your aerial system is possibly defective, the quickest way by far to determine which of the two applies is by making one or two local enquiries with neighbours etc, if that is you happen to be on a sociable footing with them!
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