All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
dee: Except it doesn't - the BBC1 mux and others are on 50,000w, and logically, why would they 'turn down the power' at 10.15pm?
However, if your getting the same problem at 10.15pm every night, that points to dodgy aerial leads and a local problem, possibly a thermostat/timer with a dodgy switch in your house. Search for 'single source interference' on this site for details.
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Bill: I suspect your problem isn't with interference, but something much more basic - the state of of your aerial system. Becuase you put your postcode into the site, we can see how far you are from your transmitter. Although the terrain plot does bring up an obstruction about a km from you, DigitalUK reckons you should have a great signal from Pontop Pike, which is less than 30km from you. Indeed, if anything, you'd expect too strong a signal to be your problem.
However, your getting between 44% and 49% - just enough to allow you to pick up the ITV mux, but the BBC is just too low a lot of the time. That makes sense if therer is aproblem with your aerial, at least somewhere along the line. Start with the lead from the wall to the TV. They can have breaks, etc, and getting another one is pretty cheap. Swap out, and see if that helps. Obviously make sure your tuned into the proper transmitter (your kit might have picked up Bilsdale or Fenham first), and the logically follow the signal path back. Could be a cracked connection, which is letting in water.
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M
Will we ever have Freeview Ultra HD or Freesat Ultra HD?Saturday 24 October 2015 6:12PM
Macclesfield
An excellent roundup of how 4K content can (or not) be delivered at the moment.
4K sets have greatly reduced in price over the past two years, and in fact you can get the perfectly decent Samsung 40JU6400 4K set for £549 http://www.johnlewis.com/…7568 - which is pretty much where its full HD equivalent was 18 months ago.
The problem is sourcing stuff to watch, and when asked by customers about 4K, I always ask about their current broadband speed, because its that which will deliver 4K in the next year or two. BT, Netflix and Amazon prime all have 4K content, and that will grow, since the market is now there, and of course films are already made in 4K.
It will be interesting to see what Sky will do. They have been sniffy about 4K, but BT's bidding for a chunk of the Premier League coverage, and showing it (and the recently the Rugby World Cup) in 4K, means they have to do something - sport is their key weapon, and 4K owners will want to take advantage of 4K content if possible. A 4K box, plus of course streaming, might give them a reply to BT/Amazon/Netflix, and it will also be interesting to see what Virgin does. Their fibre network will be a advantage in any battle for viewers.
Should people buy 4K? I was actually taking about this to a couple yesterday. They said they didn't watch that much TV, did not record, yet wanted something reasonably decent and a size that was going to fit a reasonably sized and multi-purpose room. The gentleman liked a Sony 4K (and its was very good on Full HD, which is the true test), and his wife asked whether 4K was needed. I replied that it was up to them, and perhaps the Full HD version was suitable for their needs.
However, by the time a deal with a soundbar was added up, the cost of buying the 4K TV and soundbar was exactly the same as buying the Full HD TV, and then buying the soundbar at full price. I suspect that on prgmatic grounds, they will probably go for the 4K. And that makes sense, if only because whilst you can watch HD on a 4K TV, you cannot do the opposite. And if your spending a fair amount of money on something you don't purchase very often, then future-proofing yourself makes sense, as long as the differential in price is not that large.
Someone I work with occasionally pointed out some time agao that people bought HD TV's well before HD was available widely - the market for equipment was ahead of content. I suspect the same thing is at work, but that market will drive more content to be available.
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M
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | SwiSunday 25 October 2015 7:41PM
Macclesfield
Alistair Fyfe: Firstly, what the make/model? Remember that Full HD means the panel, not the tuner. Most of the time, people complaining about a similar problem to yours have bought the former, but not the latter.
You could try a reset - its not impossible for a TV to miss certain mux's the first time, especially if the aerial wasn't in properly.
Next, where are you looking on the EPG? The HD channels will start on 101. In fact you can normally tell if you have a HD tuner because there will often be a prompt on the EPG for BBC1 telling you a programme is also in HD.
Are you using the TV's tuner. Even if the TV has a Freeview HD tuner, if your using an external box and that box either lacks Freeview HD or your using a scart (rather than HDMI), then its not going happen.
If we get what TV you've bought, and a postcode (you can just pop it into the website), we can work out what sort of channels you should get, and if the equipment should be able to get them.
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MikeP: I think 'over air' will be a while yet - the amount of data needed is far larger than HD, at present 4 times or more . Now if compression can get it down to a more managable level, great, but the talk is of having relatively few channels in 4k if your using DVB-T2 tuners. Streaming and via dish is more likely at the moment. However, your right about the amount of data required just on ISP networks - its going to be interesting how well it copes.
Quentin Vole: A decent 4K TV showing HD will look pretty similar to a Full HD screen, perhaps even slightly better, even though its upscaling. However, just look at a demo of something like House of Cards in 4K (in pretty much ever show room!) - the level of detail is amazingly good. And of course you can sit rather closer (which is why a 4K monitor may be no bad thing!).
Was HD better than SD. Clearly yes, despite all the people who reckoned that you only could see HD properly on a really big screen, etc. Is 4K better than HD? Absolutely. At present its difficult to gauge just how much better, simply because we see lots of lovely demos, but largely without the capacity to see what the same thing would be like in SD or HD. However, Hollywood movies are available to stream in 4K ( http://4k.com/movies/), and I suspect watching them side by side, we would very quickly see a difference. Of course we can do that now, just by going to the cinema. Films these days are projected in 4K, whereas they are not projected at 1080p - you could do so, but we'd probably want our money back if they were.
As for 8k, you've got the problem of even larger data transfer, plus the cynical amoungst us are wondering if there will be a Sharp corporation even around by the time the Japanese are ready to put it into production. And of course it has to be commercially viable, so you need the appropriate camera's etc to make it all happen.
I'd be very interested to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc on a screen at home in the sort of resolution I'd seen it at the cinema - that would be wonderful. However, since we've only just changed to a flat screen TV from a CRT, that might be a while!
However, if you have a 4K monitor, have a look at some free content that you can compare with HD content and let us know - is there an apparent difference?
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M
Belmont (Lincolnshire, England) Full Freeview transmitterMonday 26 October 2015 7:59PM
Macclesfield
Pauline: Freeplay is internet based (like Youview and Freetime), and thus has nothing to do with the transmitter.
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M
Will the World Radiocommunication Conference be the death of FrMonday 26 October 2015 8:07PM
Macclesfield
Ian: But they already are. This subject has been discussed on another thread, but if you look at the churn rate as older equipment is replaced, then T2 tuners could be the majority fairly soon. If a TV has an HDMI port, then you can attach a reciever/PVR very easily, and at relatively low cost. Looking at the market, 5 years is very doable, even without a push from industry/government, etc.
Here is an article which clearly lays out the sort of timescale involved, and comes up with a similar conclusion to Brianist When will your Freeview box stop working? | Gone Digital
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M
Will the World Radiocommunication Conference be the death of FrTuesday 27 October 2015 2:11PM
Macclesfield
MikeP: I'm not sure that people replace TV's or other equipment that often. 5-7 years is average, and of course this has as much to do with changes in peoples homes as anything else. If you've moved house, or knocked through two rooms, then that 21in CRT is going to look very small in a 20ft living room. Likewise, a fair number of people are downsizing, and that 50in TV from 8 years ago looks a bit of a monster in a small Victorian front room. Of course these TV's are often passed on, so they are not automatically landfilled.
Once a TV goes, the cost of repairing one is often not worth it, and so a new set is on the cards. TV's nowadays are much cheaper in real terms than ever before, and the days of a 30% wholesale and retailer margin are long gone. Barely above double figures is now average for a TV (a laptop or tablet perhaps half that), and of course that margin might also include free delivery, a free extended warrenty, etc. There is a reason why the likes of Tesco's got in and then out of the serious TV market quite quickly - its not actually that profitable, and the competition is intense.
Many of my customers don't particularly want to change much, but if they are, are looking for good value and a degree of future proofing. A decent picture, a good quality build, with the features that allow the set to last, and easy to use are the features I would look for. If you bought something decent 4 years ago, then you have nothing to worry about, and plenty of much older sets are perfectly usable, with very little extra outlay. I suspect a lot of people feel overwhelmed, and assume that if they are not buying something new, then nothing will work. The opposite is of course true. There are times where a wholesale change is warrented, but that will tend to come in the natural order of things.
I totally agree with you about people not being aware of the technology, and whether thay have to upgrade or not. During digital switchover, DigitalUK was very careful to inform people that all they essentially needed was a set-top box, nothing more, unless they wanted to. Yet so many people panicked that they had to replace their TV's, or else. Now from the point of view of selling TV's, we were not complaining, but we like to give people good customer service, and I would explain to them what was required if needed. I remember one chap who was very stressed at having to buy all new TV's, but because of the cost, he felt he had to buy a new 32in for his front room, whereas a 40in was much more suitable. My advice was to wait, and buy an HD PVR, since that was much more cost effective for his situation. Yet he carried on obsessing about a new TV. Fortunately I explained the situation to his very sensible wife, who talked him down!
The people who replaced their TV's might have felt like an upgrade was warrented anyway, and thats fine. Frankly, its the customers money, and they can do what they like with it. However, my worry was always the people who felt they had to, largely because of nonsense coming from the media. Unfortunately, I suspect much the same thing might happen again, with the media whipping up fears that are unwarrented, and counterproductive.
The move to T2 tuners is long overdue, and there is no reason why it cannot be done in the next 4-5 years, since the bulk of people will have one anyway, or can get one if needed. It would simplify things, have lower running costs, and make better use of the spectrum.
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Will the World Radiocommunication Conference be the death of FrTuesday 27 October 2015 7:19PM
Macclesfield
Ian: On the other hand, you can't watch HD with a Freeview tuner, and apart from switching the TV on and off/selecting another imput, the HD /Sky/Virgin box pretty much does everything. In fact pretty much exactly the same situation when we all went digital.
And when your TV goes kaput, your buying one with a T2 tuner in anyway.
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Wednesday 21 October 2015 9:33PM
Macclesfield
Keith Curley: You have given a postcode, so we have no idea what your signal should be like. However, since there is a weak signal alert for yesterday, but you've had the problem for a fortnight, it sounds like its your aerial system, epecially since you previously had a good signal, but it now on the slide.
Classic answer is that your system has a problem. Possibly as simple as changing thr aerial lead in the back of the set, but its could be a failing booster (if you have one), fraying wire, corroded connection, etc. Start at the TV and work your way upwards. A postcode would help (just put into the website), and so you can see what msort of signal you should get.
BTW - lots of people hark back to analogue, but the problem with your reception would have manifested itself in much the same way - the signal would have become fuzzy instead of blocky.