All posts by Steve Donaldson
Below are all of Steve Donaldson's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Andrew Smith: At switchover all the North Norfolk coast transmitters had a real-terms power increase, these being Kings Lynn, Burnham, Wells, West Runton, Overstrand, Little Walsingham and Creake. By and far the biggest increases were at Burnham and Wells.
Thus, coverage of the Anglia region programming increased across the area which cannot receive directly from Tacolneston, but much of which is otherwise served by Belmont. This isn't to say there aren't pockets that still cannot receive Anglia programming, and I'm not familiar with where they may be.
I did a plot of the terrain between the Wells transmitter and Holkham and there doesn't seem to be any obstruction, the transmitter being 6 miles away. There are, however, a lot of tall trees in the direction of the transmitter, to the east of the village, and while this isn't great, the high transmission power now in operation may be able to get round them. That said, reception can vary from one property to another, particularly where there are local obstructions such as trees.
I looked on Google Street View and spotted two houses on Park Road with Wells aerials, so this could be an indication that it is possible to receive it. One is on the bungalow that is the last house before the park on the left heading south from the A149.
The Wells transmitter doesn't carry all the Freeview channels so Belmont may still be required to give access to all the channels, meaning use of two aerials, one on each transmitter.
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js: If the data is originating from the service provider incorrectly formatted then it is being passed along the chain of party(ies) (the company that runs the multiplex) and out the transmitter and over the airwaves. This must mean there is no validation check by those downstream because if there were then it would never find its way onto the air. (There is of course the question of whether it would be technically possible to have a program validate, which would have to analyse and either reject or correct the errors.)
"If" there were validation and it rejected the invalid data content then the EPG would be blank for the offending service and the service provider would soon sort out the problem... or maybe it wouldn't. But it would mean that it wouldn't be crippling pieces of equipment which are not at fault (unless the specification requires that it is the equipment that validates or deals with such sloppy errors).
Where there is an error in formatting/syntax then that data is therefore outside the specification and should never be fed into receiving devices. Thus, in such a situation different devices may behave differently: some will work fine, some will work after a fashion and others will freeze up. Because it's outside the specification then it can't be device fault. Does this apply here?
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Is this duff data carried on the main multiplexes, as in PSB1 to 3 and COM4 to 6? I thought that the EPG data for one multiplex was carried on all others so as to facilitate the building up of the programme guide and for programme delivery control with respect to recording devices.
But if Steve has managed to workaround the issue by preventing the Sony PVR from tuning in C24 and C27 then this implies that the data is not carried on the other, main multiplexes.
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I am not sure whether this has already been picked up, but the Sony Pictures Television channels were sold to Narrative Capital in 2021:
Narrative Capital buys Sony UK channels
Narrative
The company on the Great Network website is said to be Narrative Entertainment UK Limited:
Contact Us - Great! Network | Great! Movies
The Head of Operations at Narrative Entertainment is Kelly Beavan:
Narrative Entertainment Launches Recently Acquired Channels - UK Broadcast News | 09/02/2022
Email addresses at Narrative Entertainment are firstinitiallastname {at} narrative.com, this according to the licensing information for Sony Movies Action on the Ofcom website:
Ofcom | TV Cable and Satellite
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Thanks for the reply js.
On the AVForums thread, one of the complainants says he is on the North Hessary Tor transmitter in Cornwall which only broadcasts the PSBs. I don't believe there are any local multiplexes around that area, so this rather rules out anything other than something carried on the PSBs at least. The posting is here:
Sony 870 (and all Sony HXD and some Pioneers) DVD Recorders - No Freeview | Page 33 | AVForums
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Steve: For your recordings to prevent the updates, have you set Recording Mode to SEP, which is the lowest quality, hence takes the least amount of space on the hard drive?
Perhaps the "Update" function at the times you identify synchronises the system clock to the time as broadcast by one of the multiplexes, and this explains why the clocks get out of sync. The Update function will run according to the system clock.
The other question is what does the "Update" do? Does it populate the EPG during this period, hence does preventing the Update also hinder series link because the recorder never gets to "see" the entire EPG, unless it is turned on manually?
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Peter Cannon: I think the Freeview predictor is quite a bit optimistic, it showing green 'good' reception (now lower than 99% served) for your postcode. I will come on to the detail of why I say this, having done some analysis.
Suffice to say that the main difficulty you face is that the ground slopes upwards in the direction of the transmitter, or to put it the other way, there is a drop downwards across the last 300m or so. This tells us why you were advised that the aerial would need to be mounted on a tall pole. Whether it would work sufficiently lower down is another question, and I'm not saying categorically that it won't. Obviously, in the loft space it is even lower down still, than had it been outside, just above the roof line.
Google Maps and Bing Maps resolve the postcode to the same point, and I have been looking to confirm that this is indeed the location of Harper Walk. Being a new estate, the road name doesn't seem to be marked on any maps, hence I have been unable to be certain that the postcode is resolving to exactly the right place, and not somewhere else on the development. Google Maps shows an unnamed cul-de-sac off O'Donnel Road, backing on to properties on Clarkson Road. It is almost on a 90 bend, so I imagine this may be Harper Walk. For the following analysis, I have taken this to be the location of Harper Walk. Apologies if this is not the case.
How are your neighbours fairing? This is often a useful guide, although the situation may vary from house to house, owing to the slope.
My analysis follows.
The Craigkelly transmitter is 342 at 12.4 miles out, so you are fairly close, being that it is so high power. However, there are a couple of observations I have made:
In your immediate vicinity, in the direction of the transmitter, the ground rises up, on which there are houses, as can be seen by the contour lines on the OS Map:
Bing Maps - Directions, trip planning, traffic cameras & more
It looks to be that your ground level is around 115m to 120m. Where your line-of-sight intersects Ravenscroft Gardens the ground height is greater than 130m and less than 135m. It intersects Ravenscroft Street about where there is a cul-de-sac of Ravenscroft Street, this called Ravenscroft Street (it doesn't have its own name). At this junction there is a big tree. As well as trees there are buildings on the ground. So all in all there is an awful lot in your immediate vicinity to cause difficulty with reception.
The second observation I have made for reception at your location can be seen in the terrain plot:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
At 3 miles out there is a peak of about 253m. The line-of-sight between you and the transmitter crosses the high ground of Holyrood Park, just to the east of Arthur's Seat.
Hovering the mousepointer over the terrain plot, it shows the height above sea level, and moving left and right the height changes accordingly. The highest is point is given as 252.2m at grid reference NT278726, and if you click the mouse at that point it will load an OS map with an arrow at this point. It points to the ground at Holyrood Park.
In light of all this, I went on Google Street View along Ravenscroft Street. Where aerials point tells a story, and that some of them are pointing to Angus likely means that they decided against Craigkelly reception because of difficulty with receiving from it. Thus, if *some* of those on the same path from the transmitter (as you) have decided against it, they being higher up, then the situation won't be any better lower down.
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Peter Cannon: Having done all of the above analysis on the basis that the location is somewhere off O'Donnel Road, which is where the postcode resolves, I have now discovered that Harper Walk is in fact shown on the Google Map and was passed by the Google Street View car in May this year. Thus, you are further west than I had believed you to be.
That the postcode does not yet resolve to the exact correct location on the map, it could also potentially be the case that it does not do so on the Freeview predictor, and that the prediction is therefore that of another, perhaps nearby, location. Additionally, for the predictor to be anywhere near accurate it would need to be updated to reflect the fact that there are buildings (houses) in the area and that it is no longer open ground.
Be that as it may, I drew up another terrain plot, this time for the correct location:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
As you can see, Holyrood Park is still in the way. There is also a drop/slope downwards within a short distance, and this is an even greater gradient than at the location I had previously understood you to be at.
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The next question is whether Angus can be used as a second choice, and I think the answer is, unfortunately, "no".
The terrain plot looks good. Barring nearby houses there may be line-of-sight at 46 miles on a bearing of 7:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
However, the predictor does suggest good reception may be possible of the three COM multiplexes, but nothing on three PSBs.
The Penicuik relay transmitter at 6 miles out on a bearing of 203 is co-channel with the PSBs of Angus, albeit that it is vertically polarised and Angus is horizontally polarised.
Further, the Google Street View car has been along Torrance Row once, in July 2022. This shows three houses with a TV aerial and a Triax satellite dish. These aerials all point to the Penicuik relay. Moving round onto Pincott Drive it is possible to see the backs of houses on Torrance Way. Three of them have a TV aerial and they are all vertically polarised and pointing at Penicuik.
There are a few houses on Bain Rigg with a Craigkelly aerial and a Triax satellite dish mounted on the same pole, so it looks like it may be the same installer.
The Penicuik relay carries only PSB channels, and therefore does not offer the full complement of Freeview channels. It might be worth enquiring with those properties that have a TV aerial to see if they can offer any more guidance.
I stress, even if you can receive from the Penicuik relay, it will give you only the PSB channels, which are BBC A (PSB1), D3&4 (PSB2) and BBC B (PSB3):
Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
There is no SDN (COM4), Arq A (COM5) or Arq B (COM6).
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Sunday 18 June 2023 12:45PM
Andrew Smith: I took the postcode of the Chapel Yard at Holkham as a sample to see if the Freeview coverage predictor suggest that it might be possible to receive from the Wells transmitter and it suggests it might. A coverage predictor is never exact and therefore it is a guide.
At digital switchover in 2012 the Wells transmitter got a new transmission antenna. According to this page the former, analogue one faced south and the new one used for digital faces west. Also, the transmission power was increased quite considerably, from 90W to 1,000W:
mb21 - The Transmission Gallery