All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Ian from notts: You've hit the nail on the head when it comes to the inital cost - a dish is a dish, and cable is cable. In fact my work will put up a twin LNB dish with 10m of cable for £99, so its not as if thats an especially expensive option. And £299 for a Sky HD box makes the Humax equivalent look OK value.
I think the bigger thing to consider is that Sky does tend to add on extra costs to do more things, such as recording, and of course this is on an ongoing basis.
I didn't know that the EPG will list all the channels, just to tempt you - very clever of them!
The best thing to do with all these things is to tot up how much each option costs in total, and which service gives you what you want.
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Diana: You don't seem to have a decent reception from most transmitters, other than Slapton. However, if your getting no signal, there is a problem in your own system, perhaps a loose or broken cable.
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John Read: My Sony recorder is a little younger than yours, but it too picks up BBC1 and records it as a blank screen or badly broken up picture (in fact it happened last week). The reason is because the tuner is pretty sensitive, and picks up 'other' BBC1's, etc. These are normally stored in the 800 numbers, but the machine can suddenly be fooled into thinking that thats BBC1, which of course then breaks up!
Your central problem (and signal stregth 10 is the clincher) is too much signal - your powerful aerial, etc is now working against you. Talconeston seems to have had engineering works, and its seems to be a pattern that such work then results in a more powerful signal. Thats OK but for some, the signal is over the top - 75% is perfect, although you can go highre, but my Sony starts to go at 93%, and Panasonic tuners are known to be sensitive.
The BBC channels might actually be more than 10, but the signal is too much, and go show a low reading instead.
Cut out any boosters etc, and look at this :https://ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051892
S Hall - I suspect you might have the same problem.
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Bill: If the problem is happening for/at the same time each night, then its probably local interference - boiler switches are a favourite - Single frequency interference | Freeview Interference | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice
- or even a minibus!
If your HD channels had gone first, the too much signal would probably have been the problem.
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Ken: have a look at the Angus TV page - Angus (Dundee City, Scotland) Full Freeview transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice
although there are engineering works, its unlikely you should be getting nothing at all. Check your system as well.
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Petra: we really need a postcode to help and could you say what type if aerial (roof, loft, etc) you have, and any other equipment you have attached. Model number is nice too.
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Petra: All I needed was the postcode (if you put it into the website, all the other info will come up automatically). If youlook at the terrain map, your just 11km from the most powerful transmitter in the country, Sutton Coldfield.
Have a look at signal strength and quality, since your so close (with a Panasonic), too high signal might be a good bet (although the BBC channels normally break up first). See here: Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | Digital switchover | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice (B202PF)
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M
Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) Full Freeview transSunday 13 October 2013 6:00PM
Birmingham
Nigel J: I think you've just undermined your own arguement when you point out your broadband speed - and of course in much of the country its much less. Many of my customers are barely above dialup, and one gentleman today is going to be using a dish for internet access, because landline/fibre access is so poor. BT has been hauled over the coals for its poor rollout of rural broadband, something which government was paying it to do.
In fact 4G is a pretty good bet for many rural people to have better download speeds, and of course 5G is being mooted.
4K is possible to stream in somewhere like Korea, where 100mb is standard, but not for a while in the UK (nice though 4K is). However, Korean broadcasters have been experimenting with 4K - but broadcasting it, not streaming.
The reality of such technology changes is long-term, and seldom has anything to do with revenue, tax or anything else. If 'vested interests' wanted to move us all to internet tv and makes us pay the costs of it, they are doing a very poor job. The leader in making content available on the net is the ...BBC! And looking at current figures, most TV is watched live, not recorded, never mind streamed - thats going to change, but old habits die hard (think that we've been able to timeshift since the first VCR's).
If you'd looked at the mosts recent report from Ofcom, you would have seen a move to have MPEG 4 tuners (t2) as standard by about 2018. Since this format is one we all find in any modern TV, and you would expect no format change to occur for about a decade after that, there seems to be no plans to do away with RF transmissions for about 15 years, at the least.
The bottom line is that RF is still a pretty good way of getting most people to watch TV, and without a massive upgrade in broadband access, no other system is really viable.
' I may be a little paranoid, but poor quality may well be part of a bigger plan' - I think your worrying when you do not need to. Quality will be the result of pressue to give us good prgrammes, and the resources to deliver them.
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Norma Roberts: Your signal quality is exactly where is it should be, apart from Channel 51, and then only on occassions. If you look at the terrain plot, there is something big blocking the signal path about 0.5km from you (Hanging Fall Wood?), and I suspect thats where the problem lies - perhaps when its wet, or misty - the reception for that group gets a bit dodgy. A higher aerial would be better, but there you are.
I'me sure one of the reception experts can suggest more detailed reasons, but obviously, since your getting perfect reception on everything else, a booster, etc might make your other channels worse, rather than better. However, borrow one of those boosters which just sits between the socket and the TV/Humax (most people dont actually need them, so there might be one spare), and see if it helps. However. since boosting the signal might make it too strong, its more an experiement than a solution.
Perhaps JB38 or Dave Lindsay can be more help?
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Thursday 10 October 2013 7:23PM
john: I think you have several possible issues, but they are all a bit mixed up, not helped by a possibly duff cable. Try to break everything down, so you can isolate the problem.
I'm not sure your in a 'poor signal area' - the TV signal strength is fine (74% is great). In fact you might have too much signal, or even be catching Walthams signal.
OK - start with the seperate bits. Presumably, your original setup was socket, booster, Humax and then TV, which involves three aerial leads. Thats a chain which has a lot of links, and therefore most prone to problems.
Start by testing the leads, one at a time, going from the socket to the back of the TV. If all of them show a good signal strength, great, but I'm wondering about the 'thick cable' you used. Do the same thing with the Humax - straight from the socket, and note signal strength.
Ok - assuming the TV is fine with an aerial cable, look to see what transmitter your actually tuned into - Sutton is 43, Waltham is 49. Do the same with the Humax - are they on the same transmitter?
By this point, you should start to see what the problem is. Hopefully, its simply that the Humax just has a problem with the cable, or that its tuned into Waltham, and that signal is being caught by the aerial, but not strong enough. Your last post said that the TV was fine without the booster, but the Humax struggled. If changing the cable (or tuning to another transmitter) has not solved the problem, then my best suggestion is to get a decent splitter (and another decent aerial lead if poss.) Split the signal so that one goes straight into the back of the TV, and the other goes via the booster to the Humax. At least you'll get a decent signal on both, even if its less elegant than before.
I split my signal because its easier to sort out any problems (and my PVR hated being looped through for a while) - if you have a lead coming from the wall, and then splitting from there (like a 'Y'), there is less weight on the socket. Not elegant, but workable.
Hopefully, you can get it sorted, but if not, tell us anyway whats happening.