All posts by Gary Calder
Below are all of Gary Calder's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
@JeddyS
I was not able to register any signal on my Humax Fox T2 when doing a manual retune on 56 (despite it being a wideband antenna). I put it down to us being in the reception hole that is Chandlers Ford. However, on reading your comment about setting DVB-T2, I Googled and found this:
specifying DVB T2 on manual retune
"My Humax HD FOX T2 will not return any signal/quality from a HD mux using manual tune until you select DVB-T2.
Autotuning however (not acceptable where I live) scans for both DVB-T and DVB-T2."
That may account for the fact I saw zero signal registering - I'll check again tonight and select DVB-T2 with manual tune to see if there really is any signal registering, but it's all a bit moot anyway as I already have a cheap ex-Sky satellite box coming from eBay to serve as a BBC4 HD tuner.
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@StevenOnLn1
Not quite true as, if like me at SO534LN, the frequency changes have been accompanied by a relocation of the mux to a different antenna lower down on the mast with lower power, removing reception coverage of mux COM8 (with COM7 to follow) in our area (confirmed by the official coverage checkers). I already have a wideband antenna with no reception of CH56 from Rowridge, so a free replacement antenna is of no use at all. Possibly the same/similar thing has happened to Tim. I've had to resort to buying a satellite box (ex-Sky multiroom, so it was only just over 20 quid from eBay) to be able to continue watching BBC4 HD.
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Tim Wardlaw:
I don't bleeding believe it. <SCREAM!!!!>.
Well that explains all my problems.
One might have assumed that after the frequency switchover they (Ofcom, UKDigital, Arqiva, BBC etc. etc.) would have made sure that everything was running 100% to minimise any possible problems for viewers while they were having to retune. Clearly not - I expect they were far too busy slapping each other on the back, raising a glass or two and counting the millions from the 5G auctions.
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StevensOnln1:
It is poor behaviour because the coverage of the COM8 mux on CH56 from Rowridge is much less than it was previously. So not even a free wideband aerial will solve the problem for those affected. License fee payers are entitled to ask why access to this BBC channel has been removed apparently in preference to commercial channels. Perhaps the BBC didn't pay enough money and were relegated to COM8, who knows?
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Sunday 1 April 2018 10:10AM
It seems like for our postcode, SO534LN, we are stuffed for COM 7 and 8 with no predicted coverage according to the DigitalUK checker. Despite having a wide band antenna on the roof, both my Samsung tv and Humax HD Fox failed to find BBC 4HD. Luckily iPlayer on the Samsung now allows us to watch from the start so we were able to catch Below The Surface, so all was not lost.
We either continue just to use iPlayer in this mode, or invest in a Freesat HD box (there is a dish installed and cabled to the lounge, but we've never used it). We use the Humax rarely now to record, the Humax HB-1100S would seem to fit the bill.
But why should I have to spend 100 quid when you have to question how the channel allocations for the muxes were arrived at. PSB3 looks to be the natural home for BBC 4 HD. I'm sure the average 4 year old is hardly aware of the picture quality subtleties of HD on CBBC. It also has a smaller and declining share of the viewing compared to BBC4 HD. Chop it at 7pm and share ithe bits with BBC4 HD. Why is Film4+1 taking up space there? Punt it and CH 5 HD to the outer reaches of COM8 and all the BBC HD channels could reside on PSB3.