All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Carol Illingworth : The Adintinny transmitter, as referred to by Dave Lindsay, has been operating on reduced quality from 22.14hrs yesterday (the 9th), this just about matching up with the timespan you have reported that Arrocher has been down.
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Michael Polyglot: Should the Humax PVR you refer to be one of the older models? e.g: 9200 / 9300 or older variety, then these devices are notorious for being sluggish in loading / updating the EPG data into the system, basically caused by the extremely slow processor chip fitted in these early models, something that attracted numerous complaints from owners of these PVR's shortly after they were first released a number of years ago.
My own household still uses both of the aforementioned models purely as secondary boxes to later versions (inc Freesat) likewise with both suffering from exactly the same problems as you have mentioned, with in some cases taking nearly 45 minutes or so to fully populate the guide, and even then with some channels doggedly resisting being updated, needless to say nothing can really be done about improving them in any way.
That said is of course only applicable when its known that the programme providers have sent out the data necessary to update the guide, as verified by checking the guide on a later model.
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Jon Dennington : Purely out of curiosity, although you may well have cleared the channel list followed by resetting the box, but did you try disconnecting the box from the mains supply for a short period (3-5 minutes) before powering it up again and carrying out the retune?, as this latter action is necessary on some devices.
On the subject of the software update, does this refer to V3.0 A2950.D390.F102 ?, which I believe to be the last issued by Pulse-Eight on 21-6-2013.
Another point being, that it cannot automatically be assumed that there isn't a signal issue just because the TV picks C29 up when the aerial is coupled directly into it, as all tuners vary in sensitivity, and so it all depends on what the strength and quality level is being indicated at on TV when on C29?
Although this isnt the best week to be carrying out signal checks from Oxford, as engineering work has been taking place since Monday, likewise odd things might happen now and again.
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Colin FLINDELL: The undermentioned link explains the reasons for the changes, the question being, did you try retuning the TV?, if though you have and yet channels are still missing, carry out a manufacturers reset on the TV followed by disconnecting it from the mains for a minute or so before reconnecting it again and carrying out a "first time installation", should this be offered on the set up menu, otherwise just use a normal auto-tune.
You should also try the "disconnecting from the mains" procedure on the BT box, although some of those boxes have issues, BT being the best people to give advice on this.
On 2 February there are changes to ITV reception for the Oxford and Ridge Hill transmitters | Freeview
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rob: Yes, please do, as what you have been told by the person (Mike) in the SATAS shop is perfectly correct, because speaking as an RF equipment engineer of many years standing (40+), I can say with an element of confidence that if the combination of a Log coupled into a booster of around 20dB's or so does not give satisfactory results in your particular location, then nothing will.
The problem with areas such as yours being, that reception can change over a relatively short period of time, whereby a high gain (group) aerial can, at the time of installation, have the edge signal strength wise over that of a Log, but though this is generally at the expense of the stability level of the signal being received, for reasons mentioned in my previous postings.
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Jean : Should the problem remain after having carried out the various tests as suggested by Dave Lindsay, could you please give an update on the brand model of the box in question.
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Alan White: Due to your location, the problem could possibly be caused by the tuners in your Sony devices reacting in an adverse way to being overloaded by an excessively high signal level being fed into them.
To get an idea if this is likely to apply or not, remove the aerial connector going into the TV (from hard disc) and temporarily replace it with a short length of wire inserted into the middle of the TV's aerial socket (e.g: about 4 feet of lighting flex) and check what the signal is like.
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Alan White : Another method of temporarily reducing the signal strength, but in a less drastic fashion, is by turning the aerial by exactly 180 degrees whereby giving a reverse pick up.
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MikeB: Yes, quite so, as signal overload is indeed the most likely reason for Alan's problem, although the signal level received from the aerial in the loft mustn't be quite as high as what would normally be expected from Sutton Coldfield's 200Kw transmitters, that is, going by the fact that Alan's reception has not been completely wiped out.
However, an attenuator such as the one seen on the undermentioned link is likely to be the answer, albeit that I have reservations about recommending these sort of low cost variable devices and much prefer fixed types, however, variable types do seem to be popular even although they are somewhat critical to adjust.
Variable Attenuator | eBay
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Tuesday 10 February 2015 8:07AM
Ian Glover: Although you can if you wish report the problem via the undermentioned link, using the drop down selections to access the fault reporting box, however, in green areas such as yours its always best to first of all try and make one or two local enquiries to ascertain whether (or not) others are also experiencing a similar problem with their reception, as erratic strength / quality indications (even if only on one channel) can also be caused by the signal from the mast being affected by passing over areas containing numerous trees, or alternatively by such as a iffy (corroded) connection in the aerials termination box, as its well known that defects of this nature can actually be frequency selective.
My only reason for saying this, being the fact that ( to my knowledge anyway) one else has reported a similar problem with the BBC on Hastings C25, likewise no TX faults have been reported on the engineering page, only that previously mentioned concerning DAB radio.
Radio & Television Investigation Service - Diagnostic form