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If you live in Berkshire and North Hampshire, you will need to take action on Wednesday morning as high power digital television services bring digital and high definition television to everyone.
Most people need only perform a "full retune" on their Freeview box or TV, but it would be impossible with 483,600 homes covered by the transmitters, for no-one to have a problem.
From Wednesday 22nd February 2012 you MUST have a digital television device to watch TV. If you do not have a digital receiver, from Wednesday will have a blank screen.
Do not expect a terrestrial television service from midnight until 6am - or a late as 3pm on relay transmitters (see below for timetable).
Switchover help scheme
If you are over 75, get (or could get) Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance or mobility supplement; or have lived in a care home for six months or more; or are registered blind or partially sighted and need assistance, please see The Switchover Help Scheme.
Cable and satellite
Cable (Virgin Media) and satellite (Sky, Freesat, fSfS) viewers are not affected by the changes. Remember, however, that you may be using analogue TV to watch on a second or third set and it might need a Freeview box.
If you are not on the list, you should scan your box from around 6am.
When you now rescan, you MUST do a "first time installation" or "factory reset" scan (sometimes called "shipping state"), not a simple "add channels". Do the procedure you did on "national retune day", September 30th 2009, see Freeview Retune - list of manuals.
If you live close to the transmitter, you may have to disconnect any "boosters" from your aerial system. The new, more powerful digital signals may overload any amplifiers and result in no reception! When looking for them include a check for distribution amplifiers, loft boxes, set back amplifiers, bypass Amplifiers, hidden masthead amps in a loft space and any dodgy active splitters.
If you had no Freeview service before, you will have the BBC channels digitally from Wednesday 8th February 2012. This is a single multiplex of the BBC channels (radio, television and text) for most people.
However, if you were on the fringes of reception from one of the main Freeview transmitters, you will now get all the Freeview channels.
If you didn't get this limited Freeview service on Wednesday 8th February 2012 then you may need a new aerial.
If you are served by a public service (relay) transmitter, which are:
...you now need, from around from 6am (unless shown otherwise) on 22nd February 2012 to rescan, and you will get a second Multiplex with ITV 1, ITV 2, ITV 1 +1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Channel 4+1, E4 and More4.
Everyone who has digital-only terrestrial TV now has the ability to receive Freeview HD, see below.
Digital regional overlap
The old analogue TV signals provided lots of nations and regions for the public service channels, and these have large areas of overlap.
The old low power digital TV signals were at very low levels and reception of signals from more than one transmitter was a rare event.
All Freeview boxes automatically scan the available broadcast frequencies looking for channels, and they do this from C21 to C69. Older Freeview boxes will, if a duplicate version of a channel is found whilst scanning, such as another BBC Oneregion, placed it in the 800-899 channel range.
Some of the latest Freeview boxes will pick the strongest signals for the "primary" number positions, and some will detect the different regions providing a choice when you perform a "scan for channels".
The 800-899 is easy to access by pressing CH- from 1, and in most programme guides is just a single scroll up.
Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom
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.
M
maureen williams Wednesday 22 February 2012 4:11PM
HI BRIANTIST,Ihave connected sky to tv and dvd recorder,all with your help.I have one more problem,the dvdr will not record.I only have one scart on tv and that is in use,is there any way i can get the dvdr to record?The dvdr manual states "this set does not have a modulated channeloutput it loops through the RF output".Other than this problem I can watch sky and play a dvd no problem.Many thanks
maureen williams: The normal procedure is to have the Skybox connected into the TV's scart socket and the DVD recorder connected into the Sky boxes AV2.(might be called called VCR)
In operation, as soon as you take the DVD recorder out of standby it should automatically pass through the Sky box and appear on the screen as though only it was connected directly into the TV, this enabling you to play back a previous recording or even set it to record something from the Sky box.
The only thing to remember is that you will have to make sure that when setting the recorder to record anything from Sky that you have selected AV1 on the recorders
"input selector" or it will try to record from its own internal tuner, which of course you may want to do as well if it can receive a signal via the aerial, which of course should be connected to the DVD recorder's aerial input socket then looped into the TV.
It would have been of assistance to know what model of DVD recorder you are referring to plus your location (pref: post code) this for signal checking purposes.
maureen williams: Another little point I accidentally omitted, when devices are connected his way its basically the "last" device taken out of standby that can be seen on the TV, so if the DVD recorder seems to be hogging the TV just switch the Skybox into standby then back out of it again and it will take control of the TV, likewise the same thing being done if the Sky box doesnt seem to be allowing the DVD to pass through it, i.e: switch the latter into standby then back out of it again, or of course just leave the Sky box in standby unless you are recording from it.
Also the statement seen about modulated output just means that it doesnt have the same facility to that of a Sky boxes RF1/2 modulated output signal like what you would get from an analogue TV transmitter, as the DVD recorders aerial just loops through the box as well as going into its internal tuner.
jb38,Thanks for info.The dvdr in question is a Panasonic TU-DSB30,the statement about modulated output,made me think i had a problem,and it would not record.Thanks for help,much appreciated.
maureen williams: Thanks for the update! and which indicates that Tacolneston (@ 25mls) is your main station, you must though be in a bit of an iffy reception area as Gt Yarmouth is located at only 2 miles away and yet its reception is indicated as being variable on that code, likewise is Lowestoft @ 6 miles although both stations are transmitting on 400watts, the main station Tacolneston being 100Kw.
The test of where you are actually receiving from (irrespective of the reception predictor) is whether or not you can get ITV3, as its only transmitted from Tacolneston and not from either of the other two mentioned as they are PSB only relays.
Can someone tell me why, after the boost in signal strength, of two days ago I can no longer get film4, yesterday, dave, sky news, and several other programs that were fine before switch over? I have retuned and can get the main BBC and ITV channels very well. Is this as good as it is going to get or are further increases in signal strength in the pipeline? Will I have to install a dish for the now non-existent channels. Postcode RG456HN
Roger Spinks: The COM muxes at Hannington are still using the low power antenna with a restriction towards the Guildford service area. This is to protect the low power digital signals from Guildford which share the same frequencies with the Hannington COM muxes. This situation will continue until DSO at Guildford which takes place on 4th April 2012 and 18th April 2012. The restriction at Hannington will be lifted when the frequencies are decommissioned at Guildford. In the meantime the Hannington signal will have a net reduction in signal strength for some viewers due to the change to 64QAM, 8k working.
Edward S: In addition to my post above, did you do a factory reset to clear the channel list before rescanning for channels? If the old 2k frequency is still stored in the LCN positions in the channel list the new 8k versions will appear (if found) in other positions, usually in the 800s. You should have BBC4 somewhere!
I've only just seen the other recent posts about the low power channels from Hannington so I apologise for having duplicated information about them.
We now wait in anticipation for 18th April.
KMJ,Derby: Thanks for your help. I did as instructed and got BBC 4 back. Still missing Dave, VIVA, 4 music and a few others, but I guess I'll just have to wait until the 18th of April
Where are you located?
3 of the multiplexes (on chsnnels 39, 42 and 45) are already transmitting at full power, the other 3 (on channels 41, 44 and 47) are transmitting at lower power (half power?) in an arc from NE to SW of Hannington to protect the Guildford transmitter using the same channels. This will change soon as the Guilford transmitter begins DSO on the 4th April. On that date, Channel 44 from Hannington will start to transmit at full power. On Aoril 18th, when Guillford has completed DSO, channels 41 and 47 from Hannington will start to transmit at full power.
For your various pieces of Freeview equipmeent, what signal level and signal quality are you getting for the following channels?
BBC 1 (SD)
BBC 1 HD (if your equipment is capable of receiving a HD signal)
I have just bought an i-CAN Freeview HD tuner and it is generally excellent for the money, £35. However, try as I might, I cannot get it to tune in channel 15 Flim 4. I have done all the "no-signal" tricks to no avail.
My Sony Bravia 32" tv and my Toshiba and Panasonic HD/DVD recorders all get ch 15 fine.
I am on the main Sandy Heath transmitter at NN5 5P*
13:24
on UK Free TV
Tonight, the first switchover of 2012 will see the number of homes with digital-only terrestrial reception in the UK goes up by 483,600 from 65.6% to 67.4%.
If you are over 75, get (or could get) Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Constant Attendance Allowance or mobility supplement; or have lived in a care home for six months or more; or are registered blind or partially sighted and need assistance, please see 
The Switchover Help Scheme.
Cable (Virgin Media) and satellite (Sky, Freesat, fSfS) viewers are not affected by the changes. Remember, however, that you may be using analogue TV to watch on a second or third set and it might need a Freeview box.
If you already use Freeview, and can receive all the channels now, check your TV or box is not listed here - 
If you had no Freeview service before, you will have the BBC channels digitally from Wednesday 8th February 2012. This is a single multiplex of the BBC channels (radio, television and text) for most people.
Freeview HD will start on Wednesday 22nd February 2012 from Hannington and all 8 relay transmitters. You will need a Freeview HD - DVB-T2 receiver to watch the channels. 
