Bloody Digital TV Switchover on Emley Moor Grrrrrrrrr

[Kwackerz]

i remain in awe of those that endure in the third world

I got an awesome TV signal in Kenya..

[Tweaker]

OOOO-kkaaay! So, Emley Moor (or Emily as she is more often known) - STAGE 1.
Analogue;-
BBC2 switched off - permanently; CH3 (ITV to you sir) is transferred to the old BBC 2 channel and is transmitted - for the next couple of weeks.

Digital:-
The old low power DTTV Mux1 is switched off and the new, high power, MUX 1 is switched on on the old Ch3 channel.

STAGE 2. (2 Weeks later - usually)
Analogue:-
All remaining services, BBC1, ITV, CH4, CH5 switched off - for ever!

Digital:-
The remaining low power DTTV mux's are switched off and the new, high power ones are switched on on the now vacated analogue channels.
Et Voila!

Now, if you receive your pictures from a relay station, the time of day that the change over happens will vary. This is because our engineer peeps have to get on their bicycles and pedal like mad all over the Yorkshire region doing the same thing on the major relay sites e.g. Sheffield, Keighley, Skipton, Chesterfield, Wharfedale et al.
If you get your pics from one of the tiddler relays, the change over will happen at the same time as Emily drops her analogue drawers and dons her new digital ones. This is because the low power relays have fancy dandy new transposers that simply re-broadcast whatever mother Emily transmits, be it analaogue or digital.

So why all the buggering about with re-tunes? Well, when the UK went digital all those years ago, there was a very limited number of channels available in which to do it. This is why many relay sites didn't have DTTV - just not enough channels to go round. So they were all crammed into a fairly limited bit of the spectrum until the analogue channels could be freed up i.e Digital switch over. So now, post DSO, most sites are transmitting in the same bit of the spectrum as the old analogue channels (there are some exceptions). Why 2 dates? Logistics. It just isn't possible to switch over everything in one night AND get round the whole region to carry out the same process on the relay sites - not without leaving Mrs Miggins in the darkest corners of the region without Corrie for a couple of days.

So there you have it - simples!

Howard - if your TV won't remember the new channels - it's 'cos your TV is duff (unless you have to press 'Save' or something similar after re-tuning.)

Incidentally, if anyone tells you NEED a new DIGITAL aerial sir or you won't get Corrie - tell them where to put it. So long as it's in decent nick, your aerial doesn't give a monkeys what's being received. Very occasionally, the channel groups may change at DSO, requiring a different aerial, but it's not often and the DigitalUK website will tell you what's what.

[BikerGran]

I'm now totally confused - I thought as we had a freeview box we wouldn't have to do anything!

On the other hand - our box does tell us to retune every so often - so can we rely on it to prompt us when we need to do it?

(BG - Aged P)

[blinkey501]

For the first time in a while i had a stroke of luck. My old tv give up the ghost last month has the switch over began , so a trip to asda i got a lcd tv with freeview built in. A quick tune and everything works perfectly. Its has reliable has my falco so i am well chuffed

[Aladinsaneuk]

Wow

A modded TV is on the way then - uprated stand, new decals?

[blinkey501]

[Tweaker]

I'm now totally confused - I thought as we had a freeview box we wouldn't have to do anything!

On the other hand - our box does tell us to retune every so often - so can we rely on it to prompt us when we need to do it?

(BG - Aged P)

'Fraid not BG. The freeview channels are changing for the reasons I gave in my explanation. You will get prompts to retune though and it's usually easy from the menu on your freeview box.

[BikerGran]

Excellent - I shall put Mike on that - our children are grown and gone but he's in his second childhood!

[Samray]

*bites lip*

[Willopotomas]

What's a TV?

[D-Rider]

What's a TV?

Eddie Izzard

[BikerGran]

Eddie Izzard

[HowardQ]

Thanks for the excellent reply Dave, much appreciated.
Sadly it does also pig me off a bit more.
Firstly I was advised to get a new digital aerial a couple of years ago, (before the first switchovers anywhere) by ra eally good TV engineer who spent a lot of time explaining things carefully. We have always been in a blackspot reception area, where telly reeption with the old type aerial was crap, most mobile phoe signals other than Orange are also weak or like Vodafone don't really work at all. We had an early Freeview box which didn't work very well at all and our analogue service was pretty crap.
He explained carefully how the old analogue aerials were never designed for digital signals and this would be much worse in a very poor signal area like ours. So, on his advice, we had a new digital aerial fitted, which massively improved things and also fitted a booster as we were running all three sets off on aerial, and it did improve this as well.
I'm sure that people like him knew nothing about the much stronger digital signals coming along and the fact that some Freeview boxes could not handle them.
The next problem is that in the last 18 months we have replaced both the secondary tellys with new 21" HD units with built in CD players and built in Freeview, USB recording etc.. This gives us one compact solution, which is much better than multiple boxes in a bedroom.
Our telly now won't save the new high power BBC stations, but Joanne's works OK. Need to play around a bit more, as I haven't had time tonight, but the thought of having to replacie this nearly new telly is really annoying.
I thought all this work, aerial TVs with Freeview etc. had been done so we were ready for the switchover, based on the Government mis information.
From what you say, I assume that I will lose more and more stations as more are moved onto the new digital transmitters
One final question, if I have a built in Freeview system that cannot handle this signal, can I fit an external Freeview box and use it with this telly, or will it always try to use the internal one first?

[Falcopops]

I reckon they didn't know you had electric way up there, so didn't expect any complaints

Looks like I need to respond to you first Dale.
I gather that all Aussie TV sets run off methane power outside main towns or in the outback, this is generally available straight from the asshole of the "real Ausie" blokes after any normal drinking session.
I hear that just one of these super assholes can power all the TVs in a small town after an average to good session on the ale.
Sadly Dale I reckon you may not be fully assimilated yet and still tend to think like most Brits that a good session on the ale is just something to be enjoyed.
The the exhaust gas element is simply something to laugh about with your mates, (volume, smell comparisons, possible playing tunes or flame throwing after a real good session), or something to piss the wife/girlfriend off in bed that night when you push her head under the sheets to sample it properly.

PMSL, with all the sunshine up here (or down there for you guys) I reckon no one's given the bio-gas much thought. I feel a plan forming, althoughit might just be wind!

[mangocrazy]

Howard, if your problem is now having too much signal (whereas before you had too little), then the cheap and obvious solution is an in-line attenuator in the feed from the aerial. In the same way that an amplifier boosts the signal, an attenuator cuts/reduces it.

If I haven't understood the problem correctly, please ignore everything I've just said. But here's a really good website (and they're Sheffield-based!) about aerials. More than you'll probably ever want to know, in fact...

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/