All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Clare: ITV2 +1 only has half a slot on Mux A/SDN, time-sharing with CITV - in the same way that BBC Three shares a slot with the CBBC Channel.
Have you retuned your box since ITV1 +1 launched in January? ITV reshuffled where each service was carried, and ITV2 is now carried on the same multiplex as ITV1 and ITV1 +1 (multiplex 2/D3&4, which is available from all transmitters).
Briantist: In Wales, E4 is sacrificed from D3&4 to carry S4C. ITV2 is unaffected.
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Tim: A lot of TVs were sold as 'HD Ready' before the UK authorities had figured out how they were going to broadcast HD. To maximize the number of channels in the minimum space, the HD picture is encoded with MPEG-4 AVC (also known as H.264), and the multiplex is broadcast with DVB-T2, essentially a new version of DVB-T, giving about 67% more capacity.
Strictly 'HD Ready' only means that the TV can handle HD content provided by another box. Many 'HD Ready' TVs with built-in digital tuners would not even have been able to handle HD-size pictures encoded with MPEG-2 and broadcast in DVB-T, as I believe some countries do.
To successfully receive HD through an aerial in the UK, you should look for a Freeview HD logo. This indicates support for AVC, DVB-T2 in the UK mode, and the special encoding of the EPG data unique to Freeview HD.
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geoff: The Wrekin is Group A for PSBs and Group B for COMs. Long Mountain is Group C/D.
If you're sure you can get good results from Long Mountain, you should use a diplexer which splits at C51 - e.g. Online TV Splitters, Amps & Diplexers sales . It ensures that any stray signals from The Wrekin's direction don't interfere with the signals from Long Mountain and vice versa.
However, Digital UK reckons that your best (and perhaps only) option for Welsh channels is Llanfyllin, which you're practically on top of. This is a Group A transmitter, so you would have to use a plain combiner.
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Betamax_man: I think that's a glitch due to the change in reception for your postcode at switchover - they reckon that you can get Mux 1 now but no muxes after switchover.
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Lisa: If it's just a computer monitor, rather than a TV, you would need a Freeview box that has an HDMI or DVI output, or a SCART-to-VGA cable.
Freeview HD boxes should have an HDMI output - you can convert from HDMI to DVI if the monitor has DVI input.
You would have to connect the audio through a different cable - check what the monitor requires, if it has built-in speakers, or you may have to provide a separate amplifier or speakers. You might need a dual phono (or RCA) to stereo 3.5mm jack adapter. Again, depends on the box and the monitor.
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I finally got around to actually plotting all the post-switchover data:
http://photobucket.com/Mi…ckRP
Generated by my own C# program. One line per unique plot for the same transmitter - by site ID, so where there is a VP and an HP plot for the same transmitter, they're separate images.
I haven't done anything with the beam tilt data. For the 3D patterns I've simply used the angle with the least attenuation.
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not happy: get_iplayer is no longer maintained by the same person, but you can now find it at get_iplayer lives! .
Worked last time I tried it a few weeks ago (I use it to watch programmes through my Xbox 360 rather than on the laptop screen).
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kevin moseley: The commercial broadcasters are not chartered, they are licensed. Anyone can apply for a license to broadcast and they can choose how, when and where they do so.
The digital terrestrial multiplexes are offered for license by the regulator. Ofcom have decided that they cannot add additional sites to the list that were published when the multiplexes were last advertised. (1997 for Mux A/SDN, 2002 for Mux C & D/Arqiva A & B.) Mux B is actually licensed under this section but because a subsidiary of the BBC was awarded it, Ofcom *have* forced coverage of all sites. (They have also in effect stolen half of it for ITV1 HD and 4hd, though the Broadcasting Act 1996 does say the Culture Secretary is allowed to reserve capacity for any 'independent analogue broadcaster', i.e. PSB, on one or two multiplexes.)
It's very unlikely that any new broadcaster would agree to the oversight and programme content restrictions that go along with being a PSB, in return for access to capacity (that they would have to pay for).
I believe what happened was that Ofcom asked the commercial multiplex operators if they could vary the license to include more sites, and the operators told them where to stick it. This is despite Mux C and D having been run by one of the transmitter operators since 2002, and Mux A having been run by a subsidiary of a PSB since 1998 (initially S4C, sold to ITV plc in 2005).
Ofcom appear to believe that they cannot vary this list of sites without the broadcaster's consent, though I'm not sure I agree. Imposing such a duty would probably fall foul of a judicial review though.
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I have now also uploaded the 25 pre-switchover patterns. Three of these are odd:
There were data files for 9 channels at Hemel Hempstead and 12 channels at Malvern. The extra channels were used before the equalization programme in 2000! While Hemel still uses three of the same channels, the newer plots have a comment "New 8 lambda antenna carrying all DTT" so I'm assuming the old plots for those channels were overwritten, and have only plotted the three that fell out of use.
The third oddity is that there is a pattern for Sheffield on C35. As far as I can tell, Sheffield has never broadcast anything on C35. I've uploaded it anyway.
I have not mapped channel to multiplex on these plots as this data set doesn't include it.
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Wednesday 11 May 2011 6:47PM
Rob: Your reception of these digital channels should be unchanged as so far they've only turned off the old Mux 1 and analogue BBC Two. Mux 2 remains on its old frequency.
STV analogue has moved temporarily to BBC Two analogue's old frequency, so will appear on channel 2 rather than channel 3 on an analogue tuner.