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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.

M
Diagnostics - old version
Monday 19 August 2013 6:23PM

Priya: If you tell us the model number it might be of some help, but two things do spring to mind.

You say you've bought an aerial - is it a portable one? If it is, then it might not be very good (they seldom are) - your postcode would help everyone to judge whether you need a better aerial. Also check that the aerial is plugged in properly, and if its a Freesat equiped TV, you've heavn't tried to put a normal aerial into the F connector - it wont work.

Second thing could be when you've set it up - the manual should tell you how to setup and tune - have you set it up to use digital, analogue or both? You should only need digital, but if the TV still has an analouge tuner (I can't remember if they still do, becuase we dont use them!), you might have set it to analogue only. Since there are no analogue signals, there is nothing for it to pick up.

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Howell Edwards: I dont think your being fair to Freeview, and its certainly not fair to compare reception from a terrestial transmitter with Sky, for example.

Freeview has to deal with a mixture of geography and physics, and there are areas where neither ensures a good signal. The change in channels has also exposed possible downsides to current setups in terms of peoples aerials and systems, and in fact if you actually look through the questions, many will problems will be as a result of too good a signal!

Freeview is the de facto standard for the bulk of people (its in every TV), and most people already have an aerial, and of course its much more flexible than sat. systems in many ways. It is a pain to have to retune at the moment, but the vast majority of people a good signal the vast majority of the time. Put it this way - Waltham serves some 600,000 homes. If it works for 99% of them (which is a very high success rate), that is still 6000 homes with a problem.

Remember that the people who have a problem on this site are a subset of the viewing public as a whole, and a pretty small one at that. If you consider that many problems with reception have far more to do with inside the house than outside it, you can see that it is not far to blame Freeview for all problems.

Sky and other systems dont have a problem with geography, as long as the dish can 'see' the satellite - but even the Astra satellite is (I belive) not one but several - so even they require some backup.

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M
Diagnostics - old version
Monday 19 August 2013 7:06PM

Hugh Hanratty: You'd normally be tuned into Waltham, but apparently they are working on it, and its pretty low power.

I was stupid enough to try to retune my Goodmans box to cope with the changes to Film 4 - which now means its picking up Belmont at a really rubbish signal strength (my kids are complaining about CBBC breaking up), and I suspect your in the same boat. Hopefully it should get sorted out soon.

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Briantist: The LED 6 series has had an Freeview HD tuner since they came out (the 2011 D6530 - http://www.samsung.com/uk…pec) - in fact the Freesat tuner was put in in 2012.

Samsung have the habit of being a bit unclear on their specs, which makes the current F model look a bit strange - 'DVB-T/C/S2' can be read several different ways, but the link above makes it clear that its always had a 'DTV Reception DVB-T2 / C '.

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Matthew: Freeview is built into the TV, your problem seems to be with your reception. Have a look at the tradeview webpage for your postcode - Durris is the only one listed, but if you look at the terrain, there is a very big thing in the way about 5 miles from you.

If you can't find another transmitter to pick up, then perhaps Freesat is for you!

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M
Diagnostics - old version
Thursday 22 August 2013 2:22PM

Neil Thompson: Check your aerial lead, is it plugged in properly? Then trace the chain back to your aerial, because thats where the problem most likely is.

No dvb means no digital signal, and it has prompted you already to check your aerial, so thats what you need to do.

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Briantist: Its easily done, Samsung have the annoying habit of using series numbers 4-8 over and over again - a six series from five years ago will have almost nothing in common with this years model.

It would be nice if Samsung made life easier for everyone..: - )

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Ian Garrick: Wouldn't Freesat be a good option?

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M
All DAB transmitters
Saturday 24 August 2013 11:39PM

C Jones: You can alwasy listen on the internet - in fact there are thousands of interent stations...

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M
Feedback | Feedback
Monday 26 August 2013 10:23PM

Tony Lee: LG tv's don't 'officially' seem to have a Freesat tuner, but merely one which is 'Freesat compatable' - in fact I asked the LG rep about this today, and basically they dont like to talk about it! The spec on the LG website says the have 2 RF inputs, but doesn't say one has an F fitting.

Model number would help, but hopefully your manual/LG online users forum might be able to give you the info you need.

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