Lords Electrical

 

Satellite services from Sky or FreeSat are unaffected by these changes, if you receive all your viewing from either of these services the switchover will not affect you.

 

If you are on the Waltham transmitter, you get East Midlands News, this switchover is on 17^th and 31^st August 2011. If you receive the West Midlands News you are on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, the dates are 7^th and 21^st September 2011. For those on the Sandy Heath Transmitter, in the South East of the county, the dates are 30^th March and 13^th April.

 

Digital Signals are replacing the existing Analogue service which was originally designed for just 4 channels across the UK. The change is to provide greater choice of programmes and being much more efficient this can be done using less spectrum, the unused frequencies will be sold off later for other services.

 

The main switchover takes place over 2 dates, 2 weeks apart. After this you will lose BBC 2 first then the other Analogue channels, there will be plenty of notice with on screen messages and mailings, but it is important not to leave it until the last minute. Retuning any existing Digital equipment will still be required on these dates even if you currently receive Freeview.

 

All TV’s will be affected and it’s the ones typically in bedrooms and kitchens which are likely to be left until the last. The simplest and tidiest solution is to replace an existing Analogue only TV with a Digital TV. But a cheaper alternative is the use of a digital set top box, which will convert most existing TV’s to receive digital, albeit with another remote control.

 

The most crucial area however is likely to be the continued ability to record programmes, any existing Video recorders will continue to play tapes, but will no longer be able to record without the use of a separate digital box, which in most cases would be too complicated. The easiest approach now, would be a PVR or Personal Video Recorder, this is much easier to use than a DVD Recorder with its ability to easily record and delete programmes.

 

The process to retune any Digital TV, Set top box, PVR or DVD Recorder with DVB, can be found within the menu options of your equipment, and once started will be automatic, you may get warnings that you are about to delete existing channels but these should be ignored.

A prompt on the screen usually reminds you that such a retune is necessary, and is quite a frequent routine as new channels are added, in the case of the Waltham transmitter several extra retunes will be necessary.

However for the above to work your equipment needs to be compatible and this is where some preparation is needed.

These retunes cannot be done before hand, the technical changes should have been finished by breakfast time on the relevant day, but now would be a good time to look out the instruction manual for each piece of equipment and go around the house to see what may need changing. If you need any help or for a no obligation quote please contact us.

 

Existing aerials for Sutton Coldfield should suffice, for Waltham however these may need changing to a wideband Group if all programmes are to be received.

Analogue Teletext page 284 on all main channels is a simple test of the aerial system, this should be tried on each channel.

 

Aerials, cables, amplifiers and splitters will need to be of good quality and in good condition, a 20 year old installation is unlikely to be good enough.

Retaining or in some cases replacing your aerial and using the FreeView service is just one option for receiving a digital service, another could be FreeSat using a Satellite dish, both of these are subscription free. Subscription services from Sky or Cable are also digital alternatives.

 

The power of the Digital service transmissions will be greatly increased at the switch over dates, which should improve coverage from the present 73% to 98.5% being the current coverage of the 4 main analogue services.

 

With Switchover will also come High definition through your existing aerial, the coverage of FreeView HD from Sutton Coldfield will be improved and will be available from Waltham for the first time. High definition adds another dimension to the picture quality and does need a suitable tuner, but the effects are dramatic.

 

There is a Switchover help scheme run by the BBC, for the elderly and infirm, for more details ring 0800 40 85 912

Generally the conditions to qualify are,

 

If you qualify for one of the above conditions, for £40, you will be provided with help and a Freeview digital box, this is limited to one TV in the household or an additional one if you have already had one changed.

If you qualify for two or more then a Freeview digital box as above is provided free.

Other options are available at varying prices.

 

We at Lords Electrical can help with any query you may have, this is not an easy subject to understand and there are many options.

 

Visit any branch or call our Digital hotline on 0116 278 5033, where our qualified advisors will be pleased to assist you.

Lords Electrical