All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Luke: HD are Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) services and are therefore available everywhere that Freeview is available. Their coverage isn't limited like the commercial channels such as Dave and Film4.
| link to this comment |
Mike Clarke: Freeview services are broadcast as part of multiplexes or baskets that carry a number of services. So if, for example, BBC One is poor, then it would be expected that BBC Two is exactly the same. There are six multiplexes (including the HD one) and the services you have referred to all come from the same multiplex: SDN.
Oxford transmits Central programming. If you are receiving from Oxford, then you should be aware that its commercial multiplexes, which includes SDN, are on low power until 18th April.
If, one the other hand, you are receiving London programming, then it must be coming from Crystal Palace which is in the opposite direction to Oxford. The predictor does suggest that SDN from Crystal Palace might not be as good as the others, so perhaps that explains it.
Either way, the strength of the signal is not as great as it will be when everything has switched over, so it is worth bearing in mind that this could be the source of your problem.
| link to this comment |
jim: Go through the menu to the manual tuning facility (assuming that you have one). Manually tune to channel 57.
| link to this comment |
Alan Bird: They are not the same. See this page for a comparison:
Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
Some channels are on the full Freeview service but not on Freesat. If you receive your TV only from the transmitter in Leek, then you will not get the full range of Freeview channels.
| link to this comment |
Hugh Jones: Switchover has not happened yet for the London region. Assuming that you can receive the four analogue channels from Crystal Palace now, then come April you will get the digital channels from there.
| link to this comment |
Robert: The COMs from Oxford are on low power until 18th April.
Once it has been established that they are tuned correctly, then don't retune as nothing positive can come from it.
| link to this comment |
George Potter: Run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged for the first 25% so it misses out Belmont.
Note that Burnham only provides the Public Service Broadcaster channels (BBC TV & radio, ITV1, ITV2, C4, E4, More4, C5, HD and a few others). Thus, if you get the commercial channels which includes ITV3, Pick TV and Yesterday then you must be getting them from somewhere else such Belmont.
| link to this comment |
Diana Daly: Finding services in the 800s is usually as a result of more than one transmitter being picked up. So BBC One from one transmitter will go in number 1 and the other will be put in the 800s. However, (based on the output of Digital UK predictor), I'm not convinced that this is the case here.
The most striking thing is the close proximity to the transmitter. The poor reception on BBC might be as a result of too much signal. See here for an explanation:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
Try using the other aerial. Having got the TV/box tuned in correctly, if you connect it up to the other aerial and find reception is poor, don't retune because this proves that it is an aerial problem. By problem I suggest that it is too higher signal level, and therefore requires attenuation.
You say that the family room and sitting room use the same aerial. If the signal is split with a powered booster/amplifier, replace it with an unpowered splitter.
An amplifier makes the signal bigger, whereas an attenuator makes it smaller. There's little point in having both because one acts to cancel the other out. You may find that an unpowered splitter brings the signal level down far enough to be within that which your TV/box will function satisfactorily.
| link to this comment |
Gaby: The commercial multiplexes from Oxford are on low power until 18th April so as to avoid interfering with another transmitter that has yet to switch. Until then you will just have to bear with it.
| link to this comment |
Thursday 2 February 2012 5:52PM
vicki: The story about not getting Channel 5 sounds like some old wives' tale! Channel 5 on analogue was broadcast not from Rowridge, but from the power station at Fawley and this closed on 25th March 2009.
Whilst no guarantees can be made, and set-top aerials aren't ideal, if you can see Rowridge then you should be in with an excellent change of reception; no need for a booster, even now! If it's a variable booster, turn it right down to its minimum setting.
If you get the four analogue channels now, then you should be OK for getting digital.
Do you get the analogue channels? If so, put one of them on and move your aerial to get the best signal. Then connect the aerial (without moving it) to the digital box.
Then try tuning in the digital signal.
If the box has a manual tuning facility, then use it. You need to add the following channels using the manual facility: 34, 32, 30, 28, 37, 33
If you have a roof-top aerial, then use it to tune in the TV and then revert back to the set-top one once you've tuned it.