They have started the digital switchover of Crystal Palace today. I say started because it would be too much to expect a logical Analogue off/Digital on in this benighted land.
On analogue, BBC2 has gone, ITV now appears where BBC2 was and channel 3 has nothing on it.
Of the (5?) muxes, only one has gone to full power, with a tiny selection of channels.
Websites are full of people having a wonderful mix of problems, and it's going to be even more fun for them in a couple of weeks when everything will change again, requiring another retune, with muxes switched off and muxes switched on.
I'm so glad I decided not to bother with TV any more.
If my experience in the Midlands is anything to go by you can look forward to retuning your TV several times over the next couple of weeks or so but it does come right in the end and when the transmitters are all working at full strength the reception is a lot better. Good luck.
What not even the delectable Dr Alice Roberts and her Hairy Mammoths? What most people seem to forget is the sheer amount of effort that has had to be put in by the riggers and engineers to achieve the physical change over of hardware on the Transmitter masts especially with the bad weather we've had the last couple of winters. See here Transmitter change over. My Hat is well and truly off to the guys and gals who've been at the sharp end.
What not even the delectable Dr Alice Roberts and her Hairy Mammoths?
HEAR, HEAR
Don't remember any problems here last year (Sutton Coldfield). Found the analogue not working one day, remembered it was changeover, started using the digital, retuned once some time later, took 5 minutes. Presumably it's now on the higher power, signal quality has gone up from 70 to 95-ish. Bit of a non-event here.
Dont think I own anything with analog tuners now. Supplimentary question,when did they start transmitting the digital channels?anybody know?bit of a argument with a pal yesterday who says it was four years ago,I'm pretty sure I bought me first digi set top box a lot longer ago that that.
We went digital a couple of years ago. Don't believe the propaganda about improved picture and reliability. High pressure causes the picture to pixellate and you will have to 'auto' retune every couple of weeks to get rid of channels which are detected by the TV but the signal isn't good enough to actually show anything. Oh, and after you turn the TV on it takes up to two minutes before you can change channels for some reason. It was quicker when the sets had valves. Progress, pah.
Spent a few years installing tellys and swinging aerials, tuned quite a few sets for family and neighbours to digital in the last few years as well, all I can say is the digital signal is a lot more forgiving than the analog signal ever was,
I wonder if we are getting interference from the digital signal from France? I know we pick up several French channels at work on the 'freeview' terrestial system.
As for interference, its not the same as analogue but can cause a problem. My aerial is pointing to Bluebell Hill but since the Sudbury transmitter had its power increased we now receive stronger signals on some multiplexes from sudbury (even though the aerial is not facing that way!).This is great as the quality is fantastic, the trouble is if we have something set to record on any of the muxes from Bluebell Hill it won't record unless the box is on one of the other muxes from Bluebell Hill (same for recording a channel from Sudbury) , The EPG info must need to come from the same transmitter as the program. I have manually selected multiplexes to try to get all channels from the same transmitter but this doesn't seem to work. Crystal Palace gets increased power from this week so that will probably start interfering too! Got to wait till June when Bluebell Hill is increased to decide whether to move aerial direction again and try to just get one transmitter!
Last edited by maliyahsdad2; 5th Apr 2012 at 08:28.
There seems to be a lot more transmitters around now than when I was hopping around roofs in the late sixties and seventies.
Some areas of my town where buggas for no clean signal,I remember one Saturday morning installing a colour set when they first apeared and could only get picks from Germany and Scandyhooligia,admitedly the weather was pretty freakish that morning, other parts of my area you had to stick a attenuator on the drop in to stop it overloading the set. We did have lossa fun in the olden days.
UFO. I get my signal from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter too, despite being in the South Eastern corner of Warwickshire, and like you say the switch over was a bit of a non-event. My Dad lives about a mile from the transmitter in Sutton Coldfield, and similarly had no problem (although was somewhat perplexed that one morning he just had 'snow' on the screen even though I had briefed him 3 times of what was about to happen, must be something wrong my briefing technique or his hearing aids).
But as Handsfree says, the picture quality might be good, but it doesn't polish a t**d
