All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Jo:
There are many possibilities. It would seem, correct me if I'm wrong, that all 3 TV sets are connected to the same aerial? If that is the case then suspicion falls on the splitter(s) and cables feeding the TVs with the problem, but there could be an excessively strong signal causing the troubled TVs to present problems. Different TV sets respond differently if the signal is too great.
To help you the contributors here would need to know what TVs you have, how the aerial is fed to them and what the signal strength of the affected channel(s) are on all the sets. To find that, it should tell you in the user manual how to view the strength - but do not do a retune!
It is often helpful to have a more accurate post code, perhaps to a nearby shop/office/etc so we can identify any local reception problems affecting your street (the OX18 code covers a very large area!).
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Tom Millward
You say "I am using twin core cable" but do you really mean coaxial cable? Or perhaps 'shotgun' cable which has 2 separate feeds within a 'figure of 8' outer sheath. Or have you used 2-core mains cable? I will assume that you have a quad LNB that now has 4 cables emerging from the undershield?
You must use good quality coaxial cable designed for use with satellite signals, UHF coaxial cable has far too much loss to be any use. You also need to check that the plugs at both ends are fitted correctly and that there is no short circuit between the inner core and the outer sheath.
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Martin:
I don't know where you heard that rumour, but that's all it is. The Astra satellites used for Sky, FreeSat and some other services are 'parked' in geostationary orbit and positioned above the equator so they are above longitude 28.2 East and 28.5 East. They can be moved a little but not by much as any movement requires use of the very limited amount of fuel carried on-board, which is there mainly to allow ground controller to prevent one Astra satellite hitting another Astra satellite.
If they were to be moved, then over 600m people would need their dishes re-aligned! Was it 1st April when you heard the story?
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Dale
When you say 'switch on' do you mean switching the mains supply back on or just bringing out of the standby mode?
If you turn the mains power off, it will always restart on programme number 998 after it has rescanned. It is unwise to switch the mains supply off on these and Freeview boxes, it hardly saves any power (a Sky+ box uses just 0.9 Watts in standby mode which at 12p per unit would cost 8p per year to leave the mains supply on!)
My box does not show that behaviour if I use the standby mode.
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Paul Buksh
Forget all about a 'digital' aerial, there is no such thing. Any UHF aerial will receive either analogue or digital signals just as well and avoids 'inflated prices'. A Log-periodic would be better than a 'wide band' but do you really need one? Check the channels used for current transmissions, I think you are probably using Winter Hill? Currently a Group C/D is needed, but from 2019 it may need a Group K, so a Log-Periodic will be better as it will cover all channels now and in the future.
If you need an aerial amplifier, but that is by no means certain and worth trying first without, it should be fitted as close as possible to the connection point on the aerial, normally being mounted on the support pole within a few inches of the connection to the dipole. Always use the best quality UHF aerial cable you can afford and be careful to make good permanent connections with quality connectors. soldering where possible if not of the screw terminal type.
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Dale
It rather sounds as if the new firmware has not been designed/coded/tested properly as it appears it is confused about which channel to return to after the 2 recordings have finished. Does it behave properly if only 1 recording is made? Does it behave as wanted simply after watching normally and then putting into and then out of standby?
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Dale
It's clearly a firmware design 'glitch' that does not allow for recording 2 different programmes at the same time and a return to a previously select programme. In my view, it should revert to the programme originally being viewed before the 2 recordings started, but it clearly isn't doing that. There's no known 'work-around' apart from reselecting the programme you want rather than the somewhat staid 'programme' on 998!
I'd suggest the only course of action will be to inform Sky of the problem - but don't hold your breath!
Incidentally, the software used is developed by a 'third party' contractor, my brother used to work for one such outside Winchester but there are other sources used as well.
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Susan and Jamie, et al
Using a simple splitter involves losses of signal strength, so if you have good strong signals it will not normally be a problem. But, if your signals are marginal you may find you're getting picture break up (pixelation) so a better option would be to use a powered splitter than has no additional amplification/gain (or an adjustable one set to unity gain). It should have one input and at least 2 outputs, one to feed the main TV and the other to feed to the other rooms.
One disadvantage of a simple splitter is that *all* outputs *have* to be connected *all* the time else mismatching will cause odd reception problems.
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Dale
Can you check whether you're mains supply is not having temporary outages? That may only seem like a brief flicker of the lights (if they are of the incandescent type) but may be enough to make the box briefly go off and then it will come back on 998. Apart from that idea I'm now struggling to understand what may be causing it.
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Monday 25 November 2013 12:15PM
Stephen Woodcock:
Try using
Homepage | UKTV
for your comment, which appears to be about scheduling on the UK TV channels.
This particular website is aimed at helping those with technical reception issues, etc.