All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MikeB
In my considerable experience in the TV servicing side of the industry, we now have a system that requires a great many retunes, even when things are working correctly as the 'powers that be' decide to change the allocations forcing retunes. Viewers never had to retune for many, many years using analogue - but didn't have so many services to choose from. When you look at it from the perspective of the normal viewer with no technical interest at all (they only want to watch the programmes) the services provided now are a lot less reliable for some, but not all. The digitally encoded transmissions are more susceptible to problems than was the case with analogue.
As for the interference aspects, at least most could watch the programmes despite some interference on the picture and/or sound. With digital it's usually a case of all or nothing or if it's a borderline case then seriously broken up pictures with sound you can hardly bear to listen to.
Further, a weak analogue signal still gave you the programmes even though they were 'spotty' with white noise. With digital it usually doesn't get decoded so people get the 'No Signal' message, sometimes wrongly as it also appears when there is too strong a signal. From the viewer's perspective the spotty pictures were better than none at all!
Since moving house, closer to Mendip, our signal has deteriorated to the point where many evenings we can get less than half the normal Freeview range and no HD at all (glad we also have a dish). The log-periodic I had installed soon after we moved has not helped one bit! I am seriously considering a 48 element wide-band modified Yagi type that has a minimum of 16.5 dB gain across all channels. If that gives too much signal then I have a variable attenuator to hand (0 to -36dB). I've tried variable gain amplifiers (0 to +25dB) and attenuators with the log-periodic but a check on strength shows it is just about adequate on BBC1/2, poor on ITV and almost absent on the HD channels! So a trip up the ladder equipped with a new aerial and meter is on the cards for me I'm afraid.
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Caroline Hobbs:
Firstly, this website has no connection with any broadcaster. They are the ones who decide whether or not to give any form of warning about content. I suggest you contact them directly.
Secondly, many such broadcasters seem to feel they need to give such warnings as our society appears to have become so 'risk averse' that they try to protect themselves by giving such warnings when many, such as yourself, don't consider them to be justified.
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Bobby:
Atmospheric conditions. There's nothing anyone can do about how the atmospheric conditions affect transmission distances.
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Elissa:
Shanklin has significant cliffs behind it that make it difficult to have a clear 'line of sight' to the Rowridge transmitter. Depending on where within the town you will be living, you may find that you can get all, or at least most' of the services. But be aware that some parts of Shanklin, particularly near the Chine, are likely to have reception problems due to the cliffs.
The topography of an area is the main reason why some may get good service reception but others not far away may not.
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Jon:
The pattern of the transmission beam from the satellites means that coverage for your area is severely limited. here the receiver was 'set up' initially is not relevant, but how much signal is being received by your dish/LNB is very significant. Too little means you will not be able to view the weaker signals. Clearly the current beams being used for transmission of BBC etc are not aimed at reception in your area. All you can do is either employ a much larger dish, if legal, or find another way of watching the programme services you want. Bear in mind that recpetion of UK servies is not guaranteed outside of the UK.
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Lawrence Tosh:
The operators of this website do not operate any TV Broadcasting services at all. This website being aimed at helping viewers who are having reception problems. Suggest you contact UKTV at
Homepage | UKTV
as they are one of the TV Broadcasting companies.
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Mark Agius:
I would suspect that a great many do not know it even exists! Sky is not the majority carrier and many people do not use it. Still less explore for non-UK channels and as the news coverage of the sad events in Paris recently has been fairly good on UK based channels there seems to be little reason for many to view a News service based in France, though it may give a different 'slant' to the events covered.
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BK Doore
To my experienced eye, that site looks remarkably like a scam to me - and it appears to be US based. If it does provide TV services they don't appear to tell you anything on the 'front page' and if they do then they would seem to be internet based so dependent on the users download speed as well as the traffic state of the internet. Some in the UK do npot have an internet connection that is fast enough for streaming without constant buffering.
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Alex Wilde
Note that the localisation of some services, particularly the news bulletins, will be for the West Midlands areas from Sutton Coldfield transmitter and from the Central South services (unless they have migrated that to a more southerly provider). The choice is yours by selecting the channels you tuine to as suggested by jb38.
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Sunday 4 January 2015 10:42PM
margaret allison:
Around the UK are over 1000 television transmitters, some very powerful and others less so. The main transmitter for most of London is at Crystal Palace, on a hill a little to the south of central London. It transmits UHF signals carrying digitally encoded programmes. Some parts of London cannot get signals from Crystal Palace so there are alternative transmitters available around the capital. To receive these TV signals from any transmitter you need a suitable aerial/antenna aimed directly at the transmitter, just as you did when you lived in the area and had analogue TV. For some who live in blocks, which may be flats or maisonettes etc, they share the use of a single aerial on the roof, which is known as a communal aerial and operated by the managing agents of the block.
If your sister is not in a block but rather a conventional house and has her own aerial system then it may need to be looked at to see if there are any faults that need to be repaired. If she is in a block of flats or similar then she should ask her neighbours if they also use the communal aerial and if they are also having reception problems. If they are then the managing agents should be asked to have the system checked.
I understand that the US also uses digitally encoded TV transmissions as well as cable and satellite services, the UK equivalents are available in many parts of London.
Hope that helps? If you have further questions, please post here again and we contributors will try to assist again.