All posts by Allan Isaacs
Below are all of Allan Isaacs's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Nothing new under the sun.
Local, Southampton TV was running in analogue for some time and utterly boring before it just faded away
| link to this comment |
A
Switchover starts in Hampshire, West Sussex coast plus BrightonWednesday 7 March 2012 7:21PM
Christchurch
We use Rowridge.
I retuned our Sony TV at 6:30pm but the BT Box seems to have done this by itself.
Unfortunately all the stations on Channel 30 are breaking up both on the TV and through the BT Vision box. The signal strength for all RF channels reads 100% but quality doesn't get higher than 20%.
I wonder if the multiplex on Channel 30 is now too near BBC1 analogue on Channel 31?
I can't remember what there is up our aerial pole, but almost certainly there's an amplifier, as without this we couldn't have received Freeview? The same goes for lots of peolpe in the Bransgore area.
I thought switchover would be painless!
Now no ESPN and no Quest... my favourites.
| link to this comment |
An amplifier is always second best to a decent aerial Alf, But in a loft you may need both as the roof can reduce signal strength by up to 100 times.
I think you may just be about OK for HD with your current setup. Wait and see.
Without an amplifier we couldn't receive Freeview either, but once the switchover started and signal strength of digital increased the amplifier should not be needed.
The current problem is Channel 30. Previously, because of adjacent channel interference, from BBC1 analogue in Channel 31, Channel 30 digital transmission was moved downwards in frequency.
Unfortunately, Channel 30 is now on its correct centre frequency and is too close to the huge BBC1 analogue transmission on Channel 31 which is swamping our digital signals on Channel 30.
I could try removing my amplifier which will probably fix the problem by lowering the skirts of Channel 31, or twist the aerial towards vertical polarisation to reduce analogue signal which is horizontally polarised, and get digital which is transmitted on both horiz & vert in its vertical mode.
I imagine this will reduce the analogue signal by up to 30dB (up to a thousand times less) while maintaining a decent digital signal.
However I understand the signal on Channel 30 is going to move once again soon, and BBC1 analogue will be switched off in April anyway, so I may not bother getting out the ladder etc.
| link to this comment |
I managed to tune in 24 SD channels and 24 HD channels.
On the SD channels there's a good mix of stuff together with a programme guide with SD channel numbers against the broadcasts.
On HD I find different stuff. The guide is present when there's nothing on, but this guide seems to show the content of SD channels, not HD channels.
Have I done something wrong?
Strangely 3D TV comes up as two narrow pictures side by side on my Sony TV
| link to this comment |
I'm a long-standing BT Vision customer having subscribed from virtually day 1 of the service.
My subs included Sports which with a special card allowed me to watch Setanta Sports. This channel bit the dust and soon afterwards was replaced with ESPN via Freeview.
This channel was recently withdrawn and moved to the Internet.
After a dozen hour long phone calls to BT I managed to get an "App" which lets me watch ESPN on my computer.
We subscribed initially so we could watch baseball. As it's broadcast in the small hours this was recorded on the BT box.
How can we record baseball now?
I have Win 7 Ultimate.
Can I use Windows Media Centre???
| link to this comment |
Thursday 3 March 2011 12:34PM
Keep up the good work Brian.
I suspect these new fangled terms and products are a way for manufacturers to keep selling their products beyond market saturation.
If someone pays £1000 for a new TV they're certainly in the market for a "gold" HDMI cable, super "digital" aerial, a new freesat dish and of course oxygen-free speaker cables at £100 per meter... even though they don't need any of them.