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Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"W

BL6 6SL

The symbol shows the location of the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter which serves 2,690,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) mast?

Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

_______

Which Freeview channels does the Winter Hill transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35- (585.8MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C29 (538.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C37 (602.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LM	H -20dB	C40 (626.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,
LL	H -17dB	C24 (498.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	2,000W
	from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,
LPR	H -20dB	C56 (754.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,
GIM	H -20dB	C57 (762.0MHz)	572m	DTG-2	1,000W
	Now 90s, Spotlight TV, Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment , Classic Hits MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 78 TCC, 80 That's 80s, 86 That's 90s MCR, 88 TV Warehouse+1,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Winter Hill transmitter?

BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.

ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast (139°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.

How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1956-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2009	2009-13	2013-18	2013-17	20 Feb 2020
	VHF	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C9	ITV_waves
C12	BBCtv_waves
C24								_local
C29								SDN
C31							com7	com7
C32								BBCA
C34								D3+4
C35								BBCB
C37							com8	com8
C40								LOCAL2
C48			C5_waves	C5_waves
C49_{tv_off}						ArqA	ArqA
C50_{tv_off}						BBCA	BBCA
C54_{tv_off}					-BBCB	-BBCB	-BBCB
C55_{tv_off}		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	ArqB	ArqB	ArqB	com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					_local	_local	_local	LPR
C57_{tv_off}					GIM	GIM	GIM	GIM
C58_{tv_off}					SDN	SDN	SDN
C59_{tv_off}		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C61					ArqA
C62		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA
C65		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{tv_off} Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
_waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-12.9dB) 25.7kW
com8	(-13.4dB) 22.6kW
Analogue 5	(-16dB) 12.5kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-17dB) 10kW
LL	(-24dB) 2kW
GIM, LM, LPR	(-27dB) 1000W

Local transmitter maps

Winter Hill Freeview Winter Hill DAB Winter Hill AM/FM Winter Hill TV region BBC North West Granada

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968	Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Comments

Thursday, 4 July 2024

Karl
5:49 AM

Chris.SE: The BBC reply says that they have contacted .
"Our engineers have discussed it with the Freeview team and have been informed that they are investigating this. If you haven't already we would recommend contacting Freeview directly. This will ensure they understand the extent of the problem and you will be able to obtain from them directly"

I have also contacted Freeview a few days ago (that was my first initial reaction) and I used Direct Messages on X for that. That was like starting from zero and is so annoying because all this was thrashed out last year.

Freeview contacted me last August saying:

"We as Freeview Advice agents are now aware of this issue and can offer advice. It was a grey area when you reported this in June. Hopefully it can be worked on to avoid this issue for future updates"

Have you followed this on AVForums?
Sony 870 (and all Sony HXD and some Pioneers) DVD Recorders - No Freeview | Page 44 | AVForums

link to this comment

Karl's 20 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

6:54 AM

Karl: These "slashless CRIDs" are actually valid in this case.

default_authority = madeinliverpool.tv

CRID authority = uklocal.tv

From ETSI TS 102 323

Broadcasting (DVB); Carriage and signalling of TV-Anytime information in DVB transport streams

6.3 Default authority and abbreviated CRIDs

6.3.1 Abbreviated CRID rules

In certain situations described in the present document a CRID string may use the following abbreviated forms. These reduce the overhead of a CRID string by leaving out information that can be inferred from the location of the CRID entry.

Firstly, the characters "crid://" may be omitted from the start of the string so that the string starts with the first character of the CRID authority. So the example CRID:

crid://company.com/foobar

may be encoded as:

company.com/foobar

Additionally, within the scope of the definition of a default authority (see clause 6.3.2), the CRID authority part of the string may also be omitted if the CRID's authority matches the current value of default authority. In this case the string starts with the delimiter between CRID authority and data parts of the CRID (i.e. "/"). Therefore, the example CRID:

crid://company.com/foobar

may be encoded as:

/foobar

6.3.2 Scope of a default authority definition

A default authority is defined by the presence of a default authority descriptor. The purpose of the default authority is to allow a CRID reference within the scope of such a definition to leave out the protocol and authority parts of a CRID URI, if the CRID authority part of that CRID reference is the same as the defined default authority.

The scope of a particular value of default authority is defined by the location of the default authority descriptor. A value of default authority defined in a scope overrides any value of default authority already defined for a wider, enclosing scope. See table 15 for definitions of the permitted locations of the default authority descriptor and which scope override which others.

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js's 841 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:42 PM

I thought it might be worth trying to contact the creators of this problematic EIT data.

Local TV Limited - Wikipedia

An attempt to visit uklocal.tv gave this message:

Your connection is not secure

The owner of uklocal.tv has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Tor Browser has not connected to this website.

uklocal.tv uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate expired on 01 May 2024 11:00. The current time is 04 July 2024 10:44.

There is an option to "Add exception..." which I did.

The page which then came up merely said:

"We are updating our website.

Please bear with us while we work our magic"

- nothing there then.

What they have done overrides the existing default_authority "madeinliverpool.tv" with "uklocal.tv"

There are two ways to fix these CRID strings so they are harmless.

"uklocal.tv" is removed from the start of the CRID string enabling the existing default_authority "madeinliverpool.tv" to be used.

"uklocal.tv" is removed from the start of the CRID string and the default_authority is changed to "uklocal.tv"

In each case the CRID string then starts with "/"

link to this comment

js's 841 posts GB flag

Karl
5:40 PM

js: as before, many thanks for your investigations into this. I'll be honest, the make up of the data is outside my field of expertise but I get the gist of all you are saying.

And before I forget... it seems to have just been fixed this afternoon. Mine is working OK and reports from others say the same.

What I don't know (and it would be useful/informative to know) is whether the problem could be classed as an invalid change that violate the DVB-T or... is the Sony product range affected non compliant in some way to what should be a valid make up of the data or... is it just a grey area that nobody anticipated issues with.

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag

Friday, 5 July 2024

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:48 AM

Karl:

Yes, fixed by removing "uklocal.tv" from the start of the CRID strings.

The fix:

https://ibb.co/Sy2sGby

This time the CRIDs were valid, but not so on previous occasions.

Sony should have fixed the firmware long ago.

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js's 841 posts GB flag

Karl
2:12 PM

js: I did wonder if the firmware could be altered (it is available on the Sony site) and rewritten and given a higher version number... I know, dream on...

It would be great if it could though. I just wonder how long will keep accommodating those of us that still have these models. They have outlasted pretty much everything else around.

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag

Saturday, 6 July 2024

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:33 AM

Karl: I looked at the firmware file, it's encrypted.

I hadn't noticed before that the UK DTT spec, which is not freely available, and which has been uploaded to wikileaks, was filed there under Sony!

https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/?q=DTG&filter=3

It's what I used to try to understand the legality of those dodgy CRIDs:

D-Book 7 part A v 1.pdf

It refers to "ETSI TS 102 323" for the basic definition of CRIDs:

The content identifier descriptor (CID), defined in ETSI TS 102 323 [98], is used to associate a CRID with an event and is placed within the event loop of EIT.

https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/metadata/ts_102323v010401p.pdf

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js's 841 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:55 PM

I had a real hard time locating those wikileaks files.

One gets the impression of wikileaks data being blocked.

A search, using DuckDuckGo, for "D-Book" site: wikileaks.org said "No results found for "D-Book" site: wikileaks.org."

Fortunately, nobody posted direct links here:

BBC Four HD | free and easy for 21 years

nobody knows who nobody is and he's not telling.

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js's 841 posts GB flag

Sunday, 7 July 2024

Steve
9:14 AM

My refresher post from last year, in case anyone still can't get their Sony's to work. Set up 4 recordings to repeat every day from 1 min before and 1 min after these hours - 3am, 5am, 10am and 2pm. Use the SEP minimal setting and delete each of these short 2 min recordings regularly to minimise HDD space used. This forces the Sony to be busy each time it wants to trigger . Don't let it get to a full HDD. You'll need to have got it working properly again first. I manage this by doing a retune with the out and push it in after approx 10% to 15% complete, to avoid the unit seeing the rogue that come up early in the retune sequence that seem to be the culprits for this update locking problem. this helps keep your great Sony RDR HXD-870 unit usable. P.S. I have never had any luck trying to update the Sony firmware so I don't know if that route solves the problem. (I receive from in the SK22 postcode area.)

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Steve's 7 posts GB flag

Karl
8:10 PM

Steve: Thanks for posting Steve. Your timer method works well during the time we have to set these up using Belgium or France . Fortunately the EPG has been fixed again and all is back to normal.

The Firmware is updateable by burning it to a CD/DVD (I've done four now) but actually creating the discs can be an issue. Using old versions of Ashampoo Burning Studio (which are available on the web) and using the 'Create ISO-9660 Level 1' data disc option. Versions up to around 2016 or so have that option. It seems to have been removed in later versions when I last looked.

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/home-cinema-projectors-players/hard-disk-rdr-hxd870-lost--/m-p/2485025#M15050

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Karl's 20 posts GB flag

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