All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Andy Brough: Postcode, details of system, signal strength/quality and which muxes are going needed.
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Brian B: Sorry, but I disagree with your view of DigitalUK, and frankly, you've just made life hard for yourself.
DigitalUK did its best with digital switchover, considering the mixture of equipment people had, and what people wanted to pay. HD tuners were not even available until about 2010, and the vast majority of digital tuners already out there meant that nobody was going to shell out again, so DVT tuners continued to be the standard. Coverage is much the same, and everyone gets more channels, and HD. And DigitalUK clearly told people how to connect a TV with just an RF input http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf
You can still use a TV without a scart by using one of the old style Goodmans digibox (if you can find onehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N5CS1L1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483123238&sr=8-1&keywords=goodmans+digital+tv - 23) - they do modulate. And since an RF modulator can be had for 18 quid, its hardly a huge outlay, although adding up the cost of both boxes, your about a third of the way to a brand new 22in Samsung Full HD LED with Freeview HD, but there you go.
'Now I will probably end up scrapping all of it, as the quality of the picture is nowhere near what it used to be with the analogue signal, and it is also restricted to a letter box shape due to the widescreen format which is completely useless given the 14" size of the screen (it ends up being a tiny picture). '
Its a 14in screen, so by definition, its tiny. And you should be able to change the aspect ratio of at least the digibox to 4:3. A digital picture is better than an analogue, even on SD, but the hassle of converting the signal to an rf imput, etc must cause problems. Its simply not really worth the hassle of updating, unless you had a Goodmans box to hand.
I wouldn't expect any handheld TV to have an HD tuner anyway (too cheap), and by the time someone would actually need one (By which time wouldn't it be much easier to just stream HD/4K via the web?) that box will have been long chucked.
In reality, TV technology in the home goes very largely at the speed of the slowest. Going from analogue to digital (which only happened when the majority of people had gone digital pretty much by themselves anyway) went in stages, everyone got told what they needed (although a hell of a lot of people got very strange ideas in their heads), and the only thing that most people needed to buy was a digital reciever of some kind, if they didn't have one already. The only other thing was normally a replacement to the VCR, since the bulk of them were analogue.
But a TV dating back to the 50's could be sorted out at relatively little cost. Anything from the 80's would be very easy. But the reality is that we upgrade when something breaks, gets too small/too big, gets stolen, when we get given something, etc. And digital TV/radio is like that - upgrading a TV etc by adding a box isn't actually that hard, but often gets to the point where its not worth it - buying new is easier and better.
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edd: Your sky box is on...Sky. Your dad has freeview, which is an entirely different system, but its a good start to check signal strength.
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Victoria: Check your tuned to the right transmitter, and your signal strength - if your system has a problem, then lower power muxes will go first. And retuning makes things worse - you've just untuned your tv.
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C Watmore : We need a postcode, transmitter used, signal strength on both HD and SD channels.
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Ian : Whether a picture looks better on analogue or digital really doesn't matter any more - unless your watching via Sky Eye, your watching in digital, full stop.
You can watch TV live, right now, on your mobile phone - in HD. So yes, the internet is available in most places. On the other hand, trying to watch a handheld TV is a bit hit and miss, since getting a signal is a bit of pain. In theory, you can watch it anywhere, but you've still got to get a signal.
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JAMES PRYDE: Check whats going on or off at those times - sound =s like local interference - see 'single source interference' on this site.
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MikeP: We've had that discussion loads of times, and I agree.
But its relatively easy to stream a programme on a mobile on 4G, as long as you have decent coverage (which is now most of the country). Compared with the hassle of using a handheld TV with just a SD tuner which is using a tiny aerial, which would you chose?
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Ian : 'You obviously don't go to the same parts of the country as me.'
If you going to get rubbish 4G reception somewhere, why would you expect great TV reception in the same place? You can lug around a small TV if you like, but there is generally a good reason why they dont sell all that many of them.
'And you never got pixelation on analogue TV.'
No, you got gradual snowing and breaking up of the picture instead - one way of another, its not really watchable. And digital signals dont ghost.
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Friday 30 December 2016 5:57PM
Francis Caves: Why the fog? If your losing a mux, check the rest of the system - dodgy cable, etc.
I've seen loads of people blaming the weather, but unless its a inversion system, its almost certainly people's own systems.