All posts by MikeG
Below are all of MikeG's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Please note that if signal or signal quality is flicking between say 80% and 20% fairly quickly it can be the sign of a dodgy tuner, especially in PVRs. I bought a Humax (refurbished) model a couple of months ago and could not suss out what was wrong with it. Did all the tests possible and eventually discovered that one of the tuners was good and stable at 80% while the other was intermittent. I returned the faulty unit and they sent me another with exactly the same problem; returned that for a refund. Humax refurbished models appear to be returns that they ship out again without checking. This fault with tuners could of course happen on any other make of PVR or TV. If it's a two channel PVR always check signal strength and quality on both channels.
Mike (retired radio & Electronics Eng.).
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Hi Brian, the last 4 links on this weeks email resulted in this message
AUTOROUTER failed to find route_
and would not resolve. But you may well know about this by now. Firefox browser 32.03.
Mike.
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I think the most annoying thing (No.1 on my list) is the annihilation of all your favourite scheduled programs on BBC and sometimes ITV as soon as a major sporting event comes along. I always assumed that these would be put on freeview sports channels. There seems no logical reason for not doing so with so many channels available, and the red button ones. I'm sure I'm not the only ones who gets really annoyed about this. And of course they don't appear on catch up TV until the programs have been screened on Freeview so there's no way around loosing your favourite program.
Secondly, why oh why do we have to put up with announcers and trailers being broadcast with so much compression added that they blast out twice as loud as the normal programs. It's not beyond the scope of the system to broadcast all programs at the same audio level. And why are occasional programs broadcast so quiet compared to the other 90%? Is there nobody at the end of the broadcast chain with a volume control at the end of their arm like in the old BBC days; the automatic systems, if they exist, are obviously not working.
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Oh dear, they'll be nothing left of the entire radio spectrum soon for anyone but mobile operators. They should never have let them have the top of the UHF band; that should have been reserved for extra MUXs for expansion of terrestrial TV. For those who think that terrestrial TV will be dead in a few years and everyone will be receiving it via the internet, I don't think so. The internet structure in this country would need to evolve massively before that could happen and I doubt there would be enough capacity to make it work for decades. And why should we be forced to buy new equipment every few years in order to watch TV? The terrestrial digital TV services work well and cover the majority of the country.
Successive governments have hacked away at our radio spectrum to make way for firstly pagers and then mobile services just to put a few more pounds into the government coffers, with no concern for existing or future needs.
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Won't make any difference to interference caused by relays on other equipment in the house Josh; but there's a chance that a mains noise filter may help if you plug in your TV or PVR to that.
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If anyone on this site watched the news last week they would know that the chancellor is going to alter the terms o the BBC licence and put and end to this loophole, which I think is fair, cord cutting is just licence evasion. If it was to be allowed to continue where would the BBC get money for making programs?
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Obviously Jamie if you don't watch TV then you're not a licence evader, but if the situation of the loophole were allowed to continue I can see a large proportion of the licence payers trying this on, resulting in little money being left to make programs. I doubt it will be long before the loophole is plugged.
Mike.
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I would like to see BBC1+1 on that spare channel. BBC is the only broadcaster that doesn't have a +1 channel.
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Do these mobile operators think they are God and entitled to take over the whole radio spectrum. It really annoys me how successive governments give in to them for a few extra quid in the British money pot selling of frequencies to the detriment of other useful services. They are gradually eating into our UHF band which should have been reserved for expansion of the existing HD Freeview transmissions. The Freeview system is excellent for most homes and even though I have BT Infinity BB I still prefer Freview HD to view or record off air.
Those who say in a few years time all TV will be via Broadband have no idea of the capacity that will be required if every home in the land watches this way. Please stop them pinching our frequencies and let them move higher up the frequency spectrum, there's little on those frequencies at the current time. Rant over.
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Wednesday 16 October 2013 8:50AM
Sorry Nigel, I'm with MikeB on this one. And if terrestrial digital TV lasts for another 15 years that'll do me.
Look how many older people left Sky because of their high prices when digital TV came out, because it is free once you have the equipment.
The young with plenty of money may go for subscription services but I doubt the elderly will.
Mike.