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All posts by MikeB

Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Hilary: Mike is right, the actual system you want depends on what you can get in terms of signal and services. Every TV will have Freeview (and a decent set should have Freeview HD as standard), so you can use an aerial with anything. Some TV's will have Freesat built in, or a generic sat. tuner.

If your buying a TV, then get the right size (about 2.5 to 3 times size of the screen away from you these days), Freeview HD should be standard, at least 2 HDMI's (4 is best), and most will be smart. Stick to the four major brands (LG, Sony, Samsung and Panasonic) and you should be fine. A 40in or that sort of size in Full HD (you dont sound like a 4k customer) should be around 400-500 at the moment. The Sony W8 in a 43in has pretty much vanished, but grab one if you can - they are never making that set again.

When it comes to a TV, your paying for the best black/whites and the best movement you can. So go somewhere trustworthy and look at it for size and style.

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John rye: Your missing some muxes, so check that TV is actually locking on to that transmitter. And check signal strength - could be that the aerial lead to it has a problem - try swapping them over.

BBC4 HD if often at lower strength than ITV, but if your missing both, it cant be the transmitter - it either works, or it doesn't.

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Dave
Friday 22 July 2016 10:53PM

Simbo1943: Check the signal strength - if its very low, sounds like your system has a problem, and its the first mux to go.

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kk: The TV is telling you that your aerial system is kaput - there is obviously a break somewhere.

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Andrew Murphy: Are you reading just 50kw, or have you found that figure somewhere? Because obviously if your reading a low signal strength, but the transmitter is fine, then that points to a problem at your end.

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Annette Russett: You need to check your signal stengths on the various muxes - at just 32km from the transmitter, you should be getting a great signal - if anything, too good.

So if your getting a poor signal, then points to something wrong with your aerial system. I'm not surprised that the BBC has not replied - they must get many hundreds of such emails a week, and unless there is a pattern caused by an actual transmitter problem, its not their fault. Its as if people emailed a car maker because their car wouldn't go, when it turns out the petrol tank is empty. The reality is that the vast majority of such problems are local to the receiver.

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Phil Baldry: You can check yourself on the transmitters page on this site, but almost certainly its your system thats at fault.

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Do I need to buy a booster? | Installing
Friday 29 July 2016 8:58PM

John Hamlyn: If your sets are all tuned to the same channel, you really shouldn't get much echo. I've just come back from a showroom with at least 20 sets on an aerial feed, with no echo at all. Its true that different sets have slightly diffeerent delays in processing, but that really should be enough for an echo.

However, if one Tv is on the SD channel, and the other on the HD, then there will be a 2 second delay.

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David Stewart: Firstly, never put your phone number, etc on a public site (hopefully, Brianist is watching) - nobody is ever going to contact you privately, etc, so for securities sake, all we need is a postcode for location.

Your probably right that one Humax is picking up a different transmitter. If one is getting Com7 and the other isn't, and they both have HD tuners, then either something is wrong with the connection to the aerial of one of the boxes, or its picking up a transmitter without Com 7.

Easiest way to cure that is to find out what channels both the 'good' and 'not good' transmitter are broadcasting on. The 1800T will do an auto search only, and its often the case it will find the lowest channel number (and hence wrong transmitter) first. So the trick is to pull out the aerial lead for part of its scan, and then put it back in so it catches the one you want. About a third of the way through the scan used to work for my digibox, but its a bit hit and miss, and often a couple of tries,

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John King: I'm in Peterborough as well, but on Waltham. Check the signal levels on all the muxes - Com 5 should be about the same as most of the others (Com7 is certainly weak).

The most likely problem is somewhere in your system - perhaps a frayed cable, loose join, etc. Cables can be odd, and a problem might mean a really strong mux is wiped out, but a much weaker one is OK. Simply changing the aerial lead isn't a bad idea - they are cheap, easy to change, and if there is no difference, then at least you know its not that.

If there is still a problem, then you'll have to check up the signal path - good luck!

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