All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Anne billinge: The Leek transmitter does not carry the Commercial services which include ITV3, ITV4 and Film 4 as it is used by the Public Service Broadcasters only.
The Commercial broadcasters operate to make a profit with no "Public Service" requirement. They choose where to site their transmitters and do so in locations where they can get as many potential viewers for as little cost as possible.
They achieve a 90% coverage of the population by broadcasting from 81 of the largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). There are around 1,100 small "filler-in" relay transmitters such as the one in Leek. However, to transmit from all these sites would roughly double their cost of transmission whilst only adding 8.5% of the population to their potential viewer base.
For a more in-depth explanation, see Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The problem for you is that the hills are blocking reception from main stations such as Sutton Coldfield, which is why the Leek transmitter was installed.
Probably your only and best way of getting extra free to air channels is Freesat.
See here for a comparison:
Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
ITV3 is available on Freesat.
Dave and Yesterday are not.
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Nik: What is this subsidy that your refer to as paying? Is there a by-law in Bishops Castle that requires such a payment to be made?
A TV Licence is required by law to watch television services as they are broadcast. It does not guarantee receipt any signals.
However, the money from the TV Licence goes to the BBC and as a Public Service broadcaster, the BBC transmits Oakeley Mynd.
The Commercial broadcasters choose where to site their transmitters. The operate on a profit driven basis and have no "Public Service" obligation, unlike BBC, ITV1, C4 and C5. The cost for them to transmit from the remaining 1,000 or so relays would increase their potential viewer base by 8.5% of the population whilst requiring them to expend roughly the same amount as they have done to cover 90% of the population now. This is capitalism for you; if it isn't likely to generate a worthwhile return, then it won't get done.
So in areas where the Commercial broadcasters decide not to serve (such as yours), how does paying the same amount to the BBC (which does broadcast) amount to a subsidy when none of that revenue goes to the Commercial broadcasters???
I sympathise with your position and am concerned that the private interests of broadcasters are being allowed to affect the availability of services. The same is true in other areas such as postal services and telecommunications and is the case for broadly the same reasons.
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Mary Middleton: Prior to switchover, the digital signals were on lower power and hence weaker and there was therefore less places where they overlapped. It also meant that some areas weren't served, which is why the power of the signals had to go up. The problem of overlap and receivers picking up neighbouring transmitters was also present in the days of analogue.
It is more a case of how well a receiver deals with such a situation when it performs its automatic tuning procedure, which goes on to answer your next question. Some leave a lot to be desired and may have worked fine in the lab when presented with signals from one transmitter, but that's often not what it's like in the real world. The simplest scan the frequencies and use the first ones they find, putting any subsequent duplicates in the 800s. This is fine only in those locations where the desired transmitter is the first to be found (lowest frequencies out of all those present). Others go on strength and others seemingly have little logic attached to their decision process of which channels may be the "desired" ones.
Based on what you've said, your receiver does not even check to ensure that it is picking up all services from the same transmitter, even if it may not be the "right" one.
More recent sets are better and ask the user which "Region" they wish to use where multiple ones have been picked up. They are essentially asking "which set of channels from which transmitter do you want to use?" The transmitter is not identified by name, but by the principal area it serves. This should hopefully mean that all the main channels that it has stored are those of your chosen transmitter and the "others" will be put in the 800s.
Because of all of the above, I don't trust automatic tuning to pick up the right set of channels and always check that they are indeed coming from the desired transmitter (by checking the signal strength screen). When you repeatedly retuned, what was probably happening is that the procedure was picking the same signals to go with which, as it turns out, are wrong. So you (well your receiver was!) were probably achieving the same wrong result.
With any technical fault finding, there can be different causes for the fault. Moisture in the cable is one possibility, although due to the likelihood of the above, I would tend to check that everything is tuned correctly first.
Once you have it tuned correctly, then make a note of what you did. You may wish to print this out for future use if you have a printer.
If you continue to have issues with reception, then they will not be down to receiving signals that the aerial was not installed for. Therefore, the tuning is correct and should not be adjusted.
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sgk: The box is of no use after switchover.
The design did not extend to full compliance with the DVB-T specification which is what is used for standard definition broadcasts in the UK. It was only ever designed to work in 2k mode and not 8k mode.
The broadcasters or regulators don't offer any recompense to owners of devices that don't fully comply with the DVB-T specification.
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Pat Brock: If your daughter is using the Bishop's Stortford relay transmitter, then she will only get the Public Service channels which are BBC TV and radio, ITV1, ITV1+1, ITV2, Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4, More 4, Channel 5 and the four HD channels.
BBC One should be tuned to C59 and ITV1 to C55 for this transmitter which is located on the Raynham Road Industrial Estate. This information is usually given on the signal strength screen.
If this isn't right, then run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged and plug in at 60% (or around UHF Channel 50). This should avoid the receiver picking up signals from other transmitters.
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Brian O'Keefe: Oh dear. If you intend to fix it yourself, then I recommend looking at www.aerialsandtv.com
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Pat Brock: Yes, a receiver "can" tune BBC and ITV from different transmitters, but it is usually the case that one transmitter is used for all channels. Where this happens, then one (or both) must be tuned incorrectly (tuned to the wrong transmitter). This is liable to result in poor or intermittent reception due to the fact that signal being received does not come from the direction to which the aerial faces.
HD services from Bishop's Stortford transmitter are on C50, so if it's not a HD receiver, then it won't find anything, even if there is a signal present.
What your daughter needs to establish is what transmitter is the aerial points to. Crystal Palace is a bit clockwise of south and aerials are horizontal (elements flat).
For Bishop's Stortford relay transmitter, aerials are vertical (elements up/down) and will be pointing in the direction of Raynham Road Industrial Estate.
For ITV1, C4 etc from Crystal Palace, tune to C26.
A full factory reset "may" be necessary. Some devices remember remnants of previous configurations which could conflict now things have changed at switchover.
If it is Crystal Palace, then all its channels are low down (in the 20s). So when the automatic tuning scan is run, all its channels will be picked up in the first 30%, so unplug the aerial lead once it's passed that point as there's nothing else to pick up.
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Pat Brock: Is it a fixed aerial that your daughter is using and is there a booster plugged in?
If there is a booster and it was needed prior to switchover, then I think that it is likely that the aerial points to Crystal Palace. Remove the booster as it could be causing the problem.
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Big Mart: I don't know whether this has been raised, but where HDMI leads run near to aerial leads, they can degrade the signal. The same goes for USB leads near to aerial leads.
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Saturday 28 April 2012 12:35PM
Briantist: There are some pages which appear to have the comments turned off, yet there is a box to make a comment.
I've just posted on this page but the comment is not showing:
Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The comment I made was the fact that "ITV3 (CI)" is showing as being available on Freesat but not full Freeview. I gather this has something to do with ITV3 being available on PSB2 on the Channel Islands.