All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mary Macer: You are obviously a thinker! as signal strength (or lack of) was most likely the reason for your problem, but as far as the engineering work at Tacolneston is concerned its not really determinable when it will finish, although at least you are now aware of the pitfalls of carrying out an auto scan when signals that were hitherto OK are now found to have vanished.
Pleased all is OK again though!
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Gary: The fact of your boxes having been working three weeks ago but not now even although a TV with built in Freeview still does is not exactly that terribly unusual, because excluding the possibility of a fault in the aerial feeds to the boxes concerned, all this indicates is that the TV is fitted with a more sensitive tuner than that used in the boxes hence the TV can operate with a lower signal level, and so to reiterate on what I already said in my initial reply made on the 12th @ 9.34pm, a 34% signal level is way too low for satisfactory reception, and so in order to solve your problem you have to pinpoint where it is in the first place, this done by carrying out the check on the booster / splitter also mentioned in my original reply, plus the more detailed test as described on my subsequent posting on 13th @ 9.15pm, and I just noticed as also mentioned by Dave Lindsay today, because unless you do this the Eagle device cannot be eliminated from being the cause of the problem.
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nick h: Its not so much 28.2 or 13 degrees East, but 28.2 or 13 degrees "to" the East South, in other words you point the dish towards South and then swing it to the left, this if viewed from the rear of the dish looking in the direction that the dish is facing.
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Kelly: Its not the LNB that would be damaged but the circuitry in the box that's associated with supplying the power to the LNB, and with the chances of this happening being dependant on how long the box has been left running into a short circuit, as some boxes can last for hours whereas others will fail in about 30 minutes, however I believe that you have tested the box on another dish feed and it seems to be OK, so your luck seems to be in!
You should completely unscrew the "F" connector plugs from the ends of the coax and carefully check them to make sure that a single strand of the braiding has not got accidentally wrapped around the middle core when the "F" plug was being screwed onto the coax, as this nearly always the cause of failure when a lead has been extended.
Cant at present give details specific to that model regarding single feed use, but if this facility is offered on that model its always accessible in either the set up or installers menu, the latter obtainable by pressing: services - 4 then 0 - 1 - select, whereas on some boxes its services - 0 then 0 - 1 - select.
By the way dependant on box, the procedure mentioned to obtain the installers menu can be done in one complete sequence without any gaps.
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Andrew: This is a rather strange problem because Ch4 and Ch5 are on the same transmitter as ITV1, however one thing I did notice is that the post code area given is right on the doorstop of the Sheffield 1Kw transmitter and as such could be providing a signal level that high that its grossly overloading the Panasonics tuner, as the tuners used in Panasonics are amongst the most sensitive of any types around, this being the case I would suggest that measures are taken to reduce the level of signal received by trying a test (only a test) using a set top aerial and carrying out a retune once this is connected into the TV.
Even a short piece (about 3 / 4 feet) of cable would do for a test if connected into the TV's aerial sockets inner receptacle.
Further info dependant on results.
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James: Two points concerning your problem, and which has to be in general terms because as no post code (or one from nearby, e.g: a shop) was given I am unable to access the reception predictor, and so as a substitute I used your local post office as a test code.
Your problem could be caused by your TV or box having picked up the Shotleyfield transmitter during an auto tune rather than Pontop Pike, this because the former uses lower channel numbers than the latter, the snag with Shotleyfield being that it does not transmit the commercial muxes as its only a PSB relay.
For a test you should remove the aerial connector and carry out an auto tune for purposes of deleting anything stored, then once completed take hold of the aerial plug again but do NOT insert it as yet, because you have to carry out another auto tune but this time carefully observe the progress bar whilst the auto tune is taking place, then as soon as the bar has reached about 50% of its travel immediately reinsert the aerial plug again and allow the scan to complete.
The reason for using this procedure is to avoid Shotleyfield being picked up as it uses lower channel numbers (22-28) hence keeping the aerial out until this section is passed, then hopefully you will pick up all channels from Pontop Pike, these spanning from 49 (HD) - 59.
If by any chance this still does not have the desired effect then your TV or boxes tuner could be receiving an excessively high level of signal from Pontop Pike located at only about 3 miles or so away, and an "over the top" signal can result in all sorts of odd problems being experienced including no picture at all being received and caused by the tuner being swamped.
Further advice dependant on results.
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Tony: Although you may have already done this, but on a previous posting I see that you mention your aerial is pointing towards Sudbury, this making me wonder if have you have double checked to ensure that all of these channels that you report as being unviewable at times are actually being received from Sudbury and not Sandy? as Sandy is only about 4 degrees out from being a perfect rear pick up on your aerial, and according to the reception predictor Sandy is not that terribly different from Sudbury for reception, neither seen as being exactly sparkling at your location.
Sudbury : (@ 97degrees / 21 miles) 44 - 41 - 47(HD) - 58 - 60 - 56.
Sandy : (@ 281 degrees / 25 miles) 27 - 24 - 21(HD) - 51 - 52 - 48.
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Martin French: Many thanks for your kind comments, and am pleased to know that the info has also been of assistance to yourself in respect of you now being aware of NOT to carry out a rescan in an attempt to recover lost channels, albeit that I fully appreciate that when someone is confronted with this type of situation that they might automatically feel that they should be doing something, but there isn't really anything that can be done except to check now and again to find out if the situation has resolved itself.
This is because the main aspect about digital television that is misleading to many is that unlike in the case of analogue TV that is capable of producing a picture right down to a near zero signal level albeit it covered in speckles! "all" digital receivers work on a cliff system whereby the picture stays exactly the same quality until the signal drops down to a certain level (known as the cliff threshold) and then completely cuts out.
This is why that when anyone discovers that their favourite programme(s) show a blank screen, that if they carry out a signal check (via the menu) whilst "on that same blank screen" its nearly always found that a signal level of sorts will still be seen, albeit that the level seen is under the threshold cut off point hence no picture.
Another aspect about cut off points that is also misleading being that this level referred to can vary from brand to brand, and with Panasonic and Humax (boxes) being amongst the best of tuners for being able to cling onto a signal, this being why some people with more than one TV or box can find that in a weak signal situation some devices will work whereas others not, as it all depends on how sensitive the tuners are.
Hope this might have given you a slight insight into how the system works.
Kind Regards / jb.
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Hayley: The box behind the TV with a light on it is almost certainly a booster / splitter for the purpose of feeding the Freeview signals to TV's in other rooms, and with possibly a jumper being used from one of its outlets into the main TV, albeit that you still might use Sky most of the time.
You will have to power it back up again and make sure that the main aerial lead is going into the boxes socket marked "aerial".
Maybe you could also provide the info as requested by Dave Lindsay just in case there is anything "odd" about the device.
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Tuesday 13 November 2012 11:50PM
Nick: You are placing too much emphasise on the way your aerial is facing, because when a signal is not being received on, or near to, line of sight then the reflective bursts of signal can be from any angle. (within reason!)
Most people who cares to experiment can see this sort of thing happening on most channels if they choose to enter a mux channel number from a station thats well out with their area into their receiving devices manual tuning menu, this in most devices allowing the tuner to act like a form of non db indicating signal meter, then if they observe the strength / quality indications for about 10 minutes or so they will no doubt see exactly what you do on mux Ch60 and caused by the same reasons.