All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MAGGIE: A couple of additional differences:
After cancelling, the Sky box will show all channels in the guide that you *could* get if you re-subscribed, not just the ones you can get without subscribing. A Freesat box only lists the free-to-air channels. That might make it simpler to use.
This site has a page to compare between channels available through Freesat and through Sky's free service: Compare Freesat and Freesat-from-Sky TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
If you have Sky+, you should be aware that the pause, time-shift and recording features will be disabled when you stop subscribing. You also won't be able to play back anything previously recorded. I believe you can still pay a reduced rate of £10 per month to keep these features but you have to ask for it. If you still want these features, you'll have to get a Freesat+ recorder.
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Rowridge, Sandy Heath, Sudbury, Heathfield and Tunbridge Wells changes are all just moves from temporary channel allocations to their final allocated channels - they're not part of this DTT Clearance Retrofit programme.
Heathfield and Tunbridge Wells retunes (and power-ups and mode changes) are only two weeks after their DSO 2 dates; Bluebell Hill needs C42 until its own DSO 2 date on the 27th.
Rowridge can't use the allocated 22/25/28 until Crystal Palace DSO 2 as these are used by Mux 2, 1 and B at present. CP will still use these channels for the COM muxes but at 10x current power, offsetting the increased interference from Rowridge.
Sudbury's final channels are currently used at Dover for two low-power muxes and one analogue channel, so Sudbury can't adopt them until Dover completes switchover.
Sandy Heath has to wait for Hemel Hempstead to give up C51 - currently BBC One analogue at Hemel.
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Janet Pope: Unfortunately these channels are carried within the same groups of channels - multiplexes - as channels you probably do want. There are some on each of the commercial multiplexes.
You can delete them from the channel list if your box or TV provides that feature. If not, you can create a Favourites list on many boxes or TVs, and only include the channels you want to access on that list.
If you want to make sure, boxes should have 'parental control' features. On my Humax PVR-9200T, you can select an age limit, and any programmes transmitted with an age limit higher than that require you to enter a PIN to watch them. It does require the broadcaster to label the programmes correctly - I've never used the feature so I don't know how accurate they are. Check the TV or box's manual to find out how to enable parental control.
If you delete channels or set up a favourites list, check the manual to find out how to ensure that only you can reset or retune the TV/box, or how to lock it to only show that favourites list.
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Trevor Lord: Digital UK's predictor gives a poor prediction from the only option available to you, the Selkirk mast. This means that for you, variable reception is expected a lot of the time. I would expect that the analogue picture quality before switchover was poor.
You would probably be better off getting satellite or cable. You can get satellite TV without a subscription through Freesat, paying a one-off cost for the box and the dish installation. Or you can get a free service from Sky, which has a slightly larger range of channels, but you can't have PVR functions without taking a subscription - the box will also list all the subscription channels in the programme guide, so it can be hard to find what you want to watch. You also have to pay up-front for 'Freesat-from-Sky'. To compare the available channels, go to Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
If you take out a Sky subscription, the box is free. However, a year's basic subscription at £20 per month would pay for a very good Freesat box, with a substantial amount left over!
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Tracy Gill: Check if you have another version of the BBC channels anywhere else in the channel list (usually from 800 upwards). If they do appear, the problem is that your box is tuning in the weaker signal from Stockland Hill rather than the strong one from Mendip.
Unfortunately a lot of equipment designed before switchover started simply stores the first channels it finds. That was fine when power was low and most people would only expect to have strong enough signals from one transmitter. After switchover, many - perhaps most - people will have strong enough signals from more than one transmitter, at least strong enough to decode and store the channel list even if not strong enough to actually use.
See Digital Region Overlap for thoughts on resolving this. Newer equipment should ask which region you want, if more than one is received, and use the best available transmitter for the selected region(s).
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David: Yes, Google do follow what you do. That includes tracking which websites they have served adverts to you, so they can serve more ads that they think will be relevant to you on other sites, not just what you search for. If you want to opt out, go to Advertising and Privacy Google Privacy Center .
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ann legg: It sounds like the aerial cable split is at the back of the main set. You will get much better results by splitting the cable as close to the aerial as possible. You might then need to add a small amount of amplification before the split, to offset the loss caused by splitting and the length of the cables.
Putting a booster at the back of the set with the problem will almost never improve things - only if the set itself is particularly noisy.
I'm surprised that changing channel and back makes an improvement.
If the split is at the back of the second set - that is, the combined length of cable from aerial to main set is longer than the length from aerial to second set - then you probably have too much signal.
Do check - by comparing the frequencies - that both TVs are tuned into the transmitter that the aerial points to. Digital UK predict usable signals, at least on the public-service multiplexes, from Carmel, Wenvoe, Kilvey Hill and Preseli. If the set with the problem is older, it may simply store the first version of the channels that is found, when scanning from lowest to highest channel numbers. Signals can still be strong enough to be stored even if the aerial is pointing in a different direction. For you, Kilvey Hill would be found first, then Wenvoe, then Preseli, and finally Carmel.
Digital UK list Carmel as your best option as it should give overall best results, but Preseli has (very slightly) the best results for the PSBs. The commercial multiplexes from Wenvoe and Preseli use the same frequencies so effectively cancel each other out - a variable service is predicted from Preseli but very poor from Wenvoe.
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Dave Lindsay, Mark H: While the COM muxes at Stockland Hill will increase to final power in April, the prediction for Mark H actually goes down slightly. This is because Rowridge will be using the same frequencies at high power, from the same date. They are actually going to be using the same frequencies for the same services, but the transmitters are too far apart to use Single Frequency Network techniques, so they will just interfere with each other. (Crystal Palace will also be a problem, to a lesser extent.)
The likelihood is that for a number of people in your postcode, the COM multiplexes will be unreliable for some of the time. Careful siting of the aerial may find a reliable location - it's best to get an experienced installer to do this.
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David Brackpool: Is your aerial pointing to Whitehawk Hill or Rowridge?
If Whitehawk Hill, the aerial would be oriented with the elements running up-and-down, and pointing south-east. If Rowridge, the elements would go side-to-side and it would point south-west.
If the aerial is pointing to Whitehawk Hill, you should check that the box is actually tuning in that transmitter. The behaviour on many older boxes is just to store the first version found, when scanning from lowest to highest frequencies. Rowridge's frequencies are all lower than Whitehawk Hill's.
For Rowridge, the prediction is for variable coverage of Mux 2. This will be better after switchover but the commercial multiplexes are still predicted to be variable, even if you switched the aerial to vertical polarization after all services start up on VP on 18 April.
The prediction for Mux 2 from Whitehawk Hill, currently, is lower than for the other multiplexes, but still over 95% of locations in the 100 metre x 100 metre square that your postcode is centred on are predicted to have reliable reception for 99% of the time.
Recent weather conditions have been predicted to cause distant signals to come in stronger than usual, which might explain the problem. If you retuned when this was happening, it could have caused a distant station to be stored that now can't be picked up - in which case, retune again. You can find maps of predicted 'ducting' weather conditions at Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV .
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Friday 13 January 2012 5:58PM
Trustix22: The core standards used for digital TV are the same in France and in Britain - DVB-T with pictures encoded in MPEG-2 Video and sound in MPEG Layer II - so it's not surprising that it mostly works. However, France's system is fully specified in IEC 62216 (sometimes called the Euro-Book or E-Book) while ours is in the Digital TV Group's D-Book. Some of the service information is not fully compatible, so you might find that PVR series link and the like doesn't work.
Notably, for interactive services, I believe France use the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), which is based on Java, while UK Red Button services use the MHEG-5 program description language and the 'UK Profile' object model. That means BBC Red Button and other interactive services won't work on a TNT box.
I also believe France still uses essentially standard teletext, which is carried differently for digital TV, but the content format is the same. UK transmitters, including the Channel Islands, do not broadcast standard teletext data, only the MHEG-5 content.
Subtitles should always be available as I believe both UK and Europe use the DVB Subtitles standard, which carries the subtitles as a picture overlay. Make sure you use the subtitles button on the box's remote, rather than trying to access teletext from the TV.