All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Pete Green: I can only agree. This site is totally unoffical, and nobody is under any obligation to reply. Secondly, if you'd looked at the thread for the Calne transmitter, you would have seen that other people were also having problems, apparently due to an power cut to the light transmitter.
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John M Francis: If you look at the top of the page, you'll see that there are no apparent problems with the transmitter. And R & Ti Services say the same thing.
So, if its not the transmitter, it must be you! Check that the aerial lead hasn't fallen out the back of the TV, etc. If that looks fine, its likely to be a break in the cable somewhere leading from the aerial to the socket, water in the cable, a busted booster, etc. Your probably best getting someone out to look at it.
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jeannette: You can leave the Sky box as it is. Just because your contract ends, it doesn't mean the box stops working - only that you cannot record, access what you've recorded and the channels available will be rather more limited.
The BT box is a rebadged Humax PVR, and works via Freeview, so they work entirely seperately.
If your DVD Player is only a player - then no, thats impossible (thats what the BT box will do). If you have an old style DVD recorder, then possibly. It will need either a Freeview tuner built into it (and connected to the aerial) or could be used via the Sky box (connected via a scart) and uses the Sky box as a sort of digibox. Unless you really need something on disc, I wouldn't bother.
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Barry: Ok - its got a usb slot, and you'll have to check with the manual if you can record to it and what you can use (could use a certain type of file, such as FAT32, and perhaps a certain size, say 32gb and below - so check).
Since Bush is an Argos 'own brand' I have little idea about them. However, the thing I caution all customers is that even if you can record to the USB, there might be very good reasons not to do so.
The first is that the TV has one tuner (and being a bush, probably just a Freeview tuner). So you can record one channel, say BBC 1. But you cannot watch another channel at the same time, because it only has that single tuner. Its also not really designed as a PVR, and God knows what the setup menu is like on the Bush.
Frankly, make your life easy, and buy a Humax Freesat PVR. Its a straight swapout for the Sky + Box (instructions are even on this website) and it will allow you to record on two channels at once and watch either something from the TV tuner or something recorded earlier. About 170 quid for the 500gb version, and 199 for the 1tb version. You can even get all four channels on demand.
Or a Humax/panasonic PVR for Freeview HD - starts from 140 notes for the 320gb version.
No, whatever you do has nothing at all to do with your broadband/phone, unless you get something with smart functions, and even then, it just uses broadband in the same way as your PC.
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roula france: If Movie Mix has a streaming facility via their website, you can watch it on anything you like. I suspect that they dont.
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Gaking: Good to know you've considered the issue in depth. Of course, if you check out all the articles Brianist has written on funding models for the BBC, you might think...differently.
As for competition -just how many on BBC channels are there on Freeview?
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Mick Bennett: Unless there is a weather machine being used around your parts, it cannot be the inversion effect! On the other hand, although you might not be aware of anything coming on for that half an hour, it might be something you hadn't thought of, or from another house etc.
Search for 'single source interference' on this site, and that will bring up ideas on what it is, how to find the source, etc. One tip is to change your aerial lead for something with better shielding - you can get some very decent ones from ATV for four quid plus VAT and postage Online Satellite/TV/FM/DAB Cable, Leads and Connectors sales. , and they will make up ones for you bespoke.
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John Couch: We dont have a postcode, which might help.
Single source interference is the most likely cause - water heaters etc? Mobiles wouldn't cause a problem, but the power supply to a DEC phone might. Its generally the timer or power supply which causes interference.
There is one other thing. If your using a digibox attached to a TV, then the signal is fed from the aerial socket, to the box, and then to the TV via scart. My old CRT TV has various scarts/RCA's into a scart switcher, including the DVD player, and the PVR runs via a decent quality set of RCA's. However, I get interference on the DVD (dark ghosting bands across the screen) and sometimes the PVR as well. The scart switcher and most of the cables into it are not well shielded (and a dodgy scart imput into the TV means I'm not touching the cable), and this leads to interference. A better scart cable or aerial lead might help.
Of course the other thing could be the TV itself...
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Sunday 15 March 2015 10:05PM
MikeP: RTFM Indeed!
I dont expect people to read the manual cover to cover, just the basics (when I temped, even a quick look through the photocopier manual would make you an instant expert compared with everyone else). It would make life easier for them, because most questions that come up could be answered relatively easily. The strange thing is that people will often say they have no clue about technology, yet use smart phones, PC's etc with no problem at all.