ITV on UK FTV card? (newbie questions)

peckerhead

Guys, sorry if I've missed something, but I've searched the forum and found either conflicting views or ones that are too out of date to be reliable.

I've an old Sky box — no subscription — with a UK FTV card, which got me C4, Five and ITV1, 2 & 3 until recently (the ITV1 variation being Granada). But of late I'm getting 'no signal being received' messages on the ITV channels most of the time. I've tried the 'find other channels' routine, but no joy...

Is this because ITV has gone FTA? Does it mean you can't get it on a UK FTV card any more? Is my only option to remove the card and rescan to find the ITV channels on FTA, then put the card back in if I want C4/Five? And why do I still sometimes see ITV1, 2 & 3 without doing any of this...

Lord knows, it's not often I want to watch anything on ITV, but the missus was partial to some of the old soaps! :rolleyes:

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

watty

ITV and BBC don't need a card. If you use an Irish card some channels can only be got via Other Channels.

Freeview is the UK terrestrial system that does not use a card.

The Free To View Card (now called Freesat from Sky) adds C4, Five and Sky3. Also the EPG (program guide shows all the BBC and ITV channels (But this is possible without a FTV card).

Your problem may be Dish alignment, LNB, cable to dish or faulty Digibox. It isn't to do with the card.

A card problem (say with Sky3) would gibve a message like "This Program is not available" or "Contact your Provider to Subscribe to this channel", or "This is the wrong card for this box" (Premium channels only).

You do have a problem , but it isn't your card.

peckerhead

Cheers, watty — and yes, I meant to say Free To View, not Freeview, but forgot to edit the title of the post...:o

The message I get is 'no satellite signal being received' — but occasionally I can see ITV1, 2 & 3 with this old UK 'Yellow House' FTV card — sounds a bit odd, doesn't it? I got it for €50 on eBay about 18 months ago, before they started asking mad money, so I suppose I can't complain!

Also — I never have any problem with any of the BBC channels, C4, Five, Extreme Sports, Reality TV or the various news/shopping/God channels. Surely if the problem was one of dish alignment, LNB, cable to dish etc., I'd occasionally lose some other channel besides the ITV ones? Or is it possible for some channels to have a stronger signal than others, so that if the dish was slightly out of true it would lose some of them and not others..?

I'll try it without the card and see if they come through OK on FTA — if so, then maybe there is something wrong with the old (Grundig) digibox.

watty

Yes you can lose one "Bunch" (Transponder) before the others.

There is is also a 22KHz switch problem on some Digiboxes that can make channels below 11.7GHz erratic. Not a known fault on Grundig though.

If it is the Power supply: Unplug at mains for 1 hr. Plug in and see are ITV working.

Check signal level and Quality on the bargraph for the ITV cahnnels.

You do
Services 4 0 1 Select
(Instaler Menu)
Manual Tuning
(Now enter the settings for an ITV)
"Find Channels"

Unlike "Add Channels" it shows level and Quality.

The normal "Signal Test" in Services | Setup only shows the "Default Transponder"

Level at least 50%, but different boxes give different reading on same cable/LNB/Dish

Quality about 75% if dry and Clear, more than 50% in rain.

Does picture go a bit blocky or freeze in heavy rain?

Mossy Monk

peckerhead wrote:

forgot to edit the title of the post...:o

fixed

peckerhead

Thanks again, watty (and Mossy for the title fix)

watty wrote:

Unplug at mains for 1 hr. Plug in and see are ITV working.

Check signal level and Quality on the bargraph for the ITV cahnnels.

You do
Services 4 0 1 Select
(Instaler Menu)
Manual Tuning
(Now enter the settings for an ITV)
"Find Channels"

Unlike "Add Channels" it shows level and Quality.

The normal "Signal Test" in Services | Setup only shows the "Default Transponder"

Level at least 50%, but different boxes give different reading on same cable/LNB/Dish

Quality about 75% if dry and Clear, more than 50% in rain.

All of the above with the FTV card in place, or with no card? Or does it make a difference?

watty wrote:

Does picture go a bit blocky or freeze in heavy rain?

Yep — and plenty of that 'round Limerick, as you know! But it affects random channels, not systematically the ITV ones. Why, does that suggest a badly-aligned dish?

[P.S. Just popped upstairs to check, and all channels working tickety-boo at the moment... :rolleyes: ]

watty

Yes it does.

The signal bargrapf and ITV is not affected by viewing card, only which EPG is displayed and if FTV or pay channels are decoded.

peckerhead

Cheers again, watty. I don't suppose you could sort me out with a loan of an extendable ladder, bring it round to my gaff tomorrow, and stand inside in front of the telly to shout out the window to me while I jiggle the dish mounting...?

(Only joking — any day next week will be fine... )

Happy Christmas!

watty

Depends where you live ...

peckerhead

watty wrote:

Depends where you live ...

Jeez, watty, I was only kidding!

Look, if it stays dry for the next few days, then we'll have stable ITV as well over Chrimbo, and if it doesn't, we won't. Tbh, I don't see anything 'unmissable' in the schedules — do you? At least now — thanks to your good advice — I know what needs to be done. I'll scrounge a ladder somewhere (probably at work) some boring afternoon, post-Stephen's Day/pre-New Year's Eve, and get a little fresh air/exercise, to combat the effects of all that excess food/drink/etc. :eek:

Have a good one yourself, and thanks again!

[Edit: tell you what, though — since you're in Goodwill-to-all-men mood — maybe I could pm you a contact no. with a view to possibly borrowing a signal meter off you for a couple of hours, some day? I keep meaning to pick one up, but it's not the kinda thing I'd often have use for...]

watty

Thirty / fourty years ago Christmas TV *WAS* a treat. Films especially.

Twenty years ago you might possibly have seen 1/2 the films on poor VHS from Video Library. The non-film stuff TODAY is either too rude or too banal compared withe dead comics and stars of yersteryear.

Now any film you might want is bought for 2 to 4 times what a rental costs (Actually I got some good B&W classics, legitimate, not pirate DVD only 2 Euro) in Supermarket or www.play.com long before Christmas.

Its a waste of money now IMO TV companies buying films. They should commision or make good drama, documenties, fantasy, SF, Concerts.

I'm sick of "reality TV " and 4th rate wannabe celebs who are famous for nothing except getting in the Tabloids or glossy womens mags. And stupid competitons where the competitors are victims. Or inane soaps with ever more unbeleivable caharacters and plots.

We have been having our own christmas fiolm season from our own home collection of VHS and DVD, watching films with Christmas in them

Some seen already:
Christmas in Conneticut
Its a wonderful life (BW)
The Shop around the corner (early B&W James Stewart)
You've got Mail (Actually based on The Shop around the corner)
Sleepless in Seatle
While you where sleeping
The Chirstmas List
The Chirstmas Carol (Patrick Stewart as Scrooge, no Earl Grey Hot!)

To Come:
The Preachers Wife
Muppet Christmas Carol
Little Women (Two versions)

and others.

It beats RTE/BBC/C4/ITV for seasonal fare!

Scottish paddy

I don't know if this is the right thread to mention this (didn't want to start a new one) but is anyone in Ireland having the same problems with ITV on satellite as they are in UK? (See http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=317682)

watty

There is no charge for new threads

There is a lot of nonsense and near hysteria on that thread. If problem was a real issue the thread would be 10 times bigger. No -one has checked the signal level on the specific transponder compared with the default Sky transponder. Or posted their default level and quality.

Anyway I said on DS:
The bitrate seems low on ITV3 & ITV4.

ITV tends to use 544 pixel horizontal rather than the BBC's DVD compatible 704 pixel.

But I haven't experienced any UTV/ ITV2 / ITV3/ITV4 /MM problems.

I *DO* use a 80cm dish pointed at 19E and brackets to hold an LNB for Hotbirds 13E and a regular Sky Quad LNB on bracket on the other side.

Quality is nearly 90% to 100%.

Services | Setup | signal test only shows defualt transponder.

Go
Services 4 0 1 Select
Then "Manual Tuning"
Enter the ITV trransponder that seems to freeze and blocky (ideally while it happing) and see the Level and Quality comparted with the default transponder.

A lot of Minidish are poorly aligned
The zone 1 mini dish are a liitle too small (Here mostly the minidish are bigger zone 2).

It could be Astra is running the transponder at slightly lower power, perhaps when the Satellite solar panels ar in Earth Shadow at middle of night.

Mossy Monk

Scottish paddy wrote:

but is anyone in Ireland having the same problems with ITV on satellite as they are in UK?

i watched The Bill on ITV1 London last night and there was no problem

it is the only time i'd watch ITV

_Kaiser_

Mossy Monk wrote:

i watched The Bill on ITV1 London last night and there was no problem

it is the only time i'd watch ITV

Ah I missed it! Strangely I only watch ITV1 London (as opposed to UTV) as well.

Scottish paddy

Strangely I only watch ITV1 London (as opposed to UTV) as well.

Not a bad decision as the UTV signal is uplinked from London, it therefore has to go to Belfast (for the insertion of UTV crap) and then back to London! The ITV London picture seems marginally better as a result.