Thank you to Martin for sending in a reminder about the switchover to Digital TV next Wednesday, 17th August.
This means in order to watch TV from this date you would need either:
- A Freeview set top box (they start from £20) and possibly a new aerial + your old telly
- Or a TV with Freeview built in
- Or a satellite dish + a Sky Freesat box or Skybox (£150+, or a subscription) + your old telly.
To receive High Definition (HD) TV, you would need a TV that is HD ready + a HD set top box.
For further information click on
A Freeview aerial can be fitted for a cost of £80 from Edge aerials (I can recommend them) for £80. One can try the old analogue aerials first to see if they will pick up Freeview broadcasts from our relay transmitter. Martin C.
To read the comments from earlier posts on Digital TV click here.
PARWICH.ORG 
How are people getting on with the ‘Switch Over’?
I can get the BBC channels with excellent reception via Freeview and an indoor aerial, but not any independent channels. I can still get BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4 on the old analogue signal, but no ITV.
Don’t know if this relates to what is currently being transmitted or to the fact that I am using an indoor aerial.
Peter – Rathbone Croft 98 stations (TV Radio & other)
MIke G
Hi Peter – I don’t know if it’s just us, but since last night we can only get volume on HD channels. We have a picture for other channels but no soundtrack
Mike, you get your signal direct from a transmitter, but here in the bottom of the Village we get it from the local relay at Brook Close Farm, so perhaps there is a problem with that.
So far on digital I have 10 very clear TV stations (just BBC, non of the independent ones) complete with sound and 11 radio stations, and on the old analogue signal I can get 3 channels (BBC1 & 2 and Channel 4), all from the village relay transmitter. However I am only using an indoor aerial, so wonder if anyone else using the local relay has more channels.
Keeley, unfortunately I am not yet ‘HD ready’ so don’t know about the HD channels.
Just retuned my Mothers tv in Ashbourne tonight and the stations are a little mixed up so I would think that more or less the same will be happening on our repeater (member of the same repeater group as the Ashbourne relay).
No BBC 2 on analogue with ITV shifted onto the old BBC 2 channel.
Only BBC stations on digital.
A right royal PITA if you ask me… Ho hum
Mike G.
Yes Peter that is correct, digital TV has been available at Rathbone Croft for eleven years or so with gradual improvement as the power was increased.
The signal is from Sutton Coldfield, we are high enough up the hill for the aerial to “see” the transmitter.
I now find I have “East Midlands” as well as the old “West Midlands” news service, and a similar situation on the HD box. One or two stations are out of normal place, that should rectify when Parwich is changed on 31st August and Sutton Coldfield on 7th and 21st of September.
It is going to be nice to have an alternative to Birmingham, Dudley, Stoke, etc. etc. news.
Mike G
Digital TV Problem
Hi – I know this is added to an old thread but hopefully some-one might pick it up. Our aerial is/was pointed at Sutton Coldfield but in the recent high pressure we lost the signal. When we re-scaned the TV and freeview box picked up the Parwich transmitter so we now have less channels. When we rescan we sill get the smaller number of channeels – how do I get them to ‘re-tune’ back to Sutton Coldfield??