All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Simon: If your missing channels, check your on the correct transmitter, and then check signal stregnth, because if your losing muxes, thats most likely to be your aerial system. retuning doesn't help - it just might make things worse.
| link to this comment |
peter rance: The easiest way to think about it is that signal strength is measured in db, and therefore a 3db attentuator will reduce that by 3, a 6db by 6, etc.
Obviously you dont know exactly how much you need to reduce the signal strength until you try it, and remember that different muxes have different strengths - so that reducing a very powerful mux will also impact a weaker one - its a balancing act.
Get a range of them - a 3, a 6, and a 9 would be a good start - the ones from Amazon are fine and you'll save on postage by buying two or three. They are very easy to fit - simply get the existing aerial lead, and push one onto the end. And then get another aerial lead (they are cheap enough) and plug into the back of the PVR, etc.
If the signal strength comes down to around 75% on the mux you are having problems with, job done. Start with the smallest number - you can always add more. If 3db isn't enough, try the 6db instead. And so o. You can also combine them together (the fit together), so that a 3 + 6 = 9.
Its not perfect, since signal strength can be slightly different at different times of year, each tuner might be slightly different, and the muxes are not all the same power, but it should cure much of the problem.
If you have a booster, etc that you can bypass, that will make life much easier. In my case, I have a masthead amp plus another one in the loft which I have bypass at some point (there was even a third one when I first moved in!). Good luck.
| link to this comment |
P Mitchell:
Have a look at the links below your post - it will show you that although the local 'light' transmitter is the one that will get you the best signal, it also has the fewest channels.
Winter Hill looks like a good get for you, even though the terrain checker looks like there is something in the way pretty close to you. However, its pretty much in the opposite direction from the local transmitter, so while you might get it off the back of the aerial, its likely to be a bit iffy, unless you move the aerial. Check what the rest of the road is doing.
You can either go for Winter Hill, but move the aerial, or perhaps think about Freesat - if you've a dish already, all you will need is a receiever or PVR, and many TV's have a sat. tuner built in anyway. But since you have an aerial, perhaps its modify what you've already got.
| link to this comment |
StevensOnln1: There are one or two, but they tend to be at the top level, with twin freeview and freesat tuners, like the Panasonic OLED, Samsung QLED 8 series, etc. The idea of a non smart TV these days having twin Freeview tuners is zero. Frankly, there are very few non smart TV's around.
Yeah, the easiest way is to use a diplexer or coax switch. Or just have a second digibox.
| link to this comment |
John Clemence: there is no evidence at all that we are being driven towards anything like that - in fact, Sky is looking more to streaming services than it has previously, rather than sta. based subscription.
The reality is that streaming uses lots of bandwidth, and there wont be the capacity or coverage for most people any time soon, with many of my customers barely able to get BBC Iplayer on SD.
The C4 announcement is strange, but perhaps there is a commercial imperative behind it - because I'm slightly surprised that they'd yank the HD but leave the SD - its Freesat, so its not like its a matter of tuners....
| link to this comment |
Michael: Since C4's advertisers are in the UK, they really are not that interested in the people watching them in Spain, so the channel isn't going to pressure the sat. provider about its footprint. Its all about money.
And seemingly, thats exactly why C4 pulled out of Freesat on HD. I'm still slightly bemused why they didn't kill off the SD channel, since it makes zero difference on Freesat, but since evidently Freesat charges for the position in the EPG, they did a cost benefit analysis.
| link to this comment |
Simon: How is HD a con? The reason for the continuing use of SD is fairly simple - most TV's still have SD tuners, no matter if they are flat screens or not. Once there is critical mass, then HD will be the new default.
HD panels, like lots of technology, came in advice of the content available to show it off properly. But since all 5 main terriestial channels are in HD from any transmitter, its not as if their is no HD available.
Of course SD on an HD set isn't fantastic - any more than watching a programme made for a 405 line set wasn't quite as good on a 625 line set, and so on. In fact the history of TV is ones of constant attempts to increase screen resolution and quality, within the bandwidth available.
SD programmes tend to look fine on an SD screen - because they are in SD!.....But you cannot ever watch HD on an SD panel, so there you are.
At some point, T2 tuner will be standard, and SD will vanish, or at least wont be the default. And then people will complain how its looks on an 4K panel....
| link to this comment |
FrasNM: OK, firstly its nobodies fault that they've pulled C4 on HD for now - but who knows. And while you prefer to watch in HD, your watching a programme. Would you give up your favourite show, just because you couldn't watch it in HD?
Next, while a TV at that time wouldn't have had a Freeview HD tuner, thats not difficult to add - a Manhattan HD box (about 40) would do it. Mine is a little slow on the EPG at the moment, and a PVR is probably more useful long term, but its a start.
| link to this comment |
FrasNM: 'If there is something else equally favoured being transmitted at the same time on an HD channel then yes we would now abandon the Channel 4 programme in favour of it. '
So you would rather watch something else on another channel, because its in HD, rather than watch what you really want to, even though its not in HD?
I know thanks to streaming you can get the HD version later on, but even so, it does seem like your cutting off your nose to spite your face. Just watch the programme you want to watch, when you want to watch it. Watching is SD isn't the end of the world.
| link to this comment |
Monday 19 February 2018 4:32PM
Mike Weatherley: Hmm, have you heard of Occams Razor?
The most likely cause of the problem is the most straighforward - your system either has a fault, or your getting far too much signal, hence the breakup. Check the transmitter it actually tuned into, and signal strength.
People always say its the transmitter, the weather, aliens, 4G, etc. But in reality, the key variable is the connections and sate of wiring inside your house.