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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.

M
Feedback | Feedback
Wednesday 1 October 2014 6:57PM

J Hamilton: A postcode would have been a help, so that your location and your local transmitters, etc would have been clear, but lets break it down.

OK, your happy with Freeview, and streaming (although it would be nice to record).

First questions are: is there an aerial? and does the Sky box have one or two cables coming out of it?
I know you didn't mention an aerial, but have a look in the loft, there might be one there, and it would make your life easier. As for the dish, if it has two cables you can watch and record using an ordinary Humax Freesat box.

If you've only got one cable from the dish, its not the end of the world. If you know the model of TV, let us know. Both last year and this year, most Sony's have generic sat tuners in the back, so although you wouldn't get the Freesat EPG, you could still watch TV via the dish at no extra cost.

If you do want extra cables (or should I say LNB's), then google Satcure for an explaination of what to get. If you dont have a tuner built into the TV, then you can get a cheapy Freesat box for about £50, although getting a proper PVR would make more sense in the long run.

An aerial costs about £150ish to put up, but if your renting, then thats money your not going to get back. Google ATV Sheffield if you want to know how to do it yourself.

The Xbox, PS3 and possible the TV are all going to get you on-demand stuff, so thats fine.

I certainly can't particularly recommend one ISP, although I got sick of BT trying to get me broadband and went with Virgin instead. I'm sure we've all got horror stories, and I do hear good things about Plusnet (even though they are owned by BT!).
Yep, your going to have to pay for a phoneline with whoever you go for, and I suspect that fibre would be something you'd like. Just be aware that Virgin does tend to add little extras on the bill, and will bombard you with plea's to add their TV service, etc. There are a number of broadband comparison sites out there, so at least you'll get an idea of the field. There is no harm in okaying off one against the other!


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ian: If you'd provided a postcode, the reception guru's could have considered your options.

Its a pain that you can't get Freesat, etc, but frankly, its only due to the PSB channels providing a local transmitter (even if it does have the full channels) that you have any TV at all. The idea of paying less for fewer channels comes up a lot, but its the commercial channels who cant be bothered to pay to broadcast to you, so no, you cant get a reduction.

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M
Upgrading from Sky to Freesat | Freesat
Thursday 2 October 2014 10:50PM

Nick: Your EPG does not come from the internet. I suspect that the Search function is slowing things up (and my Sony does not always populate the EPG instantly either). Here is the instructions for the sat tuner Tuning satellite channels automatically , which I found via a thread here: Sky Dish/Sony TV built in tuner - Freesat - Digital Spy Forums - and they are right, its not a Freesat tuner, but a generic tuner for use throughout Europe.

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M
Being responsive: a better menu | Blogs
Saturday 4 October 2014 9:04PM

Briantist: I'm using the same Firefox as Mike P, and everything renders fine, but where is the search box? Has it vanished totally, or is Firefox not showing it?

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Brian Anderson: Are you sure that you've tuned into Ridge Hill? I notice that The Wrekin and Bromsgrove are both on a slightly lower RF channel than Ridge Hill, and the bearings are not so vastly different - you could have picked them up by mistake.

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Pete Dilloway: You havn't given a postcode, so we are reduced to guesswork, but since you report high signal strength with low quality, it sounds like your signal is too strong. Try bypassing any booster, etc. You could try and find the 'too much of a good thing' page on this site, but the search function is currently disabled!

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Being responsive: a better menu | Blogs
Sunday 5 October 2014 9:41PM

Brianist: When I try to use the the link 'click to see all recent comments', I get a page just saying 'Fatal error: Call to undefined method blogCaerus::userImageFor() in /home/admintv/public_html/class_allcomments.php on line 122'

Its only started happening tonight, and I'm using the latest version of Firefox.

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M
Being responsive: a better menu | Blogs
Sunday 5 October 2014 9:41PM

MikeB: And now the thing has just worked......!

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M
Analogue radio on 98.6MHz
Monday 6 October 2014 10:48PM

Brianist: if you try to click through David Moore's question, its not there, but your reply is!

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kenneth okane: There might be another reason - you might have a break or weak point in the aerial system, and when it rains, water gets into the cabling, which messes up your reception.

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