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All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

J
Indoor aerials | Installing
Wednesday 28 December 2011 5:02PM

Carl Hudson: Devices such as the One-for-all are as you have found basically OK but only for line of site situations, and there is nothing you can do to improve the device as it already has an amplifier built into it which is far more powerful than most types used on loft or roof aerials when located in bad reception areas.

Cant you put the device in the loft? as it would probably operate quite satisfactory up there "if" positioned properly.

By the way you cannot get anything to transmit the signal in the way you have mentioned.

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Paul: If you stand as directly under the satellite dish as you can manage and look forwards / upwards at an angle of approximately 25 degrees or so from the horizontal, then that's roughly the angle the signal is approaching the dish from.

If no obstructions are seen anywhere near this line then its likely that the dish is very slightly misaligned off centre (in the left / right horizontal sense) meaning that the slightest movement is upsetting the signal.

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steve: When you went into the section of the Sky boxes set up menu referred to did you see "RF output" mentioned on the list? because on re-reading your posting I see you mention that its the "latest" Sky+ boxes you have, and if its a DRX595 model then they do not have RF modulators fitted to them.

To be able to use the RF feed through to TV's in other rooms you would require to purchase a separate RF modulator, this connected into the Sky boxes scart socket, devices such as this sold by Maplin.

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J
Upgrading from Sky to Freesat | Freesat
Thursday 29 December 2011 8:40AM

Annette Towers: You can connect a Freesat PVR or any other Freesat box on to the leads previously used by Sky devices without having to change anything, the only thing being that if you only have a single lead from the dish and you purchase a twin tuner PVR, then for correct operation you will require a second lead to be run from the dish to enable the recording of one channel whilst viewing another.

And with reference to the dishes LNB, this will require to be changed to a dual or quad block (around £10.00) if its only got one output port, a quad block being better as you can use two of its outputs for the Freesat PVR and have an additional cable from one of the other two spare outputs running to a Sky box in another room.

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DR Tucker: Just to add to what's already been said. Although as Dave Lindsay has mentioned it might well be the case that the present low power signals are just really not strong enough to be received properly at the location mentioned, but though its not by any means guaranteed that they will be either once that Crystal Palace is on high power, as although the reception predictor does have its faults because it cannot cater for local conditions, it does not however give what I consider to be very good indications for reception at this post code, as the three commercial multiplexes (on the same power as the PSB muxes) are indicated as being variable right into 2014, and as an engineer that would raise my suspicions as to the stability of "any" signals received.

What I would advise you to do is, rather than using an auto-tune in an attempt to pick the channels go into the "manual tune" menu and enter Ch23 (BBC) observing if anything immediately shows on the signal strength / quality indicator, which if it does is inclined to indicate that you "might" be OK once the station is on high power operation, also try this same test on Ch22 (ITV), but though should nothing show on the strength bar then it doesn't look at all promising.

The reason for this test is, that although you haven't picked anything up a signal can still be there but just at a level not high enough to resolve a picture.

I would personally have suggested that a TV with Freesat built in would have been a much safer choice for use at your mothers location, as this would have connected into the Sky dish with no alterations having been necessary.

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Kelly: Try carrying out a signal level check on MuxA / Ch32 as it might be just under the level than can resolve a picture, this meaning that you would require an amplifier to bring it up slightly enough to get over this problem, something which might not change any until next April when the station goes over to high power operation.

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J
Feedback | Feedback
Thursday 29 December 2011 5:40PM

Trevor Carpenter: No! the two systems will stay running in parallel to each other, as there are lots of areas in the UK that presently cannot, and never will at any time, receive a Freeview signal.

As far as a reliable Freesat HD PVR box is concerned, you cannot go far wrong with a Humax brand device.

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bruce: Just purely out of interest, what model of Humax box are you referring to? as these are amongst the best boxes around in the technical sense and so I am rather intrigued as regards to the model that is seemingly causing you so much problems.

I also noted that you predicted as having excellent reception from Mendip on the main PSB muxes, and although the predictor indicates the same on all six muxes I feel that ArqA and ArqB (Ch67 & 52 respectively) could be a bit glitchy side as they are on much lower power until the end of next March.

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J
Diagnostics - old version
Thursday 29 December 2011 8:57PM

Peter Wright: Without knowledge of your location (post code) something which would have been of great assistance in determining as to whether or not you are capable of receiving signals from more than one station, as what you have reported suggests this is happening, however what you should do is scrub everything stored by carrying out a factory reset, maybe called a "first time scan" on your set, then after carrying out another auto-tune you should (or might) see a box coming on requesting your region, its this facility that will allow only the region selected to be stored and discarding anything else picked up.

If though after doing that you still end up with an excessive number of programmes being stored, then the only way of getting over the problem is by re-tuning the TV using its "manual tuning" facility, this being done after having carried out a further factory reset.

The multiplex channel numbers to enter being given on receipt of your post code.

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