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please empty your brain below

Handy information you have taken the trouble to compile there regarding the terrestrial digital TV transmitter changes. I have already got 3 elderly people waiting for me to go and retune their TV's later today, and again on the 18th!. Looks like lots of cups of tea this morning.
I remember the 405 line TV service closing down, and now the entire analogue TV service is closing down.Of course the analogue service was tweaked over the years to enable new functions, (ie stereo sound)
So no more PAL Colour TV, no more NICAM stereo, no more TELETEXT , (the old service was much faster),and will VIDEOPLUS be any use now? not really as digital recorders use the EPG to time the recording.

John | 04.04.12 - 8:25 a.m. | #

With enormous irony, I've been digital since ondigital launched here in the late 1990s and haven't watched analogue since. But my Freeview reception has started dropping the itv channels recently, which I don't really mind much. Then last night, for the first time, I lost BBC and had to revert to analogue to get a watchable signal. I think it's down to a large crane nearby but how ironic to have to switch to analogy on the day it starts to switch off.

Luckily the BBC picture came back and hopefully it's temporary but I'll have to see. Couldn't be worse timing if I have to get someone in to sort me out with a better aerial or freesat!

SELondoner | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 8:37 a.m. | #

Why does the ITV analogue signal move, only to switched off in two weeks time?

I still don't understand why my Freeview TV shows me channels that i can't actually receive. Why show them to me?

When the renumbering occurs, will we all have to re-tune again?

Geofftech | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 9:13 a.m. | #

Indeed Geoff - why tempt me with old episodes of Dad's Army and then remind me that GOLD is scrambled?

EskimoPie | 04.04.12 - 9:16 a.m. | #

I didn't stay up till 00:20 to watch it, because I knew someone else would...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIJXiv9jS8s

Also, should you be wondering why ITV1 has moved to BBC Two's place, there's a good explanation here.

martin | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 9:17 a.m. | #

Apparently they are lighting up the BBC Crystal Palace transmitter on the 18th April in the manner of the Eiffel Tower and a 'spectacular light show' is promised - seems to be the most interesting bit about the whole change over - and even that's not that interesting.

Brian | 04.04.12 - 9:23 a.m. | #

Well, I've just turned on my PC and, as of today, there's what we used to call a 'ghost' on my screen :(
(It's a kind of 'echo' of a screen image about a millimetre to the right of the true image, and yes, it's affecting my whole PC, not just online screens from the internet.
(I'm on Virgin))

RogerW | 04.04.12 - 9:28 a.m. | #

Ha! (the irony one) My TV has been prompting me it wants to download new software (bleedin doesn't when you tell it to get on with it then). Retune this morning meant no BBC1 or BBC2 signal - CBBeebies went somewhere in the 900's. Aaaaghhh Aaaaggh. I don't even watch that much TV. Aaaaagghghh!

B | 04.04.12 - 10:19 a.m. | #

I've been a digital viewer since 1999 when I lived in a studio flat in Ealing and had truly appalling analogue reception. The analogue picture was completely unwatchable but the signal strength was just about good enough for the OnDigital box to provide me with a picture that didn't break up too often.

Despite now living in visible sight of Crystal Palace transmitter I still get the odd occasional transmission glitch (I have an aerial socket but no visible aerial in my house! And again my analogue is terrible!) so am looking forward to the glory of full power digital transmissions

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 10:31 a.m. | #

Living in an area which went digital two years ago, I can predict that you will all become very familiar with how to retune your TV because you will have to do it several times. And you'll probably have to go and retune your parents' TV and any other relatives over the age of about 35 several times too. Even now we're still getting the odd message about retuning if we've lost yet another channel.

And the other thing you'll find is that whilst bad weather might have given you a less than perfect analogue picture, once the digital signal starts to go it's just gone - nothing.

allotmentqueen | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 10:49 a.m. | #

allotmentqueen - the secret is to get a box/TV that auto-retunes (in the same way that Sky boxes do.) Why some equipment doesn't offer this frankly simple and obvious facility really is beyond me.

Has to be said that most retunes are related to new channel launches and if you don't retune you're probably not going to miss much

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 10:52 a.m. | #

Also get a box that you can delete channels and rearrange the order. This is roughly how mine will be:

1) BBC ONE
2) BBC TWO
3) ITV1
4) Channel 4
5) Channel 5

7) BBC THREE
9) BBC FOUR
6) ITV2
10) ITV3
24) ITV4

38) QUEST
12) Yesterday
14) More 4
15) Film4

28) E4
19) Dave
30) 5*
31) 5 USA
11) Pick TV
20) Really
46) Challenge
49) Food Network

33) ITV1 +1
13) Channel 4+1
44) Channel 5+1
27) ITV2 +1
25) Dave ja vu
29) E4+1

80) BBC NEWS
81) BBC Parliament
82) Sky News
301) Red Button

Humax 9200 | 04.04.12 - 10:59 a.m. | #

The signal strength upgrade is actually to 200kW, and will take place at the second switchover stage on the 18th.

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/main/trade/sw1a+1aa/NA/0/f2mlgqvkvomo0ej1h6lscr64t6

adrian | 04.04.12 - 12:59 p.m. | #

@John yes of course goodbye old analogue teletext too. A real piece of British creative thinking to bring that about in the first place, it's a shame to see it go. Not sure I agree it was faster than the new text though. I think it just depends on how fast your freeview decoder is. Some are very slow some are quick, but it's good you don't have to wait for the right sub page to scroll round. E.G. the weather where there might be 10 pages (1/10) and you have to wait for each update to see the right subpage you want. I won't miss that!

Jon Combe | 04.04.12 - 1:41 p.m. | #

I know that this is very very important to most people but some of us (3%) have no TV so we don't need to do anything about it

amber | 04.04.12 - 2:10 p.m. | #

Had to rescan my freeview box 3 times before all the channels came back

Rachel | 04.04.12 - 2:10 p.m. | #

@Adrian. I think you will find that the BBC-A Mux now on channel 23 since ITV analogue moved from there, is now at 200Kw.
(ITV analogue temporarily using the old BBC2 (33) channel)
The other 5 Multiplex's increase their power on the 18th when all the analogue TV services end.

John | 04.04.12 - 3:29 p.m. | #

I don't have a TV and so even though I was aware of this in an abstract kind of way, I didn't know it involved a signal strength upgrade. Does this mean my DAB wireless will start be more than just an ornament?

Geraldo | Homepage | 04.04.12 - 4:58 p.m. | #

@amber 1.10pm: so why comment on this article? I don't have a gokart or a skybox (or a wok or a lawnmower or a sewing machine or a cassette player or many other everyday items).

joe | 04.04.12 - 6:35 p.m. | #

@Geraldo: DAB radio is a separate transmission system and is not affected by the digital TV changes. However efforts have and are being made to improve DAB radio reception.

John | 05.04.12 - 9:14 a.m. | #

@John, thanks for that, so those of us who prefer radio don't need to take any action this month

amber | 05.04.12 - 10:59 a.m. | #

John - But isn't radio through TV DAB?

I've had to retune 4 times in the last 3 weeks already to keep R4 via TV. Actually, *I* haven't, because I am completely hopeless at such tasks, as I have lost/not gained the skills due to having someone in the house who understands such things inside out.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 05.04.12 - 2:02 p.m. | #

Radio through a TV is simply radio through a TV - it's not DAB. If you're listening to radio via your Freeview box then it's just radio via Freeview and is broadcast as a TV signal but without a TV picture.

DAB is a completely different system. In theory you could have a DAB radio in a Freeview box but I'm not aware of anyone ever making one.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 05.04.12 - 2:10 p.m. | #

Andrew - so it's a digital signal, but not of the DAB system? So what system does broadcast of audio use - and what's the difference?

Radio though my (Toshiba/Sony) TVs sounds much better than through my Pure DAB radio. But then, to me, FM sounds best of all, and the signal is reliable here, which is more than can be said of either digital TV or DAB. *crosses fingers for positive effects from the forthcoming power increase*

Blue Witch | Homepage | 05.04.12 - 2:58 p.m. | #

Standalone digital radios use the DAB standard - Digital Audio Broadcasting.

Freeview and digital satellite use DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting. When you listen to radio stations through your TV, it's just tuning into a DVB channel, broadcast along with the TV signal, which consists of just an audio stream (and some data which might put the channel logo on screen)

Confusingly, there are parts of the DAB standard which allow the transmission of pictures alongside the audio stream, but there aren't many receivers (or stations) which support that!

martin | Homepage | 05.04.12 - 3:08 p.m. | #

For Freeview the radio uses the digital terrestrial television system (usually abbreviated to DTT.)

Basically there are three parts of channel/station on DTT - video, audio and data with data being red button text, subtitles etc.

A channel/station can be formed of one or more of those parts - so BBC One is all three. A radio station on your Freeview box is simply an audio and data channel - the data being the station logo and other stuff.

The power increases are all for DTT so if you listen to radio via Freeview you should see a boost.

I don't know what they currently are, but the bit rates on Freeview used to be better than DAB so in perfect conditions you'd get a better audio quality on Freeview.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 05.04.12 - 3:09 p.m. | #

Thanks for sharing your knowledge guys, this is what blogging is all about (IMHO) :)

Blue Witch | Homepage | 05.04.12 - 9:42 p.m. | #

Well, it's now 18th April, and the second phase of the switchover has now taken place.
I've retuned my Freeview box, and it seems to have done this OK... but the way it appears so far is that Channel 12 - "Yesterday" - (and maybe a few others, eg. PickTV) are no longer there.
Is it me not doing the retune correctly, or is this the way it is, now?

RogerW | 18.04.12 - 10:36 a.m. | #

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