Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.801,-0.801 or 52°48'4"N 0°48'5"W |  | LE14 4AJ |
The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?
Waltham transmitter - Waltham transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Waltham transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Waltham transmitter?
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Braunstone | Transposer | 5 km SW Leicester city centre | 170 homes |
How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 4 Mar 2020 | |||
| C/D E | E | E | W | W T | W T | W T | |||
| C26 | LNG | LNG | |||||||
| C29 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | BBCB | ||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C41 | _local | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | COM8tv_off | |||||
| C57tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 250kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 50kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 25kW | |
| com8 | (-12.7dB) 13.4kW | |
| com7 | (-13.9dB) 10.2kW | |
| Mux 1* | (-14dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-14.9dB) 8kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG | (-17dB) 5kW |
Local transmitter maps
Waltham Freeview Waltham DAB Waltham AM/FM Waltham TV region BBC East Midlands Central (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham transmitter area
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Friday, 28 June 2013
D
Dominic Payer4:13 PM
Problem
Intermittent or no reception in Microsoft Windows Media Center on PSB2 (channels 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 28 and 33) from Waltham. All other channels from Waltham received successfully.
When arising
After the frequency change for PSB1 on 29th May 2013. There have been subsequent engineering works at Waltham which may be the cause of the issue.
Details
The Waltham transmitter is operated by Arqiva. Reception problems should be notified as specified at UK House - Arqiva .
I have been in contact with Digital UK, and understand that they have had contact with Arqiva.
1. Digital UK is not a technical support location.
2. I understand that Arqiva say they have changed only the frequency for PSB1 at Waltham, and would only be at fault if the problem receiving equipment carried the Freeview logo. It is difficult to understand how a frequency change on PSB1 could have changed the technical detail of the transmission on PSB2.
Microsoft offers no technical support for Windows Media Center, despite its being sold at retail with Windows XP, Vista and 7 and as an add-on Windows 8. See
Microsoft Support
. The Microsoft forums at Home - Microsoft Community are user to user forums: Microsoft provides the forums but they are not Microsoft technical support forums.
Digital UK say mine is the only formal notification they have received. More notifications might provoke action. It would be helpful, but may not be significant, to say which version of Windows you are using. Email or phone from the Contact us box on Digital UK - Home .
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J
John5:35 PM
Hi All,
Small change here - but first to summarize the position (here - can't speak for anywhere
else):
Problem is with Waltham mux PSB2:
(On or Off is the normal situation when using WMC - sowing picture or not. More4 I haven't
figured yet!)
ITV1 3 Off
Channel4 4 On
Channel5 5 Off
ITV2 6 Off
Channel4+1 13 On
More4 14 On/Off
E4 28 Off
ITV1+1 33 Off
This is mollified by having duplicate channels on different muxes as follows:
Ch5+1 44 On
ITV2+1 27 On
E4+1 29 On
So my problem is really limited to ITV1 - what idiot puts the duplicate channel on the same
mux?
Last weekend I happened to be on PC World's site and found they had a Hauppauge WinTV Aero
stick reduced from £59.99 to £19.99. I bought one - it arrived this morning.
I plugged it into my laptop (it was intended for a netbook but that machine has no CD drive)
plugged in a lead from the same splitter/amplifier as the other machines, loaded the Hauppauge
drivers, set up WMC and went for lunch while broadcasts were scanned.
As you might guess the first channel I looked at was ITV1. It works! It is by the side of me
as I write and it is still working!
I checked my main machine. ITV still black screen. I switched Hauppauge's Diversity mode on
(this has the effect of combining the two tuners to bring in a weak signal). After several
reboots and rescanning WMC I found no change. I applied the drivers for the stick received
this morning to the main machine's tuners. No change, still black screen.
But then I found that if I switched from BBC2 to ITV1 quickly and a number of times
(frustration building up :-)) I pulled in ITV1.
This is ridiculous! I do not believe it, so I have just left this box and done it again. Kick
up WMC select ITV1 - black screen. Select BBC2 let it steady then select ITV1 - this time ITV1
came in first try..
Suggestions welcome...
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J
John5:37 PM
Sorry about the formatting - tried three times to send, fortunately had copied into NotePad. Hope it makes sense..
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J
John Pilkington8:15 PM
As further confirmation of what I've said earlier, I've just used the VLC 'Codec info' tool to examine a recording of 'Ennerdale', ITV1 from Waltham, made a few minutes ago. I can't copy-and-paste it, but that shows 4 video streams too. Only the first stream has values for Resolution, Frame rate and Decoded format.
Video IDs are 514, 2051, 2251, 2252
The Video 'Track selector' shows 4 tracks, all of which play identically.
This seems to be specific to the PSB2 mux from Waltham, and it has affected all my recordings since the PSB1 frequency shift. It may not be an intended change, and I don't know if it really is responsible for the WMC problems, but it's there.
VLC media player 2.0.7 Twoflower, Fedora 17
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J
John9:42 PM
Hi John P,
I recorded Britain's Secret Homes a few minutes ago ITV1 from Win7 Media Centre.
VLC codec info reports 7 streams!
Streams 0, 1 and 6 are the same:
Video; Mpeg 1/2 Video (mpgv)
Stream 2:
Subtitle; DVB Subtitles (dvbs)
Stream3:
Audio; MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3 (mpga)
English; Stereo; sr 48000; br 192
Stream 4:
Video; Mpeg 1/2 Video (mpgv)
704x576; fr 25; Planar 4:2:0 YUV
Stream 5:
As stream 3 but mono
No video ID is given. It may be interesting to see which four you saw.
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J
John9:49 PM
For comparison, in respect of the program on Faberge Eggs shown on BBC1 last night, VLC Codec Info shows 4 streams:
Stream0:
Subtitle; DVB Subtitles (dvbs) English
Stream 1:
Video; MPEG-1/2 Video (mpgv);
720x576; fr 25; Planar 4:2:0 YUV
Stream2:
Audio; MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3 (mpga);
English; Stereo; sr 48000; br 256
Stream3:
Audio as stream 2 but mono.
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J
John9:58 PM
I forgot the important bit..
In VLC Video Tracks show 4 tracks for Britain's Secret Homes (ITV tonight) but only 1 track for Faberge Eggs, BBC1 last evening.
I think that matches your findings (but then I wandered off looking at codecs..:-).
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J
John Pilkington10:37 PM
Emmerdale again. ITV1, Waltham.
7 streams, 4 are video.
Other muxes show only 1 video stream.
Stream 0. Type Video. Original ID 514.
Codec MPEG-1/2 Video (mpgv)
Resolution 704x576. Frame rate 50.
Decoded format Planar 4:2:0 YUV
Stream 1.Type Audio. Original ID 652
Codec MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3 (mpga)
Language English. Channels Stereo.
Sample rate 48000 Hz. Bitrate 192 kb/s
Stream 2. Type Audio. Original ID 662
Codec, Language, as stream 1.
Description: visual impaired commentary
Stream 3. Type Subtitle. Original ID 1027
Codec DVB Subtitles (dvbs)
Language English
Description DVB subtitles
Stream 4. Type Video. Original ID 2051
Codec MPEG-1/2 Video {mpgv)
Stream 5. As stream 4 but ID 2251
Stream 6. As stream 4 but ID 2252
HTH
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J
John10:54 PM
Similar streams, different numbers. Wouldn't surprise me if MS mix 'em up for the fun of it :-)
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J
John11:01 PM
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the WMC/Waltham PSB2 problem isn't simpler (or sillier) than the path we're treading.
As I mentioned before, I found if I switched quickly between BBC2 and ITV1 then the latter would often kick in. Initially this was after just a few switches. Latterly I gave up beyond about 20.
Then I found that if I shut down WMC with ITV1 selected and showing a black screen, quite often the channel was available when I started WMC again. (That's how I managed to record 'Britain's Secret Homes' at about 9pm this evening.
It is as if WMC ITV1 needs a kick to get going..
These tricks don't seem to work on Ch5.
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