Wiki: Digital TV

[Mark Carver]

No, before then. In the Granada region from the end of this year, and rolling out nationally until the end of 2012.

[Dave Liquorice]

The only time we've had trouble with DSAT reception is when the dish has had 1/2" of solid ice all over the face. Quick whack with a broom handle soon got it off though.

[Man at B&Q]

[e-mail]...

At (or before) the digital switch over in 2012, as far as I know.

MBQ

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Could well have been ice. Or simply full of snow. But it pretty well stopped working whereas FreeView was fine.

[Roger R]

Thanks for the update.

Roger R

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Not a problem her at all on any dish:)

The only time the weather did a nasty with satellite reception was when the mutter of all thunderclouds came over one summer and knocked out most anything from up above even GPS signals which aren't that strong but Sky went as did the feed to the local TV TX for channel 5.. As well as the IRN news!..

Never seen a thundercloud like it.. almost solid black!

So not that bad compared to those nice old ducting highs;)..

[meow2222]

This was a only 5 minute article originally, and I'm going to be toobusy to do significant work on it for a bit, so I've got a practical suggestion. Why dont those of you that have offered input just write a section, and I'll paste them in?

Satellite, sky & freesat I know little about, so those need doing. Below is what I've got so far...

Regards, NT

There are several ways to receive digital TV. This is an introduction to the options, which are covered in more depth in other articles.

==Ways to receive digital TV== ===Digital TV=== New TVs usually incorporate a digital tuner (IDTV). These receive digital from an existing house TV aerial, if the quality of the signal's good enough.

Digital requires better signal quality than analogue. If your analogue reception is good, you'll usually be ok, but if its less than great, probably not. (There are exceptions to this.)

===Set top box=== A set top box (STB) connects between the roof aerial and the TV. It converts the digital signal from the aerial to analogue for the TV. The box is connected to the tv by either a scart lead or co-ax, scart giving slightly better quality. Most of these converter boxes only have scart output, and only work with TVs with a scart connector. Set top boxes need a better signal than analogue TV, and perform better with CAI approved co-ax wiring than old tv co-ax.

===Cable=== Cable TV is available in towns & cities around the country. The cable co installs the digital box, and this connects to your tv the same way as a set top box. No roof aerial is needed.

===Satellite=== You need a satellite dish & satellite receiver, and in some cases a subscription for the satellite service. Note that satellite frequency signals can only be fed down satellite compatible co-ax, decades old tv co-ax performs very poorly at satellite frequncies.

===Internet=== The final and rather limited TV source is the internet. You won't get the main TV channels on the net though. What's available:

• BBC iplayer: plays a selection of the most popular programs on demand, up to 30 days after airing.

• Some itv programs are also available

• Various video viewing sites, eg youtube, google, etc

• Masses of instructional videos on numerous sites, covering pretty much any subject you can think of.

To watch much tv over the internet on your computer takes a lot of data, a low download limit account won't do.

==Content providers== ===Freeview== With freeview set top boxes or TVs, you buy the box/tv, but there are no ongoing costs, no contract, no subscription. You just plug it in and watch.

===Sky=== Pay per month

===Virgin=== Pay per month cable service, choice of how many channels, with differing prices. Pay per view content also available on all packages. Some customers can get cable TV at no extra cost if they also have other services from Virgin.

===Freesat===

==See Also==

• [[:Category:TV|More TV articles]]

• [[Special:Allpages|Wiki Contents]]

• [[Special:Categories|Wiki Subject Categories]]

[[Category:TV]]

[John Rumm]

ok, done. I have created the draft article and included most of the comments from this thread.

Have a read and hack about with:

guess a separate article on DIY aerial and sat dish installs is in order, and also one on HDTV.

I am happy to have a pop at the aerial one; anyone else fancy a stab at one of the others?

[Roger R]

The flat face of the LNB also permits a build up of ice/snow. Perhaps there is a market for clip on plastic snow shrouds for LNB's !

Roger R

[tony sayer]

In article , Roger R scribeth thus

There are sort of pointed ones around ALPS make them IIRC which don't seem to suffer that problem..

There the ones we've got...

[Dave Liquorice]

Well not much of market. We've only had one maybe two outages due to ice build up in several winters and we do get rather more ice and snow than most.

When the south had ground to halt with a measly 6 inches the other week we had 2 foot of the stuff and a couple of ice storms. It's the latter that are the worst, everything becomes coated in a thick solid ice glaze.

[Dave Wilson]

Rubbish

All the main channels (in fact most of the decent Freeview offerings) are available in pretty decent quality from

for starters .......

[geoff]

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

Had a microwave dish in Lombok where wasps had built a nest on it

needed a bit more than a broom handle to shift that