Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"W |  | BL6 6SL |
The symbol shows the location of the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter which serves 2,690,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) mast?
Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Winter Hill transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
| Mux | H/V | Frequency | Height | Mode | Watts |
| PSB1 BBCA | H max | C32 (562.0MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others | |||||
| PSB2 D3+4 | H max | C34 (578.0MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada), | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | H max | C35- (585.8MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others | |||||
| COM4 SDN | H max | C29 (538.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others | |||||
| COM5 ArqA | H max | C31 (554.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others | |||||
| COM6 ArqB | H max | C37 (602.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others | |||||
| LM | H -20dB | C40 (626.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 1,000W |
 from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester, | |||||
| LL | H -17dB | C24 (498.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 2,000W |
 from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool, | |||||
| LPR | H -20dB | C56 (754.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 1,000W |
 from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire, | |||||
| GIM | H -20dB | C57 (762.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-2 | 1,000W |
 Now 90s, Spotlight TV, Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment , Classic Hits MCR, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 80 That's 80s, 86 That's 90s MCR, 88 TV Warehouse+1, | |||||
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Winter Hill transmitter?
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast (139°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.
How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1956-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 20 Feb 2020 | ||
| VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | W T | W T | ||
| C9 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| com7 | (-12.9dB) 25.7kW | |
| com8 | (-13.4dB) 22.6kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-16dB) 12.5kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 10kW | |
| LL | (-24dB) 2kW | |
| GIM, LM, LPR | (-27dB) 1000W |
Local transmitter maps
Winter Hill Freeview Winter Hill DAB Winter Hill AM/FM Winter Hill TV region BBC North West GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Saturday, 1 July 2023
K
Karl6:39 PM
Steve Donaldson: Which channels carry the EPG data has always been something I have wondered. One minor annoyance on the Sony (that I find anyway) is that the guide often has blanks or whole blocks of data missing once you get to a day or two ahead. Sometimes if you sit and watch and wait you can occasionally see missing blocks fill in but mostly not.
The Panasonic is always 100% correctly populated.
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S
Steve Donaldson6:54 PM
I am not sure whether this has already been picked up, but the Sony Pictures Television channels were sold to Narrative Capital in 2021:
Narrative Capital buys Sony UK channels
Narrative
The company on the Great Network website is said to be Narrative Entertainment UK Limited:
Contact Us - Great! Network | Great! Movies
The Head of Operations at Narrative Entertainment is Kelly Beavan:
Narrative Entertainment Launches Recently Acquired Channels - UK Broadcast News | 09/02/2022
Email addresses at Narrative Entertainment are firstinitiallastname {at} narrative.com, this according to the licensing information for Sony Movies Action on the Ofcom website:
Ofcom | TV Cable and Satellite
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J
js7:04 PM
Steve Donaldson: Yes, the same EPG data is carried on all multiplexes but devices ignore the data for services that are not present.
The data for BBC B is Huffman Coded on all multiplexes and the users of generic DVB-T2 capable boxes see it as gibberish, typically calling it Chinese.
In fact, all EPG data off BBC B is Huffman Coded.
Devices only capable of receiving DVB-T are never exposed to this data as the services on DVB-T2 multiplexes cannot be scanned in.
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S
Steve Donaldson9:02 PM
Thanks for the reply js.
On the AVForums thread, one of the complainants says he is on the North Hessary Tor transmitter in Cornwall which only broadcasts the PSBs. I don't believe there are any local multiplexes around that area, so this rather rules out anything other than something carried on the PSBs at least. The posting is here:
Sony 870 (and all Sony HXD and some Pioneers) DVD Recorders - No Freeview | Page 33 | AVForums
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C
Chris.SE10:42 PM
Steve Donaldson:
Hmm, interesting! But the North Hessary Tor transmitter is in Devon, it is indeed a Light transmitter with only the PSBs. But that chap doesn't know his geography and unless he's very close to Princetown (Devon), he won't be getting that relay transmitter as it is very low power with very limited coverage.
That said, if what caused his disruption (which sounds slightly different) is carried by the PSBs I'm not sure if it's an identical problem.
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Sunday, 2 July 2023
J
js12:28 AM
Steve Donaldson: Wildearth launched on freeview on Wed Jun 21 in the SDN multiplex.
I scanned the EPG at time Fri 23 Jun 06:04 and found that the CRIDs under the default_authority "wildearth.tv" did not begin with "/"
Instead, they all began with wildearth.tv/
I scanned again later that day at 15:28 and found that the string "wildearth.tv/" had been changed to "/" and thus the fault had been fixed.
The series of posts on this issue, in the thread you linked to, started Jun 22.
The first recent post from that user, dated Jun 23 2023, starts:
"I have been struggling with this exact same problem for the past few days"
Whatever the claimed transmitter might be, it is almost certain that user's boxes had scanned in the SDN multiplex.
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S
Steve12:12 PM
Karl:
Hi Karl,
It was the js post a few days ago that identified the channels I'd managed to miss when I'd achieved a successful retune were in UHF 24 and UHF 27 (15 TV channels in total)
The EPG gets through even if I avoid the daily Sony updates. However, the EPG does have the gaps you describe, particularly for the few days ahead. Probably best to summarise the learning curve I went down as it might differ slightly for others in different locations. Here's what I did:
1. I needed to find out when the Sony updates occur (I knew 10:00 and 14:00 because I'd seen it happen, but I knew something happened overnight as well. So I set up 2 min recordings at half past each hour during the night to trace when the fault arose, which is the last hour mark after the last recording success. That's how I found 03:00 and 05:00 (05:00 may not happen every night I think)
2. I set up daily recordings from 09:59 to 10:01, 13:59 to 14:01, 02:59 to 03:01 and 04:59 to 05:01. I set these up over a year ago and all 3 recordiers have been avoiding the Sony update ever since.
3. Obviously, I needed a successful re-tuning that missed the erroneous channels first which was hit & miss one year ago, but I now know that starting the "replace channels re-tune" sequence without the aerial in and plugging it in after approx 10% done misses the erroneous channels and gets what I want. It is trial and error, but after a few attempts I get success. If the erroneous channels come later for your area then perhaps the manual aerial in/out process may need experimentation.
4. One interesting thing I can't explain is that of the 3 identical recorders I have, they have gradually become out of sync slightly with the clock such that one unit finishes its 2 min recording before another one starts. I thought that would upset the process, but no - they all still avoid updates reliably.
5. You must ensure there is enough HDD space left for these recordings, which is where I slipped up last week, which kicked off this whole fiasco again. But even 8 mins per day to cover say a max 3 weeks holiday is workable if you plan ahead
6. EPG usage - I find that series record has always been unreliable. Potentially perhaps due to occasional EPG update omissions. I always take series record off and set the time 3 mins early and run 10 mins over. The only time this doesn't work is if the broadcaster makes a last-minute change due to live sport overruns or a national crisis news bulletin.
7. Why do I do all this instead of catch up TV etc some may ask? Well primarily I hate watching Dramas interrupted by 4 mins of adverts every 15 mins. I edit out the adverts manually which is fairly easy with the Sony system. Also most catch-up systems don't keep everything available long enough for me, especially if I want to re-watch an old series. Blank DVD's aren't too expensive. I find the standard definition and a quality setting to give 3 hours/DVD is acceptable. I usually do films at a 2 hours per DVD quality.
I hope other Sony RDR HXD-870 owners find this layman's experience useful.
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S
Steve Donaldson12:31 PM
Steve: For your recordings to prevent the updates, have you set Recording Mode to SEP, which is the lowest quality, hence takes the least amount of space on the hard drive?
Perhaps the "Update" function at the times you identify synchronises the system clock to the time as broadcast by one of the multiplexes, and this explains why the clocks get out of sync. The Update function will run according to the system clock.
The other question is what does the "Update" do? Does it populate the EPG during this period, hence does preventing the Update also hinder series link because the recorder never gets to "see" the entire EPG, unless it is turned on manually?
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S
Steve1:00 PM
Steve Donaldson:
Hi Steve - Nice point re using SEP mode for these short update avoidance recordings. It seems that the EPG updates are not part of the Sony updates I'm avoiding because the EPG has always been populated OK during the last year when my system of avoiding Sony updates has worked successfully throughout. Albeit that some bits of the EPG guide don't go very far ahead ( 1 or 2 days only sometimes) but from Karl's comment, that seems normal.
Re clock timing - I agree. So this indicates that the Sony updates are triggered by the recorder unit and not some aspect of the transmitter broadcast, as I had assumed previously. Pity there's nothing in the Sony menu to facilitate stopping updates by user choice.
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K
Karl4:59 PM
Steve: Thanks Steve, that's a really interesting read. Surprising (in a good way) the EPG still populates when you skip the updates.
1/ I'm not 100% sure on the night time one. I thought there was just one but not entirely sure tbh.
2/ I think that's a great idea tbh.
3/ I've played around doing that in the past, more for curiosity than anything else and see when it picked all the other channels up when the aerial was reconnected permanently.
4/ That's weird. The clock is updated from... where ? From received data but from which channel... actually maybe not that weird because it will resync with the update I imagine. If it misses the update it will just free run like a quartz watch although perhaps not quite a accurate.
When we set the region to 'France' to get around the broadcast issue the clock does not self set when doing a factory reset. It only seems to set when UK is set as a region.
5/ I think your using the longest record mode for these short recordings.
6/ I used to time shift thing like Coronation Street some years ago when it was on in two 30 minute episodes and occasionally it would miss the first one. Frustrating at the time. Also had occasional issues with things like Country File occasionally recording at the wrong time. Tracked that to Moel Y Parc transmitter and the recorder picking up the data for that and recording at the wrong time slot.
The move to Group A (for me) has been very welcome and I think played a massive part in the loft aerial being so successful, lower frequencies pass through tiles and so on much better.
7/ Same for me. I time shift most things and have experimented with all the recording modes, even the 'hidden' extra high quality one called HQ+ or something. I'm finding that SEP (from memory) visually looks really good on a 43" Sony TV.
If you use DVD's I'd recommend Verbatim. I rarely use them, usually to either move something from the upstairs recorder to the main one or to put something on a disc to show someone else. I've had TDK and Philips literally rot away visibly.
(you can fit up to a 1Tb HDD in these recorders. You need the service remote to do it (cheapies are available with the appropriate button) and ideally a drive suited to video recording such as CCTV use etc. Speed is the about the least important factor, you need consistent and steady data flow)
Succesful Upgrade of HDD on RDR-HXD970 | AVForums
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