All posts by Spartan
Below are all of Spartan's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Briantist, if I'm reading it correctly, power for say ITV1 is currently 10Kw and it'll increase to 100Kw. Is that right?
Whilst we're told that digital transmissions don't required the same output power as analogue, are we really going to get received signal levels similar to that previously with just a fifth of the RF transmitter power?
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Ralph, you're one of the lucky ones living in a spot where the signals from Beckley are strong and not affected by trees, buildings and hills between your aerial and the transmitter. Many of us live in lower lying areas where the received signal strength and quality is poor and very variable. Lucky old you...
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The whole point of digital is to provide more channels and make more money for the people who control those channels. And of course for the government who take it upon themselves to sell off vast chunks of the frequency spectrum.
Most of us don't need or want 100+ channels, many of which are just pure rubbish or repeats. But of course as fee payers and customers, little regard is taken of our requirements for a watchable TV service.
I, too, am waiting to see if D-day provides anything like a watchable service after having to juggle between didgital and analogue for the past couple of years. If not, perhaps we should all lobby our local councils to allow us planning permission to erect our aerials on the top of 100ft masts!
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Switching on the TV this evening at 19:00 and retuning the Freeview box produced a big fat ZERO, no stations, nada. Reset to manufacturer's defaults, but still nothing from Beckley, which is my local transmitter. Gave up and switched aerials to Hannington and watched analogue for half an hour. Despite generally getting a weaker signal from Hannington I managed to successfully reset the Freeview box to receive digital signals. Said it found 182 stations! Some while later I switched aerials back and tried Beckley again. Found it this time but with only 102 stations. What is going on, and why does Hannington offer more stations?
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Jonathan, you mentioned that the position of the coax feeder appeared to make a difference. Is this a fairly new installation? I'd check out the cable and see if there are any nicks or cuts in it. Is it in one single length from aerial to TV/digital box, or do you have joints anywhere? Any joints or junction boxes can be a source of problems.
Is the aerial feeding more than one TV set/recorder, etc?
Whilst I'd expect Quality to suffer rather than Signal strength, try turning off ALL appliances in the house just in case something is generating interference which may be reducing the available signal. And that includes mobile and cordless phones, WiFi Broadband router, etc.
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Kevin, you may well be right, but he did specifically say he had no booster, and was trying out an attenuator. So you're suggesting 20dB attentuation is not enough...?
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Harry, that sounds like some form of localised interference. You didn't say if it ceases later on in the evening or not.
Could be anything from a heating system switching on, to a noisy lighting device (fluorescent tube etc).
Best advice is look in your own environment first. Try temporarily switching off as much in your house as you can. By that I mean turning everything off at the mains wall socket.
If the pixelation comes and goes throughout the evening, it could be a thermostat which is arcing. So try turning off emersion heater, fridge, freezer, etc.
Other than that, you'll have to consider something one of your neighbours is running, or even a street lamp going faulty! Believe me, that has been known to happen...
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HD channels. I suspect that my freeview receiver (Philips DTR 220/05) isn't technically capable of resolving the BBCB HD mux. I have tried a manual tune for Ch.57 but it found nothing. All other mux's are showing 100% now.
Can someone kindly confirm my findings...
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Page 1
Tuesday 20 September 2011 9:11PM
Now the Oxford area has lost the analogue tranmsmissions from Beckley, we are back to swapping aerials over to receive Hannington (analogue) when digital invariably dips below the required level of signal to support a satisfactory picture. I am aware that power levels are for the most part still at a low level, so by how much will they be increased at the end of the month? Is this likely to give us watchable pictures again, i.e. on a par with what we had before when Beckley pumped out half a megawatt?
It seems to me that digital is fine for those within line of site of the transmitter or in an elevated geographical location, but I suspect it will force the rest of us to contemplate the expense of satellite reception. And digital radio is even worse! Only one place in the house where it 'half' works. I don't believe this is progress...