Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter

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8:07 AM

Chris.SE: Great Post Chris. More helpful info in your post than i've ever received from official sources!! I was under the impression,illusion perhaps! that PSB 1,on CH50 would close in the early Hours of 20th February 2020,leaving the New CH32 on its own. Again a lack of official info to blame! Maybe better if PSB 1 is simulcast on both Ch50 and 32,to see and overcome any potential problems. Anyone who's older receiving aerials have a Green Coloured plug at the end of the Horizontal Boom,will certainly need to replace their Aerials with a W or T. As there are Tens of Thousands of viewers,all along the North Coast and in the Flintshire and Wrexham areas,i'm concerned that official in replacing outdated receiving aerials may not be available,for Political reasons. I recall with much annoyance,the intervention by the Welsh Assembly,in UK's Winter Hill promotion,in the North Wales area. It was chaos back in 2009 and i'm rather hoping that there will not be a repeat of that in 2020?

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:22 PM

David Roberts:

Official will be available, see my previous post just before yours. Not everyone with an older will need it replaced. Some slightly more recent C/D aerials were "enhanced" when Ch.5 opened (remember it was mainly on /37). These aerials behaved a bit more like a Group E and providing you're in a good area, they will work fine.

Chris.SE's 4,370 posts GB flag

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:01 PM

In the absence of any official info,could someone please give me the final and 100% correct details for the up and coming changes? How I originally understood the situation,was that PSB1/BBC A MUX,would be powered up on 19th Feb 2020,on UHF CH32 and the CH50 version would be simulcast for 24 Hours until the early Hours of 20th,when it would be discontinued. However i'm now hearing from some,that both CH50 and CH32 will be simulcast until April 22nd 2020? The Date of the remaining to be moved to Group T or W. I've emailed Freeview.co.uk again for clarification on this and also the situation regarding North Winter Hill viewers and their scheme for the elderly,etc?

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:32 PM

David Robert:

I posted very clearly on the 31st Jan. on p189 in response to Chris Gunn that the Simulcast continues until 22nd April. That post was immediately before your previous post. Perhaps you missed it.

As regards schemes, there is no help scheme for the Elderly per se. The Free Help that is available is organised by if someone contacts them and is not able to receive the 3 PSB multiplexes in particular on the new frequencies, but I believe it also includes the COMs4-6.
It is provided Free provided the person does not have or . Age is irrelevant.

Chris.SE's 4,370 posts GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:35 PM

David Roberts:

Oh, in addition to my previous a few minutes ago, Where did you hear that the Simulcast was supposedly stopping on the 20th Feb.? because it is wrong.

Chris.SE's 4,370 posts GB flag

Friday, 7 February 2020

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11:52 AM

Chris. I took the information from the UK/ Data for the . Sadly I can't post you a screenshot of it here. The info in that clearly states that viewers will need to retune on 20th February,2020 and the New CH32 PSB1 MUX,will be powered up on 19th February,2020. I posted a screenshot of this on UK Free's Twitter Feed,relating to your posts and the Winter Hill Transmitter. I'm not doubting your info but somewhere along the lines,errors have been made in the info released? I note that there still is no response from .co.uk,to my request to clarify this? What a mess!

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:51 PM

David Roberts:

Yes, but it does NOT say on that page that the simulcast ceases on the 20th. You have read too much into that. If you search for the more detailed information about the retunes in the various other pages & documents available, it's all quite clear. Clearly you are doubting me because you haven't researched enough!

Chris.SE's 4,370 posts GB flag

Wednesday, 12 February 2020

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:03 PM

Reply from regarding the Retune(s)

Dear Mr. Roberts,

Thank you for your email dated 5 February regarding technical changes at Winter Hill.

The BBC A Mux will run in parallel (simulcast) until 22 April to support viewers who may need a new to receive BBC A on CH 32.

CH 50 will be listed from 751 in the TV guide temporarily. CH 32 will technically launch on 19 February but will not be configured to replace CH 50 'in the guide' until 20 February.

The retune should work from 10AM on 20 February.

Viewers who receive their from the Winter Hill (regardless of their location) may see pop up messages on screen advising the need to retune on 20 February.

In most cases a simple retune will restore any missing channels. If anyone is still having trouble getting certain channels back (following the event) then please encourage them to call us on freephone 0808 1000 288 for further support.

They can find out more information on these changes (nearer the time) and how it may affect them by visiting: Important changes to Freeview | Freeview before they call us, as they might be entitled to free home support.

Please note: Home support is only available for 3 months from the date of the retune event at each transmitter. Home support ends for the 20 February changes at Winter Hill on: 20 May 2020

Our usual opening hours are: Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Saturday 9am-5pm.

Home Support:

If retuning does not restore the affected , we may be able to send a qualified installer to the viewers home. This service is available when:
The viewers house has its own aerial and they don't have access to or TV
The problems can be attributed to the changes, and;
TV services cannot be restored by following our advice over the phone.
Our installers will investigate the cause of any problems and undertake necessary work, including installing a replacement rooftop aerial where required (includes and external -mounted aerials).

We do not provide in-home support to properties with shared aerial systems, businesses or
households that use a portable set-top aerial to receive TV services.

There is no charge for this service. Should any viewer arrange independently for an aerial installer to carry out work, we are not obliged to refund any costs they incur.

Thankfully at last some clear and concise info from Freeview.co.uk.

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:56 PM

David Roberts:

If you don't want clear and precise information from independent experts, why come here asking questions in the first place? The information you have got from is exactly what I've posted here in several recent posts!

Chris.SE's 4,370 posts GB flag

Wednesday, 19 February 2020

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

3:39 PM

Bad Characters Update:

I had thought, maybe, the BBC had finally eliminated the root cause of these errors in their EPG data, but no, they haven't.

The latest short-form error-dump follows:

Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North BBC A. Date: 2020/02/19 10:12:56

It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:

Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.

Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:

0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)

There are 1098 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x18, 15, 1.37%
0x19, 1025, 93.35%
0x1C, 29, 2.64%
0x1D, 29, 2.64%

There are 877 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.

The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors

BBC Radio 4, 1
BBC Radio 4, 1
Yaaas!, 15
Blaze, 2
Blaze+1, 1
TCC, 1
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 32
Sports Channel Network, 32
Sony Movies Action, 2
Ketchup TV, 9
RNIB Connect, 3
Sony Movies, 22
POP, 76
PBS America, 15
Sony Channel +1, 19
POP Max, 128
Sony Movies Classic +1, 2
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
PBS America +1, 28

Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2020/02/19 10:12:56:

#1: BBC Radio 4, Wed 26 Feb 09:45 - 10:00: title = "The Crying Book", description = "3/5. A young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting poet Heather Christle to consider the power and meaning of {L''}white lady tears{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#2: BBC Radio 4, Wed 26 Feb 09:45 - 10:00: title = "The Crying Book", description = "3/5. A young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting poet Heather Christle to consider the power and meaning of {L''}white lady tears{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D

#3: Yaaas!, Wed 19 Feb 05:30 - 06:00: title = "Wallace and Gromit's Cracking...", description = "... Contraptions: From the Soccamatic to the 535 Crackervac, Cracking Contraptionsis a showcase of 10 short films about Wallace{R'}s wonderfully eccentric ideas.", description error byte: 0x19

...

#877: PBS America +1, Tue 25 Feb 15:50 - 17:00: title = "The Greatest Knight", description = "In a career that spanned half a century, English soldier and statesman William Marshal served some of Christendom{R'}s greatest leaders.", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19

Note: EPG for three local and both BBC A multiplexes (C50 and C32) is sent, accounting for the apparent dupli/triplication.