Digital Television

[Turks]

I haven't heard anything about the signal being boosted. I just imagine that they will be working to get a good coverage accross the country. With it being digital, you either get information or you don't - analogue was waves so you could pick up something even if it was weak.


Turks.

[petert]

That is my understanding.

Peter T

[X5Sport]

Mine is a December 2004 build and has it. I was told that Freeview receivers were installed from October 2004 onwards. It was supposed to have an MP3 capable CD changer as well, but that was delayed until Spring/Summer 2005.

The Digital Switchover site is currently reporting that at present some parts of the UK have their Freeview service transmitter power reduced in order to prevent co-channel interference, or adjacent channel interference to the analogue broadcasts. As the analogue services are switched off so the Freeview transmitters will where possible have their power levels increased, but this will not be possible everywhere. The problem is, and remains, that the transmitter planning was never designed to take car mounted systems into account. Houses and Caravans yes, but not cars. The same issue exists with DAB too. Unfortunately we have to take our Continental neighbours into account too, and those of you in the South East may have come across the problems caused by the main transmitter in France near Caen. I used to do interference tracing and resolving as a job and that Caen transmitter was a nightmare at times - paricularly the Summer months.

The advantage of digital signals over analogue is that you can broadcast more stations per radio frequency in a 'multiplex' as against one station per channel on analogue. Digital receivers also need are much lower signal to noise ration - how much signal is visible above the background noise - and therefore produce full coverage at much lower transmitter power levels. All the receiver has to be able to do is detect the differences between the binary '1' and '0' bits in the data stream to work. Analogue receivers need a very good signal to noise level as the receiver has to be able to 'see' the entire signal to work out colours, brightness, sound, NICAM stereo and teletext data.

Your house (and caravan) aerials are known as high gain - they amplify - types whereas a car mounted aerial is limited in scope for gain and has to cover all the channels 21-68. At home, your aerial will designed to work with a specific channel group as broadcast by your local transmitter. Change areas and you need a new aerial to select the new 'group'. Of course the other challenge is that the car aerial is very close to the ground, but driving around with a scaffolding pole on the rear bumper is a somewhat less than practical option...... My works vehicle had a 10metre pneumatic mast installed - only for use when stationary.

[jeegnesh]

I have heard the same thing, digital signal is suppose to get boosted. Hope so.

[x555]

[quote=""Pete""][quote=""x555""]Didgital tv modules were September 2004 onwards ......mine is an august build and our analogue was turned off eons ago.[/quote]


I'm sure mine was built in Sep 04 or afterwards. You've got me wondering if mine has a digital module that just needs re-tuning.[/quote]

What was the verdict on this pete was yours a Sept 04 build ? interested to see if my info is duff or not.Always good to know these things for when members ask
Has anyone else got a Sept o4 build date (not registered date)with an analogue tv module???

[RichardP]

I believe that generally, when the switchover is complete, the digital signal power will be increased by 15db compared to the pre switchover level. 15db is a LOT. 3db is double, 6 db is 4 times, 9db is 8 times, 12db is 16 times and 15db is 32 times! How much of this increase can be applied in areas where the digital switchover has been done probably depends on how close the transmitter you are receiving from is to an area that has not yet switched over.

[pinky77]

if true sounds great news and a better way to go for freeview on x5s

[X5Sport]

[quote=""RichardP""]I believe that generally, when the switchover is complete, the digital signal power will be increased by 15db compared to the pre switchover level. 15db is a LOT. 3db is double, 6 db is 4 times, 9db is 8 times, 12db is 16 times and 15db is 32 times! How much of this increase can be applied in areas where the digital switchover has been done probably depends on how close the transmitter you are receiving from is to an area that has not yet switched over.[/quote]

Just remember that to double the signal strength, you need to quadruple the radiated power and also not all transmitter sites will be able to have the full 15dB increase. Given that we're almost all working with a signal level measured in thousandths of a volt at best, dont get too excited but it will be a definite improvement in areas with a currently weak signal.

Be nice if BMW dropped the price of their receivers though. You can get a good size telly for what they charge

[phill]

I have found that if you go on the German EBay site you can find the digital tuners cheaper that on the UK eBay site.

Phill


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[x555]

[quote=""x555""]Didgital tv modules were September 2004 onwards ......mine is an august build and our analogue was turned off eons ago.[/quote]

Ohh well looks like i'm wrong again i thought that it was sept 04 onwards that had digital tv modules but Pete has confirmed for me that his is a sept 04 build and has analogue.
Does anyone have a later build with analogue tv ???? call me a nerd but i would like to know so's to get my info correct and help others ....as opposed to telling them complete guff

[saxtonma]

My Nov 2004 (build) has DVB-T (Digital and analogue combined) I think the module fitted to my car is part number: 65 50 0 397 393, not sure if it's possible to retrofit on cars with analogue only.

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E53/S ... _function/

Digital seems to work reasonably well considering the relatively low level signal being broadcast at the moment.

Hope this might be of use.

[x555]

Thanks for the reply so were down to November then ....any takers for October?