All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mike: When you are tuning your Samsung TV you are either tuning terrestrial television ("Freeview") for which you need an aerial connected, or, satellite ("Freesat") for which you need a satellite dish connected. A model number would allow me to say which.
In order to watch your V+ Box via the scart, you don't need to tune your TV. Usually scart connected devices automatically "seize" the TV, meaning that the TV automatically switches to the scart input. Alternatively, you can switch to the scart input using the appropriate button which is often a picture of a TV with an arrow pointing inwards or a circle with an arrow pointing inwards (or "AV" or "Ext").
If your V+ box is a HD one (I'm not familiar with these devices) and your TV is a HD one, then you will need to connect using a HDMI lead in order to watch programmes from the V+ Box in high definition.
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Trev: At 9 miles, with clear line of sight (from the roof-top at least, assuming no local obstructions), you could well be suffering from too high a signal level.
See here:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
At this stage I wouldn't plump for replacing the coax. I suggest that you turn the booster down to its lowest setting. The objective is NOT to get the signal strength as near 100% as possible! (see the above link)
If the problem isn't solved by turning down the booster, try this: As you have multiple outlets fed from your booster, I suggest that you disconnect the booster (to test), connecting the incoming aerial directly to a feeds to the one wall socket. You might need an adapter to do this, e.g. a female to female F-connector (I suggest that such an adapter is a useful tool for fault-finding at times like this).
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brogon: Whereabouts are you? A post code would be of help.
What is the signal quality like? 69% signal strength is perfectly fine providing that it is 100% quality. It is the quality that dictates the picture quality.
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steve: For lots of information, see ATV Sheffield's website: www.aerialsandtv.com
The Digital UK coverage predictor will give you some idea. If you go to the Digital UK website and enter your post code and house number and tick the box that says that you're in the trade and it will give an idea of the likely chance of success. Local obstructions will affect reception but they won't be taken into account by the predictor.
If possible, you probably need to try and receive from Winter Hill (to your west) as it broadcasts all the services. Littleborough (to your east) relays only the Public Service Broadcaster multiplexes (BBC, ITV1, ITV2, C4, E4, More4, C5 and a few others).
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Maureen McCann: Based on the Digital UK predictor, it's probably Heathfield you're receiving from. Hastings isn't mentioned by it, so you probably could't get anything useful from it at your location.
Heathfield is at 347 degrees which is a bit anti-clockwise from north. Heathfield's signals are horizontally polarised, so you aerial will be as well (i.e. aerial elements will be horizontal rather than vertical).
I suggest (no one can be 100%) that you have all you need. Come 30th May you will get BBC standard channels in digital and then two weeks later the rest will become available to you.
BTW, HD ready usually means that the TV can show HD pictures, but does not have the means to receive them itself.
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Carl Hudson: TV signals behave like light. So as you move around, you could be relfecting and refracting them or you could blocking a reflection which was aiding reception. These are why the roof-top is the best place for a TV aerial.
If you every tried using a set-top aerial with analogue TV you will have seen these effects. As people move around the room the picture changed.
The effect of these things on digital signals is that the picture is lost (or breaks up). Indeed, with digital most effects appear to manifest themselves as poor signal. So it might be that you have too many reflections at one particular point (i.e. with the aerial in one position) which means that the TV shows no signal. In the days of analogue, you might have had a picture that consisted of badly ghosted images which would have been something to go on.
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brian falshaw: The likely answer is never as the other channels operate on a commercial basis. Broadcasting from the 1,000 or so small relays would roughly double the cost of transmission but will only allow an extra 8% of the population to watch.
See here for a fuller explanation:
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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Blackcat: I am thinking that it might be an issue with the aerial system; not a fault, but due to different frequencies being used that weren't used before.
Is this a block of flats with a single aerial or do you have an aerial each? The latter is unlikely.
The multiplexes (groups of programme channels), e.g. COM4 and COM5 each have their own frequency. With TV, we usually refer to the frequencies as (UHF) channels 21 to 69 (not to be confused with logical channel numbers on a TV, 1=BBC1, 2=BBC2 etc).
Analysis of what Tacolneston used before switchover and what it uses now shows that COM4 and COM5 are on two channels that are a bit lower down than those used before switchover.
Pre-switchover, the five UHF channels used for analogue were 62, 55, 59, 65, 52 and the six digital ones were 63, 60, 53, 58, 61, 64.
Post-switchover, the six digital channels are (in order) 55, 59, 62, 42, 45, 50.
COM4 and COM5 are on Ch42 and Ch45 respectively, which is lower than those used before switchover. I suggest that this could be an explanation for the cause of your problem.
Your aerial system might have been set-up to allow the frequencies used previously through (from the aerial to your aerial socket).
If it is the aerial system that is not supplying the COM4 and COM5 signals to tennants, then only adjustment of the system will fix the problem and that is the responsibility of the landlord rather than the tennant.
Whether the above hypothesis is the reason for the problem is probably largely irrelevant as far as tennants are concerned. The responsibility probably lies with the landlord.
You could ask your neighbours if they have the same issue.
I also suggest that you try manually tuning in these two multiplexes (if your box allows manual tuning).
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Alan Nicholson: I'm not familiar with these devices, but if I were you, I would remove the scart lead (from the VM box) that goes into AV2 of the DVD player and plug it directly into the TV.
If there is sound, then you know that sound is coming down the lead from the VM box. If there is no sound, then you know that the problem lies with the VM box not outputting it.
Another thought. I wonder what would happen if (as a test) you got rid of the HDMI cable and connected DVD player and TV with a scart (and put the lead from the VM box back into AV2). Can you hear the sound from the VM box with that setup?
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Friday 30 December 2011 6:56PM
Al: The reason for this is because the commercial channels that don't broadcast from Perth relay transmitter choose where they wish (to pay to) broadcast from. With the 80-odd largest transmitters they serve around 90% of the population.
The additional cost to broadcast from the 1,000 or so "filler-in" relay transmitters would roughly double the cost of transmission. Because they operate on a commercial basis, they have decided not to do this.
See here for a fuller explanation:
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The main option you have is Freesat.