All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
J Penhale:
1. No, the recording capability goes along with the viewing card, and the free card is not part of the subscription.
2. You should be able to use the existing card with the new box.
3. No, the new box would plug straight in.
To be honest, I doubt Sky would actually sell you a box to use in France. I'd just go with a Freesat+HD box, rather than a Sky box. Some channel numbers are different between the Sky and Freesat services, but otherwise there are only a tiny number of differences in the channel line-up. See Compare TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for the differences. You would need a Sky box if you wanted to later upgrade to a subscription for that box (perhaps get a multiroom subscription in the UK, then take the box abroad!)
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Liz English: No, Bluebell Hill's output is the maximum that is permitted. The frequency plan is very complex, with the same frequencies being used repeatedly all over the country, and increasing power at one site would cause problems at the other sites using the same frequencies.
The majority of equipment seems to just use the first version of the channels that it finds, not the strongest or best quality. They may tune in Crystal Palace even if Bluebell Hill provides a better signal. See Digital Region Overlap for ideas on how to solve this problem.
Newer equipment should offer you a choice of which region to store at the preferred channel numbers if it picks up more than one region. It's supposed to be part of the Freeview HD spec, but I know of some HD boxes that still get it wrong.
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Josh: Should be equivalent to how well they could receive analogue yesterday. The high-power digital services use the main transmitting antennas that analogue formerly used.
There has been a wide-ranging programme of antenna replacement - the main antennas have been replaced at nearly all main transmitter sites, only Sudbury's dates from before 2000 as far as I'm aware. This has been done to improve the coverage possible from each antenna but also because the previous antennas were approaching end of service life. A few had been replaced less than 10 years before DSO. Most were serviceable for digital, but at least one was replaced again (Tacolneston, for example, got a new taller mast for DSO, with a new aerial on top of it).
Dover's new main antenna is on a pentagonal form - five faces pointing in different directions - but it only has panels fitted on three of the faces, the ones pointing north-east, north-west, and south-west. There are no panels firing toward France or Belgium. You can see this being lifted into place at mb21 - The Transmission Gallery . This new antenna should send far less power into France, and we've already had reports, at the time the new antenna was fitted, that this is the case.
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Briantist: On the topic of that RSS feed, you shouldn't be including a DTD (!DOCTYPE directive) in it. It can no longer be obtained from my.netscape.com:
To DTD or not to DTD - The Netscape Blog
IE 9 won't read an RSS feed containing a DTD:
Why Does IE not support DTD Feeds? | TuxReports Communities
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phil: Your TV may be old enough that it can't handle the 8K mode that is used after switchover. Check the list at http://www.digitaluk.co.u…ment . This list isn't necessarily complete, there may be other affected equipment that isn't on that list.
Do make sure that you're doing a full retune from scratch - some equipment will ignore channels that it thinks it already knows about, or put them somewhere else in the channel list. See TV Re-tune for guides. If you can't find a guide for your TV, look for the 'factory reset', 'first time installation', 'default setting', or 'virgin mode' option. It may be under a System or Software Update menu rather than the tuning menu.
If after doing that you still have the channels in the wrong place in the list, your TV probably can't handle the larger Network Information Table now required to describe all the services. See http://www.digitaluk.co.u…tnit for a list of equipment known to be affected.
If your TV is on either of those lists, and the manufacturer won't help you, you'll have to buy a Freeview box to convert it. I'd recommend buying a Freeview HD box now even if you don't have an HD TV, because new services are likely to use the same system as Freeview HD, and there may be a reorganization of the existing services within the next five to ten years that also requires it.
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David: Sky offer a 'free' service (this is a hook to try to get you to subscribe or re-subscribe!) There are a few differences in the channel lists between Sky's free service and the BBC/ITV Freesat service. A 'free' Sky box still shows all the channels in the subscription service in the guide, you just can't watch them, while a Freesat box shows only the channels you can watch. You can compare the channels available at Compare TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
Sky do disable the recording and time-shifting features of any Sky+ boxes you have. If you want those features without paying a subscription, you'd have to get a Freesat+ box. You also lose access to any previously-recorded programmes.
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Kevin Watkins: When retuned, some equipment seems to store some of the channels in temporary memory rather than in persistent storage. Do a 'first time installation', 'factory reset' or 'default setting' to ensure all existing channel information is fully cleared out, before retuning. This option may be on a 'Software Update' or 'Service' menu rather than on the tuning menu.
See TV Re-tune for guides on how to retune specific equipment.
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John D: The multiplex carrying these channels is temporarily on low power, until 27 June. (It's actually higher than it was before switchover started, but only 10% of the power level of the other channels.) That's because it hasn't yet moved to its final frequency. I'd expect the problem to be fixed when it moves to C42 on the 27th.
These problems usually occur when a receiver is desensitised by a strong signal on an adjacent channel. If you have a booster or other amplifier, try removing it. If not, or if that doesn't help, consider adding an attenuator.
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goshawk: You could try contacting the BBC directly using the information at ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice . You should consider the BBC's website the authoritative source: this website just scrapes that BBC website for information.
Unfortunately we never get an indication of what the problem is, unless it was planned engineering work.
Digital UK's website lists planned engineering works at
Digital UK - Planned Engineering Works . This website scrapes that page as well. It looks like many of the transmitters are being listed twice, which might be confusing the code that scrapes the page.
Hebden Bridge gets its signal off-air directly from Emley Moor. No problems are reported at Emley Moor, Luddenden or Cornholme, suggesting that the problem is isolated to Hebden Bridge (it's not weak signal from Emley Moor). To me, that would suggest a power cut at the transmitter itself, or in the vicinity (since both SD and HD services are listed as off air).
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Tuesday 12 June 2012 7:21PM
Andre: The most likely fix is to get an even bigger dish. The free UK channels are deliberately broadcast from a satellite aerial whose footprint covers the British Isles only. Any coverage of Cyprus is accidental 'overspill', it's not intended by the broadcasters. They claim they'd have to pay much more for broadcast rights if anyone in Europe could (easily) receive it.
The ongoing digital switchover process only affects terrestrial transmission, it doesn't do anything to satellite broadcasts. The 1N satellite was introduced because the previous 2D satellite was getting old - running out of fuel to maintain its position - and had limited capacity. They took the opportunity to get a tighter beam in some areas, possible with the newer technology.
Astra 1N isn't actually designed to serve its full life at this position, and the new transmitting dish was probably designed for a different purpose. When the true replacement, 2F, goes up later this year, it may have an even tighter footprint.