All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mike Holmes: We don't really know yet. Ofcom and Digital UK are still yet to publish the switchover dates for the Tyne Tees region, and Ofcom yet to publish any frequency assignments. The broadcasters' licences simply say it must be done by 31 December 2012.
Pontop Pike got an early HD service because it was easy to squeeze it in - presumably because the Border region had already switched and the terrain is more rugged - and because the Newcastle/Sunderland area is quite heavily populated. The area south of the Tees is more open. No more early HD services are planned - everyone else must wait for switchover.
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Debbie: Talk to the landlord or agent about getting the communal system checked. Make sure the system was properly reconfigured on the switchover days, and that they're aware that some services are on temporary frequencies. Perhaps print out this document:
http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf
I can't really offer any more advice without a full postcode, so we can check the predictions - whether there is something preventing the Arqiva B multiplex from working.
It's very unlikely that you would get better reception from a set-top than from a properly set-up communal system. Satellite signals are so weak that the dish must be mounted outside with a clear view of the southern horizon. Again, a threat to have a dish installed could be an incentive for the building management to get the communal aerial sorted out.
It is worth checking whether the building already has a communal satellite dish, in which case you could buy a Freesat box to replace the Freeview box - although the channel line-up is different, and the services you're missing mostly require a Sky subscription.
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Stephen Hall: You're in an awkward location that's between three main transmitters, but the terrain blocks line of sight to all of them.
Your best option will be Sutton Coldfield once it switches over in September. Sandy Heath is expected to continue to be poor, for you.
You're quite close to the Dallington Park relay, but again it's the wrong side of a hill, and the radiation pattern is restricted in your direction.
If you're currently without TV at all, you could try Sutton Coldfield now. You're unlikely to get reliable digital service, but you should get reasonable analogue pictures: the problem here is that digital power levels are relatively low at Sutton Coldfield (and at Oxford, the other alternative).
If you're insistent on Anglia news, you'll probably have to look into satellite.
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Joe Nguyen: Did you perform a full factory reset of your box? Some boxes will reject a new location for channels that they already think they know about. You have to clear out the previously-stored data for them to pick up the new locations.
On some boxes this is called a Default Setting or a First-Time Installation. You might also be able to delete the channels individually.
There's a chance that your box has decided to store a copy from a different transmitter, if it's on a lower channel or if it happened to be better at the time you retuned it - there were some odd weather conditions around the retune date. If the channels appear in the guide at numbers 3/4/5 but just don't work, check that it's on UHF channel 33. See if there's another copy of the channels at number 800 in the guide, and if they work. If 3/4/5 are not on C33, or if there's a working copy somewhere else in the guide, see Digital Region Overlap for information.
Finally, check other equipment to see if something else is outputting on C33 or C34 and interfering with this multiplex. See Single Frequency Interference for more on this topic.
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kieran r: The prediction at your address continues to be rubbish. They are percentage probabilities and no reason to suppose that problems will occur on all multiplexes at the same time, but averaged over the year it's expected that you'll have more problems with Mux A, C and D than with 1, 2 and B.
There's still nothing you can do about it, as you have said before that the recommended transmitter - Hannington - is not possible due to the trees to your west. My recommendation is still, if you can't do anything about the trees, to get satellite or cable.
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John Haigh: The six multiplexes are divided into 'public service broadcasting', those which are allocated by law to the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5 (plus the one the BBC won in the beauty contest in 2002) and those which are run as purely commercial enterprises. The PSB multiplexes are formally known as Multiplex 1, 2 and B, and they are required to match previous (predicted, high-standard) analogue coverage - they are also known as BBC A, D3&4, and BBC B/HD after their operators (and purpose). The COM multiplexes are formally known as Multiplex A, C and D and are alternatively known as SDN, Arqiva A and Arqiva B. They are *not* required to match analogue coverage but are given as good an allocation of channel and power level as can be achieved without interfering with something else. Unlike the PSBs, they are also not required to transmit from all the pre-switchover relay sites, or any of the new fill-in relays.
So, to match (perfect) analogue coverage, Ridge Hill's PSB multiplexes transmit at 20 kW, while to reduce interference at other sites, the COM multiplexes only transmit at 10 kW.
Originally the public service multiplexes were 1, 2 and A, with A being allocated to whoever bid out of S4C, Channel 5, or a joint venture of the two, being required to carry both channels - S4C won this bid (SDN stands for S4C Digital Networks). 1 is allocated to the BBC in its Royal Charter. 2 was required to be run by a joint venture of Channel 3 Companies (50% between them) and Channel 4 (the other 50%). Multiplexes B, C and D were then auctioned, with the original 1998 winner being onDigital. When ITV Digital went under in 2002, the BBC and CCI's joint bid for these three multiplexes was accepted, the BBC getting Mux B and CCI getting C and D. CCI, the privatized BBC Engineering transmitter arm, has ended up through takeovers and mergers with Arqiva, originally the transmitter arm of the IBA.
Despite the legal nature of Mux B being very different from Mux 1, it is now treated as a public service multiplex. Ofcom stole it for HD services. S4C sold Mux A to ITV plc in 2005, which required Ofcom to mandate that ITV and Channel 4 make space on D3&4 for S4C in Wales and Channel 5 throughout the UK. That meant moving some of their other services, and ITV chose to move ITV3 to Mux A/SDN and ITV4 to Mux D/ArqB, with E4 moving to a commercial multiplex in Wales.
The PSB multiplexes have always had the best frequencies, originally in the order 1/2/A/B/C/D from best to worst. At switchover, where possible (i.e. where not using a channel that is being cleared for something else entirely, like mobile phones) they have taken over three of the originally-planned four analogue frequencies - a plan that was pretty good for about 40 years. The three commercial multiplexes have either got adjacent allocations - analogue transmissions couldn't be adjacent to one another, but digital allegedly has fewer problems - or have ended up somewhere else entirely.
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Ian Taylor: Belmont 'used to be East' about 40 years ago! It was switched from the Anglia programme company to the Yorkshire company in 1974.
The terrain of Lincolnshire permits a choice of transmitter for many people. The predictions for that postcode show best results from Belmont, but also very good results from Waltham. After switchover, Emley Moor is a third possibility.
It's possible that the installer has provided a system which combines - with a diplexer - the signals from both aerials, with part of the frequency range coming from one aerial and part from the other. This was fine for analogue, but unfortunately for digital at present, each transmitter's digital transmissions are in the other one's analogue group.
This kind of system was obviously a lot more useful when the different ITV companies provided different content. Since all of the English (and Welsh) ITV companies merged together, it hasn't been so useful.
If you do nothing, after switchover you should get the PSB multiplexes from Belmont, plus the SDN mux, and also the PSB multiplexes from Waltham, plus ArqA and ArqB. The commercial multiplexes carry the same content throughout England, whichever transmitter you use.
Check whether the cables from the two aerials go into one box, and only one cable comes out. It may be a box mounted on the mast, or in the loft. If so, it probably is a diplexed system.
As to which ITV1 will end up at number 3 in the programme guide, that will depend on how the TV handles the situation. Some store the first version found at 3, in which case it will be Belmont as it uses a lower frequency. Some store the strongest version, in which case it could be either. Some now ask which one you want to store, if they find more than one, in which case it may put the other somewhere else in the guide, or not store it at all.
With a system receiving two transmitters, of course, you have twice the retuning to do (though Step 2 at Belmont and Step 1 at Waltham coincide).
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Martin: Since you're getting HD channels I assume your aerial is pointing east to the Crystal Palace transmitter. If it's pointing south-west to the Hannington transmitter, you would only be getting fringe reception of Crystal Palace (Hannington does not transmit HD signals until after switchover).
A number of other transmitters have switched over or been reconfigured since you've been away, which will have changed the amount of interference slightly, but it's not expected to have caused major problems.
Have you checked all the things at the top of the page?
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Andy Moss: You may be using the Waltham transmitter. On the 30th of March, Mux A moved to a different frequency, and on the 13th of April, Mux 2 also moved. You will need to do a factory reset of the TV, so it forgets where the channels used to be, and rescan it. The Factory Reset option may also be called 'Default Setting', 'Full Retune' or 'First-Time Installation'. New equipment should come with a leaflet telling you how to do this on the switchover dates. Follow that process. The information should also be available at Samsung's website or at TV Re-tune ____If you're still having problems, please post on the Waltham transmitter page.
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Tuesday 3 May 2011 2:06PM
Maurice: It appears there were a number of faults at the transmitter at the weekend, but you've complained before this when no issues were reported.
At that distance from the transmitter, too much signal is a possibility. If you have a booster or amplifier, try removing it.