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All posts by Dave Lindsay

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


Jon D: As a test to see what transmitters you could be picking up in your area, I put the postcode for Cineworld in Stevenage into the Digital UK Tradeview predictor:

Postcode Checker - Trade View

As I suspected, Crystal Palace may be coming in strong in your area now that it has switched over (which it did so on Wednesday).

Confirm where the erroneous BBC One and ITV1 channels are coming from. Do this by going to them and bringing up the signal strength screen. Most receivers give the UHF channel number (equivalent to frequency) that it is tuned to. If BBC One is on C23 and ITV1 on C26 then those signals are coming from Crystal Palace. You then know what you're trying to avoid when the device goes through its scan.

Unfortunately the signals from Crystal Palace are all in the 20s, as are the Public Service channels from Sandy Heath. The Commercial channels (ITV3, Pick TV, Yesterday etc) from Sandy are in the 40s and 50s (except for one which I changes on 9th May and for which you will have to retune for).

Refer to "After switchover configuration" on this page Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

The programme channels are broadcast in groups known as multiplexes.


Now, what I would do in your situation, if it turns out that the erroneous BBC and ITV signals are from Crystal Palace is to run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial lead unplugged up until 50%. This should give you ArqA (Pick TV etc) and ArqB (Yesterday) which are on 52 and 48 respectively. When you do this after 9th May it will also give you SDN (ITV3) which will then be on 51.

Having done this, then go to manual tune (if your receiver has this function) and manually add the missing multiplexes. BBC A (BBC One etc) is on C27 and D3&4 (ITV1 etc) is on C24. If the receiver has HD, then you need to manually tune to C21 for HD channels.

Finally, as SDN is presently on C31, manually add it. This will move to C51 on 9th May.

If this is a suitable workaround, then make a note of it should you need to retune at a later date.

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Diagnostics - old version
Sunday 22 April 2012 4:03PM

Cornelia: Unfortunately that set (or both sets as you have given two model numbers) is on the Digital UK list of 2k equipment which means that it won't work after switchover:

http://www.digitaluk.co.u…ment

2k mode was used before switchover and after switchover signals use 8k mode. These models will only work in 2k mode.

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Indoor aerials | Installing
Sunday 22 April 2012 4:35PM

Charlie: Based on the results of the Digital UK Tradeview predictor, it's not very likely that you might receive these channels from any transmitter. Indoor aerials are less sensitive and in environments where the signals aren't as strong, so I think that it's a fair summing up to say that you would have to have a roof aerial to receive the additional channels, if indeed you could ever pick them up.

It's profit driven companies I'm afraid. They operate on a profit basis and not as a Public Service which is what you get now.

See here for an explanation:

Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

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Paul Murphy: There are different regions for ITV1+1, thus the multiplex that it is carried on must have different regional variants.

The SDN Commercial multiplex which carries ITV3 has two variants: Wales and everywhere except Wales. Putting ITV1+1 on it would mean quite a few more variants would be needed, pushing up costs.

Also, I expect that consideration will have been given to what will bring in the most revenue from advertising.

I wouldn't waste my time writing to anyone; it is as it is. It looks as though you will have to go down the Freesat route if you want these extra channels.

There are some differences between Freesat and full Freeview:

Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

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doroten: Please can you tell us the make and model of the device in question? There is an issue with some tuners where they cannot receive Mux D (aka COM6 aka "ArqB") from Crystal Palace.

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Dee Tee: This is usually caused by not enough memory to store the channel information. Fear not, because it is usually the case that the receiver stores channels as it finds them. So where it finds channels from other transmitters and then the desired one last, the memory has been filled with those of the undesired transmitters. That is the desired one uses the highest frequencies (the scan goes from low frequency to high frequency).

If you let me know where you are and what transmitter you are using, I should be able to suggest a workaround to prevent it from storing the channels from other transmitters.

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Andrew: Knowledge of your location would be helpful. If you are close to a high power transmitter, then the problem could be that your receiver is being overwhelmed by the signal going into it.

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threewheels: As I suspected; it is one of the devices that will not receive signals with negative offsets which are in 8k mode:

http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf

The only change after 4th April was the BBC multiplex.

The multiplex on channel 28 is in fact 28- which means that it is a bit lower than 28. After switchover, all signals use 8k mode rather than 2k mode which they used before switchover.

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Dee Tee: Well I was thinking that you had a transmitter that used high frequencies, but Crystal Palace is not.

A link to the user manual is here:

26PFL5522D/05 Philips widescreen flat TV 26PFL5522D 66 cm (26") LCD integrated digital with Digital Crystal Clear - Philips Support

Try running the automatic tuning scan again with the aerial unplugged. Once this has completed check that no services are stored. The reason I say check no services are stored is because, some devices, having found nothing during a scan (which it won't do because the aerial is out), continue with the list of channels they had before the scan.

Then run it again with the aerial plugged in up to 30% then unplug the aerial until the scan is complete. Then see if it has rectified the issue.

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John Cook: The answer to your question is that you won't which is why they advised you not to retune!

You started off with one problem; picture break-up or no signal. Now you have two potential problems: picture break-up/no signal and the set not being tuned.

Digital UK publishes engineering works at www.digitaluk.co.uk/engineeringworks

Rowridge digital TV is currently "liable to interruption".

If you have a manual tune option, then try using it. Refer to the Rowridge page for details of UHF channel numbers.

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