All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Andy: You havn't given a postcode (please everyone, if you want help, then a postcode is extremely important!), but at a guess its the way the algorithm driving the TV's search software - each one is slightly different.
Have a look at your localish transmitters on Digital UK, the frequencies are different, but so is the response of the software. Really cheap set-top boxes like my Goodmans vaguely look in the right direction, and pick the first transmitter, even if its wrong. Better brands (like my Sony PVR) pick the proper transmitter perfectly. And of course you might be getting a strong signal from the transmitter facing away from the direction of the aerial as well.
I'm sure others can go further with the various quirks, etc of picking up the signal, but basically, if you want the all the same, you'll have to manually tune them.
| link to this comment |
s m coulson: You might need to clarify a few things....
Firstly, there is no such thing as a 'satellite relay' - your dish gets its signal from somewhere way above Africa. Do you actually have a dish? Or are you trying to use a satellite receiver with an aerial, which would account for the message ' no satellite dish'?
Or your dish (or its connections) might have a problem, even though the people you called said there wasn't.
| link to this comment |
Tina Davey: Your aerial has just had a battering from potentially 130mph winds. The transmitter apparently has no current problems, but your system probably has, perhaps a loose connection, etc.
| link to this comment |
Sandra: JB38 has Sky, so he can probably say why the 'you are not currently getting a satalite signal' message is a sign of a fault with your system, although if your not allowed to have a Sky dish, then how are you getting getting Sky?
If you are using a dish based system, why not just go over to Freesat? You just need to pay for the box (the 500gb Humax is £164 at present) and that will allow you to record, unlike Sky no-card.
You havn't given a postcode, so we cant see if you can get a main transmitter, but the reality is that some areas are impossible to cover with the full range of Freeview channels (thats the commercial stations), so going Freesat would be a good alternative.
| link to this comment |
Linda Dewar: You should be fine for Mendip (check the digitakUK link, etc), and you say it sued to be fine. First thing to check is your system. If your only getting a few channels, that might point to frayed cable, corrosion, mositure or a failing amp, etc.
Also check your actually tuned into Mendio, and not another transmitter by accident. If you retune the TV when there is a probablem, you've simply increasec the chances of picking up the wrong transmitter, thus making things worse.
| link to this comment |
Jane Morris: Its sounds like your lost Mux Com 5 - Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) Full Freeview transmitter .
Could be a number of things, but its likely that your aerial has a problem. Have a look at the aerial lead - if its loose or not working properly, then that migth explain the problem. Replace it and see if eveerything is OK.
| link to this comment |
geoffrey o'neill: When the terrestial channels will show 4K - goodness knows. At present even Sky isn't, so it might be a while. Sky is the most likely to start a service first - the extra bandwidth it has available makes things easier, Sky obviously have a market for 4K sports events, and since Fox Studio's is part of the group, they also have 4K films on tap (its how they are pretty much all shot these days anyway).
Frankly, if Sky had decided to show the World Cup in 4K, we would have shifted a lot of 4K TV's!
The BBC did experiment with 4K for the World Cup, but only internally. Terrestial TV has tended to get a lot of channels in relatively little bandwidth, but the Koreans have experimented with broadcasting 4K, and it seems to work, but there are a lot of things to be sorted out.
At present, your going to get 4K from a) Netflix (although its seems to be little more than House of Cards at present), b) upscaling using a 4K blu-ray player (around a hundred and fifty pounds at the moment), c) getting a server with 4K movies loaded on it. Samsung was giving these away with some TV's before Christmas, and Sony distributed something similar in the US a year or so ago.
I suspect there might be 4K content on the web, but what its like, I have no idea. In terms of speed, this article UHD 4K TV: how to get content, how does it work and is it worth it? | Expert Reviews reckons Netflix delives 4K at a max bit rate of around 15.6Mbits per second, so you going to need a fairly fast (and consistantly fast) broadband.
Frankly, I would have answered all these questions for you if you'd asked me when I'm working! 4K really has come down to a cost where it makes a lot of sense to get one, but only if your spending a decent amount of money. I was working last night, and all of us on the floor agreed (and told the customers that were asking about 4K) that you need to get a good one. Refresh rates are important on an TV, to get the best picture possible (its what you largely pay for).
In the case of 4K, I assume that your mostly watch 2K content on it, with the TV upscaling. That makes refresh rates very very important, because without a decent refresh, your going to get lots of stuttering. 48-49in is the minimum size I'd have at present - we certainly havn't been impressed with the 40in models we've seen.
Hopefully, you've bough one that delivers on 2k as well, because thats what you'll mostly be watching for a while yet!
| link to this comment |
geoffrey o'neill: If your TV is HD, its not 4K (Ultra HD). HD is normally described as 1080, and has about 2 million pixels. UHD is 3840 x 2160 (sort of), and has about 8 million pixels.
You might be able to stream the 4K content (OK, demo's) via the Panasonic 4K TV app, and they will look great, but its not 4K you actually watching, because its the panel resolution which is the important bit.
| link to this comment |
Dave Kirk: Your just 6 miles from a very powerful transmitter, so your tuner is basically screaming from too much signal! It reacts to tthis by fluctuating massively in signal quality.
Fortunately its easily solved, and attentuators are really cheap (a 20db is £1.89 on Amazon - thats where I got mine). See here for more help: Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you
| link to this comment |
Thursday 8 January 2015 2:05PM
Tony Cobb: I think your wasting your time. True Entertainment, like some other 'repeat' stations, really does not care one way or another about aspect ratios - its just content.
And of course this isn't True TV's website, so your not even speaking to the right people...