All posts by John Robinson
Below are all of John Robinson's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Where are the public service (Freeview Light) transmitters? | S
Wednesday 26 December 2012 6:07PM
David Jones: I don't think Brian sounds like he'd justify slavery, etc. He's relaying information on government decisions, not making or justifying them. If you have a problem with government decisions, I think you should write to your MP rather than insult people who are trying to be helpful.
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmit
Wednesday 30 January 2013 12:56PM
I've had a thought. Given that pre-DSO, the thousands of small relay transmitters carried 4 analogue transmissions (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Ch4), why post-DSO are they only carrying 3 digital transmissions for Freeview Lite? Isn't the radio side much the same?
I feel that Ofcom should have required the licence holders to maintain the public service transmitters at the same level, rather than allow them to reduce it by a quarter.
Wednesday 30 January 2013 5:19PM
Dave Lindsay: yes, I know about muxes. But 9% of the country get only 3 muxes, and I was thinking they should be getting 4, especially since the radio gear for all those transmitters will have been there already.
Briantist: So the Digital Dividend is that the TV operators get to save a little money maintaining fewer radios, the Government makes a fortune which we'll all end up paying for in further overpriced mobile phone bills, and 9% of the population gets a second-class television service. Hurrah.
Less cynically, I think +1 channels should be removed from the PSB muxes, to make room for more content. Both ITV and Channel 4 have split their output over several channels which are targeted at different audiences, but they should be covering all the audiences on channels on the PSB muxes. Who should I write to?
And what's going to happen when the HD switchover happens - 3 muxes with 5-6 channels each will be even less than there is just now for Freeview Lite viewers - or will it just be a DVB-T2 switchover?
Ten more HD channels on two new Freeview HD multiplexes on air
Friday 12 April 2013 5:43PM
David Robbins: The announcement suggests the BBC only want one or two more HD channels, and Channel 4 also only want one or two.
BBC One Scotland starts in High Definition, Monday 14 January 2
Saturday 20 April 2013 2:08PM
Thank goodness BBC2 HD is a national channel. It means that I can watch the snooker for the next fortnight without the endless interruptions for parochial rubbish that happen on BBC2 Scotland - for example, half of this afternoon's coverage will be replaced on BBC2 Scotland with the Scottish Labour Party conference. It's a shame BBC2 HD may become parochialised in 2015; I just wish I could get national versions of BBC1 and ITV too.
(PS I have an SD telly - and SD eyesight - so rarely look at the HD channels, but thankfully my PVR receives and downscales the HD channels.)
I've got an HD TV ... why can't we have high definition channel
Tuesday 18 June 2013 6:42PM
Re the technical question - if it takes a while to switch transponders, why don't they carry both the national HD and local SDs on the same transponder?
Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter
Friday 12 July 2013 6:19PM
Colin Brown: you didn't have to buy a new aerial because the PSB muxes are transmitted in the same band as the pre-digital public service channels. It was your choice to receive the additional commercial services.
Saturday 13 July 2013 2:46PM
Colin Brown, if you received all 6 pre-switchover muxes, including C and D which were already out of band A, I am mystified as to why post-switchover you could not receive ArqB and SDN on the same channels transmitted at 5 times the power - 7dB higher signal - and indeed ArqA, only slightly further out of band. The aerial bands aren't absolute cut-offs, aerials typically have a few dB fall out of band, getting worse as you go further out of band, and the huge increase in signal should have meant you'd receive them just fine.
And re 4G, given you do have your own aerial, and even the original estimates were 1/150 for people with their own aerial, with the new reduced probabilities, I'd say you have a 1/1250 chance of having problems, given you do have your own aerial, and are not sharing a communal aerial or using an amplifier.
Second thing: I am puzzled as to how 4G at 791-862MHz could affect channel 21+ at 474.2MHz at all, if channels 24 and 27 aren't affected. Surely it'll be TV broadcasts at channels 50+ right next to the new 800MHz band that would be affected?
Monday 4 November 2013 8:10PM
My PVR missed its recordings last night after 10pm and reported "no signal", and when I got in from the pub it had no PSB1, so I was a bit miffed but watched something else instead. This morning all back to normal. Dunno if it was a transmitter outage or (more likely) the PVR threw a wobbly.