digital TV Switchover Update

[connor7777]

This is a list of the next places to switch this year

Scotland - June 22nd
Cyprus - July 1st
Japan - 24th
Canada - August 31st
Stoke-on-Trent/Birmingham - September 21st
Oxford - September 28th
South Africa - November 1st
Anglia - November 23rd
France - November 30th
Romania - January 1st 2012

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I note that the BBC had made some note of this, where it refers to UK areas, recently on the information panel service they use. We are already in a digitally converted area, but it appears in the index in the "901" page section of our "red button" index

 

[SS4]

I get the warnings whenever I switch to the tv, it's annoying more than anything because I want to watch my program and the message takes up the bottom third of the screen

 

[connor7777]

If you watched your programme on your freeview, freesat or sky box then you would not get the messages.

Why are you still watching analogue TV anyway?

 

[Oswyntail]

I wold love to be able to watch Freesat (but in this conservation area sat discs are not allowed) or Freeview (but in this neck of Yorkshire it is not available, and no one can say when if at all, it will be). Broadband TV is possible...but we are at the limits from the exchange, so performance is not guaranteed. So it looks like cable. I don't want anything more than the basic channels, but it looks as if will hae to pay through the nose for guff I don' twant.

 

[142094]

Quite funny for those living in York - you can either start watching BBC Look North from Leeds in the autumn on Freeview or re-tune your TV to get Look North from Newcastle for another year or so on analogue.

 

[Deerfold]

I wold love to be able to watch Freesat (but in this conservation area sat discs are not allowed) or Freeview (but in this neck of Yorkshire it is not available, and no one can say when if at all, it will be). Broadband TV is possible...but we are at the limits from the exchange, so performance is not guaranteed. So it looks like cable. I don't want anything more than the basic channels, but it looks as if will hae to pay through the nose for guff I don' twant.

Ah, if only I could get cable.

We're annoyingly beyond reach of cable, but we still get all the advertising bumpf.

 

[rail-britain]

I get the warnings whenever I switch to the tv, it's annoying more than anything because I want to watch my program and the message takes up the bottom third of the screen

As above, is this an analogue or digital TV signal?

I get the messages on differing channels (digital TV signal) until I process the "Check for new channels"
Once this has been completed the message does not appear again

On my analogue TV the message appears at the top, but only when viewing BBC 1
However, this changed last week to "You will no longer be able to receive this channel from 22 June"
BBC 2 disappeared two weeks ago
Once the analogue signal ends then the TV is for the bin, it's simply due to it being an old TV that I planned to replace a few years ago

 

[connor7777]

Freeview signals are boosted once analogue is switched off.

 

[Deerfold]

Freeview signals are boosted once analogue is switched off.

We've our fingers crossed for September. we managed to surround our aerial with aluminium accidentally and have lost 2 MUXes - we're hoping they will return or we'll have to move it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I noticed that when something very big like "digital" was planned, all the other areas would be used as testing ground first, to ensure that the South-East would be launched in 2012 with the knowledge gained from any previous problems that would ensure a seamless transition from analogue to digital.

The only thing that I regret, our area already being digital, is that on page 426 of Ceefax on the analogue system, there was always the Pollen Count forecast to see, but this has vanished from the digital equivalent. A lot of Hay Fever sufferers in our area relied on the forecasting on that particular page.

 

[HST Power]

We switched over in May, you certainly get a lot more channels.


Shame that most of it is trashy home shopping nonsense.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There are digital channels BBC3, BBC4, BBC Parliament, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 that carry much extra to the standard BBC and ITV services,

Channel 4 has Film 4, More 4, etc. Sky and Virgin have a vast range of programmes that cover sport and.films.

You make note of shopping channels. Yes there are some dedicated channels such as QVC who are well versed in such marketing, but they see much of this as dovetailing into already existing businesses. One of the largest companies who run a multiplicity of brand names under their umbrella status is J D Williams, whose advertising matter is often found in the form of mini-catalogue supplements in publications such as TV guides.

It is noticeable that when many of the digital channels close for the night, that various shopping programmes take over the same air space. It may well be these programmes that you have seen.

 

[Clip]

I wold love to be able to watch Freesat (but in this conservation area sat discs are not allowed) or Freeview (but in this neck of Yorkshire it is not available, and no one can say when if at all, it will be). Broadband TV is possible...but we are at the limits from the exchange, so performance is not guaranteed. So it looks like cable. I don't want anything more than the basic channels, but it looks as if will hae to pay through the nose for guff I don' twant.

Have you asked about BT vision?

 

[me123]

We switched off analogue today. All the old people were confused that they didn't have TV this morning, and I ended up retuning TVs in five houses (for the second time...). Oh, and my Mum is missing Teletext/Ceefax, and can't work the new equivalent (she's technologically challenged...).

 

[connor7777]

there is no ceefaz or teletext anymore,

its called "the red button" by everyone, go on a bbc/ITV/Channel4 channel and press red for the services.

 

[me123]

I know, she can't work the red button. As I said, she's technologically challenged. It's actually remarkably similar to the old system as well...

By "missing", I meant that she is lamenting the loss of it.

 

[HST Power]

When you go onto BBC News 24, you have a little wait and then a sign saying 'Press Red' comes up. From there, it's pretty much like the old Ceefax. Just type in the numbers for the pages you want. I actually find it much easier and more efficient. With the old Ceefax, you had to wait for the numbers to reach the page with the little counter in the top left corner. Now, it's instant.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When you go onto BBC News 24, you have a little wait and then a sign saying 'Press Red' comes up. From there, it's pretty much like the old Ceefax. Just type in the numbers for the pages you want. I actually find it much easier and more efficient. With the old Ceefax, you had to wait for the numbers to reach the page with the little counter in the top left corner. Now, it's instant.

I think that you will find the small red symbol in the top right hand corner appears on BBC digital channels 1, 2, 7, 9, 80 and 81. It is not just on the BBC 24 hour news channel on channel 80.

As an aside, in the Manchester area, Channel M that was based at the Urbis centre is still transmitting on channel 200, but it is nothing like the good localised analogue channel that it once was, when all but four staff were made redundant as part of the preambles leading up to the Mirror Group takeover of the MEN papers group.

 

[me123]

When you go onto BBC News 24, you have a little wait and then a sign saying 'Press Red' comes up. From there, it's pretty much like the old Ceefax. Just type in the numbers for the pages you want. I actually find it much easier and more efficient. With the old Ceefax, you had to wait for the numbers to reach the page with the little counter in the top left corner. Now, it's instant.

I know all this. As I say, my Mum is technologically challenged...

 

[connor7777]

The red button service is slower on freesat and sky, i find on freview it changes pages quicker.

 

[SS4]

When you go onto BBC News 24, you have a little wait and then a sign saying 'Press Red' comes up. From there, it's pretty much like the old Ceefax. Just type in the numbers for the pages you want. I actually find it much easier and more efficient. With the old Ceefax, you had to wait for the numbers to reach the page with the little counter in the top left corner. Now, it's instant.

And you can go backwards instead of realising you'd just missed your page and had to wait for it to come around again! I spent many hours (before the internet was widespread) checking the football results and tables on ceefax and playing/cheating at bamboozle on channel 4's teletext

 

[connor7777]

still no news from Ireland, I think its December 2012.

 

[HST Power]

And you can go backwards instead of realising you'd just missed your page and had to wait for it to come around again! I spent many hours (before the internet was widespread) checking the football results and tables on ceefax and playing/cheating at bamboozle on channel 4's teletext

The quizzes were ridiculously addictive. I couldn't switch them off until I passed!

I know all this. As I say, my Mum is technologically challenged...

Join the club!

 

[me123]

Well, I just retuned another old lady's TV sets. One of them is OK (it was ready for the switchover).

The other is going to be a nightmare for her. It's about 20-30 years old. It's analogue, so if she switches the channels using the TV remote, nothing will happen. She needs to use the digibox. She's got a security camera on AV1 (that she knew nothing about, and thought was a new channel). If she keeps the set on AV2 (for the digibox), she's fine, but she'll probably switch it to the now defunct analogue channels. She didn't know she had the digibox, and doesn't quite know how to work it. So, she's now got two remote controls. She keeps holding the buttons down on the new RC (which was probably fine on the TV remote), so instead of getting '1' it's going to '111' etc... And, sadly, when it goes to 222, it skips to another channel called "Gay Rabbit".

This is going to be a nightmare...

 

[HST Power]

when it goes to 222, it skips to another channel called "Gay Rabbit".

This is going to be a nightmare...

So sorry to hear you're having a tough time. My parents are the same, technology just doesn't like them.

Unfortunately, a lot of the channels on Freeview (past 90 in my case) are used to air shows which contain sexually explicit content. If this sort of thing has potential to upset or offend her, click 'Options' or 'Setup' on her TV remote and go to Parental Controls. You'll be able to block them off. The good thing though is that these channels don't normally air until very late evening, early morning, and quite a few require subscription, so nothing will come up.

 

[me123]

I've just got this horrible feeling she's going to write to the Daily Mail about the smut they're showing on BBC 2

 

[Wyvern]

I wold love to be able to watch Freesat (but in this conservation area sat discs are not allowed) or Freeview (but in this neck of Yorkshire it is not available, and no one can say when if at all, it will be).

You should be alright if the dish isn't visible from a public highway.

But in any case I live in an article 4 direction Conservation Area (and part of a World Heritage Area) and dishes are appearing all over the place, no problem.

A few weeks ago Sky circulated a leaflet which may well have read to the non-technical as "Get ready for digital switchover. Get your digibox now" and may have panicked them.

Whatever. You just apply for planning permission which, since you wouldn't have to if you weren't in a conservation area, is free of charge.

More info here

 

[londonmidland]

I thought T.V's with only 5 channels, aka "Council T.V", was history! O.o If you are getting a Freeview box a Freeview + or Freeview HD box let's you record programmes. Tbh, some are surprisingly cheap!

 

[Wyvern]

Pardon?