All posts by Thomas
Below are all of Thomas's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
No captions, but we did get a nice voice announcement over the credits of the previous BBC2 show shortly before the channel went off air.
BBC2 off 00:22
ITV1 off 00:23
Not sure when ITV1 started again on BBC2's old frequency, but it was off for so long that I fell asleep.
Retuned my TVs this morning at 6am, and something odd has happened. BBC channels are in their usual place, on C47 now, but there's a duplicate set of BBC channels on C46 (which my TV puts into the 800s)! Both are reported as being on the 'Yorkshire' network.
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T
Switchover starts in 4 million homes in Yorkshire, West MidlandWednesday 7 September 2011 7:00AM
Leeds
Retuned this morning as instructed and got a duplicate set of some of the BBC channels in the 800s. Is this normal during the two switchover stages? Mux B is still broadcasting, but BBCA now carries all of its channels why didn't they turn off that as well?
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When ITV1 analogue went off-air, but before PSB1 started up, I could see a very fuzzy BBC1 analogue signal on that frequency. This is strange because according to this site, none of the other in-range transmitters are broadcasting BBC1 on C47.
I also thought it would cause interference issues with the MUX coming on that channel, but it hasn't. Now I can't pick up the fuzzy BBC1 any more, but PSB1 has maximum signal strength and quality.
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The HD Mux seems to be a lot weaker than it used to be before the switchover. Not quite bad enough to cause significant picture breakup, but enough to cause the quality meter to move into the 'yellow' zone instead of 'green'.
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T
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | SwiFriday 16 September 2011 9:53PM
Leeds
As well as a masthead, I have a distribution amp that sends the signal to 3 TVs in 3 separate rooms, and have got these results for Emley Moor's new BBCA:
Panasonic Viera: shows 10/10 for both strength and quality, though I do have that issue with it starting out as 'red' 1/10 the first time I tune to it.
Samsung: 85-88 (out of 100) with Bit Error Rate of 0
Lowry set top box: 55% strength, 95% quality.
My Panasonic TV (the only one with a Freeview HD tuner) shows the HD Mux strength as 9 out of 10, with the quality fluctuating between 4 and 5 out of 10.
Does it sound like I'm getting too much signal? Should I try adjusting the attenuator on the distribution amp?
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T
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | SwiSaturday 17 September 2011 5:50PM
Leeds
The masthead is in fact a splitter with four outputs, two of which are unused (but kept for possible future use). The masthead PSU is in the kitchen, also feeding a fourth Freeview set. This one reports 98% signal strength and no errors for BBCA.
It's one of the other masthead outputs that go into the aforementioned distribution amp.
Perhaps I'm already getting too much signal and attenuating it at the amp?
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Mux C has been very bad for me these past few days, picture breaking up a lot and it hasn't even been very windy. Bit error rate keeps jumping up to near maximum and strength down to about 30-40%. All other muxes ok.
Just over 24 hours to go to final switchover, perhaps it'll improve after then.
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With just under 2 hours to go until the remaining analogue channels are turned off, captions are appearing every few minutes.
Analogue reception has suddenly got a lot worse; are they slowly turning the transmission power down in preparation for switching off? Particularly bad is ITV1 (BBC2's old frequency) where there is a diagonal line pattern over the screen, as if it's getting co-channel interference from one of the Muxes next to it.
Let's hope the adjacent BBCA/ArqB and SDN/ArqA aren't affected by the same co-channel problem!
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Retuned, all channels are there although I'm getting a few duplicate channels from Belmont. I'm also getting a duplicate Challenge TV on channel 795, supposedly on Emley Moor's SDN Mux, but when I go to it it says 'no service'. The normal Channel 46 Challenge works, but on C52 ArqA.
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Tuesday 6 September 2011 6:29AM
Leeds
Less than 24 hours to go of BBC2 Analogue, until DSO stage 1 starts. Hope you're all ready with Freeview, satellite or cable!
I'll be recording the switchover, though it's rather windy so my aerial is blowing around. BBC2 Analogue seems to be the worst affected by wind, for some reason...