[Bampah]

We have Sky fitted and my wife's fave program is Create & Craft.
We'd like to change to VM for the much faster broadband but they don't carry that channel.
We've also got a Freeview PVR but for some reason, Freeview don't transmit the Lifestyle channels in our region.
My questions are

1. How can I find out if FV intend to transmit Lifestyle in our area

1. If I do go back to VM, can I still receive & record C&C utilising a permutationation of my now redundant Sky+ box, Freeview PVR, analogue DVD recorder and TiVo?

tia
Rob

[emptybox]

Create & Craft is a free to air channel, so you will still be able to receive it through your Sky box after you give up your subscription, although you won't be able to record unless you continue to pay Sky £10 per month (if that service still exists?).
Nothing to stop you recording it with your DVD recorder via scart though.

Create & Craft is also on the Freesat platform, so you could buy a Freesat recorder if you wanted PVR functions.
(Freesat uses the same dish and satellites as Sky, so would just be plug and play in that respect)

[chrisjr]

Originally Posted by Bampah

We have Sky fitted and my wife's fave program is Create & Craft.
We'd like to change to VM for the much faster broadband but they don't carry that channel.
We've also got a Freeview PVR but for some reason, Freeview don't transmit the Lifestyle channels in our region.
My questions are

1. How can I find out if FV intend to transmit Lifestyle in our area

1. If I do go back to VM, can I still receive & record C&C utilising a permutationation of my now redundant Sky+ box, Freeview PVR, analogue DVD recorder and TiVo?

tia
Rob

Technically Freeview don't transmit anything. Freeview is not the digital TV platform even though most people refer to it as such, like all vacuum cleaners are hoovers.

Anyway. Are you receiving from a relay site? If you are missing channels such as 5USA, Dave and Yesterday as well as C&C then you probably are. If that is the case then unless you can receive a main site that does transmit those services you are out of luck. It is extremely unlikely that the companies responsible for transmitting the three muxes you miss on a "Freeview Lite" site (as they are known) will start installing the necessary kit at your local relay site.

But if you get Dave but not C&C then that indicates something odd going on as they are on the same mux, so if you get one you should get the other.

[Bampah]

Originally Posted by emptybox

Create & Craft is a free to air channel, so you will still be able to receive it through your Sky box after you give up your subscription, although you won't be able to record unless you continue to pay Sky £10 per month (if that service still exists?).
Nothing to stop you recording it with your DVD recorder via scart though.

To get this channel in the first place, I had to subscribe to one of Sky's top-up packages. If I remove the card from my Sky+ box, I lose the channel!

Create & Craft is also on the Freesat platform, so you could buy a Freesat recorder if you wanted PVR functions.
(Freesat uses the same dish and satellites as Sky, so would just be plug and play in that respect)

Could I utilise my Sky+ box as a Freesat receiver albeit without the recording function?

[Bampah]

Originally Posted by chrisjr

Anyway. Are you receiving from a relay site? If you are missing channels such as 5USA, Dave and Yesterday as well as C&C then you probably are.

I am on the Canford Heath relay site but many of my neighbours look to be aimed at Rowridge which is a main transmitter I believe. However, if I replace Canford Heath with Rowridge in the search box I am informed that it unlikely that I will receive any Freeview channels. Until the changeover last month, I couldn't get Freeview at all and still do not get Dave etc.

[chrisjr]

Which search box is that?

Poke your post code into here

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/

tick the "I'm in the aerial trade" box and see what that says.

For Rowridge you may need a new aerial but with all the changes that have gone on there you never know. if your near neighbours are receiving Rowridge there is a possibility you should be able to as well. A good local aerial installer is probably the best place to go for real local knowledge.

[Bampah]

Originally Posted by chrisjr

Which search box is that?

Poke your post code into here

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/

tick the "I'm in the aerial trade" box and see what that says.

For Rowridge you may need a new aerial but with all the changes that have gone on there you never know. if your near neighbours are receiving Rowridge there is a possibility you should be able to as well. A good local aerial installer is probably the best place to go for real local knowledge.

Looks like I need a group A H aerial turned to Rowridge which appears likely to go 'full power' next week.
Aerial fitter coming Monday.
We've now decided to get a 2nd Freeview PVR for downstairs where she likes to view on the big screen and we can then forget about Sky+, Freesat et al.
Thanks for your help everyone.

[Bampah]

OK. How odd is this? The aerial fitter is coming tomorrow to fit a new high gain aerial and reposition to Rowridge where I expected to get most of the Freeview channels. In the meantime, I am still getting my signal from the Canford Heath relay site and I was told that I would only receive a small proportion of these channels (Until today, I was only getting about 20 since the retune in March. Something to do with muxes!)
By coincidence, I picked up a new Freeview PVR today and when it tuned in to Canford Heath, it found 109 channels!
I know that Rowridge was due for a re-tune today and going full power so it's obviously something to do with that but why am I getting them through the relay site?
Am I likely to continue to get all these channels or have they somehow made a cock-up that will be corrected (though I cannot think why)?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by Bampah

OK. How odd is this? The aerial fitter is coming tomorrow to fit a new high gain aerial and reposition to Rowridge where I expected to get most of the Freeview channels. In the meantime, I am still getting my signal from the Canford Heath relay site and I was told that I would only receive a small proportion of these channels (Until today, I was only getting about 20 since the retune in March. Something to do with muxes!)
By coincidence, I picked up a new Freeview PVR today and when it tuned in to Canford Heath, it found 109 channels!
I know that Rowridge was due for a re-tune today and going full power so it's obviously something to do with that but why am I getting them through the relay site?
Am I likely to continue to get all these channels or have they somehow made a cock-up that will be corrected (though I cannot think why)?

They aren't coming from the relay, the signal strength is now so much stronger your existing aerial is picking them up from the main transmitter.

[chrisjr]

Canford Heath only carries the three PSB muxes. So if you are getting channels like Dave you must be picking up another transmitter. There is no other way you could be doing that. The relay recieves the three PSB muxes from it's parent (Rowridge) and re-broadcasts them on different frequencies.

If it does not have the necessary kit on site to receive/rebroadcast more than three muxes then there is no way it can receive the missing muxes. Conceivably it could under fault conditions tune into the wrong mux from the parent site and rebroadcast that. But in that case you'd lose other channels you previously had.

So the most likely explanation is that you are getting enough signal from Rowridge for your PVR to at least decode the channel list. Acid test is if you can watch those channels long term.

One thing to determine if you are receiving from Rowridge is to see if the PVR can display the UHF channel number of the muxes. Then compare them to the list on the Digital UK website here.

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodec.../meridian/main

Expand the Rowridge section and scroll down (quite a way) to Canford Heath.

[Bampah]

Any idea how I can get my LG LED TV to display UHF channel numbers?

[jenzie]

i would rather just get the broadband myself, and keep sky

[Bampah]

Originally Posted by jenzie

i would rather just get the broadband myself, and keep sky

OK. Hadn't thought of going that route.
At present I'm pretty sure I pay £11 for sky talk + £5 for broadband base.
Looking at VM it would be £22.50 for 30mb broadband alone or £28.40 with phone.
I don't really want to fork out much more than I pay at present so what would be your suggestion as to how to minimise the extra outlay?

[Bampah]

At present I'm pretty sure I pay £11 for sky talk + £5 for broadband base.

Just checked and I actually pay £17.50 for sky talk + £7.50 for Broadband but I'd still like to minimise the cost as much as possible.

[chrisjr]

Originally Posted by Bampah

Any idea how I can get my LG LED TV to display UHF channel numbers?

If it is like mine there is a Diagnostics entry on one of the menus (Set-up I think, from memory - currently 170+ miles away from mine so bit hard to check ).

If it is like mine then selecting that should give you a display showing the signal strength of all the muxes with the UHF channel number alongside.

[Bampah]

Thanks Chris but it's all academic now. The aerial rigger came out today and pointed the aerial at Rowridge just to make sure we kept our strong signal. Seems that even with our old 'non high gain' aerial we will be getting a better reception than our neighbours as the new vertical alignment gets a stronger signal than the horizontal that they all have.
Just got to decide how to go about getting better BB. Whether to go all VM and use the Sky box for my wifes program or just go with VMs BB and leave the rest as it is.

[chrisjr]

C&C is on Freeview from Rowridge, but only 08:00 to 18:00 which may or may not satisfy She Who Must Be Obeyed

http://www.freeview.co.uk/Channels/L...eate-and-Craft

[Bampah]

Nope Chris. You're right.
C&C recordings are done in the wee dark withing hours so we either go the freesat route or stay with Sky, try to haggle them into a cheaper price for our package and use the savings to fund VMs BB.
Oh the trials and tribulations of trying to keep a good woman happy.