All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
My comments are based on personal experience of several friend's and relatives equipment. The oldest is just 3 years and the newest bought 2 months ago. All the LED/LCD sets have a narrower comfortable viewing angle than the old CRTs offered.
Plasma are out of the frame because of the significantly higher energy requirement than even an old CRT set and definitely more than an LED/LCD set.
Many lounges are square so the narrower viewing angle may not be such a problem but where the room is rectangular (our lounge is 18' by 11') the seating tends to be arranged the length of the room with the TV near one corner. So some get a nearly straight view but others have to view at a sharp angle. Fine on a CRT but poor on an LED/LCD set in our experience.
If you're happy with it, fine. Our choice is to stay with the CRT still, that's our preference And we are not anti-technology either, just careful to consider all the options and select what we prefer irrespective of any hype.
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Al
You certainly don't need to change your dish or LNB is the signals are being received now. The same dish is used for all Sky and FreeSat services and it makes no difference if you already have the correct size dish and a good, working LNB (the bit on the front of the dish). The receiver takes the signals sent doen from the LNB and processes them into picture and sound. A Sky+ box would normally need two feeds but as you appear not to be using a Sky Card, then you would not get any additional Sky HD programmes and could not record/playback any programmes at all (needs a subscription card to do that).
I would suggest it would be better to investigate a FreeSat PVR (Personal Video Recorder) that can use you existing dish and give you all the FreeSat programmes - including the HD ones if you buy a suitable box. That can then be connected using an HDMI cable (don't bother with a 'gold pleased' one, they're just expensive and no better than an ordinary one).
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Al
Sorry for the typo, it was meant to say 'gold plated' when discussing the HDMI cable.
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Douglas Fraser:
But you will still not be able to watch live all the programmes you want as they are not all streamed via the internet as MikeB has already said!
The only way of getting a wider selection of programmes is to use either an aerial aimed at the best transmitter for your area (a post code will help identify where that may be and it is just possible that you may be in a good position to be able to use an aerial properly mounted inside your loft if you have one) or else a dish with either a FreeSat or Sky box, Sky needing a monthly subscription of course.
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Karen, Adam, et al:
The TV license is to allow you to watch live broadcast TV services that are available in your area. Even if you are watching live programmes via the Internet you still need a license. The fact that roughly the same capital as is collected by the license fee is paid to run the BBC is incidental, the BBC payments are made from general capital and the fees collected are not 'ring fenced' for the BBC nor the running of the transmitters.
Commercial broadcasters can only operate if they can make a profit after covering the costs of making programmes and transmitting them. That means they need a certain minimum audience able to receive their programmes from any particular transmitter. If there are not enough potential viewers they will not pay to serve just a few people at a loss. It costs them money to provide the transmitter and to broadcast from it (electricity costs and delivery of content to the transmitter as well as maintenance) so if no profit they don't chose to provide services. Someone has to pay and the costs are added to the price of the goods/services advertised.
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Brian
It is generally a bad idea to attempt to 'adjust' the position of a dish. The aim has to be very accurate as the satellite is around 40 km above the Equator and not due south either. What could now be happening is that the dish may be pointing to another satellite group nearby and getting some signals from them but the signals do not match those provided by Sky or Freesat, so they cannot be decoded and hence the 'No Signal' message.
I would suggets getting a professional satellite system installer to correctly align your dish.
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Mrs Willis:
The ITV Player uses your internet connection and if that is slowed, either by other traffic or contention problems, then the speed of the download is not enough to provide uninterupted viewing.
What type of broadband service do you use? If it is a firbe type product there may be some adjustment needed by your ISP. If it is via the normal telephone wires (using ADSL) then it is likely to be the best you can get until fibre is available at your premises.
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Sue
To help us to help you we need a few more details, such as what equipment you are using (model numbers, etc) as well as your location (post code of a nearby shop will do if you don't want to give you own district's code). Then we might be able to deduce what is happening.
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sudeshbunger:
Your dish should be installed professionally to get the best results.
It should be aligned to 'see' the satelites that are immediately above the 28 degrees longitude over the Equator. That means the diesh will need to be aimed at and angle greater than 28 degrees east of due south - the actual angle and elevation has to be calculated for the precise location. There are website that offer this serfvice for you.
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Thursday 19 June 2014 9:58PM
dorne mccrae:
Have you checked that the TV actually is working correctly? Do that by seeking the help of a frind/neighbour and taking your TV to their place and checking it can get all the programmes. If it can, then ask for their help by borrowing their TV and plugging it into your aerial system. If it has the same problem as your TV then the aerials system is at fault. If it is OK then your TV is at fault.