Feedback
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV For the last six years, I have answered many thousands of personal emails that you have sent to UK Free TV.
Sadly, I am unable to offer this personal service at the moment.
Until I can restore this service, please can you leave any questions you have on an appropriate page, where they will be answered as soon as possible, or below, if you can't figure out where to ask.
I look forward to your questions!
Help with TV/radio stations?
In this section
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
J
jb385:57 PM
Duncan Flack: Well the plus point about Freesat is that there are no running costs involved after you have purchased the PVR, and with you already having a Sky+ box its even better, as it would just be a case of transferring the two feeds from the dish over to the two "F" input connectors on the Freesat PVR and that's all there is to it.
Although slightly more expensive than some other well known brands, if you prefer to pay a little extra for quality you should look along the Humax Foxsat-HDR ranges, with myself having been using the 320GB version of one for the past three years, although a massive 1TB version is now available.
Just as an example of the type of device I am referring to, the link below is for the 500Gb version.
Humax FOXSATHDR500 Twin tuner Freesat 500GB PVR - HUMAX UK Direct Sales Website
| link to this comment |
J
jb386:18 PM
William: I have to admit to being quite amazed by what you have found, as that type of problem is usually only ever experienced by viewers who are located relatively close to a main transmitter, and of course going purely by the G51 post code area provided you are not in this category.
However this can only now indicate that either your boxes modulator is defective or that the communal aerial systems distribution amplifier is set far too high.
Anyway as far as you magic eye problem is concerned, follow the instructions given in my previous posting as that should enable you to suss out where the problem is located, as if it lights up when tried directly into the Sky box but not in your bedroom then there has to be either a filter in line or the problem is being caused by a short circuit, as this will not always kill an RF signal but will a DC one.
| link to this comment |
W
William7:40 PM
Jb38 I checked the return outlet on ohms ( inner to outer ) no dead short totally clear then went to my bedroom wall plate took the cover off and getting - 9 volts on the cable (braiding to core) when RF2 is plugged in but not getting it on the outlet side inner to outer.
New co-ax point required I take it.
| link to this comment |
J
jb387:45 PM
William: Just as a small addition to that already said, could you try one final check on the main aerials input jumper plug that goes into to the Sky box, and being to set your meter on about a 25 volts AC range and check for voltage across the inner to outer casing of the plug, if nothing try the same test with the meter on DC.
My reason for enquiring being that I want to ensure that its an RF problem and not a voltage one, as your attenuator would hide the existence of the latter albeit it still pass RF, this being the thinking behind my earlier comment of using a couple of 100pf capacitors in series with the boxes input.
Finally, and just to eliminate another aspect that I was pondering about, I assume that you aren't located close to the Southern General Hospital?
| link to this comment |
J
jb387:51 PM
William: I just clashed with your posting, a good test! as what you have found indicated that the socket is either faulty or that it contains a safety capacitor for purposes of blocking any voltages other than an RF signal.
Does it appear to be the same type of plate as is used by your main aerial?
| link to this comment |
W
William8:07 PM
I am not far away from the southern general hospital about 1 mile my bedroom aerial point is just a standard co-ax point but my main aerial point in the living room is a multi point with sat 1 , sat 2 , FM , TV (main aerial) and return which is linked through to my bedroom haven't opened the master point up didn't want to I will buy a new co-ax point and hopefully when I change it I will get the voltage through to the front of the plate and along my jump lead into my TV link/bedroom TV.
The only thing I found strange is when I plugged a jump lead into sky boxes RF2 and tested the other side outer to inner I got 9V DC but when I plug it into " return " and go to my bedroom the back of the slave point is reading -9V DC
| link to this comment |
W
William8:32 PM
And just to clarify things I am getting 12.93V DC ( inner to outer ) on my main aerial port marked TV on my master wall plate and when I turn the small dial on the attenuator when plugged into aerial In on sky box it makes my bedroom analogue/sky pic go from fuzzy to totally clear great picture but the heat coming off the attenuator is quite warm already don't know if this is a worry or not
| link to this comment |
J
jb389:27 PM
William: Well that's points as being the whole cause of your problem as there shouldn't be any voltage whatsoever across the aerial wall plate, and certainly not of a magnitude that can cause an adjuster to become warm.
As you will probably recall I had mentioned in my earlier replies to you that I suspected that there might be voltage on the normal aerial plug and with this being my reason for mentioning the test meter, which I am pleased you managed to obtain as it proves the point.
As this is something that might be out with your domain by you being on a communal system I would suggest that make enquiries with whoever is concerned with your apartment as something is obviously wrong with your particular feed, as it suggests to me that the distribution amplifiers power supply is leaking through along with the signal, and with this being the reason for all of these odd problems you were experiencing.
The capacitors that I had referred to would of course obviously stop this happening by blocking the DC component, but it should be completely unnecessary for anyone to do this sort of thing, because the problem is caused by a fault on the communal system.
Have you been a resident for long in the building?
| link to this comment |
S
Stephen P9:56 PM
Isn't the 12v DC almost certainly from a power supply up the coax - either intentionally to power a masthead amp/splitter, or unintentionally from someone's set.
? just need a socket plate with a DC cutout?
| link to this comment |
J
jb3811:34 PM
Stephen P: Yes, as it does suggest the power supply for either a mast head amplifier or that used by the distribution amplifier, the only problem being that there isn't any circumstances where the power supply for a mast head amplifier would actually come back into the living room as well as the fact that William is on a communal aerial system, and to my knowledge with this master plate being the only aerial connection that's available.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please