Everyone should have received a letter from Telstra informing them of the changes occurring to the network and the requirement to retune your analogue television, digital Set Top Box, or LCD/Plasma TV with inbuilt digital tuner.
Despite this, I have received numerous calls and emails from residents wanting to know what is going on, so I have posted this article to provide assistance to the residents of Ellenbrook.
Before retuning any television or STB make sure you read the user guide and have a full understanding of what is required. This is particular so for us men. If possible get your 5 year old to help, they can probably do the tuning without reading the manual. :-)
Each manufacturer may use different terms to describe channels or frequencies, so I have tried to publish as much information as possible. Firstly, you need to understand the channels have all been shifted to what is termed Band V or UHF frequencies. This ensures you are not getting interference with local channels (which could cause ghosting) or causing problems with Foxtel services that are now reticulated via the HFC network.
The following table is what is called a channel or frequency plan. This lists the channel description, if it is a Digital or Analog signal, its band name, channel name, and frequency. Some TV sets will be tuned by the use of band name, others channel name and some you need to program the frequency. You can click on the table to zoom in.
Please note the channel name; as there are both C and S designators. The Telstra channels are C60 - C75. Do not use the S band settings which may be available on some television sets. Also some European TV sets may use a slightly different band name. The UHFxxE entries are the European channel names and their corresponding Australian names afterwards.
If after tuning your television or set top box you have problems in obtaining a good quality signal it is highly recommended to check or replace your coaxial fly leads. Cheap leads can severely impact the quality of the TV signal - particularly with the high frequency UHF channels being used. You should be using RG6 quad shield cable to get the best quality signal. Definitely do not use RG58 or RG11 cable.
If you are still having problems after this I suggest calling Telstra on the specialised Ellenbrook TV help line - 1800 305 723. Be patient, it took 19m 47s for me to get through this morning.
Although I have not yet confirmed this as fact, the Velocity channel plan should be the same, abet without the analog channels.
I hope this helps.
13 comments:
- At 27 June, 2008 16:59 Anonymous said...
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Hi, The pictures seems worse now, and we seemed to have lost ABC2 we used get prior to the change on the 24th, If we buy a STB does anybody no if we will we be able to ABC2 or &-10HD.
- At 28 June, 2008 07:23 Stephen Davies said...
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Yes the installation of a digital Set Top Box will enable you to get ABC2.
However if you want 10HD, make sure you purchase a High definition STB. - At 28 June, 2008 08:21 Stephen Davies said...
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If the pictures seem worse, have you followed the instructions regarding replacement of fly leads?
If you are still having reception issues I suggest contacting Telstra and reporting the problem - At 06 July, 2008 20:49 Vernon said...
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I'm not sure what happened, but after a power outage this afternoon, my TV could not tune into any digital or HD channels except SBS. The channels were all working until the power outage.
I am able to tune into Analogue channels but the reception is very poor.
My wife mentioned the possibility that this could be caused by Telstra making some changes, but we did not receive any notice recently about any possible disruptions.
Hopefully somehow the other digital and HD channels will return (I use the TV's scan system to pick up the channels previously). I've tried to manually tune the channels using Stephen's table as a guide but was unsuccessful.
If all else fails, I will call the Telstra help line. - At 06 July, 2008 22:02 Anonymous said...
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Exactly the same story as Vernon here.
Tried re-tuning after thoroughly going thru the TV manual, I've got SBS and Access 31 on analogue very poorly, and nothing on digital. - At 07 July, 2008 13:39 Vernon said...
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Well my wife called me at work today to say that all the channels had come back. Analogue channels had clear reception again and when a scan was done, all other channels (7, 9 and 10 digital and HD) all came back.
Like Brett, I spent most of last night (Sunday) looking for my TV operational manual, climbling onto the roof to check the ariel etc etc.
Wish someone had told us that work would be done so all I had to do was to wait. But anyway, I am glad that the channels are back! - At 11 July, 2008 10:32 Anonymous said...
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We have had many frustrating hours of re-tuning our tv's and calling the Ellenbrook fault line only to be told with each call telstra would be finishing on that day! On 8th july we had a telstra techy come out to see what was going on and our SD set top box was the problem as now SD set top boxes wont get all the stations, so off we trotted to Harvey Norman to buy a new HD set top box only to be told by a salesman there that all Ellenbrook households should have gotten a $100 voucher from telstra to go towards a HD box. I called the fault line to be told we should have called before we bought the box!!! Well we would have if anyone had told us about it!!! Anyway we are getting one sent out, we were told by the bloke on the phone that it is a voucher only for HD set top boxes, to take our box back, return it and get refund then re-purchase!! Yeh righto....not. So not sure if we can redeem ours for cash by going back to HN?? Make sure you call to get your voucher if you havent already.
- At 17 July, 2008 09:40 Anonymous said...
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A note on the gift voucher.
LWP holds the vouchers and will give it to residents who lodge a complaint with Telstra. As mentioned in this article, the wait can be extraordinary.
Also, it's a Wish gift voucher... so you can only redeem them from BigW, DSE, Tandy.
My FTA saga lasted about a month. If I was going to do it again, this is the way I'll go about it:
1. Call Paul (Private Contractor) 0407 190 640 who used to do all the lead-ins for e-Wire. He'll be able to tell you if you've even got the thing connnected. Nice bloke and he'll even make sure the points in your house is properly done by your builder (NOTE: Not all builders know how to wire a TV point)
2. Call Telstra Faults line 1800 305 723 and get the voucher. If you have a TV with a digital tuner, then you can skip this step, but in a few years, you're going to be wondering why you didn't call, or upgrading to a new TV with a HD tuner.
3. Non HD Tuners are around the $40-$60 mark, while HD Tuners are around the $160-$200. You choose, but I went and forked out a bit extra to go HD.
Tell you what though, if LWP had these steps when you ask them, I would have had TV in a week. I ended up playing human tennis between Telstra, Foxtel, BES (aka e-Wire) and LWP for about a month until I found out what I just summed up. - At 25 July, 2008 13:43 Anonymous said...
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I rang the faults line, and they agreed that in my circumstance it seems to be a network problem.
I have had intermittent reception over the last couple of days which is very frustrating.
Mostly no signal at all.
I was advised that I would get a call in the next 24 hours and that it would be a service visit.
I hope they are true to their word.
I feel a bit better knowing that I am not the only one having trouble with this. - At 23 December, 2008 11:11 Lisa Little said...
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If anyone has any TV issues in Ellenbrook make Paul McMillan your first port of call - he knows the history of the Ellenbrook's network infrastructure, who's responsible for what and what might be causing your problem. A very, very knowledgeble and helpful person. 0407 190 640.
- At 29 July, 2009 12:30 Dean Robbins said...
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These issues are STILL happening in Ellenbrook. I moved in just under 2 weeks ago and was hand balled from my builder, to LWP, to E-Wire, to Telstra, to numerous communications contractors and finally ended up with Paul thanks to these posts.
Low and behold I've discovered that I'll be able to have a 1 free point installed by LWP (in addition to the one placed by my builder) and all it will cost me is $20 for a splitter.
I've dealt with that many people in the last 2 weeks I don't know who to be angry at, but I can vouch that Paul McMillan is most definitely the man to speak to - wish I had his number 3 weeks ago! - At 28 August, 2009 11:21 Anonymous said...
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We have never been able to get good reception for channel 7 for the two and a half years we have been living in Ellenbrook. We bought a digital STB and can still only recieve Channel 9, SBS and Go. I've retuned it a million times - nothing changes. Any ideas?
- At 23 September, 2009 19:27 Anonymous said...
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At 23rd Sept.Peter The recent rains have been playing havoc with our reception, especially channel 7 and ABC. We lived on Cocos and just before the rain came the tv went out. They managed to fix the problem in that remote spot why can not Ellenbrook's problems be fixed?
