All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Phil Dalton:
You didn't say what figures you were currently getting on C40.
The transmitter isn't currently listed for a Planned Engineering and I can't find any faults listed at this time.
In general I would have expected signal propagation to be slightly better now than in Winter and you are certainly predicted to get good signals from Sutton Coldfield for all 6 multiplexes.
Do you have any aerial amp/splitters to feed more than one TV?
The fact that you say you have signal strength 10 (& quality 10) for the other multiplexes leads me think there's a possibility you may have slightly too much signal and any overall improvement in signal with current weather conditions may lead to overloading of the tuner front end and hence a reduction in quality, in this case to the HD multiplex.
Does your aerial feed direct to this one TV or do you have an amp/splitter to feed more than one, if so, does it have a variable gain control?
If so, turn it down a touch, strength readings below 10 aren't really of any consequence (as long as they don't go too low!) it's Quality remaining at 10 (100%) that is important.
If you have an amp/splitter but no variable gain, the other thing you can try is unplug the aerial from it and connect it direct to the one TV feed (turn/power off the amp) and provide the readings for each UHF channel when connected like that.
if you don't have an amp/splitter, then maybe trying a variable attenuator might be worth a go. See for example eBay item number:310039226920
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Ted Slater:
Not familiar with your PVR (don't know if StevensOnln1 can add any comment) I assume Humax have suggested Resets etc.?
What I can say is three things -
First, there was a shuffle around of some of the high end LCN TV channels on the COM multiplexes back on March 22nd. LCN71 is now "That's 60s" on COM5.
For details see Updates and alerts | Freeview
Also see Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview which should be an up-to-date list of which TV channels are on which multiplex.
Second, some devices get their memory mixed up with such changes when you do a retune and TV channels can end up in the 800's for example. You could try a further retune and see if that resolves things by unplugging the aerial, doing a full retune which might clear memory with no channels found, plug the aerial back in and repeat the retune BUT a note of caution, some PVRs might loses correct linking of recordings!
Third, a full reset of the PVR might be needed, but again you may lose recordings!
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Alan Clark:
Are you still having a problem? Temporary glitch?
If I'm not mistaken you'd get your FM from Wrotham and if that were down there would be reports all over the place!
And on DAB of course it's on the main BBC National mux Block 12B: 225.648 MHz transmitted from Eastbourne , Heathfield and Hastings.
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StevensOnln1:
It's been confirmed the final changes should occur on the 26th. The "subject to change" has been removed from the BBC announcement. :)
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Neil McQue:
Well if you were watching on Sky, that's not Freeview HD. London Live is on SD on Freeview and AFAIK it's SD on Sky. I don't know if Sky offer any "Watch from the Start" options on any of the channels as I don't have Sky (maybe someone else can comment), but BBC Freeview (SD & HD) viewers have that option on most programmes via the Red Button.
For all such functions you need a Smart TV/Box connected to the Internet.
According to their website, London Live do not offer any "Watch again" or "Watch from the Start" except for some of their News programmes and that is via their website, not over air.
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Richard Sutton:
The email system on this has been somewhat iffy on and off. The default setting is one week I think and is usually a list of the posts on the various pages. There was a possibility of setting it for a more frequent response but I've not tried myself. The last time I tried to change it, it fouled up my mailing completely! I'm not sure if you can set it just to notify of a reply to a specific post.
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Richard Sutton:
Right, there's a number of things to mention. I don't like to give too much technical information in one go as it often just confuses people without any technical background and one doesn't always get the answers needed to try and get to the root of problems.
Firstly, retuning. Pointless. If you are correctly tuned, just because your signal has either disappeared or is pixellated or the Quality has dropped for whatever reason, Weather, Transmitter maintenance, trees, etc. then retuning is more likely just to clear the correct tuning, and then you end up having to repeat it when signals are back to normal (and you won't know exactly when that might be).
2nd. The PSB2/D3&4 mux on C29 (Ridge Hill West) only transmits ITV1 (West Country). The table above is wrong I'm afarid. The appearance of those other channels in the 800s may have come from a retune after recent TV channel swaps on the COM muxes or from another transmitter. If you go to Signal Test on your LG and select C29 & then scroll down once the transmitter information has appeared, you should only find ITV1 listed.
I suggest you do the following to start. Unplug the aerial and start an automatic retune BUT (to save time) as soon as it starts, select Skip and confirm. No channels will be found and memory should be cleared. Then do a Manual tune of all the UHF channels for Central (ie. not C29). When that's complete you can select C29 and it should put ITV1 West in the 800s.
As an aside, if you were to do an Automatic retune having cleared the channels, the set should prompt you for region, & on selecting England then Central, it should put any other channels it's found in the 800s. When you've finished retuning, you could use the Programme Manager to move ITV1 West from the 800s to say LCN 8 in the EPG for convenience if you ever wanted to watch ITV West Region News.
3rd. I did ask in one of my earlier initial responses "do you have a straight coupler similar to
Close "
The reason for this is I need you do do some tests without the amp/splitter in circuit (and powered off) so that we can check for interference and overload conditions before doing anything else.
Unplug the aerial input and your LG TV feed output and connect them with a coupler. Power OFF the amp splitter.
Check and post the Signals Strength and Quality figures of each Ridge Hill UHF channel multiplex including C29. You can then connect things back up and power On the amp/splitter again.
When you've done that, I'll suggest what to do next.
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The BBC did report a fault for Betws_Y_Coed Freeview -
From 7:09pm to 9:30pm on 20th Apr 2023 BBC A Off the air due to a fault
From 7:09pm to 9:30pm on 20th Apr 2023 BBC B HD Off the air due to a fault
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Steven Rowlandson:
The DAB transmitter apparently remained on air (this is the DAB page), however the BBC did report a fault for Betws_Y_Coed Freeview -
From 7:09pm to 9:30pm on 20th Apr 2023 BBC A Off the air due to a fault
From 7:09pm to 9:30pm on 20th Apr 2023 BBC B HD Off the air due to a fault
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Tuesday 18 April 2023 3:05PM
nick:
It all depends on weather conditions, lay of the land, line-of-sight to various transmitters, whether the signals pass over largish areas of water etc. and which transmitters are co-channel.
RF propagation is very frequency dependent and also on the nature of the atmosphere at the particular time as well as the extent of any area with particular conditions, so one specific UHF channel may get propagated differently from another.
As you've never given a full postcode or one for a very nearby pub/shop/prominent building your predicted reception for C37 may be poorer than some of the others.
Your aerial may have a peaky response which is not as good for C37 as it might be for others (whether it's home brew or bought!). So all in all, difficult to know why, or indeed where particular interference may come from most of the time.
Whenever I glance at Dx reception reports from people on the east coast I don't recall C37 being mentioned, C39 is quite common. Trying to find out which Netherlands or other countries transmitters that side of the North Sea use particular channels is almost impossible as I can't readily find reliable sources.