All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
David: As I wrote 'or at least have one or two HDMI connections, able to take a seperate HD box'.
DVB-T2 tuners appeared about the time of digital switchover in 2012, so of course they would not be built into older sets/PVR's. But as long as they have an HDMI (or even in theory a scart) connection, thats fine.
Since most people buy TV's on a 5-10 year cycle, with 7 years currently being roughly the average time between upgrades, and the bulk of TV's sold since about 2014 have had DVB-T2 tuners, by the time it comes to switching off DVB only transmissions, the majority of main TV's are likely to have them built in, and the rest easily capable of upgrade.
A fair number of my customers last week bought a TV about 8-10 years ago. Their new one will have Freeview HD, probably Freesat, wifi, be smart and 4K. And will be much cheaper in real terms than the one they bought previously. The market is moving ahead - and will probably make DVB tuners very largely obsolescent some time before the regulators decide to make the switch.
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MikeP: The CRT bit was just referring to the 'at least ten years' bit of your answer (which I totally agreed with), since there were still some new ones around 10-12 years ago. Of course, even the remaining CRT's could use a T2 tuner, but I suspect the bulk of them will have vanished by the time they really need to get one.
Brianist: If there are almost no TV's that are not capable of having a T2 tuner fitted in some way, does there really need to be a help scheme? Ok, so perhaps some help on a cheapo HD box, but by and large, its just a simple replacement. It would also be interesting the actual numbers involved and the criteria.
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MikeP: My point about CRT's is that they dont have HDMI's - pretty much all flat screens do (and if it doesn't, its getting a bit long in the tooth anyway). And that makes them really really simple to upgrade with a T2 tuner, no matter what they have internally.
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Lois: Your system sounds like it has a problem, with certain (lower power) muxes going - most likely frayed or damaged cable, etc.
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Michael Brown: Check your signal strength generally - if that mux is going, remember that its lower power than others - it could be your system has a problem generally, and thats how its showed up.
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Mark: Check signal strength and the the transmitter your getting it from. If you chose a different transmitter, then that can cause a problem, and tuners of sets do have slightly different thresholds. However, if you getting no signal, thats normally your system at fault.
I havn't heard much about any high pressure system, but looking at the weather, it should have gone by now.
BTW - a postcode really helps.
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David: Freeview Play is on Panasonics and now LG (finally all four channels!), while Android Sonys have YouView. Samsung seems to be a hold out, with all four channels available (as they have for some years) available, but not via the EPG.
I suspect any change would not happen until 2017 models come along, and of course any software change is always a pain. And the particular software (Freeview Play, Freetime or You View) would have to be paid for, etc.
I suspect a look at AV Forum or similar is the best way to find out. To be honest, I'd never buy a set for the software - thats going to change anyway, platforms grow old, and its easy enough to add a box if needed. Picture, size and number of connections are the way to make sure that the TV you buy now will be fine five years from now.
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David Fox: Since are all on the Com 7 mux - check your signal strength. Its at half the signal strength of the com 6 mux, for instance, and a dodgy cable could mean its just not getting picked up.
If there is nothing wrong with the transmitter, it has to be you.
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Thursday 20 October 2016 10:53PM
woodface: Do you have a mobile phone? The answer is almost certainly yes. The spectrum to use that mobile has to come from somewhere. And the most efficient way to get that spectrum is to use those frequencies which wont be needed once we go over to DVB-T2.
You may not want to stream in 5G, but the market (and the money) says people do. And money talks. Its going to happen, and overall, the advantages are pretty clear to almost all. And its unlikely that you'd want to stream 4K over a mobile all that much anyway.
As for SD tuners that can be used to record radio - just how many are there? There are about 29m households in the UK, so what are the percentage of people who use this kit in this way (my current recorder probably could) - tiny.
Just like when people talk about analogue radio going, some get very hot under the collar when talking about the switch to T2 tuners. But it hasn't happened yet - in fact its hasn't even been announced as to when it might happen and what criteria will be used. And it wont be for a fair while, and when it is decided, there will be a decent interval for people to change over.
And by that point, the vast majority of the old kit would have died off anyway. Lets worry about it when we get to it.