TV Home Forum

Freeview - Spectrum Clearance and Technical changes

12/8: Winter Hill retune required (June 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
MA
Markymark
Brekkie posted:
Even DSO was dragged out at least a couple of years longer than it should have been, and arguably much more than that considering it was a 14 year process from the launch of digital terrestrial TV to the final analogue switch off, with the switchover dates themselves spreading across five years.


DSO went as fast as it could. There was a lot of civil engineering involved at all the main transmitters, new masts in some cases, new antennas and feeders in nearly all cases, new transmission equipment at all 1154 sites, on an infrastructure that was 40+ years old. Arqiva didn't have the manpower to do it any faster, and because the same UHF frequencies were in use by analogue and pre DSO Freeview, it was a massive game of tetris to switch over one region, without causing interference to the adjacent ones.
TE
Technologist
Brekkie posted:
Surely the short term solution is you keep a simple SD simulcast (without regional news, so one stream) for no more than a year. Keeping the legacy SD system around to avoid the costs associated with switching everything to HD must ony be burning money in the long run.

The BBC have no problem in finding the costs to upgrade the iPlayer seemingly every year or so - I know it's easy to say on the outside but I just don't accept it as an excuse now. Ten years ago it may have been, but the BBC and Freeview have had a decade to sort this out now and seemingly we're no further forward than we were then. All that's largely happened is the squeezing in of more and more subquality SD channels.

If only that upgrading Coding and Mux was as easy as working with Microservices and ready & proven Cloud technology .... like Iplayer .which is why "Regions in HD" may be offered (as the BBC have stated) on the Iplayer Platform - its a lot cheaper ...
But although the technology is moving to Code and Mux (and playout for that matter) from the cloud - a major change -
for both the suppliers either side of Code and Mux .... .
I'm sure that an appropriate telco and cloud provdier would be overjoyed to have about 60Gbit/sec (if ST2022-6 presentaion tsion
or 45 Gbit/sec is ST2110 presentation to the cloud up and only about 1 G down
But there is a lot of code needed to replicate the base band routing and switching (for buddying etc) and monitoring
I don't think anyone has done that in the cloud yet !!!
Freeveiw has very little to do with anything other than promoting the platform ....
and if a chanel wansts to be on the platfrom it just needs OFCOM documents and do a deal with one of the Mux operators - I'm sure that either itv or Arqiva would be very pleased to offer better pictures for a price ..... and a means of getting your EPG data to DUK .
MA
Markymark
Freeview viewers complain of fewer channels after retune
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53752063

Did BBC North West give any advance notice about this? Did they explian in layman's terms what the purpose of the simulcast of their own mux was?
Did they talk to their own distribution dept in the compilation of this story?

At least they used the word 'fewer' rather than ' less'

23 days later

BR
Brekkie
Having a strange issue now on the HD channels on one TV set - basically breaking up as if the signal isn't strong enough, but it's absolutely fine on the Freeview box attached to the set and other sets connected to the same aerial. Not solved by a retune, and connections seem to be fine.
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
Brekkie posted:
Having a strange issue now on the HD channels on one TV set - basically breaking up as if the signal isn't strong enough, but it's absolutely fine on the Freeview box attached to the set and other sets connected to the same aerial. Not solved by a retune, and connections seem to be fine.

It may be worth looking at the aerial cable being used, specifically it's thickness. Some cables are quite thin, which tends to mean their less shielded. This can result in more interference to the TV signal, compared to when thicker aerial cables are used. This was how I resolved a problem my parents were having with one of their TVs, though it couldn't receive Freeview HD.
BR
Brekkie
Will take a look - I'm sure I've got some spare cables somewhere. Just odd it's only happened in the last week or so.
MA
Markymark
Brekkie posted:
Having a strange issue now on the HD channels on one TV set - basically breaking up as if the signal isn't strong enough, but it's absolutely fine on the Freeview box attached to the set and other sets connected to the same aerial. Not solved by a retune, and connections seem to be fine.


Is this the main HD mux, or COM 7?

UHF ch55 (where COM7 is) is on the same frequency that many HDMI leads radiate. Make sure they are as far away as possible from the aerial cables.

If it's the main HD mux (PSB 3) check it's the correct version from Winter Hill, and you're not picking up the 'wrong one' from eleswhere. Duplicates at Ch800+ are often a clue
BR
Brekkie
The main HD mux. Hadn't thought about duplicates though the default region is set to North West anyway.
MA
Markymark
Brekkie posted:
The main HD mux. Hadn't thought about duplicates though the default region is set to North West anyway.


Yes, so that should be OK. I don't think you're in range of any other NW region relays, though these should be ignored when the tuner takes a look at everything its captured ! UHF Ch 35 is what it should be tuned to for PSB 3 Winter Hill ?

Newer posts