The Science Behind the Changeover

The flip from an analogue signal to a digital television signal has been taking place for the last three years and is scheduled to be completed by 2012. However, many individuals are experiencing problems with the changeover and a lot of this is because they are to not fully understanding what precisely is occurring.

Television signals can arrive in the home by any one of four options. There is the standard aerial that a big proportion of people have, then the satellite dish that Sky subscribers use, then there are cable alte
atives, and finally people can utilise their broadband network to watch their television channels.

The switchover solely impacts upon people who view the tv via an aerial, all the rest remains unaffected. Aerials are tuned into masts, which are arranged into nearly 100 groups which have been changing over one by one.

So, there are principal transmitters, and smaller relay transmitters, and the number of channels you get depends on whether you are nearer to a main or a relay.

If your aerial is tuned into a relay receiver you will enjoy in the region of 15 digital television channels, if your aerial is tuned to a main receiver you should receive as many as 40.

This all matters because the signals from the receivers overlaps, so you probably will have more than one in your area. This could give you the decision of which you tune into after the changeover happens, accordingly it's important which ones are near you. This information is pretty easy to get on the internet.

That said, many areas of the country do not enjoy solid signal, and this is unlikely to improve when the switchover happens. In this situation it's easy to get Sky Freeview, which uses the Sky satellite system to give you all the digital channels you would get if you were tuned into a main receiver. Whilst the cost of the hardware installation is about £150.

If you're not certain about any of the information on the switchover, including when your area is due to switch, take a look at the Digital UK website. Or, for more details on Sky Freeview, make sure you take a gander at Sky.com.