All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Kevin Halford: I can't shed any light on why the SD channels should be so low, but in order to get the thing working, my advice would be to use HDMI to the TV, and then take optical to the Onkyo.
Its usually seen as best practice to take all inputs into the TV, and then out, to avoid mismatched video/audio (although lots of people get away with it), but if you use optical from the TV, all the audio from the TV should come out through the receiver, which is better than nothing! I know its not HDMI, but it will ok until you sort it out.
It seems your not the first person to ask such a question (or something similar) Humax Freesat+ Audio through HDMI? | AVForums.com - UK Online
New Humax HDR-1000S Freetime PVR | AVForums.com - UK Online - Page 5
HDMI Problems wth Switcher « My Humax Forum
Low sound with Humax/Freesat | AVForums.com - UK Online
It could simply be the volume on the Humax box (the last thread had something about that). Let us know how you get on, because someone is bound to ask me this question!
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Bob F: Further to what Michael said, it is always wise to check that an 'HD' TV does have an HD tuner - they all should do in this day and age, but (amazingly) Toshiba contines to make a 2013 model without one.
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Robert Keedwell: The site isn't confusing. If you had put your postcode into the 'site settings' at the top right hand corner of the page before asking the question, you'd get 'your' area. You'd then get a load of links (in blue) beside your question, which, when clicked, would take you to Digital Uk tradesview, etc.
The Digital Tradeview will give you the best transmitters, how good they might be for you, distance, etc. The actual transmitter info will show the RF its transmitting on, so you can manually tune it.
Really, its not that difficult.
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Fiona: I'm not surprised your filter works well, since as far as the at800 website is concerned, there are no 4G tests in Liverpool! In other words, its filtering nothing.
Have a look at the 4G page, where Brianist has pointed out the likelihood of you needing a filter - its probably quite low; the one you've been sent is 'just in case', not 'you will need it'.
Personally, I'd wait and see if you need to spend money on one. There does seem to be an air of panic about 4G, but its probably going to be better than many think - the 4G filtering aerial I saw the other day for sale (there was indication as to how that was supposed to work) makes me think that there is a fair amount of cashing in.
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kenneth coxon: JB38's advice is the logical first step to see if the problem lies within your system.
The other thing that might be up is to find out what transmitters your two TV's are picking up. Your Digital Trade View comes up with Pontop Pike (10km away) or Esh (Lite but only 1km away).
The terrain plot for Pontop shows something in the way 4-4 km away (no plot for Esh). It could be one TV is showing Esh, which should be excellent (but possibly too strong), and another is showing Pontop, which might be dodgy. Remember different brands have different tuners, which can react in different ways
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Kirstine Selman: If at800 says there are no 4G signals, then you can rule that out. Instead, what stands out is what you said in your last post:
'forgot to say this mainly happens in the evening from 7pm'
If interference or a particular problem starts/stops at a particular time each day, its a fair bet that it is electrical interference from inside the house, or close by. 7pm sound like the sort of time for boliers/immersion heaters, etc, and if its not your house, than a near neighbour is probably the source.
See :https://ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051307
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nick: It sounds like your scart is poorly shielded, and probably very close to other cables. Move them away from each other for a start, possibly change them for better leads (ATV do seemingly very nice ones for only £3.50 Online Satellite/TV/FM/DAB Cable, Leads and Connectors sales. and of course check that you cannot ultimately use HDMI instead (they can also have interference, but probably less than scart).
There are one or two other possibilities, and they are discussed here Suggestions For Fixing Scart Interference On TV? - TV and Home Entertainment Technology - Digital Spy Forums
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jb38: I assumed that Fiona had been sent a filter because at800 thought it was possible that there might be a problem, but they are being cautious.
Since its not especially likely, looking at the test data, I'd suggest just seeing how things go. Fiona has her main TV connected to the filter (although of course Dave is quite right, use the filter before the split if possible), so if there is a problem, it will show up on the second TV, and then she can go from there.
Of course if everything is fine, she might save herself £30!
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Terry:
'the DAB devotees in general simply have no idea why the criticisms and are quite happy to bang on about choice over quality and produce technical details that bore us all bit rateless'
There are actually no 'DAB devotees', just people who realise that the changes in technology, economics and how people listen to radio will mean an end to national FM transmission at some point, and who point out that listening to DAB is not 'like it's coming through water' (or 'burbling'), but perfectly decent quality (See MichaelS and Charles Stuarts comments). The boring part are the number of people who keep banging on about FM, as though its perfect.
I actually don't care how people listen to radio, its what works for them thats important. In the real world, nobody cares about bitrates, Joint Stero, dynamic range, etc. What they care about is 'is the radio easy to use?, can I get my favourite station on it? and which radio has the best sound?' - thats the questions I get asked.
Most people listen on relatively small sets (one or two smallish speakers), perhaps in the kitchen, bedroom, etc. They like the fact they can get more stations, with features like song titles, etc. They generally don't really care about battery life (although it is an issue for some), because those sets are always plugged into the mains, and they are not audiophiles, just people who want to listen to some music with reasonable quality.
The idea that DAB radios were rejected because of sound quality of DAB v FM is fanciful - in reality DAB radios were relatively expensive, coverage was patchy, and the number of stations not huge. In the past five years all that has changed, which is the classic path of any new technology.
Car radios are certainly an area which should have been DAB some years ago, but I suspect it was because no car manufacturer wanted to put an expensive (everything is margin) new technology in a car, when coverage was not great, and coverage was not great because not enough people were listening to it in their cars! Chicken + Egg.
Doug - the idea that people are going to base their vote on what happens to FM is bizarre - considering the things that people are motivated by, I guess that issue is very far down the list. I suspect that some minister will try to save FM for a while (in much the same way that Jim Hacker 'saved' the Great British Banger in Yes Minister), but if the number of people who listen nationally only on FM continue to fall, economic reality takes over, and it will stop. DAB+ is not going to happen, because of the number of DAB sets already out there - its not perfect, but there we are.
I am amazed at the amount of what would be called (on other forums) 'concern trolling' - how DAB, etc has such huge problems, it could never work, the number of FM radios that would be dumped, etc. In reality, there are few major problems. Coverage is much improved, costs of new sets have dropped, and its reasonable to assume that manufacturers are working on ways to improve the energy efficency of DAB chips. Car radios can be problematic, but as new cars with DAB fitted as standard roll out, and people convert their existing cars, the number with problems should fall (we'll come on to mobile listening in a moment).
As for FM radios in the home, there are loads of possibilities to keep them. We could use something like the in-car local FM transmitters, where it streams a signal from the net and broadcasts in FM (kind of like an analogueish Sonos!), or small wifi/blutooth units could attach to FM radios, and stream from wifi. Easy technologies, and probably not expensive.
Trevor Harris and others have pointed out the use of internet radio - I agree, its going to be much bigger. 3/4/5G phone use is going to explode, and the cost of data will continue to fall. The number of people using their pc/phone/tablet (eith 3/4G or via wifi) is already considerable. At home, streaming services are becoming more popular, via Airplay, internet radio, networked speakers, etc. Yet this growth will not favour FM, but help to kill it.
Mobile radio listening would take over from FM if DAB is not practical in your car, and at home, streaming speaker systems could replace those little FM radios about the house (or use the units described above).
Here is the bottom line. Every time someone switches to listening digitally (in whatever form that might be), thats one less reason to keep broadcasting in analogue, and at some point, the balance will shift away from keeping FM. You can all keep writing about it, but change is coming, and all we can do is figure out the best way to manage it.
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Saturday 31 August 2013 11:04PM
john bartlett: According to the manual, you have both composite and component connections, but to make your life easy, use the composite (yellow, red and white) connections, as JB38 suggested.
Something like this:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Switched-Adapter-Phono-socket-Stereo/dp/B00417T8EC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1377984457&sr=8-9&keywords=scart+rca
and the cables: World of Data - 1.2m RCA/Phono Cable - Premium: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
You can often buy them as a kit, or get an 'all in one' - Hama 3 Phono to SCART Switchable cable, 1.5m: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
They are not very expensive, even in the high-street. However, I would advise anyone buying a recorder to check what the outputs are. The Bush recorder really should have an HDMI output in this day and age, even though its got standard tuners (HD tuners certainly would). I assume its price point meant that they thought they could leave it out.
However, having an HDMI and scart (now rare on PVR's) makes life a lot easier for everyone, and avoids the sort of hassle which means your going to have to buy extra kit to connect everything up.