Digital Switchover:The difficult stage

[Dame Starry]

Same here, turned on the TV this morning, BBC1 and 2 were there, no ITV1 though, complete reinstallation required for the second time, and it's still sometimes sticky when changing channels, though it's probably just the TV itself that causes that, at least the Toshiba combi came up 'new signal detected' when checking the channels on it.

With EVERYTHING crossed, mine seems to be OK now - for the moment. As I said previously, I did have to do a full retune again.

Mark, check that your remote doesn't need new batteries or that something hasn't been spilt on it - it could just be a coincidence that it happened during the switchover.

[Mark O]

With EVERYTHING crossed, mine seems to be OK now - for the moment. As I said previously, I did have to do a full retune again.

Mark, check that your remote doesn't need new batteries or that something hasn't been spilt on it - it could just be a coincidence that it happened during the switchover.

Will do Dame Starry, I've recently purchased a 'one for all' remote to see if that makes any improvement to the stickiness, I could do with a new one anyhow, the original TV handset has been well and truly used to death over the years, I don't know if it's just me but the majority of pictures seem more vivid than before, I've read that signal strengths from transmitters have been made 'stronger', maybe that has something to do with it, the Crystal Palace one is big enough!.

[Dame Starry]

Will do Dame Starry, I've recently purchased a 'one for all' remote to see if that makes any improvement to the stickiness, I could do with a new one anyhow, the original TV handset has been well and truly used to death over the years, I don't know if it's just me but the majority of pictures seem more vivid than before, I've read that signal strengths from transmitters have been made 'stronger', maybe that has something to do with it, the Crystal Palace one is big enough!.

I thought that the picture clarity was better - but it might just be wishful thinking!
It was hinted that the signal would be stronger after the full switchover.

I'm not a great lover of one-for-all remotes - particularly for DVD recorders/players but, sometimes, 'needs must'.

If you have a good scout around the Internet, it seems to be getting easier to buy 'original' replacement remotes now - even for obsolete sets. Also, I managed to get a perfect used one for a discontinued DVD player off of e-bay.

[paul kersey]

I wonder how much extra would have to be added to the production cost of a TV, to make remote controls rechargable via a recharging dock on the TV?. I was surprised to find that the batteries on the remote for my DVD player, purchased last Christmas, were already down. Batteries are so expensive now, £3.99 for 4 AAA Duracell at Sainsburys, compared with the original purchase price of the equipment.

[Dame Starry]

I wonder how much extra would have to be added to the production cost of a TV, to make remote controls rechargable via a recharging dock on the TV?. I was surprised to find that the batteries on the remote for my DVD player, purchased last Christmas, were already down. Batteries are so expensive now, £3.99 for 4 AAA Duracell at Sainsburys, compared with the original purchase price of the equipment.

Batteries ARE expensive - and then you have to dispose of them which is impossible if you live nowhere near your local rubbish dump, no bus service goes anywhere near it and you don't have your own transport (like me).

That's why, spurred on by my brother, I always keep a supply of AA and AAA rechargeables with varying powers. Of course, even they don't last forever but, after the initial layout including charger, they work out considerably cheaper and more convenient.

[MikeB]

I have to admit that I'm still using the original batteries which came with my Sony remote more than two years ago, and the others get changed every couple of years, but each remote is different. You could go to Poundland, and buy 15 AAA batteries for a pound. The Sony/Kodak ones are perfectly fine for a remote.

All in One remotes were once described by Stephen Fry as 'instruments of the devil', or something along those lines. I've had at least two, and they seldom work very well, unless you want to spend a lot of money. However, if you have more than one bit of equipment from the same manufacturer, its likely that you can use the same remote for all of them, at least for the simple functions (rewind, fast forward, etc). Panasonic uses 'Vieira-Link', Sony uses 'Bravia Sync', and most other brands use much the same kind of system. Some of them will allow you to set up control over other manufacturers equipment as well. Check out the manual for the TV, etc - often the system has a lot more built into into it than most people use or even realise is there.

If you do want an original remote, there are plenty of websites which can get one for you, or if you are really pushed, try Ebay, as Dame Starry said. The remote for my now pretty old Eltax DVD was on the way out, and the only place I found one was Ebay. The prices was pretty good as well.

Some TV's are very slow about changing channels (one lady even came back into the shop to check hers wasn't on the blink - no, it was just slow). Of course make sure that the sensor on the TV has been cleaned (furniture polish is sometimes put on TV's, which bad, and it forms a layer over the sensor), as well as the remotes. You can always give them a good clean as well. A bit of rubbing alcohol (or even vodka!) will shift a lot of crud, and a cotton bud and cocktail stick will get muck out of the little crevices.

[Steve Crook]

Of course make sure that the sensor on the TV has been cleaned

Or that the cat isn't lying in front of it

Steve

[Dame Starry]

Or that the cat isn't lying in front of it

Steve

Where I have my equipment, it'd take a lion to block the sensor from my remote!

[Dame Starry]

A bit of rubbing alcohol (or even vodka!) will shift a lot of crud, and a cotton bud and cocktail stick will get muck out of the little crevices.

I always have cotton buds, toothpicks and old toothbrushes in the kitchen - they are so handy for so many things.

My brother would be appalled at using vodka to clean his remote/sensor - he'd say what a waste that was!

Remotes don't need expensive batteries - in fact batteries that have stopped working in some things, will very often last for quite a while in a remote or a clock.

[Johnallan]

It's also worth trying rechargeable batteries in a remote. I've had 'remotes' where they don't work but some where they do and last for a reasonable time.

[MartinU]

With EVERYTHING crossed, mine seems to be OK now - for the moment. As I said previously, I did have to do a full retune again.

Mark, check that your remote doesn't need new batteries or that something hasn't been spilt on it - it could just be a coincidence that it happened during the switchover.

And also check for the rare events as well. After digital switchover my set top box wouldn't detect any signal whatsoever on the signal strength menu, even when I gave it the UHF channel of one of the multiplexes. A replacement box, an old OnDigital one (!), had the same symptom. I jumped to the obvious conclusion - that there was a problem with the aerial, its cable or its mast-head amplifier. It was only when I tried the STB at my fiancee's house and found exactly the same symptom that I began to suspect the box. Remembering a bizarre problem that I'd had with her Freeview hard disc recorder, I tried a different 240V-12V power supply... and it worked perfectly.

So if you get bizarre results, check the power supply. A volt meter said it was giving 12V, as it should, but I bet there was either a lot of 50 Hz hum getting through or else it wasn't supplying the full 12V when it was under load, only with a high resistance voltmeter.

God knows why the OnDigital box was also playing up, unless it was so old that it wasn't compatible with modern DTTV signals.

[Rob Compton]

God knows why the OnDigital box was also playing up, unless it was so old that it wasn't compatible with modern DTTV signals.

It isn't - at least mine wasn't.

rgds
Rob

[MartinU]

It isn't - at least mine wasn't.

rgds
Rob

Very odd. At least you've confirmed that an OnDigital box should work. I wasn't sure because I gather that at some stage DTTV signals for some multiplexes were changed from one standard to another (16QAM to 64QAM, or something like that) and it was mentioned at the time that older equipment may not be able to cope with the change.

To get no indication of signal strength or quality suggests something sinister and fundamental: you'd imagine that the box's signal strength display is probably going to be strength of the UHF signal before any attempt has been made to decode it.

I've just had a thought. I wonder if even when I was testing the OnDigital box, the duff PSU for the other box was still plugged into the mains. Could the PSU have been chucking out mains-borne or RF interference that was upsetting the OnDigital box?

It's a shame that Windows Media Centre doesn't have a signal strength meter. I've had occasional problems where recordings on one particular multiplex have terminated with "no signal" or else have been so severely corrupted that they are unwatchable, whereas most of the time the recordings are flawless. I'd be interested to be able to compare signal strength for the two cases. It's the lowest-power mux from the transmitter, so I suppose changes in in signal propagation might be the cause.

[Rob Compton]

Hi Martin

Mine was one of these... http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051492

rgds
Rob

[MartinU]

Freeview was fantastic for me, analogue signals were pee poor even with a masthead booster the best we got was three channels. On a whim I bought a freeview box and bingo, all the channels came in from day one. There is a lot of junk broadcast but if you look you will always find something to watch if needed.

My parents have a holiday cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. Analogue reception from Bilsdale was pretty poor - snowy and with ghosting. Freeview reception was very bad - only one mux was detected and its channels stuttered badly. Given that switchover occurs in September, I got the aerial changed when I was there recently. And after a few teething problems caused by a bad bit of cable behind the wall socket, digital reception is very good: we can get all six multiplexes almost flawlessly - even the one for Film 4 and Yesterday which is on much lower power than all the rest. Analogue reception is still fairly poor, so it's not just that the aerial is higher gain. And I discovered something that I didn't know before: although ITV1 broadcasts Tyne Tees news (which is absurd for Yorkshire - Leeds- and York-based news would be better) ITV1+1 broadcasts Yorkshire from Emley Moor so as long as you don't mind waiting an hour you can get the news from another region. I gather that's quite common in areas where the strongest signal doesn't match the region that people would want to receive - a nice bit of inter-region cooperation which makes a change from all the "sorry, regulations don't allow us to do that" attitude of today!