Which transmitter?

[Porthos]

My Dad has been having problems with his PVR-9200t. It freezes and has lost channels. He lives in Farnsfield, outside of Nottingham (ng22). Digital UK says the following about his transmitters:

Transmitter
TV region
Switchover
Reception & channels
Most likely transmitter - Belmont Yorkshire
03 Aug 2011 - Stage 1
17 Aug 2011 - Stage 2
Good
Up to 66 channels available +
4 HD channels
Alternative transmitter 1 - Emley Moor Yorkshire
07 Sep 2011 - Stage 1
21 Sep 2011 - Stage 2
Good
Up to 66 channels available +
4 HD channels
Alternative transmitter 2 - Waltham Central
17 Aug 2011 - Stage 1
31 Aug 2011 - Stage 2
Variable
Up to 66 channels available +
4 HD channels
Alternative transmitter 3 - Sutton Coldfield Central
07 Sep 2011 - Stage 1
21 Sep 2011 - Stage 2
Variable
Up to 66 channels available +
4 HD channels
Alternative transmitter 4 - Bilsdale Tyne Tees 2012
Poor
Up to 0 channels available +
4 HD channels
Alternative transmitter 5 - Nottingham Central already switched
Poor
No channels availab

Should he pay to get someone to come and replace his aerial and just buy a new box? Is there a risk in having work done on the aerial before the switchover? Also, I would have thought Nottingham would be the closest transmitter so I'm confused that he's been linked to a Yorkshire one.

 

[Rodders53]

Farnsfield, Notts Farnsfield Village - Opening Page has a garage on Southwell Road which gets a Trade View prediction Postcode Checker - Trade View This suggests that it is best served from the Emley Moor transmitter and always has been. (Although Bilsdale and Belmont are listed as possible alternatives).

Your Father's predictions appear sightly different and suggest Belmont is most likely with Emley next. It all depends on where the aerial on your Father's house is aimed.

Nottingham is a relay of the Waltham transmitter; located near the Kimberley area to the NW of the City it's beamed towards Nottingham only and won't serve people to the North and East of it.

It's possible that the PVR has picked up signals from more than one transmitter on a re-tune.... this may mean it has stored a weak, stuttering transmitter on the normal logical channel numbers and the better transmitter up in the 800s. 9200Ts don't work well tuned to multiple transmitters. Therefore, the first thing to do with a 9200T giving 'problems' is to do a 'default settings' with the aerial disconnected. Then, with the aerial back in do a manual tune on the six frequencies for the transmitter the aerial on the roof is pointing towards. (For Emley Moor it is 52, 40, 46, 43, 50 & 49) the Trade View of the postcode checker will supply the correct numbers for you.

If possible find and report the frequency, signal strength and quality readings the 9200T gives for each mux. This will allow us to give more advice if you need it.

NB You will need to follow the same process at each re-tune during switchover.

 

[Porthos]

Thanks for your reply. I've just tested the four top listed transmitters (my postcode is ng228lu) and none gave anything! I think the bearing of my aerial suggests I'm pointed at the Waltham transmitter (I calculate that the aerial is somewhere between 90 and 180 degrees and Waltham is 154). Waltham also had the highest strength. I don't know where the channels actually get picked up from when I do an auto scan!

Is it possible my aerial (which looks like this http://www.aerialsandtv.com/_wp_generated/wp4c0d55e5.jpg) is pointed at the wrong transmitter?!



Name Channel Strength Rank
Belmont 22 61 1
28 58
25 60
32 56
56 20

Sutton Coldfield 46 34 2
40
43
50
37

Emley Moor 44 42 3
51
47
41
37

Waltham 58 83 4
64
61
54
35

Quality was 0 on all of them and I have just entered average strength for some.

 

[Rodders53]

You have made the classic (easy to do) mistake of tuning to the analogue channel frequencies for the transmitters rather than the digital ones. The Humax 9200T will report a signal strength, but (as it doesn't understand analogue) gives a 0 quality figure.

As your aerial seems to point to Waltham (to get the correct regional programmes) you should manually tune to:

49, 31, 33, 29, 45 & 42

They are the numbers in the darker grey boxes adjacent to the coloured prediction figures for each mux against today's date, (and future dates) for each transmitter in turn, further down the page.

The predictions for Waltham aren't great now, but do get much, much better after switchover in August. Your best (current) prediction is for Belmont.

Try again.