All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
n day: You may be able to get a recorder without a digital tuner to record from a SCART input. Check your recorder's manual to see whether it can, and how to do this, and the set-top box's manual to see how to schedule it to select the desired channel at the required time.
However, you will not be able to record one programme and watch another without getting another set-top box just for the VCR.
It's all very tricky to set up and make it work reliably, so as Briantist says, a PVR - hard-disk-based recorder - is usually a better option.
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M. Bailey: Digital UK show Sandy Heath as a possible alternative - it should give better results than Crystal Palace, particularly for the commercial multiplexes. The predictions are all probabilities, so you should try both and see which gives best results for you.
The list of transmitters carrying all multiplexes hasn't changed since digital TV launched in 1998, and I'm afraid there's no immediate prospect of it changing in future.
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dale: 'Channel Zero' carries data services that you have to have the right sort of box to receive. Boxes that don't understand it will just show a blank screen.
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Ian: You're in the 'Guildford Notch', an area that was and is not officially served by low-power digital signals. Some people did manage to get signals with very high amounts of amplification, but that will cause distortion, due to overloading, once all signals are using the unrestricted antenna.
If you did get them before Wednesday, the reason is probably that the receiver is being desensitised by the now very loud BBC A transmission.
You will probably have to wait until 22 February to get the ITV1 bundle, plus HD services if your equipment is compatible. The ArqA/Mux C bundle, including Pick TV and Dave, will move to the unrestricted antenna on 4 April, and the remaining services on SDN/Mux A and ArqB/Mux D on 18 April.
For now, ITV1, C4 and C5 are still available on analogue, and should be as good as they were before.
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Adrian: For these two weeks, BBC Four, CBeebies, BBC Parliament and the radio stations are being broadcast from their old location on Mux B, C46, as well as from the new location on BBC A.
The BBC could have closed Mux B at stage 1 if it weren't for having subleased capacity to BT to carry Sky Sports 1 and 2. These will move to ArqB/Mux D at stage 2, but turning off Mux B now would leave them homeless. They don't want to produce a special version of Mux B just for sites switching over, that only carries the sublet channels!
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David: If you don't get the channels at all, it could be a 2K issue. Break-up usually has other reasons, although it could be the box tuning in a different transmitter (usually Crystal Palace or Rowridge) because it can't understand the 8K transmission from Hannington.
Otherwise, break-up is explained either by tuning in the wrong transmitter - this is usually because the box has a dumb tuning process which just stores the first version of channels it finds, when scanning from low frequencies to high - or by having too much signal. I wouldn't really expect too much signal to be the problem for you, as Hannington has had only a modest power increase in your direction, but if it was close to the maximum it could handle, it could explain the problem.
Digital UK's prediction for your postcode is 100% of locations served, across the board (even for the old low-power services), which usually indicates that signal levels are too high when using equipment similar to that assumed in the prediction.
Different equipment does have a different maximum level it can handle without distorting the signal, perhaps the Sony has more headroom than the Wharfedale?
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David, Alex: That is not true. The DVB-T2 standard is just that much more efficient than DVB-T (reflecting nearly 15 years more development). The mode selected for the BBC B multiplex is only very slightly less robust than the post-switchover mode for the other multiplexes, which is about the same as for Mux 2 and Mux A now. The difference in radiation pattern between two channels is typically larger than the difference in the margin required between a DVB-T and DVB-T2 multiplex.
Now that the commercial multiplexes are going to use 64QAM 3/4 mode, not 64QAM 2/3 as BBC A and D3&4 will, the HD multiplex should definitely be more robust than them.
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Mike: No, you can use Freesat or a non-branded satellite receiver. All BBC channels are free-to-air on satellite. Freesat does provide a full EPG rather than just now & next information for the channel you're watching.
See Compare Freesat and Freesat-from-Sky TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for a comparison between channels available on Freesat and channels available through Sky's free service. A non-subscription Sky box will still show all the channels that you would have to subscribe to get - it's a deliberate attempt to try to get you to subscribe. Also, Sky+ PVR functions - recording and time-shifting programmes - are only enabled if you subscribe. Those features are always enabled on all Freesat+ boxes and indeed can't be disabled.
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Steve Flynn: I concur with Dave Lindsay's answer.
Digital UK do suggest that you should get a very good signal for the PSB channels from Crystal Palace, although - because of this channel clash - you are not predicted to be able to get the commercial multiplexes from there.
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Thursday 9 February 2012 11:04PM
Kieran R: Your box may be one which uses the dumb tuning algorithm - store the first version that it finds, when scanning from lowest to highest frequencies. The weather is causing distant transmissions to come in stronger, and presumably the box has stored Crystal Palace transmissions rather than Hannington.
See Digital Region Overlap for thoughts on how to work around this problem.