Thanks for all the replies. I am not in the UK, I'm in a country where there is no analogue anymore hence the need for a STB or I would have been more than content to continue with steam driven.
The transmitter is almost within line of sight, about 2-3 kms away and I am using active indoor aerials. It seems to me to be somewhat weather dependant too....much like analogue was. Have to move the aerial today to get the channel that was fine yesterday!!!
But why does the damn thing reprogram itself? (again last night.) There are no new channels it just shifts them all around so that a particular channel that was on preset 6 is now on preset 25! It also drops all my personal settings like 4:3 screen and defaults to widescreen. There are no options to turn that off.
As for leaving it on standby I am afraid none of my equipment has an "off" button only standby. So I have just counted how many little red lights there are on the house and horror of horrors it totals 18.
Anyone see "Dragons Den" a couple of years ago when someone invented a plug that had a battery in it so that equipment could be left on standby without drawing any mains current? The best best best idea I have ever seen on DD yet they rejected it!!!
