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iain
Friday 20 April 2012 12:14AM
jb38: to be honest we try not to use the communal aerial if we can help it as its not that good. this tv has always used a set top aerial.but we have since tried the communal as we had nothing else to try but this does not help,,,
sparky
Friday 20 April 2012 9:43AM
sparky:
Hi jb38
thanks for the reply.

The wide band aerial I have has about 60 X type elements,make not sure ,similar construction to the xb10a on the atv online aerial site, it is some years old now,can't remember exactly when,but this aerial replaced a fairly long log-periodic aerial .

I have tried the humax today now the weather seems to have cleared up,the BBC channels (BBC one/two/ news) are breaking up/pixalating without any attempt to record, the strange thing is that all the HD channels(50-54) are OK and can be recorded , also all channels on epg 810-819 are OK and can be recorded with no break up but I suppose these will disappear soon,plus all commercial channels OK.
All the signal levels are about the same 80 to 81 strength /100 quality.(this is with the amp connected)
It seems the fault or difference is only with the BBC channels on epg 1-2 and the news channel on 80 plus BBC 3 and 4 which are not on air at the moment.
I wonder if any one else is experiencing these symptoms and could the engineers still be working on this? I have heard that there is to be a further increase in power output(no date).

Thanks again for your response.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 20 April 2012 11:02AM
sparky: Have you confirmed that BBC One on number 1 is coming in on channel 23?

Or are those on 810-819 BBC services on channel 23 (from Crystal Palace)?
sparky
Friday 20 April 2012 11:24AM Hemel Hempstead
sparky:
hi dave,
disregard my previos post,i have just been fiddling around with the humax and did a maual retune on c23,the first time no good same problem, so i tried altering some of the options including dbt to dbt2,no good,i then changed the bandwith from 8mhz to 7mhz and lo and behold it all works perfectly on all channels.
The strange thing is that the signal report still reports the bandwith as 8mhz!!
Any ideas why?
sparky
Friday 20 April 2012 11:32AM Hemel Hempstead
dave,i might have spoken to soon,i just checked the bbc on epg 810 etc they seem to have aquired the same breaking up problem,so it looks like it has just swapped them in the epg.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 20 April 2012 12:06PM
sparky: I can't answer your questions as I', not that up on these things (perhaps jb38 or someone else can help). I am surprised that the user should have to set something like bandwidth manually; I would expect these things to be set automatically.
sparky
Friday 20 April 2012 12:06PM Hemel Hempstead
dave, i have just done an autotune to see if these channels would revert,channels 810-819 have disappeared,all other channels still working ok,including bbc channels,i have also notice in the signal checking bit that channel 44 has disappered,this is a channel on the hemel hempstead transmitter,i wonder if this could have been interfering with the cp signal.
on the old digihome it would indicate what transmitter it was scanning ,the humax does not seem to show this unless i am missing something.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 20 April 2012 12:42PM
sparky: The signals from Hemel Hempstead cannot interfere with those of Crystal Palace. They can, however, be stored as the "main" channels but this may only happen at the automatic tuning stage when the box makes its "decision" as to which BBC One to go with, which ITV1 to go with etc.

You can eliminate the possibility of picking up Hemel Hempstead by unplugging your aerial during the tuning scan when it gets to 30%. All of HH's channels are above this and CP's are below.
betty_chienne
Saturday 21 April 2012 10:12AM Kingston Upon Thames
Dear jb38 and Dave: Many thanks for your kind help and tips! I will try the set top aerial idea and report back...
tony
Saturday 21 April 2012 9:38PM Peterlee
my digi box hasnt worked since thursday but the one upstairs works i tried swapping them over and still nothing someone said that the transmitter is down. is this right if so whens it going to be up and running again. i live in peterlee, county durham
iain
Saturday 21 April 2012 11:35PM
hi jb38 did you find any info for me starting to get real annoyed now still nothing tried grundig but they dont even reply
jb38
Sunday 22 April 2012 12:10AM
sparky: Just spotted your update on events.

Regarding the settings you see when on the manual tune screen of your box, do not alter anything that's pre-set as far as the bandwidth (or anything else) you see is concerned, as the bandwidth is the standard spacing between channels in the UK system, and therefore any alteration to this will cause confusion in the tuner as you will be bringing artificial offsets into the equation of a far worse nature than already exists in some UK muxes with either plus or minus offsets.

Also, and as touched on in my previous posting, I can tell you that you are not achieving anything with that type of aerial you are using and should discard it in favour of something more in line with what I suggested, as you should appreciate that the debatable higher gain claimed for these type of aerials brings with it the penalty of them being super directional, this meaning than unless they 100% absolutely perfectly razor sharp aligned on the signal then their performance is worse than from a small contract type aerial, as the numerous directors (elements) you see whose whole purpose is to direct the signal towards the active element of the aerial (in front of the reflector) can actually partially block the signal from getting to it if the aerial is the merest fraction off being perfectly aligned, because as well as the directors then acting like partial screens any signal that is directed will be wasted by being focused towards a small part of the active element or even onto the reflector, this defeating the whole object of the design.

jb38
Sunday 22 April 2012 10:41AM
iain: Unfortunately I haven't, as not only have I enquired at two of the service depots I have contact with, searching for info there only to find that the minimum of service information has been supplied and with none of appropriate to what I was seeking, of course when dealing with TV's that use variants of PCB's manufactured by Vestel (Turkey) this is nothing unusual.

The only thing that did make me wonder was the fact of you stating that it was originally BBC3 that you lost as that's on the main PSB mux, and so if anything had glitched during scanning it would have been corrected with a subsequent full scan after resetting the TV, but now that you have lost all channels then its either a case that the tuner has completely packed in or that the tuner is not capable of dealing with the new transmission modes, as you have verified that the problem is not caused by an excessive level of signal by the test being done with the set top aerial.

I realise that Argos was the main source of this model so it might be of interest to give them a call and "attempt" (debatable if they would tell you) to find out if the problem you have is common knowledge to them.
sparky
Sunday 22 April 2012 12:28PM
sparky:
Hi jb38

Thanks for your reply.

Following the 7mhz scan every thing worked perfectly,even recording all channels,the epg was in the correct order and the 800 series BBC channels have disappeared.(the ITV ones are still there but nothing on them),the signal was still being reported as 8mhz though.

The only anomaly was on the BBC channel recordings they were marked as channel 800 series although they were in position 1,2 etc. I then took the set top aerial upstairs and extended the co-ax up to one of the front bedroom windows facing CP and did a full auto-rescan(at first with no aerial plugged in).

I achieved a 51% signal /100 quality with this set-up and the Humax seems to work fine,no breaking up ,no noise on the picture and recording with the correct channels indicated in the epg.

The only thing that I think could have been incorrect is that the wideband was picking up channel 44 from the Hemel Hempstead relay (despite not pointing in that direction and in fact being horizontal opposed to it) and as Dave said,putting them in the position 1,2 etc in the epg.

On this latest rescan channel 44 is not shown in the signal section,another channel has appeared (channel 59 but there is no signal on this ) whereas channel 44 was showing sporadic 48 to 55 signal strength.

I have now reconnected the wideband aerial and the signal/quality is about the same (with out the amp)with the amp it is about 72signal /100 quality but the picture has stayed the about the same.

Apart from that I don,t know what the problem was,it seems this digital stuff is a bit more prickly than the old system and as I have read on the atv aerial site it is something of a black art,,if you had snow on the picture on the old system you probably had a signal problem!

I still think the old FM system was better quality,the picture quality on this Humax makes skin tones look pasty just like the satellite signals.

Anyway, I will replace the aerial with one of your suggestions, and use sat grade co-ax to top it off,I hope they stop fiddling around with stuff now.

Thanks again for your help, and Daves too.
L Bea
Sunday 22 April 2012 4:27PM
BUSH DFTA11/A FREEVIEW SET-TOP BOX
Why has my BUSH(DFTA11) freeview set top box stop showing all channels after the digital switchover on 18-Apr-2012?
I ran re-scan/re-install and still no channels appear. The INFo. shows the channel numbers and program names correctly, but no picture nor sound. The signal strength is full, but nothing.
Please can someone tell me what is wrong with my box.
Andrew
Sunday 22 April 2012 8:11PM
Is there anyway I can get PCNE [Chinese station] on my non-subscription Sky box or with additional box or card please?

Would it also be possible for the extra sky room box to work as it did when subscribed to Sky?
Thanks.
Andrew
Sunday 22 April 2012 8:12PM
Is there anyway I can get PCNE [Chinese station] on my non-subscription Sky box or with additional box or card please?

Would it also be possible for the extra sky room box to work as it did when subscribed to Sky?
Thanks.
jb38
Sunday 22 April 2012 8:17PM
sparky: Thanks for that interesting update giving the results of your findings, and yes! I am sure that you would find the changes suggested to your aerial system to be beneficial all round.

If though you wanted to further experiment with your multi-element aerial to make it have a wider pick up acceptance angle and thereby less critical, is to choose a day that the signal is reasonable stable and note the strength / quality level being seen on ITV3 (mux Ch25) then start removing the directors on the aerial from the end coming inwards towards the active element, and if you remove about half of them that should have just about the desired result by making the aerial less critical in the respect that I had mentioned in my last posting.

You will also probably find the the signal level will not have changed that terribly much either, because the specs / gain curves etc published for aerials are from tests carried out under a strict set of conditions that bear no resemblance to what happens in real life.
jb38
Sunday 22 April 2012 8:40PM
Andrew: Press "services" then 4 - 4 and that will take you into the screen where you manually enter the channel you want, so enter 11.623Ghz polarisation "H" - 27.5 - 2/3 and press find channels, then on the box that comes on you will see PCNE amongst some other programmes, select it and store it by pressing the yellow button finishing by pressing select and then backing out of the menu.

In operation press "services" then select 7 and the menu will come on where you will see PCNE, select it by scrolling down and press the select button to view.

jb38
Sunday 22 April 2012 8:44PM
Andrew: Meant also to add that a Sky box cannot be made to operate as though a subscription was in force, Sky has ensured that doesn't happen! you can of course use it without a card to view all non subscription channels except Pick TV.
DAVID SNOWDEN
Monday 23 April 2012 12:06AM
My standard Sky box on my multi room feed only gets 101,102,103,104 but not 105 or any Sky channels. These just say 'no signal or technical fault'. (Main HD Box is working fine, getting all channels)
I have tried the 3 reset methods but no luck. The reset No3 does not react as your guidelines. When I hold the back-up button on the skybox while switching the power back on, nothing happens on my screen. It does not show the expected resetting warnings etc. Does this indicate that the skybox cannot be reset?
ALAN PEACHEY
Tuesday 24 April 2012 9:38AM
A quick question for someone. Now that ITV is owned by one company(except STV and UTV). Why don't they put all the ITV regions on the main FREESAT EPG like the BBC do? Thanks.
John F
Tuesday 24 April 2012 10:28AM Spalding
Not sure if this is the right place for this query but unable to find where it should go.
My tv at home, when being tuned, shows a tuning scale up to 68.
However my caravan tv set only shows 48.
I have only just noticed this but last year when in the caravan site below the Crystal Palace transmitter I tuned in and got the Freeview channels but then they went blank and I could only get the analogue channels.
I only need the BBC and ITV main channels in the caravan so what I would like to know is there any region of the UK where I would not recieve these channels assuming that they are above the 48 tuning point.
I am on Belmont at home (PE11 2EF)and am not sure if any channels from there are above the 48 tuning point to test the set out.
Any advice welcome. Thanks
Dave Lindsay
Tuesday 24 April 2012 11:02AM
John F: Yes, Belmont ArqA is on C53 and ArqB is on C60.

See "After switchover configuration" here for the programme channels carried on these multiplexes:

www.ukfree.tv link icon Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice


As for your problem when you were at Crystal Palace, your receiver was probably being overloaded with signal. I suggest that you carry a variable attenuator around with you. See here for an explanation:

www.ukfree.tv link icon Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

Of course, caravan aerials by their nature are lower down than aerials on the top of houses, so you will be less likely to suffer from overloading, except perhaps in extreme cases when you are very near to such a high power transmitter. That said, if you're using a high-gain antenna you are more likely to suffer overloading when in strong signal areas.
jb38
Tuesday 24 April 2012 1:09PM
John F: Just out of curiosity what type of TV are you using in the caravan? its not a Nextbase by any chance?

Regarding the signal strength, as Dave Lindsay has mentioned its very likely that at the location mentioned you will be suffering from severe signal overloading, and possibly with it being of a magnitude that I doubt would be sufficiently reduced by the use of a normal attenuator, but one never knows!

Another point is, if your caravan is of more recent manufacture then check if it has an aerial amplifier sited in one of the cupboards as most do, and if it has then switch it off and link the input and output plugs together.

The next time you are at the site you should see what like the reception is with a short (about 12") piece of wire inserted into the TV's aerial socket.
jb38
Tuesday 24 April 2012 1:30PM
DAVID SNOWDEN: All Sky boxes can be reset, are you sure that you are leaving it long enough for the Sky box to activate when you you powered (inserted main plug) it back up again with your finger on the boxes back button, the point to remember being that your finger has to stay firmly on the back button until all the front panel LEDs light up before releasing it, and there is often a time lag in this happening.

If the box had been OK before then a complete reset of the nature you tried should not really have been necessary, as although what you have complained of could be a box fault its more likely to be caused by either a bad (partially shorted) connection in the "F" plug or possibly the "F" connector on the dishes LNB.

However, to verify if the box is OK or not you should temporarily couple it into the dish feed thats used by the main box.
Gratts
Wednesday 25 April 2012 9:17AM
Hi, I have freeview at the moment and do not have a satellite dish. I am considering buying a PVR to record films and TV series but was wondering if instead I could use a secondhand sky box purely as a PVR? Is this possible to do without freesat and purely as a component to my existing set-up?
Many thanks!
ian from notts
Wednesday 25 April 2012 2:14PM Nottingham
Gratts
a sky box needs a dish to function and the built in pvr (sky+) needs a subscription to be used
so im afraid not
michael
Wednesday 25 April 2012 5:49PM
i have to retune my feeview box all the time when i turn off the tv i do save the chaniles
jb38
Wednesday 25 April 2012 6:03PM
michael: It sounds as though you are trying to store more channels that the boxes memory is capable of storing, so carry out a factory reset on the box (sometimes called default setting) or if you don't see that option offered then take the aerial out and auto-tune without it, as that will blank the channels out, then when completed reconnect the aerial and carry out a further auto-tune to store the channels again.
john wackett
Thursday 26 April 2012 11:32AM
Have just gone over to new system..have had to buy anew tv and I can only get BBC 1and 2
But not ITV1Channels 4 and 5.
Thw tuning jumps from BBC2 to channel 7 then 14 and on.
John F
Thursday 26 April 2012 12:24PM
Thank you for the replies.
I brought the tv indoors from the van and retuned it.
My worry was that as the caravan tv was showing 48 on the tuning scale as against 68 on the home tv I would not get channels numbered above 48.
However watching the retune I saw it tune to channels up to at least 60.
So what exactly is the number on the end of the tuning scale.
After the retune however only Belmont BBC1 and 2 were in the correct places with 3 4 and 5 breaking up.
The Belmont ones were found in the 800s.
How on earth can a tv select a wealer signal over a good one.
The problems I had at Crystal Palace was due to the fact that I had unknowingly tuned in without the aerial lead plugged in but got good reception.
I then retuned with the lead in and amplifier off and got no programmes.
The tv by the way is a Mobile MTV15DVDT from Grade UK.
THanks again for your replies
Dave Lindsay
Thursday 26 April 2012 12:41PM
John F: Channel numbers start at 21 and go up to 68 or 69. 69 minus 21 is 48, so perhaps that's where the number comes from.

At your location, Sandy Heath is probably available. Belmont's BBC is C22 and Sandy's is C27. Yet Belmont's ITV is C25 which is after Sandy's which is C24.

My guess is that it doesn't select the stronger signal but the first one!

It might be worth researching the channels for the transmitter you will be using (as well as those that you may pick up which you are seeking to avoid) at a particular site. Digital UK Tradeview predictor is good for this. Enter the post code and tick the box to say that you're in the trade.

www.digitaluk.co.uk link icon Digital UK - Postcode checker
Derek Rogers
Thursday 26 April 2012 12:52PM
I live just south of Gloucester, and typically like to tune to BBC Radio Gloucestershire on 102.4, transmitting from Churchdown Hill.
I kno that we are in an area that it maybe a bit amrginal. I ahve an outside dipole aerial, well up on the chimney.

But our Radio Gloucestershire reception is usually very poor. Yet, we can always get excellent Heart on 102.4, transmitting also from Churchdown, and supposedly with the same power. The same situatiion also occurs with an radio alarm that only uses a single wire, indoor aerial.

I cannot understand why heart is good, yet BBC is so poor. Same transmitter; same power.

Can anyone help please??
Mary Middleton
Friday 27 April 2012 6:16AM Henley-on-thames
I am absolutely fed up with the unreliable quality of reception since the 'improved' digital service was introduced. When I moved here (near Henley on Thames) 5 years ago, everything worked fine. Within a couple of years the reception deteriorated and the picture would intermittently break up. I paid a professional aerial installer over £300 to replace the aerial with a high gain one and tune it. This was ok for a while until the recent activity, when I have had to re-tune numerous times, and it's still not reliable. Any sort of settled fine weather and we get the 'inversion effect' and rubbish reception. Last Saturday, as far as I remember, the weather was not exactly fine or settled. I set my recorder for the first episodes of 'The Bridge' on BBC4. When I tried to watch it last night, surprise surprise, 'Bad Signal' and two hours of blank screen. What am I paying the licence fee for and why does 'progress' always end up with something worse than we had before? I'd rather have 5 channels I could reliably watch that 130 channels of American soap and TV shopping.
NottsUK
Friday 27 April 2012 2:58PM
Briantist: 4 Austrian HD encrypted channels have appeared on Astra 1N this afternoon. They are, RTL HD Austria, VOX HD Austria, SUPER RTL HD and RTL2 HD Austria. They are on transponder 11112, H, 22000, DVB.S2 8PSK, 3/4. Three are encrypted in IR and the fourth one is encrypted in IR, NDS and NG. What they are doing on Astra 1N I have no idear, unless they are being used to check the transponder.
NottsUK
Friday 27 April 2012 3:20PM
Briantist: This transponder has now been switched off.
CWHerts
Friday 27 April 2012 4:03PM Rickmansworth
Chorleywood. I have lost all the BBC channels which is really upsetting as they were the only ones I watched. I have lots of other channels (IVT etc).
I can get the channel BBC for a few seconds & then when the signal is full it goes off & says 'Due to technical problem...... try later' !!
My Freeview box is Bush. I have found out that I should get the Hemel signal. I phoned the helpline for Digital switchover but didn't help me.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 27 April 2012 4:28PM
CWHerts: If you have a booster, remove it. Then perform and automatic retune with the aerial lead unplugged until it gets to 30%.
jb38
Friday 27 April 2012 8:47PM
Mary Middleton: Judging by the various directions that the aerials are seen facing in your area strongly suggests that its a problematic one for reception, and so it depends on where your particular aerial is pointing at.

The reception predictor indicates your best options for reception as being from either Crystal Palace or Oxford, Crystal Palace having the edge over Oxford on the main PSB stations (BBC / HD / ITV) but with the commercials being indicated as variable on a permanent basis, whereas Oxford indicates OK on five of the six multiplexes and with the remaining one (ArqB) being variable.

If you are not sure where you are receiving from carry out a signal check on BBC1 and note the mux channel number associated with the indication, if its from Crystal Palace it will be Ch23, whereas if Oxford Ch53. Once completed select ITV and carry out another signal check on it and likewise as before noting the mux channel seen indicated, Crystal Palace being Ch26 and if Oxford its Ch60.

Of course its not guaranteed that reception would ever be perfect in your area, and in cases like that Freesat scores every time.

Anyway, maybe you could give an update on findings of the channel test.
Mary Middleton
Friday 27 April 2012 10:17PM Henley-on-thames
jb38: I thought I was tuned to the Oxford transmitter, but BBC1 is channel 45, ITV1 is channel 26 if that means anything to you?
Dave Lindsay
Friday 27 April 2012 10:25PM
Mary Middleton: You live high up appear to have direct line of sight to Hannington (21 miles), Oxford (16 miles) and Crystal Palace (43 miles). This, on the face of it, would appear to mean that you may be in an excellent reception area.

As jb38 says, check that you are tuned to the transmitter to which your aerial faces.

If it's not tuned correctly, a workaround can be suggested.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 27 April 2012 10:35PM
Mary Middleton: I cross-posted with you.

In answer to your question, BBC1 is tuned to Hannington and ITV1 is tuned to Crystal Palace.

Because of the way in which the frequencies of these three transmitters are spread out, you can unplug the aerial lead during the scan to avoid picking up the ones you don't want.

Oxford is north north west and transmits BBC Oxford and ITV Central. To ensure that you are only tuned to it, run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged up until 57%.

Hannington is south south west and if your aerial is pointing at it, then start the scan with the aerial unplugged up until 30% and then unplug at 57%.

If, after doing this, you are missing and channels and you have manual tuning on your TV, tell us what they are and we will tell you what you need to manually tune to in order to add them. You will need to say what transmitter you are using.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 27 April 2012 11:16PM
Mary Middleton: Your problem appears to be that the aerial faces one way and the TV has tuned to another transmitter(s) which would explain poor reception. This can happen in areas where signals from different transmitters can be picked up.

You need to establish which transmitter the aerial faces so as to get it tuned correctly. My suggestions for Oxford and Hannington are above. Hannington broadcasts ITV Meridian by the way.

If your aerial faces Crystal Palace which broadcasts London programming and is east, then run the scan with the aerial plugged in and unplug at 30% and leave it unplugged until the scan completes.
jb38
Saturday 28 April 2012 12:12AM
Mary Middleton: As Dave lindsay has said your two main PSB stations (BBC and ITV) are tuned to different transmitting stations and with that likely being the reason for part of your reception difficulties.

However although I realise that Hannington is indeed closer to you it doesn't appear as being very promising as far as reliability of reception is concerned, and that's why I purposely did not bring it into the equation.

The reason I say this is, that even although it presently indicates in the green (good)for reception its not near so good as the other two stations mentioned, and worse! as from June four of its six muxes dips into the category of variable reception, which in plain simple terms means that glitches can be expected, the muxes concerned being - ITV1 / HD service / SDN (ITV3 etc) / ArqA (Pick TV, Dave etc) and so I dont think its best to plan for reception from that station because of this, even allowing for errors in the predictions made.

Another aspect concerning Hannington being, that as Dave Lindsay has also mentioned it does appear on the face of it as though a clear line of site exists between Hannington and you, but! the signal path plotter does not take trees and other types of obstructions into account and your area is one where you cannot travel far without coming across trees no matter what direction you travel, and so I personally take these type of signal path plotters with the proverbial pinch of salt, albeit admittedly that they are handy for indicating if any hills are in the way.

By the way just for your info to assist in judging where your aerial is facing: Hannington is @ 205 degrees / 21 miles - Crystal Palace @ 103 degrees / 43 miles - Oxford @ 336 degrees / 16 miles.

If any Sky dishes are near you then they face roughly 155 degrees, as you could use them as an approximate guide for direction.



Mary Middleton
Saturday 28 April 2012 7:05AM Henley-on-thames
thank you both Dave Lindsay & jb38. from the orientation, the aerial points to Oxford, I've tried running the scan with the aerial unplugged and it didn't pick up any stations BUT .. I do remember reading about needing to clear previous settings, there doesn't appear to be a 'first time setup option but it looks like that's what's happened now, I've run the scan again with the aerial plugged in and BBC is 53 (Oxford), ITV is 26 (Crystal Palace) with max signal strength/quality on both. BBC from Hannington last night was showing minimial signal strength and quality. all I need now is either some sunny, clear weather or a some heavy rain to see whether the reception holds up ... at least I know where my aerial points and to find out which channels are from which transmitters, thank you both so much for your help. the set does have a manual tuning option but I hope not to have to use it!
jb38
Saturday 28 April 2012 8:29AM
Mary Middleton: Judging by what you have reported could suggest that even although there didn't seem to be anything stored in the memory that there possibly has been otherwise the rescan would not have missed BBC on Ch23 from Crystal Palace when it picked up ITV from there on Ch26, although and as you will probably appreciate, that CP is being picked up on the semi-rear (about 50 degrees out) of your aerial and likely because of its sheer power which is double that of Oxford.

Just out of curiosity, when you referred to having set your recorder what model of device is it? and do you use this for the general viewing of Freeview or do you also have a dedicated Freeview TV, and should this apply then its model, my only reason for requesting this info being that three of Oxfords channels have offsets on their frequencies and some types of equipment cant cope very well with this situation, and which can result in glitches being seen in an otherwise OK signal and this aspect has to be eliminated.

I have to also say that although things like the inversion effect does play a large part in the recent bout of bad reception reports I do feel that a lot of your problems are caused by reasons of vegetation, (trees) as they can have different blocking effect levels dependant or whether they are wet or dry, plus a more erratic effect when their branches blow about in the wind, and as aforementioned in my previous posting trees are not exactly in short supply all around your region.
Mary Middleton
Saturday 28 April 2012 9:18AM Henley-on-thames
jb38: I use a Bush LT26M1CA LCS tv which has a built in freeview tuner, also a Panasonic DMR-EZ27 recorder/player which also has a built in freeview tuner, connected to the tv by scart. the aerial plugs into the Panasonic, then there's a coax connector from the Panasonic to the tv. the TV input is selected via the TV remote as TV or scart. I've repeatedly re-tuned both freeview tuners for months now but neither the tv or dvd box reception has been reliable. interestingly, upstairs I have an old portable crt tv with built-in VHS tape, I connected a super-cheap Dion freeview tuner from Tesco a few months ago and that set-up works reliably in all weathers, so if I want to be sure of recording something I tend to give up on the expensive, new high-tech stuff downstairs and go back to the old reliable 14" portable! the same aerial serves both tv's. thanks again.
jb38
Saturday 28 April 2012 11:48AM
Mary Middleton: Thanks for the update re: equipment used, and on studying same I feel that because you are in an iffy area for reception it would be better if the aerial was not looped through the Panasonic and into the TV as that method is inclined to reduce the signal level to the TV, albeit that this is procedure is OK in good reception area's, therefore I would advise you to use a two way powered splitter to feed both devices, as that not only guarantees that each would get the same level of signal but also with the addition of a mild boost.

That said though, a point that I wondered about regarding the upstairs TV is what aerial does it use? as if the cable in the living room comes from being linked into the socket upstairs then that will have to be altered, insomuch that the two way powered splitter would then be better placed upstairs, and with the aerial from the roof going straight into the splitter, then one of the splitters outputs used to feed the downstairs lounge and the other output for the upstairs TV.

Of course "if" the coax is routed like mentioned, then for a test switch your Freeview recorder onto its signal checking screen and choose a channel that's less than full scale and noting the indication seen, then go upstairs and take the coax plug out of the wall socket and go back downstairs again and see if the signal level has increased any on the Freeview recorder, but remember this is only applicable if the lounge coax comes from the bedroom socket.
Dave Lindsay
Saturday 28 April 2012 11:51AM
Mary Middleton: Now you are sure that your aerial is facing Oxford, you need to get all the channels tuned in from there, as you have different ones from different transmitters.

The user manual for the Panasonic is here:

www.panasonic.co.uk link icon Support - Downloads - Panasonic UK & Ireland

(Choose the bottom of the four that says it is 11.8MB)

Page 47 talks about tuning. Basically you have three options:

1. Auto-Setup Restart - This wipes the stored channels and scans for available channels.

2. DVB Manual Tuning - This allows specific channels to be added.

3. Add New DVB Services - This doesn't wipe what channels that are stored, but scans to see if any new ones are available.


If you use number 2, manual tuning, without clearing what you already have, you may find that it achieves nothing. This depends on the design of the receiver. As the Oxford channels may be stored in the 800s, as soon as you manually tune to them it may consider that they are already stored, and therefore do nothing. What you are trying to do is get Oxford in their proper logical channel number positions (1 through to 728).

For this reason you need to wipe what channels are stored using some method. Running the Auto-Setup Restart may accomplish this.

The go to DVB Manual Tuning. For Oxford you need to add the following five channels: C53 (BBC One), C60 (ITV1), C62 (ITV3), C59 (Pick TV), C55 (Yesterday). Note that C62 is expected to change to C50 in October next year.

On the DVB Manual Tuning screen, use the up/down buttons to select a channel number. Then press OK and it will look at that UHF channel and after a short wait it will list all services carried on it. Depending on how it works, you may be able to carry on adding the other channels, or you may have to press EXIT and then go back into DVB Manual Tuning and do the next.

-----

Helping you with the Bush TV may be a little more tricky as the manual does not appear to be available online.

However, if it has manual tuning, then follow the same general procedure as outlined above. That is, aim to clear what's stored and then add the five channels.

Alternatively, whilst performing its automatic tuning scan it gives a percentage progress, then start it off with the aerial unplugged and then plug in when it gets to 57%. If there is manual tuning and you are missing any channels, then use it to add them (using channel numbers given above).


The objective of unplugging the aerial is to have the aerial disconnected whilst it is scanning frequencies used by Crystal Palace and Hannington, thereby irradicating the possibility that it will store them instead of the Oxford ones.
Dave Lindsay
Saturday 28 April 2012 12:06PM
jb38: With apparent clear line of sight as Mary has, surely the likely prediction would be 100s right across the board (or near 100s), except where signals from distance station(s) may interfere. Therefore is it not likely to be the case that the lower scores are as a result of other transmitters?

It would surely be useful if the Digital UK Tradeview predictor would indicate which station(s) it thinks may degrade reception as the level to which they will do in practice surely depends on factors such as the design of the aerial and its location such as if there is an obstruction to help block the unwanted signal.

Also, the fact that Mary has a high gain aerial surely reduces her chance of interference, particularly where it originates from outside the main acceptance angle. Or is the true in a way, except for where there is a reflection of the unwanted signal that is in the direction to which the aerial faces.
Dave Lindsay
Saturday 28 April 2012 12:35PM
Briantist: There are some pages which appear to have the comments turned off, yet there is a box to make a comment.

I've just posted on this page but the comment is not showing:

www.ukfree.tv link icon Compare Freeview and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

The comment I made was the fact that "ITV3 (CI)" is showing as being available on Freesat but not full Freeview. I gather this has something to do with ITV3 being available on PSB2 on the Channel Islands.



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