All posts by Karl
Below are all of Karl's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Chris.SE: Thanks Chris, I had need of that info only a few days ago and had to go hunting (lol). Another user of Sony equipment that is stuck on EPG update and Sony are blaming an 'unwanted' Ch 24 broadcast. How they conclude that I have no idea.
The user concerned is on Winter Hill and receives all the channels you list at 100% signal (even all the local ones).I think there is something else going on, however....
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Chris.SE: Thanks Chris. All has gone quiet on the Sony front... possibly all a bit to much for an average user.
I did advise him to try some attenuators, perhaps as high as 15 to 24db seeing as he can receive even the low power locals at essentially 100% but all has gone silent.
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Steve: That's a great tip to avoid the background channel scans.
Do you find the EPG still populates and is usable when you do that, for example for setting timer recordings?
If CH24 is proving an issue in your case I wonder if a 'Stub' and possibly attenuation as well might help. Get it right and it can provide a high degree of attenuation.
Quarter-wave stub
I have a loft aerial (Group A from Blake) feeding a 4db two way amp in the loft. The feed to the lounge is passively split 3 ways (so about the equivalent of 6db attenuation on each feed) with each feed going to the TV, the Sony recorder and a Panasonic recorder. The Sony will still operate essentially normally on all main channels with a further 15 to 18db attenuation on its already split feed.
I'm 44km from Winter Hill but have no signal on CH24. Just looking and I have channels 29, 31, 32, 34, 37 and 40. Channel 37 is at a lower level (about 70% on the Sony) while all others are around 95%. As I say, stick a 15 or 18db attenuator in the feed and its all still OK.
Have you seen the mammoth thread on AV forums on these Sony's and the update issues?
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Steve Donaldson: Which channels carry the EPG data has always been something I have wondered. One minor annoyance on the Sony (that I find anyway) is that the guide often has blanks or whole blocks of data missing once you get to a day or two ahead. Sometimes if you sit and watch and wait you can occasionally see missing blocks fill in but mostly not.
The Panasonic is always 100% correctly populated.
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Steve: Thanks Steve, that's a really interesting read. Surprising (in a good way) the EPG still populates when you skip the updates.
1/ I'm not 100% sure on the night time one. I thought there was just one but not entirely sure tbh.
2/ I think that's a great idea tbh.
3/ I've played around doing that in the past, more for curiosity than anything else and see when it picked all the other channels up when the aerial was reconnected permanently.
4/ That's weird. The clock is updated from... where ? From received data but from which channel... actually maybe not that weird because it will resync with the update I imagine. If it misses the update it will just free run like a quartz watch although perhaps not quite a accurate.
When we set the region to 'France' to get around the broadcast issue the clock does not self set when doing a factory reset. It only seems to set when UK is set as a region.
5/ I think your using the longest record mode for these short recordings.
6/ I used to time shift thing like Coronation Street some years ago when it was on in two 30 minute episodes and occasionally it would miss the first one. Frustrating at the time. Also had occasional issues with things like Country File occasionally recording at the wrong time. Tracked that to Moel Y Parc transmitter and the recorder picking up the data for that and recording at the wrong time slot.
The move to Group A (for me) has been very welcome and I think played a massive part in the loft aerial being so successful, lower frequencies pass through tiles and so on much better.
7/ Same for me. I time shift most things and have experimented with all the recording modes, even the 'hidden' extra high quality one called HQ+ or something. I'm finding that SEP (from memory) visually looks really good on a 43" Sony TV.
If you use DVD's I'd recommend Verbatim. I rarely use them, usually to either move something from the upstairs recorder to the main one or to put something on a disc to show someone else. I've had TDK and Philips literally rot away visibly.
(you can fit up to a 1Tb HDD in these recorders. You need the service remote to do it (cheapies are available with the appropriate button) and ideally a drive suited to video recording such as CCTV use etc. Speed is the about the least important factor, you need consistent and steady data flow)
Succesful Upgrade of HDD on RDR-HXD970 | AVForums
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js: many thanks for your work on the Freeview/Sony/EPG issue. Much appreciated. It is really frustrating that each time this happens it is like starting from zero in explaining things. I'm hoping a fix will be issued.
Last year Freeview contacted me to say the issue was somewhat of a 'grey area' but having identified the problem it should not occur again (indeed! I wish) and that if it did they would know where the issue was.
So we are all hoping for a fix ASAP.
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Chris.SE: The BBC reply says that they have contacted Freeview.
"Our engineers have discussed it with the Freeview team and have been informed that they are investigating this. If you haven't already we would recommend contacting Freeview directly. This will ensure they understand the extent of the problem and you will be able to obtain updates from them directly"
I have also contacted Freeview a few days ago (that was my first initial reaction) and I used Direct Messages on X for that. That was like starting from zero and is so annoying because all this was thrashed out last year.
Freeview contacted me last August saying:
"We as Freeview Advice agents are now aware of this issue and can offer advice. It was a grey area when you reported this in June. Hopefully it can be worked on to avoid this issue for future channel updates"
Have you followed this on AVForums?
Sony 870 (and all Sony HXD and some Pioneers) DVD Recorders - No Freeview | Page 44 | AVForums
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js: as before, many thanks for your investigations into this. I'll be honest, the make up of the data is outside my field of expertise but I get the gist of all you are saying.
And before I forget... it seems to have just been fixed this afternoon. Mine is working OK and reports from others say the same.
What I don't know (and it would be useful/informative to know) is whether the problem could be classed as an invalid change that violate the DVB-T standard or... is the Sony product range affected non compliant in some way to what should be a valid make up of the data or... is it just a grey area that nobody anticipated issues with.
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js: I did wonder if the firmware could be altered (it is available on the Sony site) and rewritten and given a higher version number... I know, dream on...
It would be great if it could though. I just wonder how long Freeview will keep accommodating those of us that still have these models. They have outlasted pretty much everything else around.
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Monday 26 June 2023 12:38PM
Thanks Chris. I'm no expert on how the code is configured and I wouldn't be able recognise where the errors might be without being shown.
(Couldn't actually retrieve the file, got as for as 'download' and constant requests to confirm 'I am not a robot' which eventually brought up a web based (so not genuine) security warning saying you are infected with harmful files and click here to scan... so I just closed the browser)
All good. No worries :-)