My first experience of freeview ;-)

Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over. The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.
- Most of the extra channels have nothing I would want to watch
anyway.
- The only new channel I watched is "Dave" and it has too many
adverts, DOGs and other irritations for me to watch if it wasn't
pouring with rain.
- Digital teletext seems as slow as the analogue variety.

And this is progress.....
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

"Mark" wrote in message
...
Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over. The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.
- Most of the extra channels have nothing I would want to watch
anyway.
- The only new channel I watched is "Dave" and it has too many
adverts, DOGs and other irritations for me to watch if it wasn't
pouring with rain.
- Digital teletext seems as slow as the analogue variety.

And this is progress.....

Sounds like you need a better aerial/cable/STB.
All I watch on digital only channels are News24, and sometimes sport on the
red button. My daughter likes CBeebies. Maybe Dave if there is absolutely
nothing else.

I had a similar experience with a DAB radio on holiday; analogue perfect,
DAB unlistenable.

Z

On 17 Aug, 10:02, "Zimmy" wrote:
"Mark" wrote in message

...

Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. *Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over.

"satisfactory" means different things to different people!

*The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.
- Most of the extra channels have nothing I would want to watch
anyway.
- The only new channel I watched is "Dave" and it has too many
adverts, DOGs and other irritations for me to watch if it wasn't
pouring with rain.
- Digital teletext seems as slow as the analogue variety.

And this is progress.....

Sounds like you need a better aerial/cable/STB.
All I watch on digital only channels are News24, and sometimes sport on the
red button. My daughter likes CBeebies. Maybe Dave if there is absolutely
nothing else.

I had a similar experience with a DAB radio on holiday; analogue perfect,
DAB unlistenable.

....but DAB doesn't claim to match FM coverage - that's currently an
"aspiration", and I'm not convinced it will _ever_ happen universally.
Whereas DTT is supposed to match or exceed analogue coverage.

A few areas do require new aerials for some of the muxes. Not many
areas (most people sold a new aerial ready to watch digital after
switch over have been conned), but a few.

The "speed" of digital teletext depends almost entirely on the STB.
Decent STBs are near-instant - i.e. fraction of a second delay from
button press to response.

Loss of sync between sound and vision is also a symptom of a broken
box. Both audio and video carry time stamps. The box is supposed to
use these to output them in sync. Some boxes don't bother at all,
other boxes sync them when you change channel, but then let them free-
run independently based on the boxes internal clock.

So it sounds like Mark used a poor STB, and just _maybe_ needs a new
aerial. Or else the previous analogue reception wasn't that
"satisfactory".

Cheers,
David.

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over. The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.

Sounds like a crappy STB. And or aerial. No problems like that here.

- Most of the extra channels have nothing I would want to watch
anyway.
- The only new channel I watched is "Dave" and it has too many
adverts, DOGs and other irritations for me to watch if it wasn't
pouring with rain.

Of course it depends on what you want, but I watch a fair bit of Fiver and
Five USA. Of course an avid viewer may have seen it all before.

- Digital teletext seems as slow as the analogue variety.

Hardly ever use TeleText. You can find such information faster using the
computer.

And this is progress.....

Progress seems to be offering choice over quality. Exactly as predicted
when TV was opened up to provide the government with as much income as
possible. And that's not with hindsight.

--
*Procrastinate now

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Mark" wrote in message
...
Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over. The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.
- Most of the extra channels have nothing I would want to watch
anyway.
- The only new channel I watched is "Dave" and it has too many
adverts, DOGs and other irritations for me to watch if it wasn't
pouring with rain.
- Digital teletext seems as slow as the analogue variety.


Never seen/heard the sound problem, others yes due to a weak area or poor
aerial.
I travel quite a bit in my caravan and often surprised that I can get
Freeview.
I do think some of the transmitters at a site might have different power as
I find Sky News for EG often missing.
Regards
David

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:20:39 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over. The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.

Sounds like a crappy STB. And or aerial. No problems like that here.

- Most of the extra channels have nothing I would want to watch
anyway.
- The only new channel I watched is "Dave" and it has too many
adverts, DOGs and other irritations for me to watch if it wasn't
pouring with rain.

Of course it depends on what you want, but I watch a fair bit of Fiver and
Five USA. Of course an avid viewer may have seen it all before.

- Digital teletext seems as slow as the analogue variety.

Hardly ever use TeleText. You can find such information faster using the
computer.

Only if you have internet access. This is a holiday let and does not
even have a telephone. Also has very poor mobile coverage.

And this is progress.....

Progress seems to be offering choice over quality. Exactly as predicted
when TV was opened up to provide the government with as much income as
possible. And that's not with hindsight.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 17/08/2010 09:44, Mark wrote:
Last week I went on a break to an area that has already switched off
the analogue transmissions. Analogue reception was satisfactory
before switch-over. The things we notice now:

- The sound often does not sync with the picture.
- regular loss of the sound and picture for several seconds.
- Set top box "freezes" every now and again and has to be unplugged.

Those are all symptoms of either a crap freeview box, and/or poor/weak
signal.

Also it's common, especially after switchover, for freeview boxes to choose
the first signal it finds for each multiplex rather than the strongest one.
Hence you may actually be receiving some of the channels much more reliably
but your box has chosen weak unreliable signals from an adjacent area.

Typically the only satisfactory way round this is to find out the actual
frequency channels used by your correct local transmitter and clear your box
(or IDTV) by scanning with no aerial connected and then manually scan just
the correct frequency channels.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Hardly ever use TeleText. You can find such information faster using the
computer.

Only if you have internet access. This is a holiday let and does not
even have a telephone. Also has very poor mobile coverage.

Ah - I didn't pick up it was a remote location.

You said it had satisfactory analogue reception. Was that on all 5
channels?

It's just that many don't notice fairly poor analogue, but do notice
reception faults on digital. Rather like those who can't hear multi-path
on FM radio, but complain about the boiling mud effect on DAB. ;-)

Have you got a reasonable outside aerial, and have you had the signal
strength measured? It might be improved by adjustment.

--
*Half the people in the world are below average.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:34:30 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Hardly ever use TeleText. You can find such information faster using the
computer.

Only if you have internet access. This is a holiday let and does not
even have a telephone. Also has very poor mobile coverage.

Ah - I didn't pick up it was a remote location.

You said it had satisfactory analogue reception. Was that on all 5
channels?

BBC1-2, ITV & C4 were OK. I don't know about 5.

It's just that many don't notice fairly poor analogue, but do notice
reception faults on digital. Rather like those who can't hear multi-path
on FM radio, but complain about the boiling mud effect on DAB. ;-)

Have you got a reasonable outside aerial, and have you had the signal
strength measured? It might be improved by adjustment.

There's a choice of two aeriels, both indoor. I tried adjusting both
without any improvement (I could make it worse though). I didn't have
any means to measure signal strength. It's not my place so I can't
fiddle too much.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

Mark wrote:

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:34:30 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Mark wrote:
Hardly ever use TeleText. You can find such information faster using the
computer.

Only if you have internet access. This is a holiday let and does not
even have a telephone. Also has very poor mobile coverage.

Ah - I didn't pick up it was a remote location.

You said it had satisfactory analogue reception. Was that on all 5
channels?

BBC1-2, ITV & C4 were OK. I don't know about 5.

It's just that many don't notice fairly poor analogue, but do notice
reception faults on digital. Rather like those who can't hear multi-path
on FM radio, but complain about the boiling mud effect on DAB. ;-)

Have you got a reasonable outside aerial, and have you had the signal
strength measured? It might be improved by adjustment.

There's a choice of two aeriels, both indoor. I tried adjusting both
without any improvement (I could make it worse though). I didn't have
any means to measure signal strength. It's not my place so I can't
fiddle too much.

There's the answer. The owners CBA to set up a proper aerial. They
don't have to watch it so they get away with bare minimum so you get
blocky breakup and poor sync. The only solution to this kind of thing
is to complain and hope that enough complaints will result in a bit of
money being thrown at the problem to put a decent aerial up.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"