Freeview: EPG changes and new channel news

I suspect it will be a permanent inserter per channel - it will just be put into the transmission path and switch itself in and out I expect. Switching a couple of inserters in and out of 5 feeds would require far more engineering than would be cost effective.

I imagine they re-use them where possible but have multiple sets to cope with overlaps.

got all the channels now, maybe somebody needed to flick a switch at my local transmitter

so that's the TV sorted, now all I need to do is fathom out why the non digital dvd player gets overidden by the set top box (it all gets but on AV1 by the TV )

A non-digital DVD player?... I think you'll find that's a record player!

Smooth transition Granada wise - though notice that although in September for the nationwide retune they overdid the pop-up messages on virtually all channels, there was absolutely nothing on Freeview itself about the impending required retune this time around.

Moel y Parc seems to be sorted now too - having lost Mux C at DSO last week I've had to retune tonight (we'd lost what was Mux A too) and now get all muxes, so perhaps there was some interference with Winter Hill, so they held back. When does the rest of Wales switch - I assumed it was all at once, but there still seems to be listings for S4C analogue, so I guess not.


And I usually regret asking technical questions (as you generally get technical answers), but I'm assuming that DSO is requiring some physical engineering work at each transmitter as each region switches. If it doesn't, I can't really see any reason for stretching it out another three years - if America can do it in a day, I don't see why we're doing it over 4 years.

I've had some problems here. I have three aerials, one was split into two (for loft TV) but had to get separate aerials for later on when I got bedroom and kitchen TVs, not sure why but other family have been told this too - especially one who had gotten water in the aerial and needed it fully replaced, and when asking for a split for the bedroom (which no longer has TV but still had the aerial lead just incase) the installer said no.

So far, kitchen and loft TV have chosen BBC ONE Wales, BBC TWO Wales, ITV1 Wales and S4/C as the main four channels. I've had to manually re-tune them, first by deleting the welsh channels then by entering the frequency numbers for the Granada stations which were in the 800s - seems to pop them back in their proper places. Strangely though, my bedroom TV picks up the North West channels as the main four. I've done a First Time Installation on all TVs. Am I right on the border line between Winter Hill and Moel y Parc, so each aerial receives the strongest signal on whatever side they are on? Of course not, but it looks like it.

Hopefully after the Welsh switchover I won't have to manually re-tune my Granada stations!

That's because the Freeview retune was national so the broadcasters had to send out the messages to the entire network, it's much trickier to do that on a regional or single transmitter basis - easy on analogue though.


Yes, there's a load of engineering work going on:
All the main transmitters are getting new aerials:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/stocklandhill/dso/index.php
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/beaconhill/beaconhill05.php
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/redruth/dso/index.php
Some delivered by helicopters:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/thewrekin/dso/index.php
Then there's the new equipment inside the transmitter hall like feeders and combiners:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/stocklandhill/dso/shdso3.php
Some sites need new masts to support the new aerials as the old one wasn't strong enough
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/caldbeck/caldbeck2.php
And others have temporary masts to help out with the work:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/wenvoe/dso/wenvoe-dso4.php http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/suttoncoldfield/dso/index.php#june2009.

That's without all the new transmitters being delivered to each main site, the retuning at the relays and the actual work on the switch off nights

There are several differences between the US and the UK switchovers. Firstly they have gone from an all analogue system to a replacement digital system. We went from analogue to the halfway house of the network we've had for the last 10 years - fairly low powered and not fully redundant... to a proper network designed to be the only terrestrial network.

Also they have hundreds of small TV stations whereas we have 5 centrally co-ordinated networks. Therefore it was up to each station and it's own engineers to upgrade their kit otherwise they'd be left behind and eventually be turned off. Here the same organisation is doing the whole thing

Finally the US is less reliant on terrestrial TV, the same is true in places like the Netherlands and Sweden. It's worth remembering that the US didn't switch on one day, it was 2 days about 6 months apart

Thanks - an explanation I understand! And another minor technical question, but I assume DSO hasn't cut out the digital delay at all and we're still a couple of seconds behind on Freeview to what is happening "live"?

Full coverage of the last few days worth of the switchover in the North West are now on TV Whirl for those interested, including a mass of reports from both Granada and the BBC (with highlights such as vintage clips from BBC2 in Black and White days, and the Digital UK guy struggling with the simple to retune menu) before phase 2 and the switch offs themselves of BBC1, ITV1 and Channel 5 (Missed 4 as I only have so much analogue recording equipment left these days - this was the first time I've used a VCR in years! ).

http://www.tvwhirl.co.uk/switchoffnorthwest2009.html

Retuning all the equipment today, the main TV picks up everything fine (albeit requiring some manual tuning to coax it into taking North West over Wales), as has the computer equipment. All of our Vestel based boxes however don't pick up one of the commercial muxes (from Wales or the North West), or BBC's North West mux. Possibly coincidentally, they're all the muxes marked on the trade version of Digital UK's postcode checker with a + or -. Still, I'm going to try switching it out with a newer vestel box soon as I'm guessing it can't affect all of them, or there'd have been hell on given it's at the core of every cheapo box out there!

No, that's just physics. However after switch-off there won't be any analogue to compare it with!

They are indeed, and a bloke from Aquiva tells me the facility exists for the broadcasters to remote control when they appear, presumably from W12/Chiswick/Leeds etc.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/12/03/freeview_hd_launch_report/

Report on Freeview HD, and its also saying quality wise:

I think that Freeview HD supports newer codecs than Dolby Digital for audio doesn't it (5.1 AAC, Dolby Digital Plus etc.)? If not 320k is very low for regular Dolby Digital. BBC HD on DSat uses 384k and doesn't sound great (SVT HD in Sweden uses 640k...)

Good news about the statmuxing though - that should mean that all the channels benefit from better picture quality than if they had a fixed 9-12Mbs slot? (It would be great if ITV HD weren't a simulcast of ITV1 and instead just carried the static 'unavailable' caption when not showing HD - as then the other channels would get a MUCH better quality result!)