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Thousands miss X-Factor because of digital TV fault

9:49am Monday 23rd November 2009


Thousands of people switching on their TVs on Sunday night were faced with a blank screen after a transmitter fault.

Instead of watching controversial twins John and Edward getting booted off the X-Factor and Brighton model Katie Price enduring another trial on I'm A Celebrity viewers were faced with a TV blackout.

The Whitehawk Hill relay transmitter, in Brighton, which serves an estimated 180,000 homes, was knocked offline by an electrical fault.

The electrical fault only affected people with a digital Freeview box with those watching television through an analogue set were not affected.

A spokesman for company Arqiva, which owns and operates the country's TV transmitters, said the mains fault should have meant that a back-up generator kicked in but that too failed.

He said: “Something went wrong with that switchover and it was then stuck in that mode.

“It happened at 8.15pm and was restored by an engineer at 10.42pm.”

The Whitehawk Hill relay transmitter boosts the main signal from the main Rowridge mast on the Isle of Wight.

People living in areas not covered by the relay transmitter still had problems with their reception because of the bad weather.

Last night's heavy wind and rain affected channels such as ITV1 and Channel 4 which are broadcast on a separate, and slightly weaker, digital frequency to BBC channels.

While the problem was fixed at 10.45pm, people may still be experiencing problems with their digital set top boxes and receiving no channels.

TV viewers who tried to retune their boxes during the fault may have wiped the tuning information from their boxes.

The Arqiva spokesman added: “Normally the picture would have just come back but if people tried to retune during the fault, depending on the box, they might have lost the tuning details.

“If they retune their box now then it should be all right.”

The Meridian television area is due to go fully digital at the end of March 2012 when the analogue signal is switched off.

To continue watching TV, people will need to buy a digital set top box or buy a new digital television.

For more information about digital TV call 08456 50 50 50.


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Your Say YourArgus

Conor, Sussex says...
9:59am Mon 23 Nov 09

Thousands miss I'm a Celebrity.
Every cloud has a silver lining.

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OP8, Brighton says...
10:27am Mon 23 Nov 09

Thousands realise there is more to life than watching nobodies and fame-hungry idiots

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pwlr, Hove says...
10:37am Mon 23 Nov 09

My Freeview and Virginmedia service went down at the same time, so I had to revert to the old system, shouldn't the T.V companies keep broadcasting in analogue as well as digital for when such problems occur?

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Stu, Hove says...
10:38am Mon 23 Nov 09

My understanding of this problem was that it was the Rowridge transmitter that failed on the Isle of Wight, hence Whitehawk relay had...errrr... nothing to relay!

Certainly, a lot more people were affected than this article would have us believe. There were people as far away as Bournemouth and Poole reporting in forums that they had lost their signal too.

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Fercri Sakes, Hove says...
10:56am Mon 23 Nov 09

Ah, the joys of Freesat HD. I moved onto satellite after years of dodgy TV signals in Brighton and would never move back. I only got ITV when it rained.

Now for a one-off fee I get all the channels (+ HD) without giving a penny to Mr Murdoch. Fantastic!

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RAS Putin, Brighton says...
10:57am Mon 23 Nov 09

Look on the bright side - perhaps some brain cells grew back.

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Supaseagull, Portslade says...
11:04am Mon 23 Nov 09

Fercri Sakes wrote:
Ah, the joys of Freesat HD. I moved onto satellite after years of dodgy TV signals in Brighton and would never move back. I only got ITV when it rained. Now for a one-off fee I get all the channels (+ HD) without giving a penny to Mr Murdoch. Fantastic!
what you mean Freesat...Owned by Sky...owned by Rupert Murdoch!

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Fercri Sakes, Hove says...
11:39am Mon 23 Nov 09

Supaseagull wrote:
Fercri Sakes wrote:
Ah, the joys of Freesat HD. I moved onto satellite after years of dodgy TV signals in Brighton and would never move back. I only got ITV when it rained. Now for a one-off fee I get all the channels (+ HD) without giving a penny to Mr Murdoch. Fantastic!
what you mean Freesat...Owned by Sky...owned by Rupert Murdoch!
Err, you're totally wrong.

Sky is owned by Sky.

Freesat is a non-profit company owned by BBC and ITV.

http://www.freesat.c
o.uk/

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Hugh Rinall, Brighton says...
11:46am Mon 23 Nov 09

Headline should be 'Brainrot Suspended in Whitehawk!'

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censored, Brighton says...
11:51am Mon 23 Nov 09

pwlr wrote:
My Freeview and Virginmedia service went down at the same time, so I had to revert to the old system, shouldn't the T.V companies keep broadcasting in analogue as well as digital for when such problems occur?
Yes. And they should send you a telegram with the ending of every programme, in case the analogue signal goes down too.

I always record shows on my PVR, DVD-R, VHS and Betamax systems for this very reason.

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sugarhorse, says...
12:34pm Mon 23 Nov 09

pwlr wrote:
My Freeview and Virginmedia service went down at the same time, so I had to revert to the old system, shouldn't the T.V companies keep broadcasting in analogue as well as digital for when such problems occur?
or at least provide a test card with funky music to keep us entertained.

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Granny, Brighton says...
1:10pm Mon 23 Nov 09

I had no problems with my Virgin Media, but that was probably because I was not wasting electricity watching crappy reality shows. Incidentally, why has the security word been the same so far today?

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swingbin, Brighton says...
1:26pm Mon 23 Nov 09

I missed the darts final, I still don't know who won between Phil "The Power" Taylor and Scotty "Too Hotty" Waite.

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John Steed, worthing says...
2:27pm Mon 23 Nov 09

how sad is this report, any TV with a external or internal freeveiw box was still working on the 5 analogue channels, wont be able to to have that back up system when its turned off in 2012 will we.
luckily like a lot of others i was not intrested in x factor "the Horrors unfit for a bad karaoke night" or of the waste of space in the outback
heres how to save on carbon foot prints let have one weather person for all channels, and forget flying a bunch of hasbeens/never will be's halfway round the world

the (genuine) security word i have to type in is DATA-GAME how appropriate

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Peter Chrisp, says...
2:31pm Mon 23 Nov 09

How does the Argus know what people were watching? They could all have been looking at Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness

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puddingandpi, Brighton says...
2:32pm Mon 23 Nov 09

Bummer, they must've had to watch some other utter sh1te.

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yorkie44, Woodingdean says...
3:13pm Mon 23 Nov 09

The answer is to get Sky. I have no time for Rupert Murdock but at least Sky works.

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Fercri Sakes, Hove says...
3:20pm Mon 23 Nov 09

yorkie44 wrote:
The answer is to get Sky. I have no time for Rupert Murdock but at least Sky works.
If you have no time for him then get Freesat.

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swingbin, Brighton says...
3:22pm Mon 23 Nov 09

Incase anyone was wondering, I just found out, Phil "The Power" Taylor won the darts.

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stan bailey, brighton says...
4:43pm Mon 23 Nov 09

Am I correct in thinking that a TV Ariel doesn't use electricity, but all these different boxes do. Is this supposed to help the environment, by insisting everyone has a box?

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beasue, Sussex says...
5:45pm Mon 23 Nov 09

The whole of the south coast loosing its digital signal last night also crashed Iplayer on the bbc web site as I suppose so many people were trying to access it.

If you wanted to keep watching the darts why didn't you watch it online. ITV.com live stream almost all of whats on their 4 channels.

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johnmil, says...
9:11pm Mon 23 Nov 09

pwlr wrote:
My Freeview and Virginmedia service went down at the same time, so I had to revert to the old system, shouldn't the T.V companies keep broadcasting in analogue as well as digital for when such problems occur?
Yeah. Maybe also the Brighton & Hove City Council should keep horses and carriages on the streets in case the taxi and bus services ever go down!!! Joking? Yes!

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gunnke, Craven Vale, Brighton says...
11:11pm Mon 23 Nov 09

Two things to say about this:-
1. Use an alternative service to Freeview. In my own personal experience, Freeview is unreliabale and temperamental. In inclement/adverse weather conditions, Freeview reception is either blocky or non-existent. Satellite, Freesat or even trusty old analogue (at least for the next two and a half years) are better options.
2. For all you sad people whose lives revolve around watching reality TV garbage, the blackout last night may have done you all a favour. Instead of rotting yet more brain cells watching the intellectual might of Ant, Dec and Jordan, you could have actually done something a lot more constructive, i.e. read a book.

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r2dean2, brighton says...
7:08am Tue 24 Nov 09

Hugh Rinall wrote:
Headline should be 'Brainrot Suspended in Whitehawk!'
there you go, off on one about the peoplew in whitehawk!!!

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Fercri Sakes, Hove says...
11:27am Tue 24 Nov 09

stan bailey wrote:
Am I correct in thinking that a TV Ariel doesn't use electricity, but all these different boxes do. Is this supposed to help the environment, by insisting everyone has a box?
An aerial doesn't use electricity, nor does a satelite dish, but you need one to recieve most TV.

The thing that uses the electricity is called a tuner (or receiver). These have generally been built into TVs since they were invented.

A set-top box is only needed if your TV is too old to contain a Freeview or Freesat tuner and you wish to watch digital channels.

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D Merrett, East Sussex says...
11:32am Tue 24 Nov 09

Having worked abroad for a period I did not know how close we were in the UK to wanting State Controlled TV...You may not like what other people find as entertainment, but you also don't have any rights to think that your choice and way of living is any better and should be imposed on others. You represent the Britain of old...lets grow the empire then tell them how to live, because we know best!!!

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Devil In Red, Seaford says...
11:46am Tue 24 Nov 09

Well, well, well. A lot of brainless people who missed this drivel have now had there brains perked up and should now be on the way to full recovery, to pass along in this world singing to themselves and thinking that trees are still growing, people are more responsive, birds are singing. Oh how wonderful not to still be BRAIN DEAD!!!!.

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Devil In Red, Seaford says...
11:49am Tue 24 Nov 09

Well, well, well. A lot of brainless people who missed this drivel have now had there brains perked up and should now be on the way to full recovery, to pass along in this world singing to themselves and thinking that trees are still growing, people are more responsive, birds are singing. Oh how wonderful not to still be BRAIN DEAD!!!!.

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Tim P, Brighton says...
12:24pm Tue 24 Nov 09

But 'well-done' to the Argus for being the only source that I can find of any news about this Freeview service disruption in Brighton (one might have thought that the BBC local south news would have mentioned it, but no). So at least I now know that it wasn't a fault with my system.

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hovebanned, Hove says...
5:17pm Tue 24 Nov 09

Anyone who is serious about having an uninterrupted service with a decent picture really does need to get Sky or Freesat. Freeview is absolutely rubbish.

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