Analogue switch-off

[puternut]

I live in Meridian area and tonight's the night of the first part of the analogue switch off.

Got an on screen message at about 00:30 that Freeview needed retuning - so OH did it automatically.

Result was we were missing BBC1 & BBC2 at least. I only checked those as OH was watching BBC1 at the time.

Re-tuned and BBC1 & 2 there then.

However when the film finished there are a load of other channels still missing from Freeview set-up.

Is this normal?? And will we have to go through this again when we get switch off part 2 in 2 weeks?

Thanks for any info

[bibblebub]

simple answer, yes

[Old_Geezer]

Didn't happen to me.

Instead of scanning to add channels to what you already have did you try whatever menu option suggests you are starting a scan 'from scratch' ?

[puternut]

Yes OG I did a complete autoscan reset - as if setting up for first time

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe they are being tardy sorting out the transmit end. All I know is I went to bed one day, and when I woke up next day I had to retune, and all came back in.

According to the fans of this change it is supposed to be a better stronger signal after the swop and so you ought to be getting better reception.

Maybe try again later today ?

[Buenchico]

Freeview channels are transmitted in 'bundles', called 'multiplexes'. Each multiplex is on a different frequency. At each changeover stage some channels are reallocated to different multiplexes. (That's why you need to retune).

All aerials are slightly better at receiving some frequencies than others. (Theoretically you should have dozens of different aerials on your roof, to accommodate all of the different frequencies. That's clearly impractical, so all aerials are only a 'rough match' to the incoming frequencies).

Your aerial isn't really up to the job of receiving Freeview properly (at current signal strengths) as it can't adequately 'pull in' signals on some multiplexes. That's why some channels are missing.

However (in order to avoid interference with the analogue signals) your local transmitter is using considerably reduced power for its digital output at the moment. As soon as the analogue transmissions are switched off (in a fortnight's time) the power will be greatly increased. Your aerial should then be able to provide a decent signal on all multiplexes. (i.e. all should be well after the second retune; if it's not, a cheap signal booster should fix the problem).

Chris