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Rowridge 25th March retune

BBC Video about Rowridge retune on 25th March

BBC Video about Rowridge retune on 25th March
Published on by on UK Free TV

Digital viewers in parts of southern England will need to retune their televisions and BBC South Today explains how.

Click the image below to see the video.

The text from the video is reproduced below - full retuning information is provided here: www.ukfree.tv link icon My Freeview box has no EPG, is missing Film4, Channel 4+1, no sound on ITV3 or the channel line up is wrong - ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002

news.bbc.co.uk link icon 

Sally Taylor: If you live in the in the pink area on the map [see below] you won't be seeing very much if you don't get out your remote control out and retune on the 25th March. At the same time the analogue signal for channel FIVE is being turned off. Our very own Doctor Hepworth explains.



Hepworth: This is the Rowridge transmitter on the Isle of Wight. On March 25th work will start to move the digital channels transmitted from here. John Steel from Digital UK - the organization in charge of this - explains why they are doing it.



John Steel: We are having to move exiting Freeview channels to new frequencies basically and this is to protect them from interference that they would suffer from this summer onwards when neighboring areas start switching over and using high power digital signals.

Hepworth: Jill Williams from Southampton is a big fan of medial dramas like Casualty and Holby City.

Jill Williams: I have to retune my television which I hate the thought of doing, it's a hassle. And I am sure I would just mess up the whole lot.

Hepworth: Retuning your television need not be a complex operation and it shouldn't be a drama. When March 25th comes around all you will need is a remote control and a television.

Engineer: Hit the menu button...

Hepworth: Freeview boxes and TVs differ but if follow the instructions on the menu or in the instruction booklet it takes a minute or two.

Jill Williams: A lot of people like me will think that if I keep pressing all these digits I will break something.

Hepworth: Don't worry, you won't break anything. Just turn it off an then on again and start again. Now if you want to know how these changes will effect you, don't call the newsroom you can contact Digital UK helpline number on the number below [0845 845 0231] or visit their website [digitaluk.co.uk]. After all, the last thing you want to see on 25th March is this [screen showing just snow].







Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom

  ◊  Later commentsnext Latest commentslast

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Jordy
Saturday 28 February 2009 10:45AM
Much appreciated Brian, you know there's going to be about 200 questions about this...

Mux 1 23 (old) 37 (new)
Mux 2 28 (old) 32 (new)
Mux B 32 (old) 28 (new)
Mux C 26 (old) 34 (new)
Mux A 30 No change
Mux D 33 No change

So that is:-
Mux1 37
Mux2 32
MuxA 30
MuxB 28
MuxC 34
MuxD 33

31 - 40 are being sold off anyway, so there will have to be another re-shuffle... These have been confirmed by Arqiva... Yes really they have.
richard
Saturday 28 February 2009 6:04PM
Why is this happening?
jake
Saturday 28 February 2009 9:23PM
if you look closer, you see 2 guys wearing orange up rowridge! 1 at the bottom, and one halfway up
Jordy
Sunday 1 March 2009 3:20AM
richard - To protect Rowridge as other regions switch around it...
Briantist
Sunday 1 March 2009 11:24AM
The reason is to stop problems when the transmitters in the neighbouring region in England and to prevent problems associated with France switching to high-power digital transmissions. The process will also see the closure of the Fawley transmitter that provides analogue FIVE.
Briantist
Sunday 1 March 2009 11:48AM
Jordy: The final configuration in March 2012 should not change with PSB1-C21, COM4-C22, PSB2-C24, COM5-C25, PSB3-C27, COM6-C28 with C29 and C30 for the "possible" local services.

This is when the "sold off" frequencies are allocated.

Fawley closes analogue FIVE on C34.
Briantist
Sunday 1 March 2009 3:55PM
jake: I've popped a grab of that at the top of the page.
Dave Grunwell
Monday 2 March 2009 7:57AM Bognor Regis
Recently, during high atmospheric pressure conditions, 5 and possibly other chanels are virtually unwatchable on my set ( I live 2 miles to the east of Bognor Regis) due to what I am told is co-chanel interference. Is there a way to reduce this and will the effect be reduced or even erradicated after March 25th?
Briantist
Monday 2 March 2009 10:44AM
Dave Grunwell: The Inversion interference is exactly what these changes are designed to help avoid. If you are watching FIVE on analogue then it certainly will be unwatchable as there will be just snow!

The problem is not "co-channel interference" but "same channel interference".
jake
Tuesday 3 March 2009 11:00AM
will relay tx's be affected
Jordy
Tuesday 3 March 2009 11:50PM
jake - No they won't...Not at this stage.
Phil Rogers
Wednesday 4 March 2009 11:03AM
I had to rescan my Thomson DTI500 and some of the program numbers have gone completely wrong.
During the scanning process, many (but not all) of the program numbers were shown as 000. When the box stored them, it seemed to randomly allocate numbers in the 800s to them.
The lowest program number I get is 009 (BBC 4). BBC1, BBC2 etc are all way up in the 800s.
This has never happened before, so is it receiving bad information from the transmitter, or is it time to get a new DVB box?
Briantist
Wednesday 4 March 2009 2:58PM
jake: The area on the map is the "Freeview" coverage area from Rowridge. If you can watch FIVE on analogue in this outside this area you will not be able to now watch it on Freeview!
tvtuner
Thursday 5 March 2009 9:50AM
As a large number of the general public are unable to 'rescan all channels' instead of the usual 'add channels' I expect my phone to be ringing quite a lot on the 23rd March! - tvtuner
Briantist
Thursday 5 March 2009 9:52AM
tvtuner: Yes, this will be the first real test of a large-scale retune in a populated area. I wonder if the transmitter will correctly signal to the boxes that they need to retune themselves this time?
James Feest
Thursday 5 March 2009 11:09AM Worthing
Whilst I know that the change will take place on March 25th how will I know when the change is complete so that I can re programme my TV 7 recorder?
Briantist
Thursday 5 March 2009 11:16AM
James Feest: The changes are in-place so the actual change should not take too long. Any decent recording device should be following the channel identifiers, there shouldn't be any reprogramming to do.
Dave
Thursday 5 March 2009 12:07PM
Don't know what all the fuss is about, only got to hit re-tune. Easy
Briantist
Thursday 5 March 2009 1:07PM
Dave: Unless you watch FIVE on analogue and can't get Freeview...
PLBtvviewer
Saturday 7 March 2009 10:39PM
Should people be made aware that if they live in a poor reception area for digital signals of which there are several along the South Coast that it will be useless to retune their TV set on the 25th March or any other day unless they are absolutley sure that the reception of all TV channels is possible at the time otherwise their TV will not retune or retain all channels
Brian Jones
Monday 9 March 2009 12:24PM
I'm concerned that I have an old (pre 1995) Band A aerial which may start to roll-off around or even before Ch37 so Mux1 (my main viewing) my be affected. It will be quite a nuisance to have to install a new aerial just for this temporary band allocation.
Jeremy
Wednesday 11 March 2009 1:18PM Poole
Birth pains...
According to Digitaluk (trade page), Mux 1 reception from Rowridge will improve in North Poole after March 25 but then may become almost unwatchable after Jan 2010 until it is subsequently moved to ch24 during 2012.
But if you're not in the trade, please ignore this classified information. ;)
Briantist
Wednesday 11 March 2009 2:14PM
Jeremy: There is no official information about these changes, but there seem to be changes on the south coast at some point in some systems. For example, that prediction system says that you won't be able to watch Freeview in Brighton in 2014, after two years of perfect service.
Briantist
Wednesday 11 March 2009 6:11PM

Brian Jones: The aerial groups for digital TV were defined from the old ITV aerial groups, they did not change for digital.

Here is the ITC table showing the attenuations levels.



So, group A aerial on C37 shows a 2dB loss. This shouldn't be a problem.


Dave
Friday 13 March 2009 9:36PM
Digital UK have been issuing retune leaflets in the Salisbury area. However, freeview in Salisbury comes from the relay transmitter local to the area and not Rowridge and the local radio station has also publicised this change. It has been very confusing at is seems that it is just Rowridge and not it's relays that are affected. Am I right in that assumption
Briantist
Saturday 14 March 2009 8:38AM
Dave: Yes, you are only effected if you receive services directly from Rowridge and/or Fawley.

If only they had had a standard Freeview remote control with a big "retune" button on it!
Kev
Tuesday 17 March 2009 8:00AM Poole
Typical(!)
I'm in Poole and have a diplexer that combines two aerials (V/H on same azimuth) over at channel 36 - ie below 36=Rowridge(H), above 36=Poole repeater (V)..
So now I have to invest in a new diplexer to get Mux 1 (ch37) ?

Kev C
Jeremy
Wednesday 18 March 2009 5:42PM Poole
If I understand that "trade only" site correctly, after 2012 Rowridge will transmit all muxes on 2 aerials, one H (as present) and one V - both 200Kw. Surely they must have written a public paper explaining their decisions? How is anyone supposed to decide what aerials are required now, in the interim and in the longer term - trade or otherwise?
dave
Tuesday 24 March 2009 8:08PM
Re-tunes for £19 in the p.o postcode
tvaerials@ hotmail.com
Jordy
Tuesday 24 March 2009 10:04PM
Jeremy - After DSO Rowridge will transmit its entire digital output in both vertical and horizontal polarity. Rowridge will be the only main transmitter to do this and it is to help alleviate co-channel interference with the continent. If, post DSO, you get interference with a horizontally polarised aerial this will give you the option to go vertical which should decrease the co-channel. Whether HP or VP is preferable will depend very much on where you live. All 6 MUXES will be transmitted at 200kW on vertical, but on horizontal only the first 3 (the PSBs) will be at this power.
MUXES 4 to 6 will only be at 50kW, though this is still pretty high power, remember
that they`re only transmitted at 20kW now. Lower power on these 3 MUXES is to help
prevent co-channel with Crystal Palace.
There are two interleaved spectrum channels allocated to Rowridge, CH29 and CH30,
which are both within the previously announced post DSO group.
Jeremy
Wednesday 25 March 2009 6:46AM
Thanks for the info re polarisation. According to en.wikipedia.org link icon Circular polarization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Under heading "FM Radio") such an arrangement could be classed as "un"polarised, unless it's phased appropriately to be circular/eliptical polarised. I guess then you could harness both ERPs to get superb S/N in marginal areas and keep Dave in business. And in better areas, maybe the old circular loop on indoor portable TVs will make a comeback? (BH179AZ)
Dave
Wednesday 25 March 2009 8:04AM Brighton
What is IOW at the moment H or V anyone ?

I wonder if we will ever use Band III again ie for HD TV services ?

Does 200kw equate to higher power in analogue also ?


Neil.
Wednesday 25 March 2009 9:14AM
Has the update finished yet? (09:16 25/03)
There are a lot of channels missing even after several retunes. Think the only one's I've got are on ch28.
Ric
Wednesday 25 March 2009 9:50AM
For my computer, i have the old setup as:
# Rowridge, Isle of Wight
# T freq bw fec_hi fec_lo mod transmission-mode guard-interval hierarchy
T 489833333 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 2k 1/32 NONE

Does anyone know what the new values are?
pam
Wednesday 25 March 2009 9:53AM
help all I have on my TV set is snow and Ihave no menu button on my remote only set up which I pressed When it said retune I pressed OK and nothing happened I don,t know what I did but the next minute all I got was a snowy screen. I tried switching off but when I switched on again it was still the same What do I do Please help.
Pete
Wednesday 25 March 2009 10:04AM
Try running setup without the aerial plugged in ... should return result of no signal found. After this ... unplug freeview box for 30 seconds ... replug and reconnect aerial ... You should be able to do a new installation.
Dave Pusey
Wednesday 25 March 2009 10:18AM
Ric, I've just changed mine to use the unchanged MuxA settings at it works perfectly...

T 489833333 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 2k 1/32 NONE
Jordy
Wednesday 25 March 2009 11:20AM
Jeremy - I think we're all getting carried away here with circular polarisation, it doesn't exist in the UK. A loop aerial is just a continuous conductor that creates a null that makes the aerial directional nothing more... It has nothing to do with circular polarity. You couldn't possibly harness both polarities as they are both broadcasting on the same set of channels, i think there seems an awful lot of myths being put about to do with Rowridge most of which is nonsense...
Jordy
Wednesday 25 March 2009 11:35AM
Dave -
What is IOW at the moment H or V anyone ? H

I wonder if we will ever use Band III again ie for HD TV services ? No not likely to happen with the increase in DAB services, if only 5 new Band III channels were allocated for DAB then this capacity could be moved to national multiplexes but the space made available as a result of this move would still require heavy-use of L-band, which is undesirable.

Does 200kw equate to higher power in analogue also? Radiated power will increase by 10 times is current value... 50kw digital is equal to 500kw analogue which is a 16 fold increase and that gives you some idea of the likely power increase...
Andy Heather
Wednesday 25 March 2009 11:41AM
Having retuned my digital TV after the Rowridge transmitter changes the signals are extremely poor. I can't get some channels now and some just aren't worth watching because of the reception. I had no trouble before and the signal was good.
Mrs. Dorey
Wednesday 25 March 2009 12:16PM
We hav e retuned the tv but we cannot get any BBC programmes. We have an analogue video recorder/player attached. Should this be removed?
Simon
Wednesday 25 March 2009 12:20PM
BBC channels have gone from my Digital tuners as well. Anybody know why?
Dave Pusey
Wednesday 25 March 2009 12:35PM
Simon, they've changed frequencies. You need to retune you box.
Simon
Wednesday 25 March 2009 12:41PM
I have retuned two set top boxes and two tvs, and they have disappeared from all. The automatic retuning has not picked them up after the retune.
Chris
Wednesday 25 March 2009 12:43PM
Problems with a Sony 32DX40U (idTV) retune!

Have tried:
- Clearing EPG
- Unplug set from Aerial & Mains for 1 min
- Replug Mains & Aerial

Now when I turn the set on, it just says 'No programme information'. It won't let me get to the setup menu to retune, it also won't let me change the channel. Sucks.
Chris
Wednesday 25 March 2009 1:22PM
Have finally worked out which cryptic blinkin' button to push to get it to go thru the 'First Time Set-up' steps, however, when going thru 'Auto Tune' it gets stuck at 16% and goes no further!

If I unplug the aerial and get it to 'Auto Tune' it goes all the way to 100% and then says no Aerial...

As I live in a flat, we have a communal aerial so hope it's not a problem with that!
Chris J E
Wednesday 25 March 2009 1:39PM
Retuned two Freeview boxes this morning, found a few new channels e.g. 'Dave ja vu' but ITV1,2,3,4,channel4,E4 & more4 are now missing! All BBC channels seem to be fine.
I'm in West Sussex on the coast I wonder
Channel 5 breaks up as previously.
Either they've increased the compression, decreased the power or cocked up.
On a bad day like at the weekend even BBC1 analogue got so much interference from French TV I could read their credits!
Chris J E
Wednesday 25 March 2009 1:42PM
Ohps sorry for the multi postings when the page auto updates it seems to post the message without me clicking on post your comment. So you've got copies of partially written posts, Sorry
Dave
Wednesday 25 March 2009 2:54PM Brighton
Jordy thanks for the info,that's very interesting, looking forward to 2012, any chance switchover for IOW will come sooner I wonder ?
Andy B
Wednesday 25 March 2009 3:02PM
I live in Bognor Regis and have retuned integrated freeview tuner on TV this afternoon. BBC 1 & 2 very weak signal, no ITV channels except ITV2+1, no C4, etc. As you would think that a large percentage of people now own a TV with integrated freeview tuner, with poor analogue reproduction, this retune result is poor, considering we have to wait 3 years before we 'officially' receive Freeview. Had no real problems before. Has anyone with a high gain aerial had problems?
Jeremy
Wednesday 25 March 2009 4:55PM
Re circular polarisation. You seem annoyed at my comments... sorry if I'm being a bit hypothetical but Re being "imposible" to utilise both polarisations - you realise this is a challenge... I understand your thinking, that the pool of available channels will be the same. But ever heard of a diversity receiver?
It's a way of improving reliability which, in digital terms can improve number of channels watchable.

Re dave offering £19 for a retune, is this a no fix no fee? Assuming customers invoke auto tune before calling him - he could be out of pocket. Or is he really selling improved aerials?

For the record my home aerial may be band B, it was not giving adequate BBC signal when it was at the bottom of the band but is now 100% at ch37.
In 2012 it will change back to below where it was before, hopefully the new power will compensate.
However, power increases are usually measured logarithically, so just over double power will only be about 4dB on some muxes. Growing trees and aerial design etc could easily swamp this, I'll have to wait and see.

My sympathies to those who are having problems.



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