Chanels on freesat?

[MuddyMike]

We use a Humax, Foxsat freesat box having got fed up with paying Sky and getting very little we wanted to watch. The only disappointment is that some channels, Dave for instance that used to be available via Sky are not available on Freesat but are available on digital. Sadly our digital signal is not very good so we are often unable to watch digital TV. The other issue is that when scanning through looking for what's on we now have to scan two programme guides instead of one and often find the prog we most prefer is on digital but the signal is bad and can't watch it.

Any suggestions, other than going back to Sky?

Mike

[Dave Plowman (News)]

IIRC, Dave is one of the few progs which isn't FTA on satellite.

[tony sayer]

In article , MuddyMike scribeth thus

Yep!, complain to Dave TV that they ought to be free to air on Freesat...

[Man at B&Q]

UKTV. Half owned by the BBC (OK, the worldwide arm) so all the more reason it should be FTA, or at least those progs originally funded by license payers.

MBQ

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are FTA via FreeView. And there is an extra cost for transmitting via satellite. Either requires a decent external aerial. The problem with making it available free on satellite is it then becomes free to many who don't pay any UK licence.

[Fredxx]

If you think how many kWHrs are used to power terrestial transmitters, I doubt they're much cheaper than leasing a satellite transponder.

The Astra 2D has a very tight footprint over the UK, and while you can get Freesat in neighbouring countries you need a somewhat larger dish.

[fred]

Isn't the problem that that one has no spare capacity so it has to go on the wider footprint one and so it has to be encrypted for content reasons?

When spare capacity becomes available it can be moved and become FTA. I think I saw plans for this mentioned in uk.tech.digital-tv but can't remember any specifics.

[fred]

In article , MuddyMike writes

Any chance of improving your freeview reception?

Have you got a grouped aerial?

Has your area had power increased recently through DSO?

Or is it a trees and hills problem?

The freeview EPG beats freesat IMV as you can watch/listen to the current channel whilst you are scanning the guide. AFAIIA there is no freesat box that caches the EPG to let you do this.

[MuddyMike]

We have already replaced the aerial with the biggest that the rigger could find, and have a five channel booster box in the loft. A lot of the time the we get a good picture, but no always. Sods law comes into play and the picture is crap just when we want to watch something.

Our Humax freesat box shows the current channel with sound in the background whilst scanning the guide.

Mike

[fred]

In article , MuddyMike writes

The questions about DSO and grouped aerials are important. If your bod stuck up a wideband one and the channels broadcast by your transmitter are in the newly extended group B (low) then you have lost 4-6dB of precious signal just like that cos wideband aerials aren't optimised like grouped ones and favour the high end. (A wideband aerial will have a black plug in the back of the aerial extrusion.)

If you're pre-DSO then you'll be seeing a whacking improvement in signal power when DSO happens in your area.

Enter your postcode into

and let us know the transmitter, the distance to you, broadcast channel numbers and whether it's been DSO'd. Don't worry, the .exe in the link is not a downloadable, it executes on the server, not your comp. There's a good link to the topography or your TX path on there too, very informative.

Hmmn, I'll look again, it was a foxsat HDR box that I was looking at when I thought that you got nothing at all. IIUC the EPG is broadcast from a close but different satellite from the content hence why it's not poss to view both at the same time.

[MuddyMike]

This is what I get, all meaningless to me. I can't make out the colour of the endcap, will take a picture a little later then perhaps yopu can advise if we have the right type.

Postcode DL8 5AD

Transmitter 1 (PSB 1): BBC A 2 (PSB 2): D 3 & 4 A (COM 1): SDN B (PSB 3): BBC B C (COM 2): Arqiva A D (COM 3): Arqiva B Gp Pol OS grid ref. Field dBµV/m Distance miles Bearing degrees Antenna (suggestion) UHF ERP W UHF ERP W UHF ERP W UHF ERP W UHF ERP W UHF ERP W Bilsdale West Moor 34 4k8 21 6k 31 6k 24 6k 27 6k 42 1k6 K H SE553962 35

28 83 Amplified extra hi-gain

Mike

[Terry Casey]

I haven't used Wolfbane but this site:

the path to the transmitter overlaid on a map - you can drag the origin to your precise location if, as usual, your house isn't in the centre of the PostCode area.

From this you can use your local knowledge to see if there are any objects blocking your view, such as trees, tall buildings, etc., that don't show up in in a topography profile.

When discussing TV reception problems, it is useful to give a reasonable accurate idea of your location as others may know of reception problems that specifically affect you. Your PostCode with the last letter omitted should be sufficient - it doesn't identify your address in any way, just the local area. (In fact, the entire PostCode is sufficiently anonymous for most people.)

[S Viemeister]

Not on FreeView in my area. We only get 17-18 channels.

[MuddyMike]

The first couple of pictures here show what's up there:

it look like the correct one?

Mike

[Terry Casey]

That only appears to show the current situation.

includes the post DSO situation which shows that you will need a wideband aerial, rather than a grouped one.

The pre-DSO transmitter power levels are very low - between only 1.6 and 6kW - but the good news is that they will rise considerably after DSO, to 50kW for the COM muxes and 100kW for the PSB muxes. This should make quite a difference!

Assuming that your rigger has done the best possible (!) the best you can do now is to wait for DSO, when things should improve considerably.

What sort of reception do your neighbours get? If it is much better than yours it would usually point to a bad installation - all other things being equal - but if they are experiencing similar problems - or worse - there would be no point in spending more money now.

The bad news is that DSO doesn't happen at Bilsdale until September next year, so you will have quite a wait ...

[Terry Casey]

Presumably you are getting your signals from a relay station - these only broadcast the 3 PSB muxes, so you wont see anything from the COM muxes.

Mike appears to be looking at Bilsdale, which is a main transmitter, so he will receive everything that is available on Freeview

[fred]

In article , MuddyMike writes

Ok, you're 28 miles from your transmitter so it's hard work to get a nice signal from there. Good news is that you appear to have line of sight to it so there's nothing geographical to interrupt your signal.

Pic of your path copied here (v clean):

you're pre-DSO on a transmitter with a very high planned boost to power of about 20x come DSO in September.

Bottom line is that you should see a significant boost in performance come September so I'd say hold off until then before making any plans/changes.

On the wideband/grouped aerial business, unfortunately your transmitter requires wideband (ish) and will continue to require it post DSO.

There are further tricks and tips for high gain on wideband using an array such as this:

which is also more immune to local impulse noise (important) but maybe wait & see what September brings.

I would see a problem like this as a challenge but you can spend a fair bit of money and get nowhere as I found when trying to pull in a signal over this pre-DSO:

, that one went to satellite.

[S Viemeister]

Yes, it's a relay.

[tim....]

UKTV. Half owned by the BBC (OK, the worldwide arm) so all the more reason it should be FTA, or at least those progs originally funded by license payers.

----------------------------------------------------------

So on that basis GOLD, Alibi and Watch should also be FTA on freeview (and sat)

But they aren't

tim

[tim....]

And would you prefer more SD channels instead of the HD ones you are getting (or about to get)?

tim