Basically BBC Two Analogue will be switched off on November 4th 2009 from Winter Hill with the other four channels to follow in early December.
It'll be interesting to see how it goes on as Granada will be the first big region to fully switch Digital and probably the first to get Freeview HD aswell. I take it the signal for Digital will be increased with Analogue gets turned off? I hope it is, as I'm using an indoor aerial..
I'm not a techy person, but as a broad rule of thumb a good analogue reception at the moment guarantees a good reception of the public service multiplexes after switchover.
There's a test page on Ceefax and Teletext which will tell you whether your signal's strong enough. The digitaluk website has full details.
It'll be interesting to see how it goes on as Granada will be the first big region to fully switch Digital and probably the first to get Freeview HD aswell. I take it the signal for Digital will be increased with Analogue gets turned off? I hope it is, as I'm using an indoor aerial..
I think you'll find that Westcountry will be the better test, and before you! We start in 6 months, and the transmitters should provide C5 for the first time on DTT, something that I oddly can't get living in a city more than 10 years after it started!
Most of us, of course, are already on either VM or Sky because of the poor signal, so perhaps it won't make much difference. Even though I can see the transmitter out of the window (and with the aid of a booster) I can't get a clear analogue signal. The DTT signal is supposed to increase 50x.....I'll wait and see!
One big problem I can see with the strength of DTT signals increasing come DSO, is that many receivers will start picking up broadcasts from multiple transmitters.
As Freeview boxes / IDTVs don't have any way of knowing which is the correct region, I can imagine a lot of people having trouble with the wrong versions of BBC One and ITV1 being assigned to LCNs 1 and 3. There's also the problem that if your box arbirarily assigns a weak, distant mux (because it was the first it came to during a scan), you could end up with problems of picture break-up.
Even now at pre DSO levels, my IDTV once assigned a weak Pontop Pike Mux 1 to its EPG after a rescan, rather than the much stronger, nearer Bilsdale signal. It took me a while to work out why BBC channels kept breaking up. Obviously I was able to sort it by manual tuning, but I doubt everyone would be able to figure that out.
With more signals, and stronger signals, I could see this being a real problem... and probably another opportunity for cowboy aerial installers to make a fast buck, insisting on aerial upgrades to sort picture break-up, when all that's needed is a quick manual-tune of the box.
Also - Media Guardian is reporting that Five is to be carried on BBC Mux B temporarily in DSO regions prior to Granada 2009. This is to improve reception in areas which are poorly served by Mux A.
Mux 1, Mux 2 and Mux B will be renamed PSB1-3 and be provided with full coverage.
Mux A, C and D will be renamed COM1-3 and only be broadcast from the current sites, with lower coverage.
Shifting Five from A to B increases its coverage.
Once B/PSB3 is converted to HD DVB-T2 I suspect some of the Mux 2 ITV stuff will be shifted to the COM muxes to make space for the BBC and Five stuff kicked off Mux B?
From tomorrow the BBC2 analogue signal from the Selkirk transmitter will be switched off. This will be followed by the remaning four analogue channels being switched off on 20th November.
With respect to the HD mux that will replace Mux B in the Granada region in 2009, Granada may not be the only region to get it around that time. (The other DSO regions should get it around that time as well AIUI)
In addition the BBC and Ofcom are looking likely to agree for a 7th mux to be broadcast in other regions still carrying analogue transmissions, where such a frequency can be found (such as London), so that Freeview HD can launch to a much larger audience than just the North West.
This would be a temporary 7th mux (carrying the proposed 36Mbs DVB-T2 HD service) but would provide a larger market for the new HD Freeview receivers that will be required (and don't exist yet - HDTVs with Freeview receivers - even HD DVB-T stuff for Sweden, France etc. will not work with DVB-T2) and hopefully provide some economies of scale.
