All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
lee: At least it is the PSBs are that are drowned out. If it were the COMs then you would probably have to go with Freesat.
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Keith: Looking at the channel allocations for the transmitters in the area, it would probably be easier and safer to manually tune them all, if possible.
Depending on the design of the receiver, if you manually tune to something that is already stored in the memory (i.e. in the 800s), it might do nothing because as far as it's concerned they are already stored.
If you go to the Digital UK tradeview, it gives you all the channel numbers from the stations in the area.
Chesterfield's channels are:
BBC 26
ITV1 23
HD 29
ITV3 43
Pick TV 46
Yesterday 40
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Symon Densham: Could you take the bedroom TV to the lounge and tune it in there? Then take it back to the bedroom and see if it works of the aerial outlet there.
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tracy, mike: The BBC reception website (accessed via www.bbc.co.uk/reception ) reports that the transmitter is off air from 09:35 which is as "Transmitter engineering" post above (it does say "BBC" in square brackets which I think means that's where it's been sourced from).
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Chris Gardiner: Arqiva B has been on low power from Sudbury since November and as a result has been difficult to pick up. Perhaps your signal level has dropped just below that which your receivers will work (perhaps due to some external change which is therefore likely to be beyond your control).
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ron ward: It already does. They were introduced at switchover.
Try manually tuning to UHF channel 29.
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Aileen: The channels you get are the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) ones and they include the BBC which is the recipient of the licence fee.
The other channels (those which don't broadcast from Long Mountain) operate on a commercial basis and choose which transmitter sites to broadcast from. They were invited to transmit from other sites and declined.
There is around 8% of the population that only get the PSBs. Roughly 90% of the population can get all channels. The cost to the commercial channels to cover that 8% will roughly double the cost of transmission.
The commercials show adverts and get revenue from the advertisers. The objective is the maximisation of profit whereas the PSBs are there to provide a universal service.
See here for a fuller explanation:
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
In some cases, people on these transmitters that only carry the PSBs might be able to receive from another station that does, although this will require another aerial.
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Sam: I gather that you are on Mendip (320 degrees, aerial horizontal).
The Digital UK predictor suggests that you might be able to receive from Rowridge PSBs after its switchover on 21st March. The COMs increase power on 18th April and might be available to you (I say might as the predictor suggests that they will be "poor").
Rowridge carries BBC South and ITV1 Meridian. If you wish to retain ITV West, you could retain your Mendip aerial and have it diplexed (combined) with one on Rowridge (assuming that Rowridge is feasible). If this causes issues with the EPG and recording (due to using channels from different transmitters), you could use Mendip as your main transmitter. Logical channel number (LCN) 1 could continue to be BBC One from Mendip, but have BBC One from Rowridge on another LCN for use specifically to view regional news. The procedure to do this will vary depending on the design of the receiver.
On the other hand, if you can get all channels from Rowridge (after 18th April) and wish to watch Meridian, then the Mendip aerial will probably be surplus to requirements (I would keep it as a back-up) and you will be able to use Rowridge for all channels. Or maybe you could get all of Rowridge's channels, but prefer ITV West, in which case you could switch over to Mendip for its local programming (assuming that you've had the aerials combined).
PSB="Public Service Broadcaster" which is BBC, ITV1, C4, C5, HD services and some others.
COM=Commercial channels (Dave, Film4, ITV3 etc)
See here for a full list of channels which shows which are PSBs and which are COMs (indicated by the heading above each table):
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
Treat the predictor as a guide and be mindful that the actual situation could differ. In particular, the prediction of poor reception of the Rowridge COMs could be as a result of Stockland Hill using the same three channels (but the same three as Rowridge PSBs). I'm not sure why it thinks that Rowridge's D3&4 (ITV1, C4 etc) on ch27 will also become poor on that date.
At the end of the day, only an aerial installer can tell you for definate what can and cannot be done. However, it does help to have done some research beforehand.
I would wait until 18th April before getting anyone in. That way they can look at what signal is actually available rather than trying to guess what might work when the signal level is boosted on that date.
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John Buchanan: I wonder what it does as far as automatic retuning is concered. It might not be retuning as such, but adding new services.
I can think of two possibilities:
1. The TV adds new services that are being broadcast by transmitters that you already have multiplexes stored for. Perhaps either that information is carried on those multiplexes (information about new services) or it does a scan through the band to see if there are new services available from the same transmitter(s), ignoring those that are from other transmitters.
2. The TV scans through the entire band and stores any signals from any transmitters that it has never stored before.
If it is 1, then you might get around it storing new Crystal Palace services (and those of other transmitting stations within range) by either preventing it from storing them when you do the auto tune scan or deleting them (if the receiver allows).
If it is 2, then disabling the auto service update might be your only option. However, if it puts new services in the 800s, this might not be such an issue, although I find that when mine does do this, I have to go through the menu to skip them so that from 728 upwards, the next logical channel is 1.
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Monday 23 January 2012 7:26PM
Alan Nock: See this page:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice