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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
Resolve your interference problems | Freeview Interference
Tuesday 28 May 2013 4:25PM
Peterborough

Duncan: You could have a look at your connecting cables - thin unshielded coax is going to be more likely to be effected.

ATV Sheffield is doing some excellent ones for just £3 each, which is about a third of the price of a thin rubbish bit of coax I saw in a supermarket the other day.

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Mendip (Somerset, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Tuesday 28 May 2013 6:29PM
Peterborough

Chris Sharp: I think what they are trying to say is that your Philips is a little old (a 26in Philips with one HDMI is perhaps seven years old or more(?), and the tuner just wont work any more. It happened a couple of times with customers following digital switchover, and our advice was exactly the same as that which Philips gave you - buy an external digibox.

Since you have one HDMI, you could use it for an HD PVR/digibox (and if you want to use Apple TV as well, there are HDMI switches available for less than £10), or just use scart. In the longer term, perhaps an upgrade to a newer TV.

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alex blackburn: I remember the PX80 well - a nice 100hz screen, and the only plasma that wasn't a 42". And I'm amazed to find that it does not have an optical - which is very unusual.

At least I now know, which will help when the next person asks me me how they can connect up their PX80...

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Chris - whats the model number? There is a small list here Obsolete Freeview Receiver List of some TV's with obsolete tuners (2k rather than 8k), although Michael has an excellent point - if was working up to a couple of weeks ago, whats changed?

However, if its going to be a complete faff to get it to work, then someones cast-off digibox is the quickest and easiest way to keep the set going. (PE12QN)

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GB flag

Just found this - Update Your Browser | Facebook

might be the answer, and echos what David suggested.

(PE12QN)

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GB flag
M
Waltham (Leicestershire, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Wednesday 29 May 2013 9:57PM
Peterborough

James - I'm also getting signals from Waltham, and my BBC reception has been fine. I just did an automatic retune this morning, with no problem on the PVR. My cheapo digibox seems to like Yorkshire, rather than Midlands (no manual tuning), but Waltham seems to be fine on all muxs.

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Two frequency interference | Freeview Interference
Wednesday 29 May 2013 10:17PM
Peterborough

John bevan: My Sony PVR does something very similar, and in the past we've accidently recorded on 803/811 (which as you say, doesn't work), rather than channel 1.

Although this is normally accidental, Case Histories hung up for the same reason last week, and since I'm fairly sure that I did set it for one, its possible that it did the same thing as yours.

However, Waltham changed channels this morning, and I noticed that after the full retune, the EPG only showed ITV & ITV +1 on the 800's, with the multiple BBC 1 800's totally gone.

I'm sure someone more expert than me can come up with an better explaination, but I'm wondering what your reception is like at your location generally.

800's are generated by having signals from one than one transmitter, so have a check which BBC1 channel has the strongest signal, and where its from. It could be that your aerial is pointing at the wrong transmitter, or there is something that stops you getting the best signal from the right one.

You can also kill off a weaker signal by reducing the power of the signal you get.

There are a fair number of websites which mention this problem, and perhaps they might be able to help. BTW - if you mention your postcode, transmitter and model of the PVR, one of the gurus here might be able to help.


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Can I stop paying Sky and use my satellite receiver to get Free
Thursday 30 May 2013 10:35PM
Peterborough

Tanya: I'd first check what the signal is like in the kitchen from your Freeview aerial (and where it is).

The PVR should be able to tell you signal strength and quality, and hopefully you should be able to tell which transmitter your signal is coming from (if you can include your postcode on any further post, its much easier to find this out, although you can do it yourself by using the box at the top of the page).

Where is the aerial? Is it on the roof, in the roof? The higher the better, but if you have an aerial already, and it works fine, then the easiest thing might be to just connect it to the TV room, and carry on using your existing equipment. It might already have an extra connection (follow the cables), but now hidden.

Next, check the dish (calling it a Sky aerial will lead to real confusion). How many cables are coming out of it? If its just one, then you can watch or record. If its 2, then you can do both at once (just like your Freeview PVR) using a Humax Freesat box (around £249). Check the thing where the cable/s come out, and see how many holes are in the bottom of it. It could be that you can attach extra cables (anything up to four), which means that although you might have just one at the moment, you can put more on. If there is just the one, and no extra connections, then have a look at Satcure.co.uk or aerialsandtv.co.uk for the extra parts you'll need, as well as more advice.

Personally, if you have a decent signal from a decent aerial, and its not a pain to connect it up, use that and get someone to run a cable down to the TV room. If the signal is rubbish (and there might be a good reason why a dish was used), then go for the dish, and use a Freesat tuner/PVR.





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Cheryl: Don't worry, this often happens with TV's (including my old one). What you need to do is 'offset' the volume - in othre words get the TV to feed in the sound from another source at a certain volume.

In the case of Sony, go to Setting, then the Sound Menu, and you'll find Volume Offset, and go from there. Just follow the manual.

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Emley Moor (Kirklees, England) transmitter
Sunday 2 June 2013 9:26PM
Peterborough

Mike - I'd be asking much the same question as Ian from notts - if you've got a Freeview box/PVR rather than Freeview in the TV, the fact that you got sound and no picture would point to a scart being loose.

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