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All posts by Stephen

Below are all of Stephen's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


I recently purchased Sagem freesat HD+ box and WOW. I cannot be more pleased with my old Technomate 6800HD. Set the Sagem to record The Tonight show and it doesn't. When you go the the channel & press record it tells you that it's recording but no recordings show up! And then there's the recordings it does do... about 20% of them will choke 1/2 way through and say HDD error, format HDD.

Switch it off & on again and it will resume no problem (mistakenly bought the same thing for the in-laws and it does the same thing). Oh, want 5.1 surround? seems only to be on BBC HD not on any others.
BUT WAIT the real reason you bought it, the built in TV GUIDE! Yup, 90% of the time you go to it there is a wait while it refreshes.

Yes... yes you may have just checked it 30 seconds ago but it's forgotten EVERYTHING. So there you go, Buy an approved piece of overpriced garbage or buy something that works (plus a TV guide).
Sad thing is 8 years ago in another country my computer could do this stuff without breaking a sweat. (oh and it was 20x quieter than these garbage PVR's they're selling nowadays).

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Ever since the update the signal here has gone through the floor. Digital on Channel 49 is still watchable but 29 & 31 when scanning show signal going from 73% to 0% and then back to 73%. Can't watch any of the channels found though :( Perhaps in Aug it will work? Or in 2012? Or when hell freezes over? It is 'disappointing' to pay the TV licence for a Digital experience that 'might' arrive this year knowing that Oxford has had digital since, what, 1998?

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Hi Brianist: I have a mast mounted amp which I can turn down (& which shows a greatly reduced signal when I do) down from 73% to below 20% to 0 if I turn if fully down. I understand what you are saying about the BBC offer services & not an experience. However.... if the 'services' they offer can only be received digitally one might logically expect that someone unwillingly taxed into paying for them should be able to receive them. Something akin to a power company producing electricity, forcing you to pay a bill but not having you connected to the grid (as it were). But I digress. I have a Wideband high gain aerial that was getting a decent signal last month before the 'upgrades' occurred and I would like to be able to use it again. This whole switchover saga seems to be going on forever.

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Perhaps someone might be able to enlighten me with regards to the freeview reception. I am able to receive with Excellent reception Channel 59, I can receive channel 61, 54 & 29 equally good, strong & stable. BUT and this puzzles me no end, I cannot receive Channels 56 or 57. What could be causing this problem and would there any possible solutions? I have tried adjusting the amplification of the masthead amp with no improvement.
PS Inlaw's system is working great now

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If they provided WiFi Broadband UK TV/Radio IP address only receivers to everyone that wanted we could boost the signal and better tailor the services without having to continually re-tune and fiddle with etc. Plus it could make for a much more efficient rollout of proper broadband for the nation. For those who cannot receive the signal there would always be the option of satellite or internet through the phones.
tldr: This should have been done LONG ago. Save this whole pointless freeview hassle and the upcoming Broadband rollout hassle

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It makes logical sense to shut down terrestrial TV services in the UK and devote that bandwidth to mobile broadband / cellular service.
It would be far easier to just mail out a replacement "freeview" box that is able to stream content from a dedicated IP address (looking & feeling the same as the Freeview that we're using now). for those still using freeview than it is to keep trying to play around with the towers, frequencies and the signals to accommodate both TV & other wireless services every 6 months as seems to be the case now.
Sometimes it just makes logical sense to leave the past in the past than it does to try to force the future to accommodate the past.
Put another way, Horse & buggies are not allowed on the Motorway and the whole nation works 1000x faster because of it.

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