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All posts by MikeB

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


98% signal strength is far too high, so its likely the signal is breaking up. A Sharp wouldn't be that unsensitve a tuner, so something is wrong.

Your postcode brings up loads of data, just look at the links below your reply - and your 20km from Sandy heath - which might explain the very high readings. But check which transmitter the Sharp is tuned into - if its Talcneston (using the reverse of the aerial) or Waltham, then that might explain the problem - they are much further away, etc.

For too high a signal, search for 'too much of a good thing'.

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'HDMI seems to lack the automatic facility to select the required input on the TV if using an external source'

They certainly do - my LG will automatically default to the first powered imput (HDMI 1 normally) when switched on - thats the one we have the HD box on, and it just goes to that source without bothering with the internal tuner first. And its also got Smartlink, which you can enable as well.

In fact, that was the problem with the customers with the new Samsung mentioned - they'd powered up their old SD Humax first, and although they'd set up the HDMI correctly, it meant that the set defaulted to the first imput, which they were so used to, they didn't notice that the TV had a tuner at all.

But scart also brings its own problems. A couple of years back, I read on the BBC blog an old article from the early days of BBC HD from the guy then in charge of HD rollout. His bugbear was going to people's houses, where they complained that HD just wasn't all that great. He's look at the picture, then at the back of the set, and then yank out the scart lead they'd left connected to the HD box, as well as the nice new HDMI. TV's at that time defaulted to the first analogue source (HDMI was pretty new, and in fact Panasonics only stopped doing that about 4 years ago), so by keeping the scart connection in, they were stopping the TV finding the HD source. I suspect this is still happening for some.

Of course, most 4K sets dont even have scarts, which makes things a bit easier.

The biggest reason why people are not watching HD more is simply that we still have SD, and they are at the top of the EPG. But watching SD on a 4K set is a pretty awful experience, so I suspect there will be a nudge factor. And once there is more capacity for local news (my local news 'testcard' in HD is a bit spooky, with the muted sounds) and they go HD as well, it will be standard.

This is the bizarre thing - the bulk of TV's sold are now 4K - which actually can have a better picture on HD than an HD panel, and may well be cheaper than the HD equivalent. So people are still defaulting to SD, rather than HD, when even HD isn't the ideal source for most new TV's. Things move very slowly.......

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Brian Wright: In the early days, there wasn't that much HD around - it had to be via a dish, and so manufacturers tended to show lovely demos. Or you showed a blu ray.

The dept where I worked always showed the bulk of sets in the standard terrestial output at the time - so it was generally SD until digital switchover, when HD came available, even though we were using a Sky HD box to feed the bulk of sets.

The reason for that is simple - its all too easy for the unwary customer to see a demo, and think thats what they will get when they get home - and they will just get annoyed and bring it back. Much better to manage expectations.

Now we use on-air recordings, and actually I'm pretty surprised at how good they look, even though with compression, etc, they are neither as good as watching live, or watching the same on blu-ray.

'There is not so much noticeable definition difference on TV's less that 42 inch for viewers to bother much about switching from SD to HD.'

I have to disagree - I can clearly see the difference between SD and HD on my 32in (decent but basic) set - try watching BBC1 in HD and the SD - the difference is pretty clear (even from 4 metres away), as it should be, since the amount of data on screen is much larger. I've found several websites dating back as recently as four years that swear there isn't that much difference between SD and HD, or at least not that which people will notice. But then again, I found a website from some 15 years ago that insisted that not only wasn't there any difference between VHS and DVD, but VHS was actually better!

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MikeP: I couldn't tell you why your TV isn't defaulting automatically to the first live HDMI source, but it certainly should - your TV is no more than 4(?) years old, and mine does that, even though its rather older, being a 2012 model.

To be fair, the input change isn't that difficult on an LG - you can even allocate names to various sources, although the VCR label mine has for the PVR does date it a bit!

The scart shouldn't make a difference at all - it should be, if anything, almost the last input to be selected on the input list, apart from the RCA's. It should go internal tuner, then 1, 2, 3 and 4 HDMI, and then analogue. Have a look to see if Smartlink is on - mine flicks it up if I switch on the blu ray while the TV is in standby, even though I havn't enabled it.

BTW - is yours Sky HD?

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Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter
Tuesday 17 October 2017 9:54PM

John: Check your signal strength, could be too high or too low. If its very low, check your wiring - its likely to be your system. And never retune - your just losing the lock you had.

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Roy - what do you mean by 'signal level'? Do you mean strength (in which case 98% is way too high) or quality (in which case, 98% is pretty much perfect)?

As for the Sharp, try it in another socket or even house. If it is at fault, then my advice is to get your money back, and not to buy Sharp ever again. I've never recommended Sharp in almost a decade of selling TV's - stick to the main 4 brands (LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony), and you'll generally get a decent product, even if it costs a little more.

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MikeP: The internal tuner should always be the default source when you switch the TV on, so thats fine. Its only if there is already a powered HDMI source that it will flick to that. I know I have to change the input on mine, but I will test whether it goes through the list on auto or not, since I have to do some moving of the inputs HDMI's anyway.

To be fair, you do have the choice of HD channels on three different sources, so its not all bad.

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Tim Caswell: Actually, we do flick over to SD for the regional news (OK, not all that regional for us), and then switch it back to HD. Why watch everything is SD when you can watch 95% in HD, just because you need to switch between channels occasionally?

Its not 'shameful' that BBC local news can't be on HD, its simply down to capacity.

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Rodney Collins: 90% on a Humax is way too high - hence your problem. Search for the article 'too much of a good thing' on this site.

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Tracy M: Best thing to do is to check that the remote is working properly - new batteries etc. If thats working, and its still not responding, then its the unit. I dont recognise that model number (if you can find it, I can look at the manual) , but if its an old unit (and if its Freeview, not Freeview HD, its probably at least 3-4 years old), then it could have a fault.

If its an EX79 with a hard drive/DVD, finding the manula isn't too bad.

If the hard drive is full, and she can't even get into the library of already recorded items to delete them, then the last resort is a factory reset, which will wipe the disk. Not perfect, but at least it should work again, if she can access that function.

Needless to say, unplugging it isn't going to make a difference.


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