All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
tim: Sounds like the signal strength could be too high which is overwhelming your receiver:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
Try connecting a set-top aerial. Or if the aerial plug is a screwed together one (i.e. not a moulded on type) then unscrew and remove the outer part of the plug and insert only the centre pin into the aerial socket. See if these improve matters.
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Big Mart: Perhaps one of the pros could step in as I'm not sure what else to suggest...except for wondering if it could be signal overload (with the effects showing on some channels more than on others):
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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tim: The likely reason that you were in an area with no signal is not because you have poor line of sight to the transmitter, but because the transmitter was not radiating an omnidirectionally. That is it was outputting a much weaker signal to its east side.
Now the signals are omnidirectional. So you have gone from being in a "very very low/non-existant" to "very high" signal area. This is quite an increase.
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jan: Without knowing what it is tuned to, I cannot be certain whether the unplugging aerial trick will work. However, it is quite common in the Brighton/Worthing area to pick up the signals from Rowridge, even for aerials which face Whitehawk.
There is a simple workaround for this problem and that is keep the aerial unplugged for the first 50% of the scan.
Before you do this, I would investigate what you have at the moment. If it turns out that you are tuned to Whitehawk's signals, then retuning won't make any difference as the problem lies elsewhere.
For each of the following, bring up the signal strength screen and check to see which UHF channel it is tuned to.
BBC One WH=C60 RR=C24
ITV1 WH=C53 RR=C27
BBC One HD (if applicable) WH=C51 RR=C21
ITV3 WH=57 RR=25
Pick TV WH=56 RR=22
Yesterday WH=C48 RR=28
WH=Whitehawk, RR=Rowridge
There are other possible transmitters that you could be picking up, these being low power ones serving small areas. Without knowledge of your location, assessment of candidates cannot be made. Rowridge is most likely as it overlaps a wider area.
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Charlie: The licence fee doesn't guarantee reception of any channels, let alone availability of BBC services over the air.
There are two main types of broadcaster in the UK: Public Service and Commercial.
The Public Service broadcasters are the BBC, regional Channel 3 licencees (ITV, STV and UTV), Channel 4 and Channel 5.
The Public Service broadcasters operate to provide a service. Per viewer, operation of the small "filler in" relay transmitters such as Wooburn and Marlow Bottom are greater than the main transmitters that cover large areas. We know this because that is why the Commercial broadcasters don't entertain them.
Unlike the Public Service operators, the Commercial ones' primary interest is to turn a profit. The Commercial broadcasters therefore operate using the free market model. Just like any business, they are free to decide where they wish to broadcast from. The same is true of any shop that is open for business; it will do so where it is likely to be the most profitable.
You have said that you think that you should pay less because you get less channels. In response I make some points and ask some questions:
1. The Licence Fee goes to the BBC and you have the BBC available to you as it is a Public Service broadcaster.
2. Why should the BBC receive less from you due to the decision by the Commercial broadcasters not to follow the "Public Service" lead?
3. Why should those who can receive the Commercial channels pay more to the BBC?
As you prefer the model of paying for what you get, you should in fact pay more. This is the free market model.
The cost per viewer of running your transmitter is higher, therefore you should pay more than those that receive from high power transmitters.
Democracy could then be introduced in that the local population could have a vote on whether they wish to have the Commercial operators broadcast from their transmitter. This, of course, would mean viewers in the area paying more for their licence so as to subsidise the financially unviable transmitter for Commercial operators (if the vote was in favour).
I think that the benefits of the "Public Service" mantra are clear to see. I would not attack it simply because the Commercial networks do not mirror them from a coverage point of view.
I sympathise and am concerned about the way in which things are going. There are similar issues in terms of coverage with telecommunications and postal services.
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Martin Curtis: The Henley relay transmitter is never likely to broadcast them. However, if you are in a location where you can receive from Crystal Palace, then you will probably be able to get the Commercial channels. The Digital UK Tradeview predictor suggests that this may be possible, although an exact answer can only be determined by an installer testing the signal strengths whilst on site.
For an explanation, see
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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Big Mart: I think it might be possible to have overload at that distance. This is more likely the bigger (higher the gain) of the aerial as by definition they pull in more signal.
There is no need to check out 118 channels!
They are transmitted in groups known as multiplexes; see "After switchover configuration" here:
Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
There are six multiplexes (including one for HD) so you only need to look at one service from each. I would focus on the first from each: BBC One, ITV1, BBC One HD, ITV3, Pick TV and Yesterday.
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Ray: The power of the Commercial (COM) multiplexes, SDN, ArqA and ArqB are 50kW horizontal and 200kW vertical. The Public Service ones are 200kW horizontally and vertically.
Your issue isn't forced to be weak signal. It could be interference from another transmitter such as Crystal Palace which is co-channel for the COMs. The difference is that Crystal Palace only transmits horizontally, so you will probably be best advised to switch your aerial to vertical.
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Dee Tee: Thanks for posting this. It sounds as though you may have been given a way of resetting it to factory status.
It could be that there were some remnants in the memory of the channels pre-switchover that was conflicting with the current post-switchover channels and that only carrying out this procedure clears.
I will refer others with this and similar Philips models to your posting should they have the same issue.
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Monday 23 April 2012 11:51AM
john mcmanus: The transmission power of ArqB from Midhurst will increase to its full final power on Wednesday. There is no channel change, so if your receiver has picked it up and put it in its services in its listings, then you will not have to retune.