All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Arthur Morley: There are suggestions that the true coverage is substantially wider than that footprint plot suggests. However, I wouldn't depend on that. SES have just launched the Astra 2F satellite, which is designed to operate at 28.2°E, unlike 1N whose permanent home is at 19.2°E. This carries a rather tighter UK spot beam: https://sat.ses.com/webse…4500 . Also, SES have published the footprints straight away, whereas for 1N the footprint was only published months after it went up, after a lot of testing and calibration.
They haven't said so explicitly, but my expectation is that 2F will take over from 1N some time early next year, just as 1F took services from 2D. The press release about 2F's launch says:
'It is the first of a three satellite investment programme (ASTRA 2E, 2F and 2G), that provides replacement and growth capacity for the UK and Ireland at the 28.2/28.5 degrees East neighbourhood.
'"ASTRA 2F will provide seamless replacement capacity for our UK customers like BSkyB, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and will allow us to operate additional capacity at 28.2/28.5 degrees East on SES satellites. [...]"'
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News - SES.com
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This is a self-help website that is not associated in any way with Sky, who own and operate Pick TV. It is very unlikely that anyone from Sky will read, let alone respond to, your comments here.
Generally this site is for asking for help with reception issues, rather than commenting about programmes.
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Ian: Same reason as for switchover. The transmitter groups are more than somewhat interdependent - many changes are transmitters moving from channels that are not being cleared, to allow other transmitters a clear space to move into. Arqiva want to avoid having to recruit and train a large number of engineers for a single one-off event. Digital UK want to keep the volume of support calls down to a manageable level.
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MEM: I'm afraid Digital UK's postcode checker only shows good coverage for the PSB multiplexes for you, from either the Newry North, Newry South or Camlough transmitters. The PSB service from Divis is shown as good, but lower probabilities than from the other transmitters. Of the COM services, SDN and ArqA are shown as poor and ArqB no prediction is given.
A Group A aerial pointing at Divis is likely to give better results than a wideband; widebands have significantly poorer performance at low frequencies than a grouped aerial. Still, even the largest Group A aerial is unlikely to provide reliable service for the COM muxes.
Saorview's coverage checker for Quayside Close, Newry indicates that the best coverage for RT services would be from Clermont Carn on C52, nearly due south from you, using vertical polarization. That is a different direction from all the other transmitters (to your north, north-east or west), and a different aerial group and polarization compared to Divis. You'd need a separate aerial if you want RT.
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Frankie T: Unfortunately the 'HD TV' logo was defined by a Europe-wide body a few years before the UK regulator and broadcasters decided how we would transmit HD. The 'HD TV' logo only requires support for MPEG-4 AVC video transmitted in DVB-T multiplexes. The UK HD services use the newer DVB-T2 standard. It's quite likely that your TV doesn't support it. Look for the 'Freeview HD' logo or check for DVB-T2 support in the manual.
Transmissions in the Republic of Ireland use the MPEG-4 AVC standard in DVB-T multiplexes, so your TV can pick them up. RT transmitted from UK transmitters, the 'Northern Ireland Mini-Mux' or NIMM, uses DVB-T2.
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SC: It's not guaranteed to work. If you would be receiving RT from a transmitter in the Republic (Saorview), then MPEG-4 AVC support is all you need. If you received RT on analogue, in reasonable quality, you will probably be able to receive Saorview.
The CAM should work as long as the TV sends any service, or any service that it can't decode, to the CAM slot. I believe some send only services that are actually marked as encrypted (decrypting services is the purpose of the CAM slot) which the Saorview services are not. The only way to tell is to try it.
However, if receiving from a Freeview transmitter, you will definitely need a Freeview HD box. The CAM relies on the TV being able to decode the multiplex, which yours won't be able to, as it does not support DVB-T2. The 'Northern Ireland Mini-Multiplex' uses the newer standard in order to get greater capacity from the available coverage than DVB-T is able to do.
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Richard: The Republic's transmissions into Northern Ireland are classed as overspill, which is normally treated as accidental. The only way this could be blocked from Northern Ireland is if it were also blocked from the Republic. The main transmitter spilling over into Northern Ireland is Clermont Carn, which serves a large part of the east coast of the Republic, particularly Dublin.
Considering that Saorview is estimated to be covering 60% of Northern Ireland's population, and the NIMM only 35%, it seems futile to be blocking the NIMM coverage.
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Simon Wynn: The HD channels have moved to 101-104 (plus 105 for S4C Clirlun in Wales) in order to put the General Entertainment section back together - it had ended up either side of the HD channels.
If the HD channels aren't there either, then we need your full postcode to offer more assistance.
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Wednesday 3 October 2012 6:59PM
Holloway John: You need to retune. Those channels are now broadcasting on a new frequency. This change is to clear channels 61 and 62 for 4G mobile phones.