Freeview fury

[mobily]

Hello all,

I have spent a pleasant 30 minutes looking at previous threads on freeview using the search facility which I would HIGHLY recommend to any newbies.

I put my postode into www.freeview.co.uk and it says no no to any sort of freeview. The dtg website says I can receive some channels but not all. The transmitter would be caradon hill, according to the dtg site, as I will be living in Plymouth. The thing is I don't want to fork out £100 for a new aerial to find that I can't receive much of a picture or a decent selection of channels.

Does anyone else live in the Plymouth area who can give me an idea as to the signal they get and what channels they get?

Thanks,

James

 

[MartinImber]

The Freeview checker is rubbish

What you need to do is look at the local aerials - if they in general look at Caradon you almost certainly can get DTTV but you may need a new aerial.

 

[Archie Fax]

Originally posted by MartinImber
The Freeview checker is rubbish

That statement is rubbish.
Weak digital signals can easily be disrupted by electrical interference causing a complete loss of picture and sound. The same interference has little effect on analogue signals apart from the odd speckly line or two. Weak analogue signals are more reliable than digital ones.
The postcode checker is there for a reason.

 

[Northerner]

That statement is rubbish

No it's not

I recently installed Freeview for my mother and the checker recommended an aerial upgrade to wideband at the very least.

Needless to say, I didn't bother and her F/V reception is fine across all channels

 

[Archie Fax]

Originally posted by Northerner
No it's not

Yes it is.

Other things can also destroy weak digital signals... High pressure weather (too much sun), low pressure (too much rain).

Try before you buy.

 

[Stereo Steve]

So if other things can affect the signal, how does that make the postcode checker more accurate? I think you've talked yourself out of your own argument.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

it's linked to the weather forcast?

 

[LV426]

The postcode checker is a guide to general reception conditions in the area it covers. However, the properties of radio waves are such that even minor differences in terrain and other factors, even between adjacent houses, can make a MASSIVE difference in reception quality. Even to the extent, sometimes, that you get better results from a more distant transmitter.

Example (re analog reception, but you get the idea):

In 1975, I was living in digs in Thorne (near Doncaster). I had a 625line B&W TV and an 18 element regular aerial which I had to position INSIDE my room. Looking at the map, the obvious main trasmitter for this location is Belmont. Flat land in between and nearest. Result? Grainy, ghosting pictures on 3 of the (then) four channels and nothing watchable on the fourth.

Turned the aerial around about 80 degrees anticlockwise and got near-perfect, stable images from BILSDALE WEST MOOR - three or four times as far away and with plenty of 'geography' in between.

(Same aerial group, BTW).

Go figure.

 

[marksm74]

Originally posted by Archie Fax
That statement is rubbish.
Weak digital signals can easily be disrupted by electrical interference causing a complete loss of picture and sound. The same interference has little effect on analogue signals apart from the odd speckly line or two. Weak analogue signals are more reliable than digital ones.
The postcode checker is there for a reason.

Digital signals are actually much more robust than analogue signals. A digital signal broadcast at the same strength as an analogue signal will cover a much greater area without any problems. I believe it's even true that a digital signal at a tenth of the strength of analogue will still cover a similar area well. The problem is that digital signals are currently broadcast at only about 1/30 of analogue, to prevent interference with analogue signals in a crowded UHF spectrum.

And of course, analogue signals degrade much more gracefully.