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[broadstairs]

For the past couple of days no we have had virtually no reliable Freeview TV channels and if you search around this is happening all over at least the southern part of the UK and according to Freeview it is because of alarge high pressure area over the east coast of France right now. So how come when this is not exactly an unusual occurrence they cannot be bothered to fix it? Just dont want to spend the money! Here in Thanet we have a less than reliable signal at the best of time because the nearest decent transmitter is Dover and that has some hills in he way between there and here. However even folks in Dover are complaining at the lack of signal. Freeview really needs to take their corporate heads out of the corporate ar**s and spend some dosh to fix this so it wont happen again. This must be affecting hundreds of thousands of people and they just sit on their hands.

Rant off (for now) 

Stuart

[Ronski]

Not a problem here, I use Freesat, although occasionally the signal does break up.

[broadstairs]

My issue with either satellite or something like Virgin is how do I get a different program on each of our TVs? My wife always wants to watch something different from me. I do have Freeview Play on 2 of the TVs but only BBC allows you to watch a program live, none of the others do!

Stuart

[jelv]

I wonder if syphoning off some bands to provide 4G has made the situation worse?

We use Freesat and only very, very occasionally see a blip of 1 or 2 seconds where part of the picture pixelates.

[jelv]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50945421

[licquorice]

For the past couple of days no we have had virtually no reliable Freeview TV channels and if you search around this is happening all over at least the southern part of the UK and according to Freeview it is because of alarge high pressure area over the east coast of France right now. So how come when this is not exactly an unusual occurrence they cannot be bothered to fix it? Just dont want to spend the money! Here in Thanet we have a less than reliable signal at the best of time because the nearest decent transmitter is Dover and that has some hills in he way between there and here. However even folks in Dover are complaining at the lack of signal. Freeview really needs to take their corporate heads out of the corporate ar**s and spend some dosh to fix this so it wont happen again. This must be affecting hundreds of thousands of people and they just sit on their hands.

Rant off (for now) 

Stuart

You think money can change the laws of physics?

[Alex Atkin UK]

This was always going to happen more once we went digital.

An analog signal subject to interference will just get more static than usual, but is still somewhat watcheable.
A digital signal will degrade to the point the error correction can no longer cope, causing drop-outs and blocking.

This was even more problematic in the US where some areas lost TV entirely when they went digital, as they had a very poor analog signal in those areas but "put up with it", vs a digital signal too poor to decode at all.

[g3uiss]

Perhaps we just need to understand that our technology is far from perfect. Our free view is poor but Sky holding up well.

Tony

[Ronski]

My issue with either satellite or something like Virgin is how do I get a different program on each of our TVs? My wife always wants to watch something different from me. I do have Freeview Play on 2 of the TVs but only BBC allows you to watch a program live, none of the others do!

Stuart

It's fairly simple, there's two ways, you can do it. With satellite the tuners tells the LNB which frequency range to supply - there are four ranges, this is why you can't split the signal like a normal TV aerial.

1. You need an output from the dish for each tuner, so a quad output LNB (bit in the middle of the dish) can supply 4 tuners.
2. Use a multiswitch, this takes the 4 ranges direct from a special LNB and and supplies each output with the correct frequency requested.

The latter is what's is used in blocks of flats, and is the way I did it. I think ours is a 20 way system and also combines Freeview into the signal.

I installed my system and I could do with getting a professional to check everything is set correctly, but never got around to it.

Now I used Mediaportal to record all our TV I only need 4 feeds, so the system is way ott.

[renluop]

Just in case it might help, do you know about Wolfbane http://www.wolfbane.com/articles/tvr.htm
 and UK UHF digital (by postcode or Ordnance Survey grid reference)?

[sevenlayermuddle]

Freeview pretty good here, solidly reliable, but we’re well inland.

Terrestrial broadcast TV remains my favourite medium for at least two reasons...

1) No need for a satellite dish, and no need (would apply to me) to cut down trees for line of sight to satellites.
2) This one applies to freesat too... By recording progs myself it avoids the need to use internet ‘catchup’ services, so there is no need to set up accounts, and adverts can be skipped on playback.

I suspect that in relation to (2) the broadcasters would far rather we viewed everything online.   They want us to use streaming services as they can then force us to sit through the ads without skipping.   They can also force us to set up accounts, with login to view.   

If universal fast broadband ever becomes a reality, I’d not be surprised to see freeview and freesat switched off altogether.

[johnson]

1) No need for a satellite dish, and no need (would apply to me) to cut down trees for line of sight to satellites.

What?

[g3uiss]

I think that would be sad. Some members of the population require a “ simple” solution. I remember only having a BBC1 tv and having a separate tuner added for ItV. Just a single rotary switch to change.

[sevenlayermuddle]

What?

If there’s something you didn’t understand then tell me what it is, and I’ll try to clarify.

[johnson]

Apologies, I just have a hard time believing you live somewhere that trees occlude satellite reception.