Edinburgh digital

The advice I've received in the various replies to my original post is much
appreciated, although much of the technical stuff is over my head.

I just called BT and got through to a call centre technician - he confirmed
that the current configuration of their boxes does not allow for the
processing of HD signals. I asked him if BT will provide everyone with new
boxes, and he said it wasn't necessary - the existing boxes can be
re-configured by a download through broadband to achieve this. I asked him
when this would happen and he said he didn't know. I asked him if there was
someone in BT that would know, and he said there wasn't.

Not very good PR for BT, and if it takes too long, they will find people
leaving them for cable providers.

The reply below seems to suggest that there is some sort of add-on I can get
in the meantime - is this the case?

"J G Miller" wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, June 15th, 2011, at 21:59:23 +0100, WulfIT explained:

The TV is tuned to a BT Vision box

The BT Vision Box only has a DVB-t tuner and not a DVB-t2 tuner
which is required to receive the multiplex PSB-3 carrying the
HD stations.

http://community.bt.COM/t5/BT-Vision/New-BT-Vision-Box-Why-no-Freeview-HD/td-p/12904

Unless you upgrade your digital converter box to one with a DVB-t2 tuner
(and MPEG-4 decoder) you will never be able to receive stations
broadcast in HD.

"wulfit" wrote:
I do a re-scan every day. I certainly receive HD material through the On
Demand service, which is very nice, but I also want the HD free to air channels.


You're not going to get free to air HD with your BT vision box. Your TV
*might* be capable of receiving HD material but you haven't told us which
model it is. You should able to link your aerial lead via your BT box to
your TV allowing you to use the TV's digital tuner.

Tim

wulfit wrote:
The advice I've received in the various replies to my original post is
much appreciated, although much of the technical stuff is over my head.

I just called BT and got through to a call centre technician - he
confirmed that the current configuration of their boxes does not allow
for the processing of HD signals. I asked him if BT will provide
everyone with new boxes, and he said it wasn't necessary - the existing
boxes can be re-configured by a download through broadband to achieve
this. I asked him when this would happen and he said he didn't know. I
asked him if there was someone in BT that would know, and he said there
wasn't.

I doubt very much the BT box has the necessary tuner hardware to receive HD
broadcasts. How old is the box itself ? The system used for Freeview HD was
only defined less than two years ago, it's completely different to that used
for SD broadcasts, so unless the hardware has been designed specially for HD
broadcasts, *no* software updates will ever make it work.


Not very good PR for BT, and if it takes too long, they will find people
leaving them for cable providers.

The reply below seems to suggest that there is some sort of add-on I can
get in the meantime - is this the case?

Yes, a Freeview HD set top box.

http://www.freeview.co.uk/HD/Products/Freeview-HD-Box

What is the exact model code and make of your TV ? Let's confirm that that
won't receive Freeview HD first ?

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

I live in a large building with an aerial on the roof - it is inaccessible
to me and I don't know how old it is. There is a plug in the wall that is
the feed from the aerial, and I connect to the BT box using a cable. The
cable is about 5 or 6 years old, and I'm wondering if it's possible to get
more up-to-date ones that maximise the signal that is going through them?

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
wulfit wrote:
The aerial points north. I lost channels like Create & Craft, Price
Drop TV and other similar ones. I didn't watch them when I had them, so
it doesn't worry me now. I have lost others that I will miss, like Pick
TV, Dave, Dave deja vu and Sky News. I still have all the channels you
mention below, in standard format. The BT vision box allegedly has an
inbuilt HD receiver, but maybe I should call them to confirm. The TV is
an HD model - I watch pre-recorded HD programs on it.

Firstly, as JG Miller has just posted, the BT Vision box has no HD tuner,
it will not, and cannot receive HD material via your aerial.

The muxes that the channels you mention above, have actually moved to
higher frequencies than they were previously on, although their output
power has also increased, the net result could well be a reduction in
signal for these.

How old is the aerial ? More than 10-12 years ? If so, it will probably
not properly receive half the muxes it needs too (therefore half the
channels will be missing).

A clue to this, is did you ever receive Five on analogue ? If not, then
that also points to the aerial being unsuitable. Five analogue used to be
on a similar frequency to your missing channels.

If you have BBC 2 and BBC Alba, you *will* have all the other SD (normal)
BBC channels. Likewise if you have STV, you *will* have C4 and Five. All
the BBC channels are on the same mux, it is impossible to only receive
some but not others on the same mux. STV, C4 and Five all share a mux, so
again you can't have one without the others.

My guess is your aerial might require updating. Can you send a picture of
it to Flikr ?

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

That sounds more hopeful. The TV can certainly be tuned on it's own, and I
imagine that it doesn't matter whether it is fed direct from the aerial or
from another device, as long as it's getting the signal. I will certainly
have a go at it. Thank you once again.

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
wulfit wrote:

For that reason, the aerial feeds in to the BT box and I have an HDMI
cable going from the box to the TV. I don't kow if that's the only
connection I need between the two, or if there are other cables that I
should also be attaching to improve the situation.

The BT box should (others who have it will confirm) have an RF loop-thru
output, that allows you to effectively connect another device with a tuner
to your aerial, in this case you TV. Then you can use the tuner in your TV
to view as well.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

wulfit wrote:
I live in a large building with an aerial on the roof - it is
inaccessible to me and I don't know how old it is. There is a plug in
the wall that is the feed from the aerial, and I connect to the BT box
using a cable. The cable is about 5 or 6 years old, and I'm wondering
if it's possible to get more up-to-date ones that maximise the signal
that is going through them?

Ah !!! communal aerial system ?

If so, then it's very possible the distribution filters have not been set up
for all of the new frequencies that came into use yesterday. You need to
contact the landlord, and ask whether this has been done ?

The BBC digital channels are where BBC 2 analogue was,
STV, C4, and Five are where STV analogue was, so that's why you can still
receive them.

The good news is the HD channels, are where C4 analogue was, so with a
suitable receiver you should also get those.

However, your landlord needs to get someone in to re-adjust the system for the
other missing channels. Everyone in your block will probably also be missing
them. Ask around.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

So, I was led up the garden path by the BT tech. I had a feeling he was
doing this. I've also just emailed BT with the same questions, so it will
be interesting to see their reply.

My TV is a Toshiba 27WL 56P.

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
wulfit wrote:
The advice I've received in the various replies to my original post is
much appreciated, although much of the technical stuff is over my head.

I just called BT and got through to a call centre technician - he
confirmed that the current configuration of their boxes does not allow
for the processing of HD signals. I asked him if BT will provide
everyone with new boxes, and he said it wasn't necessary - the existing
boxes can be re-configured by a download through broadband to achieve
this. I asked him when this would happen and he said he didn't know. I
asked him if there was someone in BT that would know, and he said there
wasn't.

I doubt very much the BT box has the necessary tuner hardware to receive
HD broadcasts. How old is the box itself ? The system used for Freeview HD
was only defined less than two years ago, it's completely different to
that used for SD broadcasts, so unless the hardware has been designed
specially for HD broadcasts, *no* software updates will ever make it work.


Not very good PR for BT, and if it takes too long, they will find people
leaving them for cable providers.

The reply below seems to suggest that there is some sort of add-on I can
get in the meantime - is this the case?

Yes, a Freeview HD set top box.

http://www.freeview.co.uk/HD/Products/Freeview-HD-Box

What is the exact model code and make of your TV ? Let's confirm that that
won't receive Freeview HD first ?

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

wulfit wrote:
So, I was led up the garden path by the BT tech. I had a feeling he was
doing this. I've also just emailed BT with the same questions, so it
will be interesting to see their reply.

My TV is a Toshiba 27WL 56P.

Well, Googling brings up a review from 2005, so it definitely is not able to
receive Freeview HD broadcasts using its own tuner. And it definitely won't be
software upgradable to do so.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:

I'm also surprised by the idea that the RX uses its own two quite distinct
clocks for video and audio with no attempt to lock or reference them
together. I'd assumed the main clock reference would be provided by the MUX
stream itself since the audio and video are multiplex together into the
stream of frames of data.

But given how clumsy many other aspects of DTTV seem to be, maybe I should
not be surprised if this area, too, turns out to have been implimented
using the "dog's breakfast" approach to engineering. :-)

My TV can pause live TV (using an attached USB disk). It records the
DVB stream rather than a decoded version of it, so that for example
subtitles work in the normal way. When you resume, about of second of
audio preceeding the frozen frame is played before the picture starts
moving again. (Just to be clear, once the picture starts moving
everything is in sync.) I wonder if this reflects something about the
way audio and video appear in the DVB stream.

-- Richard

So, I have two choices - wait for BT to upgrade, or get an new TV

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
wulfit wrote:
So, I was led up the garden path by the BT tech. I had a feeling he was
doing this. I've also just emailed BT with the same questions, so it
will be interesting to see their reply.

My TV is a Toshiba 27WL 56P.

Well, Googling brings up a review from 2005, so it definitely is not able
to receive Freeview HD broadcasts using its own tuner. And it definitely
won't be software upgradable to do so.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk