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BBC Four HD mux. change

prpr said:
Because people are strange and old attitudes die hard. A programme on BBC One will get more viewers than the same one on BBC Two and both more than on BBC News.
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I agree with the what you say. I just don't understand it.
[RANT]
Why can't the BBC and viewers realise that everyone who can watch BBC One can watch BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC News, BBC Parliament and the children's channels. Why can't the "strange people" press [a] button(s) marked "2" or "102" and watch something on BBC2 without having to switch back and forth to BBC1 and screw up the schedule? Do we really need PMQ's on BBC2, BBC News, BBC Parliament and Sky News all at the same time?
A major news event. Do we really need rolling news on BBC1? News Flash between programmes and a pointer to BBC News would do. :mad:
[/RANT]
:D
 
Black Hole said:
And we know how well that works :(
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But those issues are mostly not due to DAB being on Single Frequency Networks. The issue SFNs are causing is in some places DAB is reaching maximum transmitter density due to self interference. ie. if you add another transmitter to try to fill a hole, it actually makes things worse due to interference with nearby transmitters.
 
Ever since Waltham shifted whichever COM7 or 8 to the SFN, I've had problems when retuning. Good signal, 100% quality - no channels. I have to try about three times to get it to tune in. When the channels are tuned in, they stay there with few problems. It's the re-tuning that's a pain. And "they" will keep adding and taking away channels (eg. RB2-6).
 
With SFNs, have sympathy for the poor buggers (like me) in line of sight of two main transmitters, with a signal that can vary wildly by weather or time of day as waves of constructive and destructive interference fight it out. Yes, OK, digital transmission technology means a receiver can eliminate the multipath echoes that would occur with analogue, but it can't magic signal out of total destructive interference.
 
Black Hole said:
With SFNs, have sympathy for the poor buggers (like me) in line of sight of two main transmitters, with a signal that can vary wildly by weather or time of day as waves of constructive and destructive interference fight it out. Yes, OK, digital transmission technology means a receiver can eliminate the multipath echoes that would occur with analogue, but it can't magic signal out of total destructive interference.
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Doesn't a highly directional aerial pointing at one of the transmitters help? You're not looking for gain, more heavy rejection of the transmitter you don't want. Can you put an aerial low down on a wall pointing at one of them and use your house to screen out the other one? I used the house itself at my parents to screen out impulse interference from vehicles on a road.
 
But I didn't need that before, and my car can't have a directional aerial. Why are you a SFN fanboy when they are an engineering dog's breakfast?

I've been trying to find a way to complain, but not yet come up with somebody to contact.
 
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Maybe not, but if nobody complains...

My main gripe is how DAB has been intermittent around Bristol (in particular, but also elsewhere) over the last couple of months, when it used to be consistent. I know somebody said it is the weather, but over this long a period, even if the weather is a factor, it is not acceptable. I assume it is destructive interference causing it (with no real evidence). The point is that if they want to drop FM, DAB needs to be reliable for travel. However, that said, I'm also getting crap reception on FM!
 
I'm not an SFN fanboy, but I've never seen anyone complain so strongly about them before. And you admit yourself you have no real evidence.

My problem with DAB is the poor sound quality due to crushingly low bit rates. DAB+ (using AAC) doesn't fix this because the bit rates are halved again!

And some current problems ARE due to the weather. The heatwave is due to prolonged high pressure over most of the country. That same high pressure allows more distant transmitters to interfere with local ones. If we were to plan our frequency use to cope even with this sort of weather, we would have to accept a reduction in the number of Freeview muxes, the number of FM stations, and patchier DAB coverage under normal weather conditions. It doesn't seem like a good trade off to me for something that happens once every 40 years.

Your crap FM reception is probably also the weather, for the same reason.
 
Owen Smith said:
If we were to plan our frequency use to cope even with this sort of weather, we would have to accept a reduction in the number of Freeview muxes, the number of FM stations
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Considering all the crap that is on Freeview and the monotonous similarity of the FM stations, this would be acceptable to me.
 
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