All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Maureen and Alec
It sounds as if you have both a FreeSat Dish as well as a Freeview aerial, they are very different. It also sounds like you have a TV set plus a Humax box, but you don't give us any idea what models they are, so it is very hard for anyone contributing here to help. A location helps as well as that would suggest which transmitter for Freeview you might use.
Can you provide more information so we can try to help, please?
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Steve P:
Sky are very particular about the 'box' and how it is used. There is no official way to make a Sky+ box record or playback without a subscription and the associated Viewing Card.
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Steve P / Peter
Without knowing what Peter's 'box' is it could be highly dangerous to just wrench it off its mounting and if they try shorting whatever mains connections there may be they could be seriously burnt or maimed - DON'T DO IT!
It would be better and safer for all to ask the local Council, BT or Electricity undertaking if they have any record of it and whether it is still needed. There are many things it could be so please ask first.
Oeter - is it on your property? If not, don't touch. If it is, ask first.
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MikeB
As you know, DTV is particularly sensitive to signal strnegth variations. And the design of equipment has limitations. When a TV/box is getting a weak signal that is below the threshhold for decoding it will show a 'No Signal' message - even when there is a signal but it is too weak to decode. A similar situation occurs with too strong a signal as the tuner is 'swamped' and hence the data cannot be decoded, so again a 'No Signal' message - even though there is actually too much! The latter seems to be a particular problem with the HD transmissions, they appear to be particularly susceptible to signal strength variations as shown by questions elsewhere on this website.
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Irene Gosney:
If you want to view FreeSat, no card is needed. You can buy a FreeSat HD box and connect it to a dish if you already have one on your home, else you will need one to be fitted by a local satellite installer. A few TV sets already have a FreeSat HD suytem built in, but not many yet.
If you want to view Sky TV in HD, then contact Sky directly and they will supply a box and the required card - for a monthly subscription of course. Try looking at Switching to Sky TV - Join Sky online and follow the informartion given. Sky packages start at about £21 per month I think, HD is extra, Sky+ is extra, Movies, entertainment, Sport are all extra as well. The link above will lead you to all the information you need if it is Sky you want to watch.
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Dorne
A post code (or of a nearby shop) will help us locate where you are and which transmitter you might get Freeview from. We can also check whether the windmills are between you and the transmitter.
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MikeB
Remember that using a mobile phone whilst driving is illegal and in many cases the sound output of a mobile is just not loud enough to be heard in a car when not held against the ear - and not all cars are equiped to transfer the output to the in-built radio system. Most cars have an FM radio and an increasing number are getting DAB, but like all electronic equipment they do go wrong.
Digital, by its nature, requires more power than analogue to process the signals received into hearable sounds - it's the nature of electronics. Whilst newer silicon chips may be able to perform about as well as current ones while using less energy, the requirements of signal processing between FM and DAB are very significant.
Portable radios, of any type, will inevitably have poorer reproduction than a system designed for use in a more or less permanent location in a room due to the size and weight of the required pair of loudspeakers and the necessary enclosures. A portable system has a significant weight limit that does not affect the room systems.
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MikeB:
You highlight one of the main problems with modern TV designs - the viewing angle is much less than it was with the old CRT. A flat screen CRT could be viewed comfortably at up to 60 degrees either side of the centre line, but a modern LCD or LED (or OLED) has a much narrower viewing angle, sometimes as little as 35 degrees either side of ther centre line. So in a room with several comfy chairs spreas around, only those roughly around the centre line of the screen will have clear and comfortable viewing, the further away to the side the poorer the image visible until it is unviewable. Try placing a chair in your showroom so it is at 45 degrees to one side othe perpendicular in front of the screen and thehn try watching an HD programme - not the greatest experience I suggest. The further away from that centre line, the worse the viewability becomes. So we see a small huddle of people gathered around almost directly in front of the screen - very like we did in the early 1950's to watch the Coronation on a 9" screen with the lights off!
Technological advances are not always for the better it seems.
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LOX
Do not use a wideband Yagi, it will be far better to use a LogPeriodic, which give more even reception across all Muxes now and in the foreseeable future, so only one aerial contractor visit.
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Monday 9 June 2014 7:19PM
Les
Sky charge for the facility to record as part of a Sky+ subscription. Without that, you cannot use this box to record or playback.
If you had a FreeSat (not Freeview) PVR box with a recoding capability you could record and playback plus it would work with your existing Sky dish.