Virgin Media FM signal down again?

Dinarius

Posting this here since there is no longer a Virgin board and the FM radio signal comes through the same coax cable as their broadband.

My FM has been down since last night.

Anyone else?

It usually comes back within a couple of hours.

Thanks.

D.

kaahooters

what?
"FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation technology"

Dinarius

kaahooters wrote: »

what?
"FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation technology"

This is a legacy service from pre-Virgin days. If you attach a wire from the coax socket to the aerial of an FM radio, you get perfect BBC on FM. Fairly common knowledge and still widely used.

But, it does fail occasionally. But, usually for only a couple of hours. This is exceptional.

Great for perfect BBC on bedside radios, if you have a coax socket in the room.

D.

kaahooters

Dinarius wrote: »

This is a legacy service from pre-Virgin days. If you attach a wire from the coax socket to the aerial of an FM radio, you get perfect BBC on FM. Fairly common knowledge and still widely used.

But, it does fail occasionally. But, usually for only a couple of hours. This is exceptional.

Great for perfect BBC on bedside radios, if you have a coax socket in the room.

D.

you still have internet, use that?

Dinarius

Read my post. Bedside radio.

Thanks anyway.

D.

kaahooters

Dinarius wrote: »

Read my post. Bedside radio.

Thanks anyway.

D.

i read your post.
you seem to think that the publicly broadcast signal via fm is the obligation of virgin to deliver to you.
you seem to think that the virgin coax is some magic cable that can only get you bbc radio.

you have a bedside radio, that has an aerial on it, any ariel can pick up the bbc, even getting the coax and chucking it out the window.

you internet is up, this is not a broadband issue. its an ld man stuck in there ways issue.

CoBo55

kaahooters wrote: »

i read your post.
you seem to think that the publicly broadcast signal via fm is the obligation of virgin to deliver to you.
you seem to think that the virgin coax is some magic cable that can only get you bbc radio.

you have a bedside radio, that has an aerial on it, any ariel can pick up the bbc, even getting the coax and chucking it out the window.

you internet is up, this is not a broadband issue. its an ld man stuck in there ways issue.

Sweet Jesus you haven't a clue what you're talking about. The co-ax cable isn't acting as an aerial, VM are relaying the BBC channels via the cable on their own frequencies. It never was done here in Enniscorthy which was a pity as we thought we'd be able to actually hear the soccer commentary ( I'm talking about the 70's here)

Dinarius

CoBo55 wrote: »

Sweet Jesus you haven't a clue what you're talking about. The co-ax cable isn't acting as an aerial, VM are relaying the BBC channels via the cable on their own frequencies. It never was done here in Enniscorthy which was a pity as we thought we'd be able to actually hear the soccer commentary ( I'm talking about the 70's here)

Thanks.

Nice to get a response from someone who knows what they’re talking about.

FM signal still not back. This is the longest it’s ever been gone, I think. Am in touch with VM about it via Twitter.

Fingers crossed.

D.

GerardKeating

Dinarius wrote: »

Posting this here since there is no longer a Virgin board and the FM radio signal comes through the same coax cable as their broadband. D.

The "Cable & MMDS & IPTV" forum would be more relevant perhaps

Dinarius

GerardKeating wrote: »

The "Cable & MMDS & IPTV" forum would be more relevant perhaps

Thanks.


Moderator, please move if necessary.


D.

Dinarius

Just told me via direct message on Twitter that they don’t support problems with the FM service.

I’m almost sure that a Virgin rep said not so long ago on Boards that there were no plans to discontinue it.

When it failed in the past, the signal always returned.

Maybe they’re under pressure from BBC?

Anyway,...annoying.

D.

ED E

It looks like 3.1 is on the horizon (ba dum tish!) for us VM customers, if thats the case they may be doing some analogue cleanup in prep. Just a guess though.

Dinarius

ED E wrote: »

It looks like 3.1 is on the horizon (ba dum tish!) for us VM customers, if thats the case they may be doing some analogue cleanup in prep. Just a guess though.

Cheers.

I live in hope.

BBC World Service is a godsend for us insomniacs! 😉

D.

ED E

I understand the preference for a tech-minimal solution but if it does turn out to be gone an Echo Dot/Nest Mini make a great replacement. "Listen to BBC World Service" is fierce handy. I trigger RTE one that way every AM.

Dinarius

Been told via Twitter that they’ve opened a ticket on it.

Fingers crossed.

D.

Dinarius

Ps.

Re Echo Dot Nest Mini...

I use one of these as a bedside radio.

https://www.ruarkaudio.com/products/r1-deluxe-bluetooth-radio

Superb. Two killer apps. 1. If you leave an earphone plugged in overnight, the alarm isn’t muted. 2. It has two alarms. One for everyday use, one for once-off things such as flights.

Each alarm can be set to ring only on weekdays. So, no need to turn it off on Friday night.

Best designed clock radio I’ve seen. Amazing sound too.

Not cheap, but worth every cent.

D.

Dinarius

Just received this from Virgin.

“ I see. Just to let you know...the analogue signal is no longer part of our paid services and we are already migrating the analogue services to Digital. If there are issues getting signal out of it, we no longer support such issues. There is a possibility that the issue will fix itself eventually but just to set your expectation, that service may no longer be available in the future.”

Not looking good this time.

D.

kaahooters

so, your issue is trying to get an fm signal from a coax cable, to a device that dosent have a coax connection, but, that device does have bluetooth you connect your phone to listen to stuff anyway?

what is your broadband issue? cos i dont see one.

CoBo55

kaahooters wrote: »

so, your issue is trying to get an fm signal from a coax cable, to a device that dosent have a coax connection, but, that device does have bluetooth you connect your phone to listen to stuff anyway?

what is your broadband issue? cos i dont see one.

Please stop... You're making my head hurt.

MHP

Yes, I'm sorry to say that service is gone. Did you get a letter from Virgin recently saying that there would be work in your area to upgrade the service? That's when it happens.
I'm using an Echo Dot now as a bedside radio. Pretty good though a lot of BBC5 (live sports) is not transmitted.

Dinarius

MHP wrote: »

Yes, I'm sorry to say that service is gone. Did you get a letter from Virgin recently saying that there would be work in your area to upgrade the service? That's when it happens.
I'm using an Echo Dot now as a bedside radio. Pretty good though a lot of BBC5 (live sports) is not transmitted.

Many thanks.

Not sure if I got email.

Maybe service will return after upgrade works.

I certainly hope so.

D.

MHP

It would have been a card through the letterbox.

No, there's no hope of a return. I castigated the reps on boards.ie. Poor old Brian there was in the dark about it but he checked and conceded that FM was gone despite having insisted over the years that it was under no threat.

I promptly cancelled my TV service with Virgin (had to keep Virgin broadband as there is no alternative here).

Dinarius

Bummer.

D.

rogue-entity

Dinarius wrote: »

This is a legacy service from pre-Virgin days. If you attach a wire from the coax socket to the aerial of an FM radio, you get perfect BBC on FM. Fairly common knowledge and still widely used.

Great for perfect BBC on bedside radios, if you have a coax socket in the room.

Cablelink at the time also carried a few other stations from Europe (probably whatever was handily broadcasting on 19.2E) such as the confusingly named Sky Radio (which I still remember the jingle) from the Netherlands which they also used as background audio on their Cabletext service, back in the days when you could walk into their office and just ask for a list of the frequencies for all their services.

ED E wrote: »

It looks like 3.1 is on the horizon (ba dum tish!) for us VM customers, if thats the case they may be doing some analogue cleanup in prep. Just a guess though.

They'd be better off discontinuing their DVB-C service entirely and migrating to a pure IP platform that operates on an on-demand basis. It would future-proof them too.

Dinarius

rogue-entity wrote: »

They'd be better off discontinuing their DVB-C service entirely and migrating to a pure IP platform that operates on an on-demand basis. It would future-proof them too.

That's a bit Dutch to me.

What do you mean in layman's language?


Thanks!

D.

CoBo55

Dinarius wrote: »

That's a bit Dutch to me.

What do you mean in layman's language?


Thanks!

D.

Removing the TV from the cable completely and using it like Vodafone/ Eir TV. Just use the cable for BB only, a good suggestion I think.

rogue-entity

Basically what CoBo55 said, get rid of the digital TV signal and use it as just a broadband connection, then run the TV the way Eir and Vodafone do.

Dinarius

I have an engineer calling tomorrow to check BB quality.

Will ask him/her about FM.

D.

ED E

rogue-entity wrote: »

They'd be better off discontinuing their DVB-C service entirely and migrating to a pure IP platform that operates on an on-demand basis. It would future-proof them too.

Possibly, but Im sure theyve costed it compared to keeping as is for the 3.1 rollout. The fact that they're keeping coax for the last 5-10M with the FTTH users shows how reluctant they are to change it up.

CoBo55

ED E wrote: »

Possibly, but Im sure theyve costed it compared to keeping as is for the 3.1 rollout. The fact that they're keeping coax for the last 5-10M with the FTTH users shows how reluctant they are to change it up.

What will 3.1 give us?

Dinarius

Had a Virgin engineer here earlier.

Looks like FM radio is not coming back.

D.