All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John Tebbs: What type of aerial are you using? If your signal broke up because of passing traffic, that points to using a portable. If that is what your using, in an area iffy for Waltham, then you are going to have problems, no matter what.
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Bill Dunnakey: Looking at the terrain plot for your location, there is something in the way of the signal path of all three transmitters! That makes sense, since its pretty hilly around where you live (my kids used to go to Sacrewell Farm a fair bit. so I know the area a little).
But Sandy Heath looks good according to Digital UK, and its seems fine for you. If it wasnt for the terrain plot, I'd suggest that your signal might be just too good - I know its along way, but I've had a problem over a similar distance. Check the signal level, because BBC channels tend to be a little more powerful than most, and your new TV might have a more sensitive tuner, hence the problem.
If not, perhaps someone can suggest something else.
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KEVIN GARDINER: I think this subject has been discussed elsewhere on this site, but I think your looking at current figures, rather than the trend.
Freeview HD TV's have been around for about 3 years, with the biggest growth (the bulk of TV's of 32in and above) coming in the last two years. Certainly, looking around my department tonight, there were only 3 TV's that did not have DVB-T2 tuners in them (I tried to tell a couple that they shouldn't buy one with just a Freeview tuner in it - what the the point?).
If you look at the replacement rate, 6-7 years is average, and it might be less than that. And of course even if you have a Freeview TV, a T2 tuner can be easily added via a PVR, etc. And while the main TV will tend to be the one with the latest features, as time goes on, that will be passed on to other people, end up in another room, etc.
HD really doesn't need advertising, just viewing. There might be people who say they can't notice the difference, but its very easy to see, and as time goes on, T2 tuners will be standard by default. In other words, by 2018, there will be 7 years of pretty much all T2 tuner equipment being bought, hence the likely 80% figure.
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MikeP: I suspect that inertia might be another word for 'forgetfulness'. There must be many people who will have watched 'Strictly' tonight on BBC1, because thats what they normally watch it on.
Yes, they have a nice new HD equiped TV, but they cant remember the channel number, etc.
Of course, you have to remember that 'Strictly' looks pretty good even on my CRT, because its filmed in HD, and watching it in SD isn't a massive disappointment, so there isn't so much of a visual prompt.
I suspect that younger viewers are already watching HD by default, but older viewers are more likely to stick with SD out of habit.
Most HD PVR's will prompt the viewer if they want to record in HD if the HD alternative exists, but not everyone uses those functions.
There are also certainly customers I've come across who connected up the Freeview TV to an HD box, but kept the old scart (with or without the HDMI), which meant that the feed from the box is still SD. It was only last year that Panasonic changed its default imput settings to automatically start from the HDMI's - before then it went to AV1/2 as you scrolled through the sources - which means that a fair number of people are hitting source, and find an SD imput from an HD box, and thinking thats it.
The good news is that we all live and learn, and gradually watching in HD will be standard, not only becuase of the equipment, but because of the mindset.
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KEVIN GARDINER: The HD format is pretty much standard as far as the market is concerned (and 2018 is a long way off!), even in the OLED technology. 4K is far from being commercially broadcast, and as one commentator pointed out recently, streaming just one 4K movie will cost you 40gb of bandwidth, so it will be interesting to see how that goes, considering the state of bandwidth generally.
If I show customers a better picture, they'll want it, if its at the right price etc. Since its at the right price, and standard (or easily upgradable), HD will grow substantually over the next year or two to the tipping point. Think of when the first DVD players came out, both in terms of market penetration, cost, etc. Is there anyone who would prefer to watch now on video rather than DVD? DVD didn't need to be sold on the whole, it just needed to be cheap enough.
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KEVIN GARDINER: I had a quick check on Curry's website to see just how many TV's they had which just had a Freeview tuner (my employer tend to stock fewer lower end and own brand TV's, which are more likely to just have a DVB tuner - only 11 out of 147 have just a DVB tuner, of all sizes).
For 32in and over, out of 192 from Currys, just 16 were DVB, the rest were T2. Below 32in, the DVB equiped ones made up the majority, but these are often sold on price, and were from makes that were not generally known. For peoples main rooms,at the very least, HD will be standard.
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Richard Baguley: I'm surprised that the 970 would have a poor tuner - I've got the 995, and if anything, the tuner is far too sensitive, even with an attenuator.
There doesn't seem to be any problem with Tacolneston, according to R + T Investigation, and although your in the North Norfolk area of Freeview Doom, I suspect it might be your aerial - squirrels can be pretty nasty!
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Richard Baguley: I think you've just answered your own question - its not a transmitter fault.
Check your Sony with your neighbour (is that the only digital reciever you have in the house?) - if its duff, then its the Sony, but I doubt it. Once again, it sounds like the aerial.
Remember that the last three pages of comments about this transmitter are over the past seven months, and include engineering work, a high pressure system and several bouts of stormy weather, so its not unusual to get a fair number of technical problems from about 0.8m homes. If you add to that the often problemmatic nature of Freeview reception in much of the area covered, its pretty much certain.
However, since its sounds like your signal strength has been going for a while, there are no problems with the transmitter, and your nieghbour is fine, what else could it be?
At least you havn't used the phrase 'I pay my licence fee'.... :-).
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W Brewis: What kind of recorder do you have? I'm guessing one with Top Up TV...
I've generally not had a problem with any commercial channels under-running, and you should be able to vary slightly the lead-in and lead-out times to give you full coverage. Check that your EPG is actually allowing you to record properly - Guidestar+ is not the only EPG available for many machines.
As far as the programmes on the hard-drive disappearing, when you changed the settings on the machine, did the PVR also change the settings on keeping recordings? Many machines will delet any recording over X days old, and if thats the default setting, then it might need to be changed back.
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Tuesday 17 December 2013 5:18PM
Dave Oliver: Why are you concerned?
Its clearly been stated that nobody has any intention of switching off FM until at least 2018, and almost certainly it will be beyond that. In the meantime, DAB coverage will greatly improve, and there will be advances in chip technology.
There will almost certainly be increased use of streaming via the internet (BMW has just introduced a streaming system in their cars), which is another way to listen to the radio.
As usual, lots of people seem to be worrying about something which has not happened, isn't happening yet, and when it does happen, will only happened when coverage is far better, by what ever method we chose to listen.
BTW - considering the amount of time DAB has been around, it can hardly be seen as a 'dash'!