Exciting news for Freeview 'Light'/'Lite' viewers ...

[ColinJ]

Those of you who watch TV via Freeview and are in a small community served by a Freeview 'Light' transmitter, as we are here in Hebden Bridge, may have been as annoyed as I was when I discovered that the great digital switchover did not provide a full set of Freeview channels.

I was annoyed not to get ITV4 because I miss its improved coverage of cycling, but most of all I had been looking forward to watching Film4.

I was pretty chuffed just now when I discovered that the Freeview Light channel list has been rejigged and Film4 is now available - yay!

I have just retuned my Freeview PVR and am celebrating by watching Final Destination 4 on Film4!

*** Freeview Light viewers - RETUNE NOW! ***

 

[classic33]

You should have had that in June this year the latest. What did you do wrong?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

That reminds me, ITV4 is showing highlights of the this year's Paris-Tours at 9:50am tomorrow. I doubt it that it will appear on Film4 though.

 

[ColinJ]

You should have had that in June this year the latest. What did you do wrong?

Nobody told me about it!

I bet that a few people post below and admit that they didn't know either ...

 

[classic33]

It all started with the 4G licences being sold last year. Part of the price of the licence was to cover such evenualities as this, because part of the frequency range is in the old analogue region(TV Signal).
One or two houses near me even got seperate boxes when the other networks started using 4G signals. Again covered by the price of the 4G licence.

 

[mcshroom]

I didn't know but I've switched to freesat anyway.

What's annoying is that ITV4 was on freeview light up until they decided to add some HD channels. With retricted space surely it makes more sense to broadcast more SD channels than a few duplicate high bandwith ones in HD.

 

[welsh dragon]

We cant get any tv here unless its sky.thats because of all the hills.

 

[classic33]

We cant get any tv here unless its sky.thats because of all the hills.

Move up the hillside!!

 

[welsh dragon]

Oh classic

 

[ColinJ]

When I have money to spare I will switch to either Freesat or Youview, but Film4 was the channel that I was most annoyed not to have, so I'm pleased that it has made a belated entrance on my EPG!

 

[DiddlyDodds]

I was not aware they had even heard of the invention of Television in Hebden Bridge yet, next it will silly talk of a microwave type box that re-heats things, and a swirly thing you put clothes in and it washes them.

 

[ColinJ]

I was not aware they had even heard of the invention of Television in Hebden Bridge yet, next it will silly talk of a microwave type box that re-heats things, and a swirly thing you put clothes in and it washes them.

Offcumdens like me, introduced the locals to the joys of modern technology. We got rid of our last carrier pigeons last week.

I have a very special microwave type box thing which does more than just reheat things - it also has a fan oven thing and a grill type thing so I can do proper cooking in it a.k.a. do decent baked spuds!

As for the swirly clothes-washing thing ... I have one of those but the fiendishly engineered just-out-of-warranty self-destruct process just kicked in and nobbled it so I am back to hand-washing my cycling kit in the kitchen sink!

 

[marinyork]

What's annoying is that ITV4 was on freeview light up until they decided to add some HD channels. With restricted space surely it makes more sense to broadcast more SD channels than a few duplicate high bandwith ones in HD.

Ofcom and the BBC have been backpeddaling the last couple of years pretty rapidly. It does indeed make not that much sense to have forever and ever a few HD channels on one mux and hugely bandwidth constrained service. That's likely not what is going to happen any more. As we are speaking a 7th Mux called COM7/ARQ C is being tested in Crystal Palace. There's a long list going into 2014 for when this will come to big transmitters. You are likely going to have more HD channels on freeview in future, a second mux of HD channels as a temporary measure and then retunes again around 2018. You can also get a COM8 in there till 2018 as well. However as with happened with Mux B it is fiddle and there will be loads of complaints from people.

 

[marinyork]

I was annoyed not to get ITV4 because I miss its improved coverage of cycling, but most of all I had been looking forward to watching Film4.

Annoying, but why don't you just watch it on-line? Or is there some restriction I don't know about specific to cycling.

 

[ColinJ]

Annoying, but why don't you just watch it on-line? Or is there some restriction I don't know about specific to cycling.

I can, but I would prefer to watch on my TV rather than a small tablet or laptop screen. neither device has a suitable output for my TV.

Also - I don't like being forced to endure advertising. I used to record Eurosport from analogue satellite and skip the ad breaks, but now I have to watch that online and have not found a way to record it to watch when and how I want.

What I really hated about ITV Player when I last used it was the way it kept buffering at peak times. Sometimes, it packed up altogether and I had to start again, and had to watch the same bloody ads over and over again just to get back to where I'd been before - aaaaaaaargh!

I can't see terrestrial broadcast TV surviving more than another decade or so. It would be much easier to deliver TV via the internet for most people, and by satellite for most of the rest. There would be just a few people to worry about, who did not have fast enough broadband, and who also didn't have line of sight to the satellite.