All posts by Keith Sheppard
Below are all of Keith Sheppard's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mark and Briantist, thanks for your responses. There is no way I can make out colours on the aerial, even using binoculars, and its location is such that I cannot safely reach it. Re. post code, it's RG41 1LH. Freeview website suggests Hannington (many of my neighbours' aerials point that way) but it's marginal and I inherited an aerial pointing at Crystal Palace. Reception isn't bad, even on today's signal strength, although we do get some drop-outs. I anticipate improvement when CP turns DSO. Mark's comments re. cable are noted but I don't think it would be practical to replace it unless absolutely necessary. After a number of extensions, the aerial feed has been mysteriously woven into the fabric of the house. In the short term I shall probably stick with CP. I just wanted to know what would be involved in switching to Hannington but it seems clear that the answer is that it would require a new aerial. (SU7948169643)
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I'm on the boundary between Crystal Palace and Hannington. My aerial is pointing at Crystal Palace and therefore I get my digital TV from London. However, I do like to switch to BBC South for local news.
Now that the Hannington signal has been boosted I find I can pick up the BBCA multiplex from Hannington on C45. That's despite my aerial pointing the wrong way and possibly being in the wrong group (not sure on that last point).
My Humax VCR did exactly what I wanted. I did a manual tune on C45 and BBC South (plus others) appeared as logical channels 800 et seg. Perfect. I can watch London most of the time and select Southern when required.
Less luck on the upstairs TV, though. There I have a cheap Xenta digibox. I tried the same procedure, manual tune on C45. It found the Hannington channels but put them onto LCNs 1 etc., displacing the BBC London channels up to the 800 range. That's despite the fact that the box reports a marginally stronger signal from CP then Hannington. I tried deleting the 800+ channels and doing a manual retune on C25 (where BBC London lives). No luck. It still chooses to put the BBC London channels up in the 800s and keeps BBC South as LCN 1.
Any suggestions how I can pursuade my box to put BBC South as LCN800 and keep BBC London as channel 1?
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I am on the boundary between Hannington and Crystal Palace. My aerial is pointing at CP but I occasionally like to watch BBC South for local news.
Immediately after Hannington digital switchover, I was able to get BBC South (on LCN 800) by doing a manual search on C45. Despite my aerial pointing the wrong way, signal strength and quality was good and digital dropouts comparatively rare. From memory, the last time I successfully watched BBC South was last Saturday, 10th March.
Suddenly it's gone. Tried to watch BBC South this week and two separate digiboxes (same aerial) both report "bad/no signal". I tried to repeat the manual retune on C45. Signal strength is around 60% but quality is non existent (0 or 10%). Both boxes now report no channels found on C45. What's changed? Has Hannington made any changes in the last coupld of days or is it a fault in my aerial... or was I just lucky before?
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Reposting because I think the original got lost:
I live on the boundary between Crystal Palace and Hannington. My aerial is pointing at Crystal Palace but I do occasionally like to watch BBC South Today off the Hannington transmitter.
After Hannington digital switchover, I did an explcit manual tune on C45 and managed to pick up a decent BBC South signal, even though my aerial was pointing the wrong way. My digibox placed it on LCN 800 which was perfect. This worked fine up to, and including (from memory) last Saturday. This week I tried to watch BBC South and my box reported bad/no signal.
I tried to repeat the manual retune but now the box reports no stations found on C45. The diagnostics screen says C45 signal strength around 60-70% but signal quality zero or, occasionally 10%.
Has anything changed in terms of the Hannington transmitter in the last few days or is it likely to be a fault my end? I have two (different makes) digiboxes and the problem is the same on both. Both decoders were able to receive BBC South last week but neither box can pick it up any more.
Any suggestions what to try next?
Keith Sheppard
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Now that the dust has settled for both Crystal Palace and Hannington...
I am in the fringe area known as Wokingham. I inherited an (inaccessible) aerial pointing at Crystal Palace but like to get BBC South local news if I can. I have successfully tuned my box so BBC South, from Hannington, is on logical channel 800. Probably 90 percent of the time this works fine - remarkably few drop-outs given that my aerial is pointing in completely the wrong direction. The other ten percent of the time (is it when it's raining, I'm not sure) it is unwatchable or cuts out completely with "no or bad signal" message.
How can it be so variable? Is it just teething troubles at the Hannington end? Is there anything I can do to improve matters?
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I would adamantly oppose any attempt to introduce channel idents (DOGS) on BBC1 and 2. You say you don't notice the DOGS on iPlayer services. Lucky you. I do. All DOGS on all channels annoy me intensely. For example, I never watch the Channel 4 HD service because I would rather put up with SD without a DOG. I admire and envy those who can ignore them. To me, they spoil my enjoyment of every DOG'd channel. Actually, I think ITV have the right idea. A DOG (if you really must) on broadcast services but not on internet catch-up services where there's already enough branding on the app used to access them.
You say many households were unaware they were watching a BBC programme. What mystifies me is why this should actually matter to a public service briadcaster.
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Brian, curiously I don't mind DOGs during factual programmes like the news, sports etc. It's during dramas that's they annoy me because they snap me out of my "suspension of disbelief" whenever the top left of the screen went dark, throwing the DOG into high contrast. I used to spend hours recording programmes onto my computer so I could run them through DOG removal software. Myself wife couldn't understand why we could never watch anything live.
These days I've learned to become more tolerant but I still resent them. I wonder if the broadcasters could achieve the same ends by showing DOGs only for the first and last five minutes of a drama, allowing dinosaurs like me to watch the majority of the programme uncluttered.
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Friday 11 November 2011 3:45PM
I have a very old roof aerial - much older than UK digital TV. Is there any way to tell, looking up from the ground, which group it is or whether it's wideband?
I currently get an adequate digital signal from Crystal Palace but I'm on the border between that and Hannington. I'd prefer Hannington because BBC South is more relevant to me. As I understand it, CP is Group A and Hannington is C/D. I was wondering whether switching to Hannington (post DSO) was just a matter of realigning the aerial I've already got or whether I would need a new one. (SU7948169643)