All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Jim J: The following variants of ITV1 HD currently exist on Freeview:
Meridian South (Meridian & Anglia)
Granada (Granada, Yorkshire & Border)
Central West (Central)
London (London, Tyne Tees, Wales, West and Westcountry)
London and Tyne Tees are from the early HD services at Crystal Palace and Pontop Pike respectively.
These are also the only services on satellite; the mapping from postcode to services is different; Meridian South and Central West are encrypted, so only available to Sky viewers, not Freesat. Oddly, they are both now on the UK footprint Astra 2D satellite, so I'm not sure why they remain encrypted.
Scotland gets STV HD Central West (i.e. Glasgow).
Information collected by Ray Cathode on DigitalSpy's forums, chart at http://www.bsa.talktalk.n….pdf , accessed via Freeview Technical Information .
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Keith G: Did you find this page because your Daewoo box is listed? If so, check for the services you want in the 800s. A manual retune might get the services you want at the default position.
Digital UK indicate that the DS700 will put channels in the 800s, while the DS608P and SV900 were expected to lock up when scanning. Unfortunately the original manufacturer of these boxes - they're rebadged - went into administration long ago and no updates are available.
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David: True, but irrelevant. Both Freeview and Freesat are basically marketing organizations, they don't actually control much, if anything.
On terrestrial ('Freeview' branding), allocation of logical channel numbers and other Service Information data is done by Digital Multiplex Operators Limited, DMOL | Home Page . This is another joint venture between the BBC, Digital 3 & 4 Limited (ITV Network Ltd [ITV plc, STV plc, UTV and Channel TV] and Channel 4), SDN Ltd (subsidiary of ITV plc) and Arqiva Services Ltd. It exists to ensure the SI data is consistent across all six multiplexes.
Otherwise, the multiplexes are operated independently by each licensed operator. The BBC operates Mux 1/PSB1/BBC A and Mux B/PSB3/BBC B. D3&4 operates Mux 2/PSB2/D3&4. SDN operates Mux A/COM4/SDN. Arqiva operates Mux C/COM5/ArqA and Mux D/COM6/ArqB.
A channel wishing to transmit must organize a Logical Channel Number from DMOL, a Digital Television Programme Service licence from Ofcom, and lease carriage on a multiplex. The BBC are only permitted to carry their own channels on Mux 1/BBC A (granted under Royal Charter, not licensed by Ofcom) and are required to carry the commercial PSBs HD channels on the post-DSO BBC B, as designated by Ofcom.
D3&4 must carry the SD regional versions of ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and S4C in Wales. They can also carry any other channel from an ITV licensee, or from Channel 4. Channels from other providers require permission from Ofcom.
The three commercial multiplexes can carry channels from any provider as long as they're licensed by Ofcom. Given their ownership they are required to be non-discriminatory and hold open auctions when a slot becomes available.
Whoever carries your channel, you have to get your content to that operator for them to multiplex it with everyone else's. This is usually statistical multiplexing so you need to get it there in basically uncompressed form, the operator's statmux equipment feeds back the available bitrate for your channel to its encoder.
Unlike Freeview, Freesat Ltd operates the Freesat EPG, but it still does not carry the channels. Channels must rent a spot on a transponder that operates free-to-air, on a satellite in the 28.2°E cluster. If they want to appear in Sky's EPG they must contract separately with Sky (and pay the fees). The channels have to ensure their transponder carries the Freesat and Sky EPG data as appropriate. If on a Sky transponder you may have to wait a long time for Sky's change control process to get around to adding the updated Freesat data.
For an HD channel from one of the commercial PSBs to get onto Freesat, either the Europe-wide fees would have to be paid or it would have to get onto a transponder on Astra 2D or 1N, both of which have UK-only footprints. (Astra 1N only launched recently and is not yet ready to carry channels.)
The BBC and ITV are leasing many transponders directly from SES Astra so have full control of the data on it. If you are operating the whole transponder, you have to arrange a 'teleport' to transmit the signal to the satellite, for it to amplify and re-transmit back down to the receiving dishes. Arqiva are a major supplier of teleports. If you are leasing a slot on someone else's transponder, again you need to get your channel content to the transponder operator for them to multiplex with the other content.
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David, Briantist: Read the Communications Act 2003 Part 4: Communications Act 2003
363 Licence required for use of TV receiver
(1) A television receiver must not be installed or used unless the installation and use of the receiver is authorised by a licence under this Part.
(2) A person who installs or uses a television receiver in contravention of subsection (1) is guilty of an offence.
(3) A person with a television receiver in his possession or under his control who
(a) intends to install or use it in contravention of subsection (1), or
(b) knows, or has reasonable grounds for believing, that another person intends to install or use it in contravention of that subsection,
is guilty of an offence.
(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
[...]
365 TV licence
(1) A person to whom a TV licence is issued shall be liable to pay
(a) on the issue of the licence (whether initially or by way of renewal), and
(b) in such other circumstances as regulations made by the Secretary of State may provide,
such sum (if any) as may be provided for by any such regulations.
(2) Sums which a person is liable to pay by virtue of regulations under subsection (1) must be paid to the BBC and are to be recoverable by them accordingly.
[...]
368 Meanings of television receiver and use
(1) In this Part television receiver means any apparatus of a description specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State setting out the descriptions of apparatus that are to be television receivers for the purposes of this Part.
(2) Regulations under this section defining a television receiver may provide for references to such a receiver to include references to software used in association with apparatus.
(3) References in this Part to using a television receiver are references to using it for receiving television programmes.
(4) The power to make regulations under this section defining a television receiver includes power to modify subsection (3).
The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 only modifies this section to the extent of replacing references to the 1949 WTA with references to itself.
So yes, you are required to have a licence to watch any TV, and the licence fee is paid to the BBC.
What David is asking for is to impose an ongoing running cost on the licensed operators which they didn't agree to when they took out the licences, with no reimbursement of those costs. That's not unknown for governments, but it's relatively rare and probably requires primary legislation (an Act of Parliament). Even then it might fall foul of EU state intervention rules. I'm not a lawyer though! As I said, the law *does* make provision for Ofcom to vary the terms of the renewal (through putting requirements on the Technical Plan that the licensee has to submit), and they haven't done so.
Your driving licence is a pre-requisite for driving a car, but it doesn't entitle you to drive *my* car.
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I think maybe you need a different colour for each hop, as there are many lines crossing in several examples. Wenvoe is horribly complicated!
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Thomas: C46 is Multiplex B from Emley Moor. The duplicates will be BBC Four, CBeebies and BBC Parliament, along with the radio stations. The new BBC A on C47 is higher capacity and carries all the BBC's SD services after switchover. This is so Multiplex B can be cleared for HD services. (Yes, I know Emley Moor already broadcasts HD - strictly this is a separately-licensed multiplex that shuts down at DSO2. Multiplex B is licensed at all sites.)
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Bernard: Craigkelly has already switched over, so power levels are as high as they are going to get. See Freeview Reception has Changed.
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I've just noticed you have Malvern fed from Fenton, pretty much straight down the Welsh border! I think the dotted line in the Sutton Coldfield 'Almanac' diagram is intended to indicate that Malvern is line-fed from SC.
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Mart G: First, check that your equipment can actually handle the new transmissions. Digital UK have two lists of equipment with known problems at http://www.digitaluk.co.u…ment and http://www.digitaluk.co.u…tnit .
If you are on a communal aerial system - a shared antenna - it may be channelised, only amplifying selected frequencies for distribution, and it will need retuning for digital.
You could now have too much signal, if you're quite close to the transmitter. If you have a booster, remove it or turn it down. If that doesn't help, add an attenuator.
Before switchover, five of Sutton Coldfield's multiplexes were on the same channels as Malvern's, so would interfere with each other if the relative distances were right - it would be down to the aerial to provide enough margin between the wanted and unwanted signals for the receiver to decode. If Malvern was too strong, 'Mark the Engineer' should have used a smaller aerial and added an attenuator, not tried to point an aerial at Sutton Coldfield!
The ITV1/C4/C5 multiplex is the one that was not affected, so this is unlikely to be your problem. If you never replaced your aerial for digital, it could be that the gain down on C39 just isn't sufficient - this is at the bottom of Group B and an aerial installed for analogue services would be Group C/D. The nearest source of co-channel interference is Hannington BBC One, so that can probably also be ruled out.
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Friday 2 September 2011 11:19AM
jb38/KB Aerials: Since the receiver should *already* have Automatic Gain Control, I don't see what switching in an additional amplifier really provides. I don't see why you wouldn't just increase the gain range on the AGC!
Signals would have to be phenomenally weak, but with no interference, for that to be helpful - and given the re-use of frequencies across the country, that just isn't going to happen, especially before DSO, there are always interferers. Sutton Coldfield and Emley Moor are doing DSO on the same day, along with over 100 relays, because each is using the other's analogue channels for low-power digital!
As KB Aerials said, C48 is BBC A from the Derby relay, which started up on the 31st. This was because Derby only carried BBC One and ITV1 before switchover, in order to provide East Midlands services to people in David's situation - covered well by Sutton Coldfield, but the wrong news service. With no BBC Two to turn off, there was no free channel for BBC A to start up on on the 17th.
Derby uses *horizontal* polarization, and so finding a third channel for HD was also difficult in this transition period. D3&4 is still on ITV1's old channel, not on the final channel - it will move to the final location, and HD will start up, on the 5th of October. The allocated channels for Derby are currently being used by Sutton Coldfield low-power multiplexes.