All posts by Mike Davison
Below are all of Mike Davison's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
BTW Drop in signal was very temporary. It is amusing(best word i can think of) how differently my 4 Freeview devices say what signal they are getting. Meanest is the Humax HD PVR saying 23% for Local MUX and 60% for MUX A/PSB1, Humax SD PVR 9300t says 56%/75%, Toshiba TV says ' just on average/just below strong'(no % given) and those three are daisy chained from the same loft antenna with no pre-amp and feeding them individually makes no difference. My old Bush Freeview box(£28 from Tesco some 7 years ago) in first floor south-facing study with 5" circular tinned copper wire directly into a co-ax plug just indicates full signal bar on all MUXes although orientation for channel 56 is most critical. Quality assessments are all 100%/very good. I must be in a lucky area.
| link to this comment |
Before someone picks me up on the Bush Freeview Box, I should have said 'all SD MUXes'.
| link to this comment |
It should remain a criminal offence not to have a TV licence as it is not DIRECTLY the BBC you are defrauding but HM Government. They are allowing you to own and operate 'Broadcast Receiving Equipment' in accordance with the various acts. If they decriminalise that then not paying any government tax should go that way. The money collected is very generously given to the BBC to provide the services we all cherish and would not have any other way or at the same value and standard. I can't believe the MP who suggested this is living on the same planet.
| link to this comment |
MikeP: Sky analogue started in the clear but Sky Movies was soon encrypted well before the digital services started, as was Sky One. Sky News and Eurosport stayed clear. I've been trying to research the dates encryption on the analogue 19.2 Astra 1a Sky services started but have been unable to find them. The free period for Sky Movies was only a 'honeymoon period'. Encryption was always intended for that channel. It was also advert free in the beginning I believe.
| link to this comment |
Found it ! From Wikipedia :-
After one year of broadcasting free-to-air, in February 1990 it (Sky Movies)became the first Sky channel to scramble its signal, using a card-encryption system called VideoCrypt which rendered the picture totally obscured to anyone attempting to view it without a decoder and smart card.
--------
Sky One analogue went encrypted in 1993 according to Wikipedia.
| link to this comment |
MikeP: It was just that your first paragraph read as if the encryption only happened after Sky acquired BSB but I stand by the fact that Sky Movies did not carry advertising until after it was encrypted. To me, they should be mutually exclusive and perhaps that would give the free-to-air services a fairer bite of the commercial pie and the general public a truer picture of what they pay for Sky as charges would have to rise.
| link to this comment |
MikeP: OK all clear. Just out of interest in those early years, one evening I did a spot check on the amount of advertising carried by either Sky News or Sky One, I can't remember which, and it was 7.5 minutes of pure commercials in the hour I checked. There were programme trailers so the total break time was longer. I think at the same time ITV were limited to the same amount of advertising. I'm not making any point here by the way.
| link to this comment |
Friday 4 April 2014 11:09AM
22nd September 2014 Briantist !! Is that official? Their website hasn't been updated for months.