All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Will : I've never done such a thing, but I assume its no more of a pain than a quad - as long as it fits. I'm sure someone can advise. also see here SKY+ Freesat+ and Replacing your minidish LNB
I do remember reading on a website (Satcure?) that having eight leads from a dish is unsightly, and suggest a second quad dish instead, if poss. That might make life easier for running cables to bedrooms anyway.
One other thing - does your TV have a sat. tuner? Some do/did, but its not always mentioned - LG for instance. Make/model no. will tell us.
Good luck on that ladder!
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ryan: A postcode would have led to you being able to see if there was engineering work, but it seems unlikely. If you've lost all channels, there is something wrong with the aerial or connections.
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sally lamb : Sally, check that the aerial is plugged into the back of the box, because it sound like you've lost the connection. If you've connected the TV from the box via another cable (which is what the instructions normally say), then your TV should not be working at all. Since it is, could you say how the TV and box are connected up - in what order, and what cables.
But start with the simple thing - check the aerial leads, and make sure that they are in properly.
PS - a postcode would really help, in case the box is responding to the signal in a different way to the TV - with a postcode, we can see what transmitter you are using.
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Brennig: No, not really, but step back for a second.
Ask the people in the street what their Freeview signal is like (count the aerials is a good start) - Digital UK reckons your marginal, and Sutton Coldfields signal has some in the way very close to you (nice green hills by the look of it). Frankly, Digital UK reckons all the transmitters are a bit dodgy for you.
From previous posts, you seem to have a Humax Freeview recorder, which I'm sure you'd like to use. If the signal is doable, then at least ask someone to quote/inspect to see if you can get an aerial. Its shouldn't cost you anything to find out, and if you then spend £150 on a new aerial and continue to use your existing kit, then thats fine.
On the other hand, there might be a good reason why that dish is there! If the Freeview signal is rubbish, then that £150 is wasted. Firstly, check the dish, and the bit that sticks out of it - its called an LNB, and its the bit which sens the signal down the wire. There should be at least one hole in the bottom of it, or even easier, the wire/s should be in place. Count how many you have or can use. 1 is basic, 2 is good, and 4 is great.
For a satellite system, each wire allows you to watch and record, etc. Watch and record at the same time, you need two wires coming out of it, etc. Since the easiest way for you to use the dish is to get a Freesat equivalent of what you've got already, 2 wires is what your looking for. 4 would be even better. You can upgrade the LNB if you want, either by paying someone or doing it yourself. See Satcure for a huge amount of info, plus all the bits.
Have a look at your TV, it might have a satellite tuner built in as well, so you can at least watch.
Freesat is a small niche in the market, and PVR's are few in number and generally less choice. £150 will get you a Manhatten, and arounf £270 for a Humax.
At least look at the dish and ask those around - then you can decide what to do.
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Mike P: 'The BT version being known as Infinity.' - or as someone I know puts it, Infinitely Awful!
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Trevor Harris: Actually I dont, in fact thats what I'm using right now! My reference was to a friend of mine who has come to hate BT and their fibre service. On the other hand, my brother (who is a computer professional, and wants the highest possible speed) came to hate my current provider, and switched to BT, where he has been pretty happy.
Fibre should have been rolled out further by now, especially in rural areas (thanks for nothing BT), but certainly its going to allow more use of smart TV's etc for viewing, and the introduction of 4K is going to be interesting to see how people actually use it.
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R Fulcher: a postcode would really help, but at a guess, your LG is tuned into a main transmitter, while the Recorder is tuned into another 'light' transmitter, hence the fewer channels.
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Maurice Prime: Although they are all tunable (and you have an abundance of transmitters with good signals), they are all at different bearings, and your TV should be able to manually tune to Sutton Coldfield, for instance. (the Wrekin looks a good bet as well).
Why you should be having a problem with the EPG i couldn't say although I'm sure the site gurus might have ananswer), but a trick which does help to filter out the unwanted 800 channels is to hid them from the EPG (the setup menu will allow you to hid channels). It mostly works on my Sony PVR.
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KMJ,Derby: I have a similar version of this box, and can personally vouch for the PITA that is the lack of manual tuning, as well as the hit and miss nature of region choice in the setup.
I'm also on Waltham, and retuning when they were having engineering work was a nightmare - Belmont kept coming up first in the scan, since its channel 22, and Waltham 49 - unplugging the aerial part through the scan is the best way, but its hit and miss.
As for why it worked before and now has problems, there having been engineering work on Waltham, so possibly thats what has lead to the change.
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Monday 7 October 2013 3:09PM
trevor avery: If you've lost all channels, it sounds like your system - if you put your postcode into the website, it will have a link to all the websites which carry information about problems and engineering work, so you can check its not the transmitter.