All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I should add that the situation with the commercial multiplexes will change on 18th April and they will switch to using their final switchover antenna.
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Tim Searle: The "FEC" (forward error correction) of the commercial multiplexes from Emley Moor was changed on 31st January. I haven't had any issues using the said transmitter.
I'm not an expert on these things, but I can only wonder if your tuner has stored the FEC mode being used and is therefore expecting it as it was prior to the change.
The technical explanation is that the capacity has been increased the equivalent of two shopping channels.
Some receivers are easier to tune that others. There are quite a few transmitters that you could pick up when auto-tuning:
Postcode Checker - Trade View
Running the automatic tuning with the aerial unplugged might wipe it. I did this with one box and it didn't wipe anything!
If this is the case, the work-around might be to get it to tune in one of the multiplexes (using the automatic tuning sequence) by having the aerial unplugged for most of the scan except the target multiplex.
Looking at the list of transmitters on Digital UK Trade View predictor, try to pick up Ch51 (or Ch52). Then manually add the rest.
Some receivers will give the UHF channel numbers as they scan them. If it's a percentage only scale, then calculate it on the basis that it starts at channel 21 and goes up to channel 68.
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Ian: Yes, the power increase at switchover should hopefully change reception from being "iffy" to being solid.
If the transmitter that the aerial is facing is Rowridge on Isle of Wight then it will transmit signals horizontally (as now) and vertically. However, the power of the commercial (COM) multiplexes will be lower for horizontal polarisation and will match that of the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) multiplexes for vertical polarisation.
The PSBs will be the same power horizontally and vertically and this will be to provide coverage equivalent to the current analogue (and so that aerials shouldn't need adjusting for reception of PSB services).
So if reception issues are found picking up the COMs, then switching the aerial from horizontal to vertical might help.
It will not be until 18th April that the COMs will move to their final channels at their final powers (and when their vertical signal will be introduced), so if issues are found before then, it might be best to wait until that date before considering whether the aerial needs adjusting (or replacing).
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Nikki Halsall: The TV and PVR use Freeview signals in the same way.
100% signal strength could indicate that the strength is too high which is causing quality issues. This could be caused by an amplifier/booster and/or an OTT aerial pulling in too much signal.
See here for a further explanation and possible solutions:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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Jeff Rees: Nothing has happened with Rowridge that I know of. Could it have been, and could it perhaps continue to be the case that your TVs have tuned to Hannington? The reason I suggest this as a possibility is because its first stage of switchover occurred on Wednesday, at which point most BBC channels changed channel and increased in power.
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Michael: What frequencies (UHF channels) the box needs tuning to depends on the transmitter to which the aerial faces. If it is the same transmitter, then there is no retuning to be done.
If it is connected to a different aerial on a different transmitter, then you can find the channels used by transmitters that serve your area by clicking the Digital UK Tradeview link next to your posting.
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J Alder: Which channels are causing the issue?
If your aerial is facing Winter Hill, then you could have picked up the Congleton relay which is mounted on the water tower.
This transmitter only carries the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) services which are BBC, ITV1, ITV2, C4, E4, More4, C5, HD and a few others. If these are the only affected ones, perhaps the receivers have tuned to it instead of Winter Hill.
To find out, bring up BBC One and go to the signal strength screen. Winter Hill is on channel 62 and Congleton is on channel 44. If this doesn't match the direction the aerial is facing, then that's the problem.
Do the same for ITV1 which is on channel 59 from Winter Hill and channel 41 from Congleton.
If any of these devices have HD, then bring up one of those services. For Winter Hill it is channel 54 you need and for Congleton it is channel 47.
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ADRIAN: Thanks for the link. Looking at the instructions, there doesn't appear to be a manual tune option (or at least it isn't mentioned in the instructions).
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Mrs J. Simmons: I think that you'll have to wait until next Wednesday. Others are reporting the same issue.
You could perhaps try bringing one of your other TVs to the lounge and connecting it to the aerial that the main lounge TV is normally connected to.
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Sunday 12 February 2012 10:55AM
The commercial multiplexes will increase power on 22nd February. However, they will continue to be radiated using the pre-switchover antenna array which is not omni-directional (it throws out less signal in the direction of Guildford).