Digital television disappointment for Kintyre

[jamiemcivor]

I'm delighted to see that everything seems to be going fine. In fact, I even had an apology from someone who genuinely did not believe that they would ever get digital telly through an aerial in Campbeltown - oh ye of little faith.

Just a reminder the remaining analogue channels go just after midnight on Tuesday and you'll need to retune again on Wednesday to get the commercial channels on your Freeview box or IDTV - and also HD channels if you've invested in a Freeview HD box. If you experience difficulties, as ever, check digitaluk.co.uk

Anyway a little bit of trivia for you - it's amazing what you can find out when you have the complete backrun of the Radio Times going back to 1923 moments from your desk at work. The Crosshill transmitter came into use officially on Monday June 10 1968 originally, of course, only carrying the old BBC1 405 line service and VHF (sic) radio. There was actually a little article about in the magazine as up until then people in the town with aerials had got an unreliable fringe reception from Kirk O'Shotts or Northern Ireland.

Mind you, I think most people kept on using the old "piping" cable tv system so they could also get STV right up until all three channels and colour were added to the local transmitter which must have been about 1976 as I can remember when we got an aerial in.

By the way, back in 1968 there was still an epilogue at the end of the evening... and during the week the local transmitter opened it was given by Angus McVicar. Quite a coincidence!

[carlen222]

Hi jamie wondering if you can help a friend of mine who's not on the forum. Here's her question.... ' wondr if u can advise me. I have a 42inch philips tele about 6 yrs old and the analouge signal gave me a good picture. Tuned in the digi box yesterday and the picture looks as if it has a very slight blur as if it slightly off focus which i wasn't aware of with analouge. Don't know whether to try a more expensive box or scart plug.
Any ideas? Thanks'

Thankyou

[morrie]

Sounds like a weak signal. or the aerial/sat dish may have been deflected by the strong winds . Also worth noting that digital tv reception can be affected by the weather, (unless received through cable); whereas good old analogue didn't let you down that way !

You weren't drinking that cheap vodka were ye when it all went blurred ?

[carlen222]

Cheers morrie, have passed on ur info thanks very much for your reply

[quote="morrie"]You weren't drinking that cheap vodka were ye when it all went blurred ? [/quote]

P.s. U have the woman in stitches she says she only needs the empty glass never mind the voddy and shes seeing it blurred

[morrie]

What you need to do is compare the reception on the main channels you watch. If you get good picture on bbc & stv, but not on channel 5, then you need a wide-band aerial. Or go for a Satellite Dish etc.
I'm just guessing; hopefully Jamie will have the answer, and hopefully a free bottle of BBC Vodka !!

[jamiemcivor]

Sounds like a dodgy connection or duff setting to me. If your friend had a good analogue signal they should get a good digital one. Generally the digital signal - now that it's at full strength - is more robust than the analogue one and with digital you either get a perfect picture or none at all. As long as the signal is over a certain strength the picture appears perfect - if it's below that strength it starts to break up but doesn't become snowy or grainy like analogue.

I'm not a techy person but I'd say your friend should check the scart socket and check if their digital box is set to "RGB" in the technical settings. Also make sure that the TV is on proper widescreen mode - not a mode for stretching the analogue picture - and that the digital box is set to 16x9 mode.

If none of that works get an engineer to have a look.

[carlen222]

Fantastic cheers will pass on this info and hopefully shell manage to fix the issue. Thanks again

[jamiemcivor]

Just a reminder that the remaining local transmitters serving the west and north of Kintyre started to switch today.

If you cannot receive the BBC's digital channels on a Freeview box now then you will never get them. Of course, if you previously got a good reception on BBC2 Scotland you should have no problem picking up BBC digital now. You'll get more digital channels in two weeks time when the other analogue channels go.

Anyone in the west of Kintyre who can still receive BBC2 analogue must be watching a signal from Northern Ireland which doesn't switch for a year. Judging by one e-mail I received today, I suspect some people who don't watch news programmes or notice presentation graphics may have been watching NI without realising it.

I'm always happy to answer questions but if you're having real problems or difficulty it's best to contact Digital UK which has trained experts on hand. digitaluk.co.uk

[Bonnie Lass]

Just to say (after working out how to re-tune the set) the digital signal is so much clearer - can't wait till 22nd when the other programmes go to digital.

In the meantime its Digital for ALL BBC programmes and analogue for ITV and Ch 4.

[jamiemcivor]

Just a reminder to people on the west coast of Kintyre who get their tv from Gigha and people around Clachan and Tarbert that BBC1, STV and C4 analogue go just after midnight on Tuesday.

If you've already got Freeview up and running with BBC channels, you'll need to re-scan on Wednesday. After you do this, you'll get STV, C4, C5 and some other extra digital channels.

If you know anyone who still only has analogue, please help make sure they're aware what's happening. If they're aged over 75 or disabled they could also benefit from the help scheme. helpscheme.co.uk (As ever, analogue reception from Northern Ireland is not affected - some people in difficult reception patches on the west coast may get different channels from different transmitters - but it should be immediately obvious from the news or continuity if you're watching BBC NI or UTV though there's no way of telling with Channel 4.)

[happybythesea]

on the west coast...

always had satellite - as reception not good!

can't fathom out what I am supposed to do to finally get free TV ?

[happybythesea]

on the west coast...

always had satellite - as reception not good!

can't fathom out what I am supposed to do to finally get free TV ?

[Mr.Everready]

Cancel your Sky subscription ! You'll get the Freeview channels available plus a few more.

[Bonnie Lass]

If you have a set that receives Digital signal, use your tv remote (not sky) click the digital button, set-up the signal from there.
Wish hubby didn't watch sports - we could save a lot on subscription to sky

[Bonnie Lass]

Just a reminder to people on the west coast of Kintyre who get their tv from Gigha and people around Clachan and Tarbert that BBC1, STV and C4 analogue go just after midnight on Tuesday.

If you've already got Freeview up and running with BBC channels, you'll need to re-scan on Wednesday. After you do this, you'll get STV, C4, C5 and some other extra digital channels.

If you know anyone who still only has analogue, please help make sure they're aware what's happening. If they're aged over 75 or disabled they could also benefit from the help scheme. helpscheme.co.uk (As ever, analogue reception from Northern Ireland is not affected - some people in difficult reception patches on the west coast may get different channels from different transmitters - but it should be immediately obvious from the news or continuity if you're watching BBC NI or UTV though there's no way of telling with Channel 4.)

Jamie we are only getting 34 channels on Freeview of which 11 are Radio, someone told me there would be 104 channels ??