Freeview kit to require retune tomorrow Freeview viewers, prepare to retune your equipment. The terrestrial digital TV platform will require yet another channel check tomorrow to implement changes made to its electronic programme guide. TVs with digital tuners and set-top boxes not set to automatically spot the change and to retune accordingly, will require manual …
Fairer sex was also in the 95ish range (Babestation) - I'm guessing that's being moved out of the general entertainment area
(not that I've ever watched it. I got home drunk and went channel surfing. Wouldn't pay for it. Why would you when you've got the Internet. That's my story and I'm sticking to it)
Being in the north-east, I had to retune last week for the start of the analogue shut-down, this week for the EPG reshuffle and next week for the completion of the analogue shut-down! We should make it a weekly Wednesday we-tune! (sorry)
There's hundreds of adverts and notices around saying to retune on the 12th and 26th, it wouldn't have been hard to add the 19th to the posters would it?
Fun fun fun!
This post has been deleted by its author
We used to Drrreeeeaaammm of having 2 channels.
We used to sit in a darkened room with a big cardboard box in't corner wi' an 'ole in it. And when our dad got home he would put on a mangy old glove wi' faces drawn on't fingers, stick it through 'ole and jiggle his fingers to re-anct forsyt' saga - AND he used to have to do adverts about InjuryClaims and QuickLoans himself too.
If we asked him to change channel he would say 'what f***ing channel would that be then - smartarse?" and give us some 'forsyt justice' by punching us in the face wearing the puppet glove.
But you tell that to the kids of today ......
'There was strong support for this aspect of DMOL‟s proposals, with almost all respondents,
including all the providers of shopping channels, agreeing that DMOL should not create a
dedicated shopping genre as a result of this review. A variety of reasons were cited for this
view.
The providers of shopping channels considered that the DMOL research suggests that there
is no consumer demand for the genre. They also cited the economic damage to their
businesses, from reduced viewing levels and reduced revenue, which would result from the
creation of a shopping genre. One shopping channel provider pointed out the importance of
scrolling behaviour and suggested that viewers tend not to scroll beyond LCNs 40 to 50, so
any move to a higher LCN would be very damaging to their business. QVC estimated that a
35% to 40% turnover loss would result from creation of a dedicated genre and said that they
would also incur marketing costs to publicise the new LCN numbers. A shopping channel
provider provided evidence of the revenue loss to one of their channels when it changed
LCN numbers and suggested that this revenue loss was not temporary but permanent. '
Well I thought the same but it appears they would see 40% loss of sales if we didn't trip over the shopping channels (their value is so transitory with their clients ) , though I suspect the QVC's of this world contribute a fair sum towards freeview costs.
Lets hope so...., kryters..... must ..... talk ..in.. sync!
gotta use the techie icon!
Really? Has *anyone* ever watched the shopping channels (for anything other than entertainment, at least) since we first got them on Sky Analogue all those years ago when I was still a kid?
Overpriced tat. Complicated buying structures. Expensive postage and phone lines. Over-eager American salesmen demonstrating how wonderful a ceramic frying pan "holds heat for longer" without any mention that it takes longer to warm up (ya cannae beat the laws of physics, Jim) with THE most false product appraisals and "smiles" ever in the history of the planet.
I watch them to play the "contradiction" game - where you and a friend sit and watch them (presumably when NOTHING else is on) and point out the scientific flaws and what they actually mean when they say "It's 50% better" or whatever and point out the holes in their sales pitches.
Apart from that, who on Earth would watch them? It's like a Betterware catalogue on the TV, but not quite so classy.
> who on Earth would watch them?
STB development engineers.
The shopping channels are transmitted in the clear, with plenty of power, plenty of bandwidth, ES transmitted such that A/V sync is barely needed, ...
In short, the shopping channels are the first thing you watch when bringing up a new decoder. And you'll tend to keep watching them for a few weeks as you get the rest of the stuff working. And before you know it, various members of the team are getting their credit cards out :-(
Vic.
...they should put ALL the adverts onto the shopping channel, then put them onto channel 9999, which is only available in the cellar with no lighting, in a locked filing cabinet inside a disused lavatory behind a sign saying 'Beware of the leopard'.
I mean, who would have suspected that people don't actually want to watch channels composed entirely of advertising? If I wanted to be lied to, I'd write to my MP.
Confusingly contradicting "The Register" this site says the HD channels won't be moving as originally planned. If shit is the case then I'm not inclined to retune and have the hassle of deleting all the crud off my EPG and reprogramming all the series links.
http://www.a516digital.com/2012/09/freeview-epg-reshuffle-q.html
It's a DigitalStream box.
Someone on the AVForums reckoned it should only require an Update Scan (so retaining the schedule) as the "LCN" (or some acronym like that) is the only thing that has changed, not the muxes or frequencies, etc.
God knows. I just know that on one of the previous major changes, it wiped the schedule.
The great digital disaster has been a royal pain in the fingers if not the behind, perhaps that is why I now have trigger finger and am waiting for the next injection?
With all the other crap on at the moment does now one else find the only comedy these days is to turn off the sound and watch the prats on the shopping channels miming how much crap they are trying to shift?
Whether I shall bother to re-tune is as yet an open issue.
If I get rid of my digital Freeview box, leaving me with a plasma screen that has no tuner (either digital or analogue), can I cancel my TV license? It's got to the point where the only time I turn on the telly is to use it as a screen for the home brewed juke box or to play games on my PS3, leaving me to wonder what I pay the TV license fee for.
You are free to get rid of the license at ANY time so long as you do not watch or record TV broadcasts (using any device) whilst they are being broadcast....
You are free to keep the freeview to listen to the radio if you were so inclined.
Unfortunately, TVL will not spell this information out clearly an unambiguously and will try and convince you that you must somehow PROVE to them that you no longer need a license (even resorting to faux legal threats of court summons and "investigations being opened"...
Reality is a bitch (for them) -The onus is on THEM to prove you ARE breaking the law, NOT for YOU to prove that your AREN'T breaking the law!
For a broadcast medium with a limited bandwidth, why are there still multiple +1 channels, including Channel 4 +1, Channel 5 +1, E4 +1, ITV1 +1, and ITV2 +1. I've give Dave Ja Vu a break because it's only 2am to 4am.
I guess they're lower bitrates than the non +1 channels, but even so we could have a couple more music channels (the Freeview selection being extremely limited and pop-oriented (not that much music is shown these days, so let's call them "teen channels" I guess)).
Maybe a single "ITV Highlights / Catch-up" channel, with the best stuff from all the ITV channels. Same for the BBC actually, and maybe C4 could have one for all of its channels. But not +1...
I had to buy a new freeview box as my old one was fritzed. This new one has a brilliant HD/SD setting which automagically tracks programs onto an HD alternative channel. Brilliant! I was watching a program on BBC Four, and the box flipped over to BBC HD, then back again when it had finished. At least having 101 for BBC1HD and 103 for ITV1HD etc will make life easier on the non-magic box in the other room.
Mind you, I saw something I've never seen before last night on a +1 channel. It said "This program cannot be shown on a +1 channel for legal reasons." Hmm...
I think this is to do with broadcasting rights.
Channels buy the right to broadcast a movie, for example, once. To show it on the +1 channel counts as second broadcast instance and, therefore, they would be required to pay a second fee to show it on that channel.
I reckon this will settle once the contracts etc. have been updated to include the +1 channels. The contracts are agreed months/years in advance (as is the way with big businesses and their legal depts.) and these were likely drawn up before the +1 channels became properly established and, therefore, the legality of showing the program twice is a grey area, leading to broadcasters not wanting to take the chance on being charged twice by the owners of the rights to the movie.
I'm guessing here so, if anyone knows for sure, I'd be keen to hear what the acutal facts are.
I care that people are not inclinded to count above 40ish cos they have become so lazy. Put all the valuable shopping channels on 1-10. I can exclude them easier that way. all the hopeless shut ins that want to see whats worth buying this week can indulge without having to do complex calculations/formulas etc.
Note a few god bothering channels creeping in there as well. flipping eck
Nobody asks you to shift all your IP addresses around just because the new numbering scheme is nicer.
If they did, they'd get the same reaction, even though it's just a "retune" of the DHCP leases and a reprogramming of your lists, favourites, shortcuts, intra-PC links, etc.
Renumbering is a STUPID idea. Who cares what number it is? I need to be able to assign MY numbers to a channel that NEVER change and always follow whatever real channel it ends up on. When channels move, I shouldn't even NOTICE, let alone have to mentally change all the numbers I've remembered (because typing in a three-digit number is INFINITELY faster than messing about with Favourites, Channel Up / Down, or the EPG.
Let me define my OWN number set, where I can throw all the shopping, music, movie and adult junk at the end and just have all my favourite channels on 1-100 and sod the rest. And then when you "retune", my box should pick up what's happened and NEVER CHANGE A SINGLE NUMBER that I've assigned and still let me end up on the same channel.
I have the same bug-bear with phone numbers, having lived through 01 -> 071 / 081 -> 0171 / 0181 -> 020 7 / 020 8 -> god knows what. The whole POINT of the numbers if quick reference to me and so that I don't have to type in the frequency, multiplex, etc. of a channel. If they shuffle every six months, they are completely pointless.
Of course, from FreeView's point of view it's like Tesco's shuffling their layout every year or so. Maybe you'll stumble across a new product you like while you're whinging about how difficult it is to find everything again.
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