All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Richard: A Freesat box is a drop-in replacement for a Sky box. Just connect up the cables.
However, it's possible that your old Humax box is a FreeVIEW rather than a FreeSAT box, and it would need to connect to an aerial rather than a dish. The aerial input connectors on Freeview equipment simply push in, while the dish connections on Freesat equipment have a screw thread.
There may well be an aerial point next to the satellite point. Do check with the building management that they have planned for Freeview - there are some locations in the country where Freeview just isn't possible.
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Sid: They don't actually shut down Mux B at stage 1, you just get two copies of the BBC channels in the two weeks between step 1 and step 2.
John: People who had good reception before switchover often find that they have too much signal once switchover starts. If you have an amplifier or booster, remove it. If not, or that doesn't help, try adding an attenuator. If it is a case of too much signal, it will probably get worse after switchover.
If Mux B on C63 is working with a Group A aerial, you are probably very close to the transmitter - most people would find it didn't work without a wideband.
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Francis Farrar: The signals feeding these transmitters are *not* common. They carry different regional variations of ITV1 and ITV1 +1, and different adverts on C4 and C5.
High bit error rates are simply because there is terrain blocking clear line of sight to Crystal Palace, and Hannington's low-power DTT radiation pattern is heavily restricted to the east - to protect Guildford's analogue coverage area (it uses the same channels).
At switchover, Hannington services will move to the omnidirectional antenna at the top of the mast.
Digital UK's postcode checker actually shows no prediction for you from Hannington until switchover starts, and poor on most multiplexes from Crystal Palace (the others show no prediction).
There's nothing wrong with the transmissions: you're just not in the coverage area.
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G Harrison: Yes, you can simply replace your Sky box with a Freesat box. There are a small number of channels that are free-to-view on Sky's service but not free-to-air on Freesat's. See All free-to-watch channels | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for a comparison.
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Scott: It's what's called a 'skew-fire' array. The low-power DTT aerial at the top of the mast is also a skew-fire array, and so is the old analogue array for BBC, STV and C4 analogue. The radiation pattern for the three different aerials should be much the same, although some people could have problems with the terrain on C5 and HD because they're further down the mast.
You can see pictures at http://www.thebigtower.com/live/BlackHill/61P21000306062.htm
They have built a new mast, and I don't know whether it's in service, when it went into service if it is, and which services transferred.
Since the reports of problems with the HD service seem prevalent, try going through the BBC interference page. Go to BBC - Reception problems and enter your own postcode. (I've copied that link from John P's post.) If you go far enough through the wizard, you eventually get to a form where you can email them.
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KMJ,Derby: Thanks. My only other theory apart from the usual too much/too little signal was that Sandy Heath SDN has been put on C31 prematurely. It's meant to still be on C43+ until August.
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floramarg: The 'Split NIT' issue first surfaced in the major retune in 2009. It's possible you didn't experience a problem if you haven't retuned the box since before then.
If you didn't, you would have lost C5 when it moved from Mux A to Mux 2, with ITV3 moving in the other direction.
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Simon: Waltham Mux 2 simply *moved* to C31. It hasn't yet changed mode - still in 2K mode. Please see Single Frequency Interference for help.
The PVR-9200T has an RF output. Check what this is set to - it defaults to C36 but you might have moved it to something else. If you've done a Default Setting, it will have moved back to C36. When the box is off it seems to have a big notch cutting out various channels around C36, whatever frequency you've set it to - causes me a big problem with my Freeview TV on Crystal Palace Mux A and Mux C.
The most recent firmware, 1.00.23, for the 9200T clears all channels before doing an Automatic Search (or, rather, the search results are stored separately, then they replace the previous set when you press Save). This version was released in May last year; Humax recommend resetting to defaults after installing it. It has been broadcast several times, so you should already have it as long as you've left the box in standby overnight.
If you weren't leaving it in standby because it took a long time for the EPG to fill up, this version also fixes that problem - EPG data is now saved to the hard drive when you put it in standby.
For manual update instructions see
Welcome to HUMAX [UK]
- note you will need a computer with a legacy serial port (RS232) and compatible cable.
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M
Dallington Park (Northamptonshire, England) Freeview Light tranSaturday 16 April 2011 6:02PM
Reading
Darren Midwinter, Kerry: Brian is right - if you had Freeview before the beginning of April, your service would have been coming from Sandy Heath. Dallington Park is transmitting digital signals for the first time.
At Sandy Heath, everything has moved around. Services such as ITV4, Film4 and Yesterday are part of Multiplex D. This has moved to the frequency that Multiplex B (BBC Four and CBeebies) used to be on, and at the same power level. It has also changed mode to increase capacity, but at the cost of being less robust. This means some viewers will lose those channels, for the moment. This is not the final location, but the final location can't be used yet as it would interfere with transmissions from other sites that haven't yet switched over.
This multiplex will reach its final channel and power level on 14 September, once the clashing transmissions have been turned off. You have to retune on 31 August, when Mux A moves to a different temporary channel, on 14 September, again on 23 November when Mux C moves to its final channel and increases capacity, and then one more time, some time after next April, when Mux A finally reaches its final channel.
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Thursday 14 April 2011 7:04PM
Digitaleditor: The Caradon Hill transmitter should give good results at that postcode. Don't just look for the nearest, there are wildly varying power levels and only the main transmitters provide a full SD service. (All transmitters that have switched over provide the four HD channels.)
The Polperro transmitter gives a slightly higher probability of reliable reception, but it's a 'Freeview Light' transmitter - it doesn't broadcast the commercial multiplexes.