All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Lynne Robson: I came across this unofficial site which describes the issue:
Unofficial Vestel PVR Information (UK) - T825 Freeview+
This model is apparently a Vestel T825 model.
According the site, this is a known issue and there was an update to the firmware, although the note at the end says that some users have reported that the issue remains even after the update. The firmware is the in-built software, a bit like what Windows is to a PC.
I found the user manual here:
http://www.hitachiservice….pdf
Page 29, part 5.2.7 talks about "Receiver Upgrade" which can be accessed through the menu via Setup > Configuration. It often will say somewhere what version is installed, although the screen shot in the manual simply gives the date and time when the software was built.
According to the link I provided, the latest software is version 13.0. Even if there is no version number, perhaps the date will be a clue. The page dates back to 2010, so if, for example, your software is dated 2007 (maybe it is what was installed when the device was built), then this pre-dates the update and therefore suggests that it is running the old version.
Indeed, the page linked to gives the factory version for your model as 2.8, dated 2007-11-13 18:12:13.
When the manufacturers publish updates to firmware for their models, they have them broadcast over the air. In order for the devices to upgrade, they will have to be switched on and be set to do so. The manual says that it looks at 3am and that it will have to be set to do so.
If your firmware has not been updated, then the website has available what it says is the updated version. Obviously this is an unofficial site, so it is all at your own risk as the loading of corrupt/incorrect firmware could render the device useless.
Your model has a RS232 connection which means that it can be connected to a PC with such a port and upgraded with the appropriate firmware. This tends to be older machines and some desktops.
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Lynne Robson: The last sentence - it is older PCs that tend to have RS232 (serial) connections because USB is the most common way of connecting devices these days.
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mike: To put Briantist's statement into context, he was replying to Paul Weaire who said that he was using the TV, which is requires a licence. Most people who have one or more TVs use them and Mr Weaire said that he does. He also said that he was "reluctant to punish the BBC" by withholding his licence fee, but had "no other course of action". Use of TV equipment without a valid licence is against the law. Thus, only the illegally-acting viewer will be likely to be punished accordingly.
Mr Weaire has not made any subsequent posting to this site and was not asking for help; just reporting the issues he was having.
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Lorna knipe: See the Scheme's website The Switchover Help Scheme can help you make the switch to digital TV. | Switchover Help Scheme
Click on the map for your relation's region. Tyne Tees was the final UK mainland region to switch and this happened in September and it says that from 26 October 2012 the Scheme was closed in that region. Therefore I assume that in other mainland regions it will be unavailable.
The final region to switch was Northern Ireland (last month) and eligible people can apply there until 24 November 2012.
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gerry flanagan: Any you can get!
Basically it will be down to Divis or Brougher Mountain. Both use only Group A channels. Brougher's COMs are on very low power and co-channel with Divis' PSBs, so they are not at all likely.
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gerry flanagan: Wideband aerials have less gain on Group A channels. See:
Rowridge Transmitter
For that reason, there is no such thing as a High Gain wideband aerial for the A group frequencies, of which Divis uses exclusively. For that reason, the better bet, where a high-gain aerial is required, is to use a Group A high-gain aerial.
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Paul: At a guess I'd say that the reason is that Winter Hill is second behind Crystal Palace for the number of viewers served!
This would appear to be a story born from statistics.
The filter fits inline with the aerial lead to prevent the 4G signal (which is being picked up by the TV aerial) from reaching the TV receiver.
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Stan: The Waltham transmitter is undergoing engineering work and has been so for the last month. As a result, there is a warning of "possible weak signal".
Digital reception is pretty much all or nothing whereas analogue reception was analogous to signal strength. So with analogue you would have had a picture, albeit more grainy whereas with digital, there is a threshold over which the picture is there and below which it is not with a small bit inbetween where it may be iffy.
The channels have disappeared from your receiver because you have carried out a full retune. The first stage of this is to wipe what is stored.
Providing that the receiver is tuned to the correct transmitter, then there can be no improvement by retuning. The only outcome will either be the same or negative which is to loose the channels. Now you will have to repeatedly retune until they return and this will happen when the signal is stronger again. Had you left them as they were, all you would have had to do was change over to Film4, Yesterday etc.
If the receiver has manual tuning, then you can try that. For Film4 and Yesterday tune to UHF channel 57.
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anne: Tacolneston is undergoing engineering works and has been so for a while.
One possibility is that your receiver is tuning to another transmitter, so it is worth checking that this is not the case.
Once you have it tuned correctly, then don't retune, even if you have poor reception, because the issue is not the tuning and all you can achieve by this is either the same outcome (i.e. tuned the same) or lost channels (a backwards step).
Confirm that all channels are tuned to Tacolneston by bringing up the signal strength screen on each of the following on observing the UHF/RF channel number it is tuned to:
BBC One C55
ITV1 C59
BBC One HD (if applicable) C62
ITV3 C42
Pick TV C45
Film4 C50
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Wednesday 14 November 2012 3:03PM
VALERIE: Further to Nicholas Willmott's comment, I had wondered whether it was worth a shot at switching polarisation.
Rowridge transmits horizontally and vertically and has done so since switchover. Some channels aren't as strong horizontally, but this does not include those of the BBC which are PSBs.
I'm not an expert, but I wonder whether the affect of the trees may be different with vertical polarisation than horizontal polarisation. As you have consulted an aerial installer, I would expect that if this were worth trying that it would have been so.
Basically it means switching the aerial to vertical, so that its elements are up/down rather than flat. The PSB channels (BBC, ITV1, C4, C5 and some others) are at the same strength horizontally and vertically.
The COM channels (Pick TV, ITV3, Film4 etc) are lower power horizontally and the same power as the PSBs vertically. Thus, even without the issue with the trees it is best to use vertical polarisation (for Rowridge). The horizontal polarised signals are more for legacy purposes, i.e. so as to work with existing horizontally-mounted aerials.