What a mess up this digital retune has been. >>
Factory reset of the PVR or digibox should do it, rather than a retune.
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err no.
not when the multiplexors are putting out duplicate station identities, no station identity on live streams, and station identity on blank streams, and wrong epg's on wrong channels.
Seems to affect CP and the surrounding masts
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got to i agree with AE ive had the same problem tonight so given up till tommorrow
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Sounds like a nightmare! And what about those not remotely technical.
Our area gets switched over to digital in November but we watch Virgin Media boxes. So okay for now. TVs not even plugged into the aerial.
But where we hope to move to has a communal Satellite dish and probably no cable laid.... so researching Quattro LNBs, switches etc. or it Freeview only for us soon ;-(
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I've retuned an integrated LCD TV, a set top box and my computer's DTB PCI TV card in under half-an-hour earlier this afternoon - no sweat.
Mind you, with being in the Winter Hill area, we'll have to retune in November (BBC2) and then again in December when the full digital switchover is made....:-)
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I'm Winter Hill too although the nearest analogue transmitter is not that one... When they switch the other base stations to digital broadcasts and up the power etc I might try again. Probably need a new aerial but we actually have cable for the extra channels anyway.
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>>I'm Winter Hill too although the nearest analogue transmitter is not that one... >>
Do you mean you are served by a relay transmitter?
Winter Hill's analogue transmissions are some 500KW, one of the highest, if not the highest, outputs in the UK. They can be picked up as far south as Staffordshire and across to Anglesey in North Wales.
Current digital multiplexes' (MUX) individual transmission strength is 10KW, which will each increase to 100KW with the full digital switchover in December.
Winter Hill B details:
www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SD660145
Winter Hill:
www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SD660144
Edited by Stuartli on 01/10/2009 at 01:21
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I think the term probably is a relay transmitter. Before thinking about upgrading the area some time in the past I checked which transmitter we were likely to use for our area and it wasn't actually Winter Hill. Maybe it was Saddleworth? Can't remember without checking.
But for digital, with such weak signals at the moment I know I probably would need a new aerial. I'd hold off (or never do it) until the switch-over. We have Virgin Media in more than one room including their V+ service.
Now if we move to a house we like then it all changes ;-)
Just checked one website and we can probably pickup signals from Winter Hill (obvious), Saddleworth and Moel-y-Parc. And it states we may get inference.... we'll see in November.
Edited by rtj70 on 01/10/2009 at 01:28
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well down here we now have:
channel 800 thats tagged with channel 5 epg but no channel 5.
channel 5 is on 5 with the 5 epg.
ITV2 is called ITV2 and is on channel 6 and has ITV2 but one called ITV which is in fact ITV2+1 on channel 32
One blank channel (27) which is tagged with ITV2 EPG but displays the ITV2 has moved if you select it
and one new blank channel called "news"
Its happend on the PC, the bedroom set and the main set, all factory reset before re-tuning
The PVR is a nightmare, if you record channel 5 it records 800 and 5 locking out two tuners, becuase its EPG linked. I have now deleted channel 800.
It was worse, earlier we had three ITV 4's at one point with two ITV4 epg links. They fixed that around 7 oclock.
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Just retuned our PVR, and after going through the channel list the only odd thing I can see is a second ITV2 on channel 33. I think the transmitter is 'Berks & North Hants'.
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the only odd thing I can see is a second ITV2 on channel 33.
In fact it's ITV2+1, not a duplicate, although the label wasn't coming up on the quick info.
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Did both ours last night, but as we use cable most of the time I didn't bother to look at what had been done.
I do know madam DJP could watch Little Princess and Mr Men this morning before going to nursery using digital TV channel 5.
Our service is via Emley Moor.
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No worries down here using Rowridge IoW, at least on the one PVR I've bothered retuning. Biggest hassle was manually deleting all the carp channels from the listing after the re-tune. Oh, and I thought the HDD had lost all its recordings, that was a false alarm thankfully - I did a first time install rather than a re-tune and it looked like it was formattinmg the HDD 8@0.
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While looking through the channels I noticed that Quest (38) has finally started broadcasting actual programmes instead of the 'coming soon' which they've been showing for months (not sure when it actually started).
Lots of old Ironside, TJ Hooker, video clip compilation programmes etc. BUT tonight at 9.30: 'Industrial Junkie' - 'Jonny Smith travels to deepest Transylvania to watch progress on Europe's biggest motorway project and all the weird and wonderful machines used in the process'. Could be programme of the day :-)
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>>.. (not sure when it actually started)...>>
It was due to start three or four months ago, but had to be put back for "a number of commercial factors" according to Discovery TV.
It finally got under way yesterday as part of the Freeview revamp on Channel 38 (not 47 as originally intended).
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Thanks for the quest heads up,i was looking forward to that first time round
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Thanks for the quest heads up i was looking forward to that first time round
So was I. But now I've seen the programme listings... :-(
(apart from Industrial Junkie that is)
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watched industrial junkie,the tyre one was fascinating and i liked the guys style doing the programme
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watched industrial junkie
Drat! Forgot all about it, was forced to sit through a recording of Location Location Location.
Ah well, if Quest is anything like the other lesser Freeview channels there won't be a shortage of opportunities to watch it again.
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Here in the SW, we're totally Digital now ... retuned 2 integrated LCD's, one Freeview box and my recently acquired Digital DVD recorder - No problemo.
One sort of problem I have is my signal strength is too strong!
On my 2 Panasonic LCD's I can check out the signal quality + signal strength via menu - set up - tuning menu.
I have recently fitted a variable attenuator and set it to 20db of attenuation, but the signal strength is *still* too strong, I can see the transmitter from my house btw.
The LCD in the office/study (read dining room!) is using an ole V aerial from an old 14" Sony and the signal strength is about 75% which is fine.
The main aerial (in the loft) is antediluvian and my m8 reckons if I upgrade it I may well 'see' a difference - which defies logic really but - I'ma gonna try it anyways.
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If you've got too much signal now then I'm not sure what a new aerial will achieve anything useful, a lower gain aerial will reduce the signal level but may also start pulling in signals from other transmitters, which you don't want to happen. I'd shove more attanuation in, stick a couple of 20 dB attenuators in series or summat.
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>>>I'm not sure what a new aerial will achieve anything useful<<<
No, me neither S/C but I've actually got a new aerial laying about so I'll give it a try anyway.
>>>stick a couple of 20 dB attenuators in series<<<
Is that 'city & guilds' like? probably the best course of action I spose.
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If you intend swapping the aerials then check the colour code on the end cap, hopefully it'll be the same as the current one.
www.tvdigitalinfo.com/aerials.html
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Our Winter Hill's digital signals will increase 10-fold from 10KW to 100KW in December - struck me a while back that many people will be/may be suffering from too strong a signal.
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>>>Our Winter Hill's digital signals will increase 10-fold from 10KW to 100KW<<<
Yes indeed Stuart, on one of those sites you kindly gave me when I was having PVR problems, it stated that even 80% signal strength can be too strong!
Boosting signal is all very well for receivers 'on the fringe' but it could affect picture quality elsewhere.
My strong signal most definitely affected my PVR recordings, but I returned it due to the hum anyway.
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Thanks Stuart, I'll have to see if my friend has a DTT meter,
Another thing I noticed when I was fitting the variable attenuator was that even if I held the aerial lead 10cm (is that 4") apart from the TV, I could still get an excellent picture!
Also, I noticed a tingling feeling from the co-ax connector on the aerial lead! my m8 reckons I could be allergic to aerials (hehe!)
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>>>I'll have to see if my friend has a DTT meter<<<
Ah! ~ tinyurl.com/ybyjg79
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Well yes, but you already know you've got too much signal - a 4 inch gap is pretty impressive - I'd spend the money on a few attenuators.
Interesting link Stu, RF propogation is a funny thing, despite all DAB signals being vertically polarised I get the best reception on the kitchen portable with the antenna almost horizontal.
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by the time they are bounced around your kitchen walls they are at all angles of polarisation. You only need to worry about polarisation with external antenna.
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Yeah, even outside they get bounced around a bit; I used to spend a fair bit of my day job looking at differences between Walfisch-Ikegami and Okumura-Hata propogation models, but the maths always did made my brain hurt.
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I get my best digital TV signal on an old horizontally polarised VHF loft aerial.
It was originally used for 405 transmissions and then I hijacked it for VHF radio when I bought a 'new fangled' UHF aerial.
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>>>I'd spend the money on a few attenuators.<<<
I'll try that S/C, I don't suppose using multiple attenuators could degrade the picture at all?
I feel like its 1980 again and I'm getting a bit OCD about wow & flutter, signal to noise ratio, woofers & tweeters
I'll also try bathtubs idea of trying the aerial perpendicular to the horizontal to see if it weakens the signal.
As I said b4 - on my 19" Pana, the signal strength is showing about 75% and the signal quality is 100% via an old 14" Sony V aerial which is ideal.
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Well at some point you'll have too much attenuation and the picture will start degrading, but if you're getting a good picture with a 4inch air gap that's got to be a good 40dB of attenuation at least so I'm thinking acouple of 20s one after the other will probably be about right.
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Actually, having had a quick play in the lab, then 60 - 70 dB is more like it using connectors about the same size as TV ones over the TV broadcast frequency range.
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>>> Actually, having had a quick play in the lab ...
Cheers S/C, I'll get them on ebay like the last one for about £4 inc. p&p
When I had the Digihome PVR, recording from beeb 1 or 2 resulted in what I called dropouts whereby the image would miss a frame or 3, (weird to explain)
So I tried recording channel 5 which is a weaker signal, and the recording was OK - so I obviously put the prob down to the signal being too strong (and some!)
BTW, channel 5 is as strong as the beeb's now - after Wednesdays retune.
Anyway, thanks for your help - I probably sound a pain in the gluts but my telly is a 100Hz critter, so I obviously want a good signal (but not too good!)
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Make a note of all programmes in the record schedule and delete all channels.
Try rescanning and see how the EPG looks - it should be fine, if not then there's a full reset to do (which will still keep your recordings).
I've got a Humax PVR myself but I haven't retuned it yet.
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The EPG on our Freeview box has an ITV2+1 channel labelled ITV and a non-functioning channel 5 entry with no label but we can live with those two errors.
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