All posts by Nick
Below are all of Nick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
We are on the east coast and regularly get our Sudbury signal, otherwise strong, wiped out by the Dutch under adverse atmospheric conditions, this can apply to all five channels at times. I am wondering if the Dutch will also knock out freeview when it arrives in July, as they doubtless will continue putting out their analogue on the same channels as our digital.
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Dear Brian,
Thank you for your comments. So the inerference we have had occasionally over the last few days on analogue is caused by Dutch digital. That is not a good sign for the hopes after switchover.It is not always herringbone, sometimes the signal gets weaker and weaker then almost disappears!
Looks like freesat is the way forward, which means a new tv and yet another box.
Please also comment on this point. I have looked at a number of flat tvs in shops. In general, I think the picture inferior to my old crt, whether on ordinary or HD. The exception is when they are showing, for example, a football match in HD or are showing something via dvd. HD on Eastenders etc seems pretty much the same as non HD, and worse that on my old tv.
Kind regards.
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Dear Brian,
A friend in Aldeburgh is currently on Sudbury and with good aerial and booster gets A1 reception even on C5, except when there is Dutch interference. Will the xmitter at Sudbury cover precisely the same area when digital or must we bite the bullet and switch to the Aldeburgh xmitter with its fewer channels? Incidentally, bedroom sets are on Aldeburgh, again on good aerial, but the Dutch even mess this up at times.
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Thank you for such a long and detailed answer. It is snow and near loss of picture. Seems like the dutch digital IS doing the damage to our analogue. I thought the path of digital meant it didn't bounce down.I suppose we will have to wait and see if their dig hits our dig.
please don't forget to comment about flat tvs, if that is in your remit.
Thanks again.
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Thank you once again, Brian.
As you can see, I am giving a lot of thought to going digital. A friend who works in the tv repair business tells me two freeview boxes in his house packed up within an hour of each other and he has experience of numerous others not lasting long. Is there any underlying reason for their unreliability, can it be power surges, can they be protected, are some more prone to pack up than others? I do not want to spend several hundred pounds on a freeview tv only for its tuner to pack up.
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Thank you for that, Brian. Are freeview boxes less reliable then, and why? Would it be any benefit to plug tvs and boxes into 4 gang surge protected extensions?
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Dear Brian,
Thank you once again. £20 is the most I have seen locally for a box, Labgear. Don't suppose you can recommend one?
Can we not switch them off when not watching? Pull the plug? Or would that cause other problems? Presumably the tuners in sets get a rest because we switch off the tv, so they last longer.
Best wishes,
Nick.
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Brian, you are being very good answering all these questions. I hope your answers are useful to others.
I assume you cannot recommend a box, but I have seen nothing other than cheap lately.
Sorry to be dense, but say you switch off the box overnight or even a couple of weeks when on holiday, would it not 'catch up' with the info it requires? After all, when they are in the box at the shop, they are not 'learning' anything.
Kind regards,
Nick
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Dear Brian,
I am still trying to work out what best to do when Sudbury goes digital in July in a coastal area which might suffer interference from Holland. I have a 'free' Sky box.
If I go for a freeview tv and suffer interference, I can watch on Sky, but for recording, in order to avoid interference, is there any reason I should not be able to record on a freesat box and watch the recordings on a freeview tv which has no freesat tuner? I do not want to have yet another box, ie freesat.
Can the freesat recorder use my Sky dish as well as Sky using it, or is connection difficult? Many thanks, Nick.
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Monday 24 January 2011 11:06PM
I see the power of the various channels from Sudbury are marked low or high. I see BBC1 is marked at above average at 7 kw yet ITV1 at 8.1 is low. Can you explain this?
I see Briantist was good enough to answer my query last Oct 26. But I still do not know whether when we go digital if the Dutch transmitters will continue to ruin our reception on the east coast as they do periodically in the summer on analogue.
Can you also please tell me where the signal is coming from for our DAB radio in the Woodbridge area?
Many thanks.