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All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

J
ITV 3
Saturday 10 September 2011 8:06AM

Louise Dooley: Its impossible to advise on this without knowing your post code, as the multiplex transmitter ITV3 uses could be temporarily on lower power, this only being verified one way or the other by your location being known.

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J
ITV 3
Saturday 10 September 2011 11:20AM

Louise Dooley: As Briantist has said, the first part of the code is not really sufficient enough, at least for any form of accuracy anyway as it covers too large an area, however indications on using a test code (York) are that if you are using Emley Moor (BBC1)Mux Ch47 - SDN Mux Ch52(ITV3 etc) then the situation will not improve until 21st of this month when switchover stage 2 takes place, as both the ITV1 / ITV3 multiplexes are shown as being variable as far as reception is concerned.

Bilsdale though indicates as being good reception, except no HD being available until later in 2012.


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J
Diagnostics - old version
Saturday 10 September 2011 11:41AM

mark: If using the Ashbourne transmitter then never, as its a Freeview "light" transmitter meaning that it only broadcasts public service programmes.

However on the 21st of this month you are forecast on the trade predictor as being able to have good reception on all channels from Sutton Coldfield.

Please note though, that predictors have elements of inaccuracy in their forecasts as they cannot really cater properly for local conditions that may apply, so this has to be kept in mind.

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Liz Hodge: Having a look on the trade predictor using the code provided, indications are that your best reception should be from Lark Stoke, with BBC1 being on Mux Ch26, Ridge Hill is also shown as being good with BBC1 being on Mux Ch28, Sutton Coldfield also good on BBC1 Mux Ch43, but with ITV1 etc being variable until the 21st of the month when switchover stage 2 takes place.

Malvern, the station you mentioned, indicating either variable, poor, or not at all right across the entire range of multiplexes.

If using anything other than Lark Stoke you may have to manually tune the channels in, as Lark Stoke being on a lower mux number will take up EPG1 position and so on.

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dillon: I wouldn't touch anything until the 21st, as on that date all channels from Sutton Coldfield as well Brierley Hill are indicated as becoming available, with Brierly Hill joining them on September the 28th.

Of course only then will it be found what in reality is your best bet, as elements of "in theory" always apply with predictors due to the fact that they cannot fully cater for local conditions.

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Roger Austin: Its the box! and with the only reason you are getting Mux Ch29 being because it hasn't as yet changed over to the 8K transmission mode, this happening on October 12th when that will also disappear from your box during Ch29's switch to higher powered operation.

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Tim Collingwood: Yes! with myself being one of the biggest advocators of aerial position being far more important than its height, this including its claimed for dB gain levels, this particularly applying when dealing with difficult reception areas that's not caused purely by distance.

Of course the only thing that has always to be considered is, that if the aerial positioning is arranged before high power switchover then there is always a slight danger that in "some" cases after switchover that the signal doesn't increase as much as expected, or may even go slightly the other way!, that is "if" the original positioning was only good because of taking advantage of a reasonable stable reflection.

Further slight re-positioning usually always sorting that kind of difficulty out.

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Alan: As your legal rights will be exactly the same after the 21st as is presently applying, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. If however that after switchover and you have completed a further factory re-tune only to find that the situation hasn't changed, then its possibly time for you to return to the store complete with box.

It should also be pointed out though, that you cannot really accurately judge one device not being able to do something that another can (or vice-versa) as a fault being in existence, as no two brands of devices respond in exactly the same way to the same signal.

What model is the offending item?

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dillon: I should of course have said "The Wrekin" joining Sutton Coldfield and Brierley Hill on the 28th of this month.

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lee: As far as the problem with your picture is concerned, press "services - 4 - 6" and check what the signal strength / quality is indicating, both bars should be reasonably close to each other at about 75% or so, if they are not the dish requires slight re-aligning.

Misalignment can also be a contributory factor regarding the problem when raining, although it has to be said that heavy downpours can cause this to happen even if the dish was perfectly set up, and moving it to a more sheltered spot doesn't make any difference, as its the rain content in the clouds that is partially blocking the microwave signal path, although larger dishes are slightly more immune to this problem by catching more of the signal.

Sky boxes don't usually boot up straight away, and so I wouldn't consider this to be a fault.



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