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MPEG 2 or MPEG 4. Old amberlight TV

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    Astral Giant

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    Received this response from Philips

    Yes, the information that has been provided is correct. Your TV tuner is not capable of tuning in all the stations because of the signal change that took place in March this year. As a result your TV will not be able to tune all the stations without the help of an external device ie. freeview box.

    The advice from philips is freeview is now broadcast in MPEG-4 is contradicted by this http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SK113003
    which clearly shows many of the missing channels are MPEG-2.
    Am I missing something or are Philips wrong?.

    | Thu 24 Oct 2013 8:20:34 #11 |
  2. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    Astral Giant - 1 hour ago  » 
    Received this response from Philips
    Yes, the information that has been provided is correct. Your TV tuner is not capable of tuning in all the stations because of the signal change that took place in March this year. As a result your TV will not be able to tune all the stations without the help of an external device ie. freeview box.
    The advice from philips is freeview is now broadcast in MPEG-4 is contradicted by this http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SK113003
    which clearly shows many of the missing channels are MPEG-2.
    Am I missing something or are Philips wrong?.

    Freeview Standard Definition channels are all DVB-T 576i (576 lines interlaced) mpeg2. SD only tuners are not mpeg4 capable so any SD channel transmitted mpeg4 wouldn't be usable on anything. There is one multiplex only usable by Freeview-HD capable kit that uses H264/AVC (mpeg4) 1080i/p (a mixture of interlaced and progressive content) DVB-T2 1920 x 1080 which carries the current 4 High Definition channels.

    | Thu 24 Oct 2013 9:39:02 #12 |
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    damian

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    I had an old sagem freeview box and philips and sagem have worked together in the past. The old box could store something like 50 channels and after more channels became available there was a software update that increased its ability to something like 60 channels, obviously not enough.

    Philips can/could claim that the signal change in March, simply by adding extra channels, has made the tv tuner incapable of tuning into all the channels.

    I mentioned previously that there is a software update from 2008 for the old amberlight tv and if it were mine this would be the first thing I'd update as it may solve the problem.

    My freeview box also finds around 123 channels, including radio, although I only have 42 SD, didn't realise I'd cleared out so much rubbish.

    If the software update doesn't help and you can't manually tune and it's too tricky to plug and unplug the aerial whilst it's tuning to miss out certain frequencies, then it looks like a new tv or external freeview box is needed.

    I think the mpeg2/4 is a bit of a red herring here. When freeview first came out there were only a dozen or so tv channels. Being able to store 40 was more than enough. What would be useful to know is the original specification for the tv and if it were 40 channels then that's it regardless of mpeg2 or mpeg4 (which it can't receive). If it were 80 or 100+ then the tv is faulty and a cheap freeview box is likely to be less expensive than a repair.

    What might help is the software update on the philips website from 2008

    | Thu 24 Oct 2013 14:46:26 #13 |
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    Astral Giant

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    In my online chat with Philips I specifically asked if it would store 123 channels because of problems with a similar age Philips freeview box which only stores 100 channels. (DTR200/05.) Philips confirmed this tv can store 123 MPEG-2 channels. My 2001 Humax box stores 200 channels and 2008 Humax pvr stores 999 so if this 2006 tv only stores 40 its poorly specced from new.
    I think the software is 2006 and may possibly be a problem but its not my tv so am not keen to mess with it too much. I am suprised Philips did not ask about or suggest this.
    I've contacted Philips again with details of the channels available to me and asked again for help in storing these channels. Will update with the reply.

    | Thu 24 Oct 2013 16:28:44 #14 |

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