Mt Leinster on Nationwide

Booms

Just caught tail end of story on Nationwide on RTE1 tonight about Mt Leinster transmitter. There's a repeat at 04:15 for anyone interested.:)

Mossy Monk

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1056889

10000maniacs

According to this clip they will be rolling out digital before the end of the year. Which channels will be freely available after it is officially launched?
3e?, CityChannel? Some of the UK channels?
My Philips TV, although it has a Digital MPEG4 tuner, doesn't have a CAM slot for encrypted services. So I will be stuck with the Free stuff unless I get a box (Which I probably won't do).

Booms

Thanks, Mossy, never thunk of that!

Mike 1972

Mossy Monk wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1056889

I cant view it because its "only available in the Republic or Northern Ireland" and contrary to what I may have believed (and what my GPS tells me) it would seem that I dont live there.

Perhaps someone could tell me what country I do live in :rolleyes:

Finne1993

10000maniacs wrote: »

According to this clip they will be rolling out digital before the end of the year. Which channels will be freely available after it is officially launched?
3e?, CityChannel? Some of the UK channels?
My Philips TV, although it has a Digital MPEG4 tuner, doesn't have a CAM slot for encrypted services. So I will be stuck with the Free stuff unless I get a box (Which I probably won't do).

I was under the impression the vast majority of DTT TV's, both MPEG4 and MPEG2 had a cam slot? I have'nt seen one yet that has'nt one, especially if its MPEG4.
In any case I would'nt worry too much about it, get yourself a Freesat set up (If you don't already have one) and you'll have more channels the Irish DTT can ever offer you, and all for free!!

Apogee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztld8oPwy-A

The Cush

Finne1993 wrote: »

I was under the impression the vast majority of DTT TV's, both MPEG4 and MPEG2 had a cam slot? I have'nt seen one yet that has'nt one, especially if its MPEG4.

An iDTV (larger than 12") must have 1 CAM slot by EU Directive.

Any digital television set with an integral screen of visible diagonal greater than 30 cm which is put on the market for sale or rent in the Community is to be fitted with at least one open interface socket (either standardised by, or conforming to a standard adopted by, a recognised European standards organisation, or conforming to an industry-wide specification) e.g. the DVB common interface connector, permitting simple connection of peripherals, and able to pass all the elements of a digital television signal, including information relating to interactive and conditionally accessed services.

L1011

They're very, very frequently behind a flap or cover. Its hidden (along with a headphone jack and second HDMI socket) behind an unmarked flap on my Samsung.

bothyhead

10000maniacs wrote: »

According to this clip they will be rolling out digital before the end of the year.

What channel will Irish DTT be eventually broadcasting on? If it's still on ch 45 it won't be too bad, but could they switch to one of the others that the British MUX's use?

mrdtv

bothyhead wrote: »

What channel will Irish DTT be eventually broadcasting on? If it's still on ch 45 it won't be too bad, but could they switch to one of the others that the British MUX's use?

The You Tube video is interesting, but its not a commercial statement about if or when Irish DTT will be launched. Preseli is NOT cochannel with Mount Leinster on the PSB channels which include BBCs, ITVs, Four, Five and the HD channels. These will NOT be affected by a putative expanded Mount Leinster DTT service. Preseli is cochannel with Mount Leinster on the COM muxes at Preseli which are 42 (SDN), 45 (Arqiva A) and 49 (Arqiva which are either running at 10kW ERP or will be by next March. Preseli PSB muxes are BBC: Ch 43+, D3&4: 46+ , HD (soon): 50+, which all operate at 20kW and are not cochannel with any Mount Leinster DTT allocations. I predict there will be serious interference problems if Mt Leinster is cochannel with Preseli on the COM muxes, mirroring the current problems inparts of N. Ireland where Caldbeck COM muxes are interfering with Divis DTT ( This is changing in 2012 when Divis DTT inherits the old analogue frequencies in lower Group A). Of course whether a six mux Irish DTT service is ever launched remains to be seen: it might happen if Sky were to take over but that is another story!)

bothyhead

Ah damn, I was hoping that only one channel may have been ear-marked. Surely the 4 main Irish stations & national radio stations could be broadcast on one mux? Anyway, thanks for the info mrdtv.

fat-tony

bothyhead wrote: »

Ah damn, I was hoping that only one channel may have been ear-marked. Surely the 4 main Irish stations & national radio stations could be broadcast on one mux? Anyway, thanks for the info mrdtv.

The four main Irish tv and radio stations are being broadcast on one mux in the engineering tests and, one would assume, that will be the situation when DTT eventually goes fully live.

marclt

mrdtv wrote: »

Preseli is cochannel with Mount Leinster on the COM muxes at Preseli which are 42 (SDN), 45 (Arqiva A) and 49 (Arqiva which are either running at 10kW ERP or will be by next March. Preseli PSB muxes are BBC: Ch 43+, D3&4: 46+ , HD (soon): 50+, which all operate at 20kW and are not cochannel with any Mount Leinster DTT allocations.

Not a good situation for trying to pick up DTT in west Wales, where Kippure is affected by Carmel - same channels allocated. Mt. L UHF is the only option!

mrdtv

bothyhead wrote: »

Ah damn, I was hoping that only one channel may have been ear-marked. Surely the 4 main Irish stations & national radio stations could be broadcast on one mux? Anyway, thanks for the info mrdtv.

Yes, they are all broadcast on Channel 45 from Mount Leinster at the moment in the tests. This means that you have to take radical steps to shield your Preseli installation as noted by others. A cute trick if you have an MPEG4 tv is to put your Mount Leinster aerial on that and have a separate shielded Preseli aerial fed into a Freeview box scarted into the TV. Two separate downleads. It was noted in the thread on the reception of Irish DTT from Caernarvon that Three Rock worked at 90 degrees to Lllanddona both currently on the same channels (llandona is however changing DTT channels in two weeks time.) This is due to the protection ratios in DVB-T: if the CCI interferer is at the same level you will not be able to make it work, but if one signal is dominant it will work. The real problem is when one transmitter is behind the other and this will be the case in parts of SE Ireland. Of course Comreg and Ofcom could have sorted this out but its too late now. It remains to be seen when and if Irish DTT is commercially launched and how many multiplexes are actually used in practice.


But this needs to be carefully thought out as Black Briar noted. The use of Ch 45 will also make it difficult to receive Irish DTT on the other side of the sea where Preseli Ch 45 (Arqiva A) is stronger, although there have been reports of Mount Leinster being received in some parts of Wales.

Mike 1972

mrdtv wrote: »

This is due to the protection ratios in DVB-T: if the CCI interferer is at the same level you will not be able to make it work, but if one signal is dominant it will work.

The real fun starts when the high pressure kicks in. and both signals suffer selective fading/enhancment

Antenna

mrdtv wrote: »

This means that you have to take radical steps to shield your Preseli installation as noted by others. A cute trick if you have an MPEG4 tv is to put your Mount Leinster aerial on that and have a separate shielded Preseli aerial fed into a Freeview box scarted into the TV. Two separate downleads.

this is likely to be doomed to failure in urban areas, where the more local signal can have multiple reflections from large metallic structures (factories, warehouses etc) perhaps in much the same direction as the distant co-channel signal.

mrdtv

Antenna wrote: »

this is likely to be doomed to failure in urban areas, where the more local signal can have multiple reflections from large metallic structures (factories, warehouses etc) perhaps in much the same direction as the distant co-channel signal.

Hence the use of the word 'radical' in the earlier post!.

Your suggestion that RTE should move to Ch39 is a very sensible one but I don't think they want to. There is another reason they should consider it if people are using MPEG4 boxes (eg the Sagem) or future Freeview T2 boxes: Ch 39 will scan in first before any Preseli channels and the RTE channels 'should' be first in the EPG as most receivers scan up the band and then it depends how receivers handle the different LCNs. More sophisticated receivers allow you to sort EPGs, scan by frequency and multiple options. I gather that the Sagem puts the Irish channels in the 800s though.

bothyhead

mrdtv wrote: »

Yes, they are all broadcast on Channel 45 from Mount Leinster at the moment in the tests. This means that you have to take radical steps to shield your Preseli installation as noted by others. A cute trick if you have an MPEG4 tv is to put your Mount Leinster aerial on that and have a separate shielded Preseli aerial fed into a Freeview box scarted into the TV. Two separate downleads ...

Yeah, good call. I haven't got an MPEG4 box yet, but when I do, I'll probably do this. Thanks!

p.s. hmm, do I explain having to chase the sitting-room wall to feed a second down lead

p.p.s. I just noticed the further posts which mentioned that this may not work if there are large reflective surfaces in the neighbourhood. I'm rural, so fingers X this should not be a problem.

Mark#1

This is the middle of October.

Santa hits town in what, 10 weeks? Is that guy in the Nationwide clip stating that 80% of Ireland will be receiving DTT within 10 weeks from now? Or is he musing? Imagining?

If it's true, where's the rush of manufacturers and retailers advertising that we need their new DTT product before the end of the year?


Mark

Foggy43

I interpreted what he said as 80% of the country would have the DTT Engineering Test available to them before the end of the year.

Because the auld altidude was getting to him he wasn't able to get it out in one sentence

Mark#1