All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Brian Smith: Payment of the TV Licence does not guarantee availability of signals on any particular platform.
BBC One Scotland is available via satellite, across the UK, and from terrestrial transmitters in Scotland. Depending on location, it may be possible to receive from one of these transmitters.
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Brian Smith: See: BBC Scotland | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
The signal may be receivable outside the green area (coverage maps being rough guides).
However, it would appear that the main reason that Selkirk transmitter cannot be received across a larger portion of the North East is because the Cheviot Hills are in the way.
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Ali Mohammed: Remove the splitter and connect the feed to one TV directly to the RF2 output. Then view the TV and see if it has improved the picture. Then do the same for the other TV. This test is to see if splitting the signal makes it too weak.
Alternatively, it could be because there is a broadcast signal (Freeview) on the same UHF channel (frequency), or nearby channel. If you remove the incoming aerial lead (from the Sky box) and observe the poor picture improving then you know that there is a digital (Freeview) signal that is interfering.
The instructions for changing the RF out channel are at the top of this page. Knowledge of your location, preferably in the form of postcode (or nearby postcode such as that of a shop), will allow us to suggest channel(s) that might work.
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S Thorp: If you receive from the Shatton Edge transmitter then the answer is no.
If you can receive from another (full-service) transmitter then you will be able to watch all the Commercial channels, including ITV4.
Failing that, satellite is probably your only way, Freesat being a popular free-to-air service that will give you ITV4.
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S Thorp: If you live at Bamford in the valley-bottom then I don't think you have any chance of receiving directly from Emley Moor (so as to pick-up all the channels).
Bamford Moor is less than a mile away and nearly 300m higher. There is even higher ground beyond that.
Freesat may be the way to go.
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Michael Perry: The only thing I can say is that you are not alone!
Out of interest, do you know if your reception of C48 (COM4: ITV3 etc) degraded when the change happened? Some people have difficulty with this now when they didn't before.
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Emma: See page 158 of the manual. It says that to reset it, turned it on and remove any disc that may be in the drive. Then hold down the Stop button on the recorder and press the power/standby button. Then power on and it should be reset.
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Wendy; Manny: The Commercial (COM) networks don't have as great a coverage as the Public Service (PSB) channels. Even for transmitters that broadcast the COMs, some viewers will be without, or may find that they are intermittant.
Unfortunately, I think you might fall into the intermittant bracket. You may or may not be lucky and be able to make adjustment to your aerial to give more reliable reception, but nothing is guaranteed. Only time would tell if it was successful.
One possibility is that you give up striving for (good) reception of the COMs and reluctantly accept that you can only receive the PSBs.
If you don't have a satellite receiver you may consider getting Freesat which is a free-to-air service. A comparison of full Freeview versus Freesat is here:
Freeview/Freesat | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
A full list of Freeview services by PSB/COM multiplex is here:
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
The reason for the inferior COM coverage is as follows (this is the long answer):
The COM channels from Durris are at lower transmission power to the PSBs. The COM channels are co-channel (same frequencies) with the PSBs of Knockmore; the PSBs are not. So the reason for the lower power COMs is because the channels are 're-used' in much closer proximity. This is common for all COM transmitters.
For that reason you could either be suffering due to the lower power COMs, or you could be picking up interference from Knockmore, or it could be a bit of both. Indeed, how much signal (interference) travels to you from Knockmore is likely to vary over time. Maybe it will be seasonal due to what is on the terrain changing over time.
You may be able to reposition your aerial to somewhere that the interference from Knockmore isn't as great (assuming this to be the cause). For example, putting it onto one side of the house or using a tree as a shield. A different aerial may improve matters. However, it could be something that keeps re-occurring as factors outside your control change (that is the factors that are causing the Knockmore signal to travel more and/or the Durris COMs not to be as good).
As I say, you may have to give up striving for (good) reception of the COMs and reluctantly accept that you can only receive the PSBs.
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Wendy; Manny: I should add that if interference from Knockmore is the cause then it would be expected that the strength doesn't vary but that the quality does. That is, the signal is still of the same strength but the quality isn't there.
If this isn't the case then maybe it isn't interference from Knockmore, but poor signal from Durris. Maybe adjustment to your aerial (which may include replacement) may help.
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Wednesday 3 April 2013 10:54AM
Emma: I have one of those machines myself.
If it is tuned to a particular UHF channel and that channel is changed on the signal strength screen (as you are doing), it reverts back or otherwise doesn't display. I tried this at switchover (when channels changed), before having to do a full retune.
You need to go to the menu: Initial Setup > Digital Tuner > Replace Channels. This (apparently) wipes the memory and starts again.
If it's reverting to C61 for BBC, then this implies Mendip was tuned before as that it what channel it used prior to Wednesday.