Post by westerdale news on Oct 25, 2007 0:24:04 GMT 1
In 2011 or early 2012 Bilsdale will switch over entirely to digital TV - i.e. the existing 5 TV channels will no longer be transmitted.
This is still a way off but if buying anything new you should be looking at digital since your purchase should be in use until after switchover all being well!
If you currently get reasonable reception from Bilsdale you can already get most if not all of the digital freeview channels.
A basic freeview set top box can be bought for well under £30 although although you will need a scart cable - and scart socket on your TV - although you can buy a "Scart to RF convertor" for older TVs that don't have Scart sockets.
Some postcode checkers say its not available here because they read the YO21 postcode as Whitby - which cannot get digital as they are on a relay transmitter (same for Glaisdale and Castleton relays)
In most cases your current aerial will work fine, but note the digital signal is much lower than the old analogue service.
A common source of poor reception is aging coax cable - consider changing to low-loss satellite grade (shielded) coax, this will often make it possible to receive the lowest power 'multiplex' (MUX) which transmits Film4, Virgin1, TMF, The Hits and several radio stations - and is well worth getting if you can.
Also, elderly VCR recorders can cause interference.
Try taking them out of line and see if you get more channels.
You can often change the frequency the VCR 'sends' on which may help.
New DVD and Hard Drive recorders are much less likely to cause problems and generally have digital tuners built in (but be sure to check if buying one)
If you still have problems an aerial with more gain will help much more than any sort of booster which is not really recommended for digital.
Here's a very good website with helpful information about getting the best from freeview.
www.ukfree.tv/ - the following link is especially relevant as it covers Bilsdale.
www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SE553962
Is it worth getting before I have too ?
Well yes, because even if you still watch mainly the older 5 channels you'll get a crisp clearer picture, and the many extra channels really do have something almost everyone should find interesting at times.
In particular the BBC sports coverage is very extensive (press red now etc!)
This is still a way off but if buying anything new you should be looking at digital since your purchase should be in use until after switchover all being well!
If you currently get reasonable reception from Bilsdale you can already get most if not all of the digital freeview channels.
A basic freeview set top box can be bought for well under £30 although although you will need a scart cable - and scart socket on your TV - although you can buy a "Scart to RF convertor" for older TVs that don't have Scart sockets.
Some postcode checkers say its not available here because they read the YO21 postcode as Whitby - which cannot get digital as they are on a relay transmitter (same for Glaisdale and Castleton relays)
In most cases your current aerial will work fine, but note the digital signal is much lower than the old analogue service.
A common source of poor reception is aging coax cable - consider changing to low-loss satellite grade (shielded) coax, this will often make it possible to receive the lowest power 'multiplex' (MUX) which transmits Film4, Virgin1, TMF, The Hits and several radio stations - and is well worth getting if you can.
Also, elderly VCR recorders can cause interference.
Try taking them out of line and see if you get more channels.
You can often change the frequency the VCR 'sends' on which may help.
New DVD and Hard Drive recorders are much less likely to cause problems and generally have digital tuners built in (but be sure to check if buying one)
If you still have problems an aerial with more gain will help much more than any sort of booster which is not really recommended for digital.
Here's a very good website with helpful information about getting the best from freeview.
www.ukfree.tv/ - the following link is especially relevant as it covers Bilsdale.
www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SE553962
Is it worth getting before I have too ?
Well yes, because even if you still watch mainly the older 5 channels you'll get a crisp clearer picture, and the many extra channels really do have something almost everyone should find interesting at times.
In particular the BBC sports coverage is very extensive (press red now etc!)