All posts by Michael
Below are all of Michael's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I'll try submitting this again - the anti-spam device just keeps showing another set of letters.
My postcode is M46 9PE, in line of sight of Winter Hill. I've just retuned Freeview TV and PVR but got Wales on channels 1,2,3 and S4C, so I checked Digitaluk and followed instructions to manually retune groups 1=62, 2=59, 3=not given, 4=58, 5=61, 6=55. I've done it for the PVR ok, except I no longer have the BBC1 and Granada Wales options. All the 800s have gone, though I'm unlikely to use them. Can you give any help? This is all supposed to be so, easy but I'm seeing that it's not, even for the much more technically knowledgeable people using your site. Thanks to those who posted a response. I think I've got it straight now, but I'm really peeved by all the stuff put out by the broadcasters saying it was easy-peasy. The posts show there are knowledgeable people out there who still have queries. Unless you're professionals in the field, I wonder where you get your info from, because I know how to look for the answers to my science, medical etc queries, but couldn't find anything on this. Is there somewhere I can find an explanation, comprehensible to the layman, of the whole digital tv/radio system, so I can try to make sense of the different bits of info I can find on the net? We were told, pretty correctly, when digital phones came in that interference would cease, since missing or wrong bits could be detected by software and generally replaced by the most likely fit. This is clearly not so with TV: in at least the last 30 yrs of analog wherever I lived, weather would have to be exceptionally foul for a programme to be really unwatchable if I really wanted it, and sound, which was often the important part, was rarely lost. Not so with digital, where both picture and sound break up every few seconds, so that my PVR (unlike VCRs) stops recording.
Before NW switchover, I got a new aerial, Panasonic TV and Humax PVR with Freeview, of which only 16 channels interest me. I am about 5 miles line of sight from Winter Hill yet get considerable interference. The 2 receivers load up different sets of channels, not always the same ones and I have no idea why whoever's in charge of the engineering finds it necessary to keep changing the channels around so that we have to keep retuning, and doesn't assign the logical sequence 1=BBC1, 3=ITV1 etc right through the 800s and all over the country.
My TV loads 1/2/3 as NW but occasionally Wales, 4=4/S4C, ..., no8, 9=BBC4, ...; the PVR loads 1/2/3/4 Wales, 8=C4.
The 800s appear always to have good reception, when other channels are breaking up, but here too PVR loads 800-814, providing alternatives to all the main channels, whereas TV gets only 800-806=text/ITV Wales/text/rabbit/ITV1/BBC1/2.
Are we supposed to make sense of all this? 
What is the meaning of the +/- after some mux nos? What mux are the 800s on? - my new Humax pvr and Panasonic tv load between 800-806 and 800-814 on retune and never the same selection for both -why?
It's your own fault for living "Oop North", and anyway you've got "Coronation St", haven't you?
When I lived for a while near the Metrollopse, my young neighbours thought that that series was started to give Northeners ("Like, maybe, past Luton?") their own version of "East-Enders". I have a Humax PVR that records 2 or(possibly - why?)3 channels while watching a 3rd/4th.
I've had no problem recording 2 and watching a 3rd, except twice recently. I had two recordings set up and when the second started, the channel I was watching went blank, flashing up a message about some kind of clash. I thought it might be to do with two of the programmes being on the same mux but they weren't. There's nothing in the manual, but I guess someone there knows the explanation, and I'd be grateful for it. Thanks, Mike, that's v useful for future scheduling. It also explains why reviews say "possibly 3" recordings: I assume it means the 3rd temporary recording must also be on one of the other 2 Mux.
Could you also clarify that if you use this facility, you can watch the whole recording so long as you start a couple of minutes before it finishes? Thanks again. Yes, this isn't the place for grammar but I'll have my say in defence of Mark. First, though, let me have a poke at Seabee. "Moral/e" both come, via different routes and an English reversal of their meanings in French, from "moralis". Seabee must be an educated chap, because he writes the "a" with a macron, a little line over the top. This is familiar and of interest only to linguists, which makes me think he's a bit of a pedant, delighting in the opportunities mistakes provide for him to demonstrate his knowledge.
There are actually more opportunities for him in Jordy's article, but my reaction when I read Jordy or Mark or most of the posters here is that I would like to have 10% of the technical knowledge and skill they have.
I am a linguist and taught for many years. If Jordy's purpose in writing this had been (certainly in "the old days") to answer an exam question, he probably wouldn't have made some of the mistakes in the first place or would have revised the answer and corrected them. If he had handed the revision to me, I would first have highlighted any remaining errors, some of which he may then have corrected.
For me, the most interesting point is why someone with the intelligence to acquire Jordy's level of technical knowledge and skill didn't acquire the same level in English. I don't think I could ever have attained the level of technical ability he probably had on leaving school, but all the evidence is that his intellect would have allowed him and many others to acquire a similar level of ability in English. The gap doesn't occur in all educational systems, and there is constant worry about why it happens here.
Anyway, thanks to Jordy and Brian and everyone who has the technical knowledge and the ability to explain it in comprehensible English and, especially, who is willing to give time to passing it on freely to others. Is there any way I can get the "Watch and listen now" facility directly onto my computer, eg my Google home page? HD info is v confusing. Panasonic says the tv I bought last year is HD Ready, meaning that the television is able to handle a High Definition signal. It produces 720 lines of information across the screen which is not Full HD. It does not have a High Definition tuner built in, so the HD services would come from an external source such as a recorder with HD built in. This seems to mean, even with a HD recorder, I would not get HD, but that seems to make "HD ready" pointless. Am I wrong? The "Civilization" HD/35mm post has I hope given me the chance of an answer to a q that has puzzled me for years, long before there was any thought of digital or HD TV.
On reading an article then about how there was a struggle to continue shooting "epics" on film rather than cheaper tape, because of the better quality images it produced, I wondered how it could make a difference when it had to be converted to electronic signals anyway. The post must indicate that somebody here could explain; is film inherently better, or has electronic media caught up - would a film projected side by side directly and via electronic means look the same?
A related q is: why, even in the cinema but now better because you can see end to end films from different eras, is it possible for at least older folks to tell immediately from the colour whether a film they've never seen is from the 40s, 50s, 60s to maybe mid 70s, since when nothing seems to have changed? Several reports predict that 4G will reduce Freeview to 20 basic channels. If that turns out to be so, what will the channels be? The only channels I have "activated" on my TV and PVR are 1 to 15, 19, 24, 28, 80 and 82. These are all working now on TV and PVR.
Do I need to do anything?
Thanks. I can see the Winter Hill mast from my house, 6.5 miles away. When, after digital changeover, with a new aerial, I automatically tuned my new Panasonic TV and Humax PVR and deleted all but 19 TV and 4 BBC Radio channels, I had to manually retune from BBC Wales to NW. Then everything was fine, until I did a manual retune to find 4seven, and ended up back with BBC Wales. I retuned the TV (which I only watch directly if the PVR is blocked by recording) to channels 1-7, 9-15, 19/25/28/47/80/82 and radio; all seem to be fine. 8 does not appear, and clicking it on the remote displays “Invalid channel”.
I then retuned the Humax but 5/C5, 6/ITV2 and 14/More4 are blank in the EPG and the channels don’t show if I click on them (same in Channel list or by clicking the number on the remote), but display “No or bad signal”. The same applies to channel 8, which never appeared previously, making me think it was reserved for some special function, but now the EPG says it’s C4. I now have ITV2 and More4 on 801 and 802 and in the EPG. So also another Channel 5 on 800, which I don't need.
Can anyone tell me why the two should have retuned differently and what I can/should do about the Humax situation? I’m obviously getting a signal from Wales (Moel-y-Parc?) much further away, especially as on Wednesday I got an on-screen warning about channel changes, which your email links to Freeview in Wales. This makes me wary of retuning again without advice. You also show that Winter Hill channels 61 and 62 will change in April; will that happen automatically or will it need a manual retune?
If I retune, should I start from 62 down rather than 55 up – and which precisely (and how after April’s changes)? Will that eliminate other/Moel-y-Parc transmitters’ signals? Why was it made so complicated by people necessarily clever enough to have done otherwise? Even the obviously very knowledgeable people commenting here have had problems.
Thanks so much.
Dave Lindsay,
Thanks very much for that comprehensive reply.
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