All posts by Peter Dolman
Below are all of Peter Dolman's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
The forthcoming Mendip retune (28 Sept 2011) places one Mux on channel 48. In our location (North Wiltshire) it's quite common for customers to experience reception and tuning problems due to the arrival of unwanted signals from Wenvoe. I see there's a Wenvoe Mux on channel 49 - for us that's the first time an 'outside' channel has become interleaved with our Mendip ones. So in problem areas, manual tuning will be a must and rf filtering will not be of use to avoid unwanted problems when the customer retunes themselves. Have I got this right?
| link to this comment |
Hello Brian
I'm based in the Mendip area (AV technical) and often come across bleed from Wenvoe and Stockland Hill. I was looking at the Mux powers shown for Stockland Hill (3@50kW and 3@10kW). Will their final values all be 50kW?
Kind regards
Peter Dolman
| link to this comment |
Hello Brian
Thanks for the useful info on Mendip and Hunshaw Cross - can you advise if all Mendip muxes are now at full power?
| link to this comment |
A Q for Mike Dimmick: You mentioned that the Mendip power levels had also increased since last week. Which muxes were these and can you tell me what they changed from and to? Are all Mendip muxes now at full power?
Best regards
Peter
| link to this comment |
This will be good news for those in the Mendip area whose location means they also receive the unwanted Wenvoe signals...Wenvoe's channel 49 mux sat between Mendip's channels 48 and 52 muxes, often causing customers problems when retuning.
| link to this comment |
Hi Brian, many of our customers here in North Wiltshire still have problems with Freeview retunes, given the overlap of Mendip, Wenvoe and Stockland Hill footprints in this area. Auto retunes should find 119 offerings, many more are stored in practice. PVR's in particular produce unpredictable results when multiple versions of the same MUX are stored. And as Mendip occupies the C48 - C58 region, I assume it will be on the move again. So more consumer misery. All I hear is "why did they change from just the old 5 channels", so as you say Brian, try wearing the 'older customers' hat'...one day maybe we shall be coming from where they are now!
| link to this comment |
If you have a Dolby surround system, try increasing the level of the centre channel because, for most mixes, it is this channel that conveys the majority of the dialogue. A great deal of TV drama mixing seems to be 'inspired' by cinematic mixing styles, where a large auditorium, screen, and a wide audio dynamic range work very impressively. However, it is my opinion that this often translates poorly when experienced in the living room! Arty, yes, but intelligibility would be preferable for domestic purposes.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 22 June 2011 5:44PM
Colin: A Mike says, your receiver may well be tuning to Stockland Hill, or anything else being broadcast lower down the UHF band. Mendip transmits on channels grouped well up toward the top end of the UHF band, so any receiver sweep tuning up the band during its channel search will 'see' every other possible broadcast signal before it finally reaches the wanted Mendip channels. The way to check is to watch it tuning...don't take your eyes off the search tuning display for a moment! The Mendip standard definition channels for the five multiplexes are 54, 56, 61, 62 and 67. Most (but not all) receivers show what channel is being locked on to as the search progresses and valid signals are found, so by keeping your eye on the screen you can check and see exactly what's happening during the automatic tuning cycle. If your receiver identifies any TV broadcasts whilst it is tuning between the bottom of the band (channel 21) and channel 53, then that's wrong. If so, check to see if your receiver allows for manual tuning, rather than automatic search. If so you can probably resolve things by firstly clearing its memory (full reset or factory default) and then going to manual set up,entering each of the five channel numbers I've mentioned in sequence, as prompted. The receiver will then only search within that channel's multiplex, avoiding any unwanted ones.