All posts by Neil Bell
Below are all of Neil Bell's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Peter Davies: I had a look & can pick up SPORT 1 which is showing basketball just now (Sun 16:50 BST)
The frequency/pol/SR is as per LyngSat i.e. 12480 V 27500
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Hi Big Mart, the number 1080 refers to the number of lines in one full tv picture, the "i" is short for interlaced. What it means is that the television displays first all the odd numbered lines and then all the even numbered lines. This in turn fools the eye into thinking that the refresh rate is twice as fast as it really is which helps reduce any flickering sensation.
Teletext was a service devised originally by the BBC which used some unused lines at the top and bottom of the screen on analogue broadcasts to transmit information which was not at that time "on tap". Now that we have electronic programme guides, the red button service, various services on mobile phones and widely available broadband so that the same information can now be obtained more quickly and in a better format the powers that be probably feel that we don't need teletext any more. As far as I'm aware the BBC has now ceased its Teletext service - I say "as I'm aware" because I flew out here to the Czech Republic on 18 May - the day they switched off analogue broadcasts in London. As I understand it teletext type sevices on digital tv broadcasts do not use "spare" or "unused" lines on the picture but instead were developed to satisfy the demand built up by the popularity of these services on analogue tv. e.g. here in the Czech Republic they still have teletext but on an entirely digital tv service.
I presume the reason the BBC do not transmit all regional BBC1 programmes on HD is lack of money. I can't remember how many regional flavours of BBC1 there are, but it is a lot - I can receive them all on satellite broadcasts when I'm at home but they only transmit one version of BBC1HD. I think ITV are much the same although I did find an HD version of STV amongst the free to air channels. As to the channel number for BBC1SD it obviously varies according to the service you use. On Virgin cable BBC1 is on channel 101 and on freeview it is on channel 1 etc.
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Hi Marjorie
I don't have any practical experience on the reception of UK tv broadcasts in Belgium so the following are just some thoughts and suggestions that you could try.
I presume (although you haven't given any info to confirm this) that your problem has to do with the analogue switch off in the UK and that your current tv is an analogue model.
As far as I'm aware:
A The Belgians use the same (well at least for SD broadcasts) DVB-T system for digital broadcasts as in the UK.
B Digital broadcasts in the UK use much the same frequencies as the analogue broadcasts they replace.
C They say they will broadcast digital signals at greater power.
For these reasons logic would suggest that if you currently receive analogue UK broadcasts then you ought to be able to receive UK digital broadcasts in Belgium. Plainly your aerial will point in a different direction to your Belgian neighbours so you need to do some further investigation:-
1 Try asking your Belgian neighbours if any of them have a small digital tv that you could borrow to try out using it with your aerial. Obviously you'd have to do a retune before and after.
2 Have a look locally to see if anyone else has their aerial pointing out to sea in the same direction as yours and ask them if they've cracked it.
3 If that fails try asking local TV shops if they can help you receive UK digital broadcasts.
4 You might find it just as easy to install a free to air satellite receiver set top box and dish and use this with your existing tv. Belgium is very close geographically to the UK so you ought to be able to use a standard small size dish.
Good luck!
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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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Mike Smartt You'll probably need a new "universal" LNB which can be used with both analogue & digital receivers as well as the digital receiver but they are not too expensive. I use an HD receiver but there are only about 3 free to air German HD programmes on 19.2 all with SD equivalents so an SD receiver will suffice. Try to get a non Freesat receiver if possible as it will probably be easier to set up. I'd just do a search on line.
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John Brady I presume you mean "freesat" or "free to air" set up. All the channels you mentioned losing are at 28.2°E but most of the German channels are at 19.2°E so is it possible that a strong wind has moved your dish a few degrees to the west? I know it seems unlikely but if following your retune you can receive e.g. 3Sat, BR-Alpha, Das Erste etc. then it would seem that that has happened and that you need to get your dish realigned back to where it should be pointing
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Brian If your SKY+ box and DVD recorders don't have HDMI outputs then you will need to use a SCART splitter which will let you connect both devices to one SCART input. They don't have switches so one device will have precedence and when that device is switched off the other will work. If they do have HDMI outputs then get some HDMI leads.
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H Nichol A quick look online suggests that both your receivers support DISEQC 1 so you should be able to watch both German and British channels on both receivers. Perhaps the problem is that each receiver has a separate dish or a separate LNB, One aimed at 19.2° East (German channels) and the other at 28.2° East (British channels) but you don't say what your dish set up is. If you have 2 dishes (or 2LNBs on one dish) then each satellite tuner would need 1 DISEQC switch (each DISEQC switch can have up to 4 LNBs but you'd only need the 2) Each DISEQC switch needs to be connected to its tuner with a single cable. Regards Neil
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H Nichol I'm a bit suspicious of this (389 English channels on 19.2° East). On my old Fortec Star receiver where I can filter the channels to look at just 19.2° East I have a total of 560 free to air channels a lot of which don't work. Of those that do a majority are German or maybe French channels with just a few English language channels such as Russia Today. Do you maybe already have a DISEQC switch - normally fitted near the dish with 3 or 5 F connectors - 1 cable from each LNB and 1 cable to the tuner? On the Technomate website there are instructions for your model on page 4 to set up a Monoblock or DISEQC switch. Neil
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Tuesday 20 March 2012 6:43PM
Alan I think you will find that Anglia East is on Freesat and Anglia West is on Sky but then that poses another question which I don't know the answer to!