All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Tom Smith: See:
ITV1+1, ITV1HD, BBC One HD regional services on Freeview | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
| link to this comment |
nc: According to the user manual, you need to press "Input Sel." to select the appropriate Scart input (from the TV).
The tuner is analogue only and so is therefore of no use now, so there is no point in looping the aerial lead through it (except for where you watch the output of the Samsung via the aerial lead rather than Scart lead). Autosetup is therefore a waste of time as it won't find anything.
| link to this comment |
nc: A digital box will allow you to record, although it requires the digital box to be turned on and set to the desired channel *and* the Samsung to be on.
| link to this comment |
Derek: Try manually tuning if your receiver allows.
For Sandy Heath they are 27, 24, 21 (HD), 51, 52, 48
Unfortunately Crystal Palace's channels are in the 20s, so there is no workaround with unplugging the aerial during the scanning of its channels.
Ideally, wipe what's stored and add the five (or six if it's HD) channels. Simply manually tuning without clearing what's already there may achieve nothing as these channels will probably be stored in the 800s, and therefore when they are manual tuned, the TV may consider that they are already stored.
If you would like some more help/pointers with this, let us know what make and model you are using.
| link to this comment |
Jim Cassidy: See the posting immediately above yours from "Transmitter engineering" which says that over the next week digital TV will be "liable to interruption". I expect that they are carrying out engineering work in preparation for switchover.
| link to this comment |
Nicky: The 40BL702B model does not have a built-in HD tuner. The specifications say DVB-T only, which is what standard definition broadcasts use. High definition broadcasts use DVB-T2.
| link to this comment |
Nicky: "HD Ready" is term that is attributed to TVs that can show HD pictures but do not have the means to receive them off the air. So they need a separate box to receive the HD signal and have it fed in using a HDMI lead.
"Full HD" means that it will show HD pictures in the highest resolution, which is 1080p. It does not give any qualification to receipt of signals over the air.
"Freeview HD" means that the TV has the means to receive HD signals (as well as show them).
I think that you have interpretted the inclusion of the "Full HD" log and the absence of the "HD Ready" one as meaning that it is "Freeview HD" when it is not. I think that this could be made much clearer.
There is a further confusion and that is the simple fact that these TVs carry the "Freeview" logo. One may assume that a "Freeview" and "Full HD" TV is a "Freeview HD" model when that is not necessarily the case.
| link to this comment |
Jon: It may be worth pointing out that before switchover, Hannington didn't throw out the same level of signal all the way around. In your general direction it was lower so as to protect against interfering with those receiving from Guildford as it used the same channels up to its switchover last month.
Consequently, the much greater marked difference in pre-switchover and post-switchover signal strengths on your side of the transmitter. This could mean that where an aerial system was installed to pick up the pre-switchover signals, it is now too sensitive for the post-switchover signals and is therefore providing too much signal to tuners that are connected.
| link to this comment |
jacqui: Before switchover the Wrexham Rhos transmitter did not carry Freeview. This means that you must have been receiving it from another transmitter that did. Furthermore, it is likely that the transmitter that you were receiving from was in its pre-switchover mode and therefore lower transmission power (and hence weaker signals) than it uses now (after switchover).
All transmitters that provided Freeview signals before switchover provide the full range of channels after switchover. Ones that did not provide any Freeview before switchover (such as Rhos) broadcast only Public Service channels after switchover (they are sometimes described as "Freeview Lite"/"Freeview Light" transmitters). I assume that you only have the Public Service channels tuned which provides the following services (in Wales): BBC, ITV1, ITV1+1, ITV2, Channel 4, Channel 4+1, S4C, More 4, Channel 5 and the four HD services.
Without knowing your exact location, it is difficult to be quite certain, but in your general area, signals from the Winter Hill transmitter come in well. Winter Hill situated near Bolton and is the main transmitter that serves a large area of North West England. Due to the topography, it be can picked up in parts of North Wales.
What I suggest that you do is attempt tuning of the Commercial channels (the ones that aren't broadcast from Rhos) from Winter Hill. What you do is dependent on the design of your receiver:
1. If it allows manual tuning, then try tuning to UHF channels (equivalent to frequencies) 58, 61 and 55 which are those which Winter Hill broadcasts the Commercial services on.
2. If it does not have manual tuning, then what you can do is more limited. Run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged up to 60% if its scale shows percentage progress (or if it gives UHF channels as it is scanning, plug it in at C50).
The objective here is to avoid picking up signals from Rhos (which are lower than 60%) and scan Winter Hill channels. This will obviously give you BBC North West and ITV1 Granada from Winter Hill, but the point is more as a test to see what can be received from Winter Hill. See if ITV3, Pick TV and Yesterday are present on logical channel numbers 10, 11 and 12 respectively. For each, bring up the signal strength screen and check to see what UHF channel they are each tuned to. They should read 58, 61 and 55 respectively if they are from Winter Hill.
It may be that the Commercial channels can no longer be picked up with your aerial as it is due to the change in transmission mode which will have a detrimental affect in poor reception circumstances. The fact that your aerial is pointing in the wrong direction and is vertical, whereas Winter Hill's signals are horizontal is clearly reducing your chances.
The objective of the above is to see whether you can pick up some level of service on the Commercial channels (those that you're missing), if for whatever reason, the automatic tuning is missing them out, what with the signals from Rhos presumably being a lot stronger.
If you didn't follow the above, then in short, you "may" be able to receive all Freeview channels and Wales regional programming with a second aerial, probably on Winter Hill.
With the above, I can probably be more specific with knowledge of the make and model of device that you are using, along with your location, preferably in the form of a post code or nearby post code (e.g. shop).
| link to this comment |
Sunday 20 May 2012 12:08PM
Steve: The problem is that the Commercial channels are lower power horizontally. This is higher than all channels were before switchover, but the neighbouring high power Public Service channels (BBC, ITV1, C4, C5 etc) will be acting to desensitise your tuner, thus making it less sensitive to the (relatively) weaker ones.
See here:
ITV 3 | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The solution most likely to cure it is to switch your aerial to vertical polarisation.
Or attenuation "may" improve matters.