All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Neil Bell: Sky boxes of later manufacture (modern Sky+ HD types) are generally all fitted with sensitive tuners, however this does not necessarily always apply where older Sky+ types are involved, although apart from that aspect all Sky boxes (even the oldest) give a high level of AV output signal for feeding into a TV compared to some set top boxes.
But though if Barry Martin found the Freesat boxes to be "stunning" when plugged in back home then this is a "no iff's or buts" case of the TV they are being connected into either being capable of producing better pictures or alternatively having been more carefully set up, although I will admit that some of the lower end LCD sets are inclined to produce a lifeless wishy washy image that's virtually impossible to improve.
Of course that is on the assumption that the inferior quality referred to is not connected in any way to pixelation or glitching? but just poor picture quality.
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Maureen Langston: No one can really assist without having knowledge of your location, this in the form of a post code or at least one from somewhere nearby, e.g: a shop, as only then can details of the transmitter covering your area be accessed.
However in general terms, a person should never carry out a retune unless messages to this effect have either appeared on the screen or alternatively been advertised, as all that's achieved by carrying out a retune is to wipe out the channels already held in the tuners memory, as in most cases the reason for no picture being seen is simply because that the signal level has dropped under that required for reception.
Occasionally though in older equipment the TV / box picks up more channels than its memory can retain, hence they drop out when the set is unpowered, to avoid this happening the TV / box has to be completely reset by carrying out a "first time installation" or factory reset / default setting before carrying out the auto tune.
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Ted: Each satellite receiver requires an individual feed from the dish other wise everything is just the same as with Freeview.
But though it cant be taken as a foregone conclusion that a person is going to be affected by 4G as there is a great deal of quite unnecessary panicking going on about this issue, as its totally dependant on where a person resides in relation to the 4G mast as well as the channels used by the Freeview transmitters that cover their area.
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Tony Hewitt: Pleased to have been of assistance! and that all channels have now been restored.
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adrian: If you can receive Ch5 on the LNB1 input OK but not if you swap the two inputs over then that input feed from the dish is defective, this either being caused by a bad connection on one of the "F" connectors or the very common problem of water having entered the LNB's "F" connector.
Have you tried swapping the inputs over? or are you just reporting what you see on the signal strength bars?
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adrian: Provided that the problem moved from LNB2 over to LNB1 when you swapped the inputs over? and that it did NOT stay on the boxes LNB2 as this could indicate a problem on the boxes LNB2 tuner, but though your tests should really be carried out on the boxes LNB1 input as LNB2 is basically used for recording purposes, and so if Ch5 is perfectly OK when on LNB1's input then the skew setting is perfectly OK.
Maybe you could confirm if this is the case or not, that being Ch5 being OK on LNB1 input?
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LandlubberDave: Many thanks for taking the time to provided an update regarding the outcome of the problem, the info provided by yourself being filed away for reference purposes as it could well come in useful to anyone else in the unfortunate position of having just found out that they also are going to have a wind farm imposed on them.
Maybe you could so good as to try a small test for me based on what you have said regarding your Freeview transmitter now being Dover, as two of Dovers muxes are only predicted as providing variable reception in your location, and so I wondered what like your reception is on ITV3 and also Film4, these corresponding to mux Ch55 and mux Ch48 respectively? both being 40KW transmitters whereas the PSB muxes are radiating on 80Kw, all of Sudbury's six muxes being 100Kw.
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adrian: Just to clarify on a point regarding the signal checks made, when dealing with Sky boxes these indications do NOT represent the channel that the box was maybe sitting on when you went into the check menu, as the levels seen are taken from the default transponder used for the EPG listings, and so any deficiency that might be seen in the levels can even be worse on some channels that use other transponders, this being why its not really advisable to have less than a 55% indication of either strength or quality.
It should also be noted that if the quality is less than the strength then that generally indicates that the dishes alignment requires slight adjustment, this usually always being in the horizontal plane
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Simon: "If" you actually do reside in Sherborne as such then Stockland Hill is indicated as providing better reception to that from Mendip, the latter's ArqA mux (Pick TV / Dave etc) indicating poor.
Should though you reside in Thornford (as per Post.C) then Mendip has the edge over Stockland Hill, and with a good signal level being expected from across all six muxes.
If indeed you do reside in the latter area then you might be picking up the Stockland Hill transmitter, and so as you have already tried the removing the aerial etc procedure then manual tuning is the only answer "after" having cleared the list of anything stored.
Mendips muxes being : 49 - 54 - 58(HD) - 48 - 56 - 52
However should you already have these channels stored then the only way of verifying if the problem is confined to your system or not is by making an enquiry with a neighbour, as I noticed that quite a few complaints have been made about reception from Mendip.
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Friday 29 March 2013 8:16PM
Watt : Now that having moved the position of the box has "seemingly" (as its not been positively proven) somewhat improved the situation then the variation in signal quality that you report on Ch39 is something that I would not consider as being that terribly unusual in situations such as yours, and where the signal path from the transmitter is known to be sweeping over ground at a relatively low angle such as applies with reception from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter whereas not with signals being received from Lark Stoke.
Checks made on the terrain indicator reveals that the secondary aspect of signal from Sutton C starts being affected from roughly 7 miles away, but though much more so within the last 4 miles of your location, this immediately making it vulnerable to suffer from the effects of the terrain that its passing over such as from trees or other forms of vegetation, this being the thing that introduces the aspect of erratic quality to the signal because of data corruption, plus of course coupled to an indication that the signal being received will most likely be susceptible to seasonal changes of the terrain.
The other point that should be noted being, that signal indications displayed on Humax boxes are nearer in reality of what might be observed on a professional signal meter (albeit these being in db's) than that displayed on most TV's which are inclined to give indications that are far higher than the true level, the problem there being that a quality indication of say 100% on a TV might well still be erratic but hidden by the fact of the indication being somewhat embroidered, whereby a full scale indication does not necessarily always represent the entire signal whereas it does on a Humax, this being why a more accurate assessment of a situation can generally be made when using signal reports taken from a Humax box in preference to that from other devices.
That said though, there just had to something amiss with your set up when you reported the Humax as indicating dire quality whereas excellent on the Philips, still a report on observations made over the next few days would be interesting.
By the way, is your TV an LCD (LED illumination) or Plasma type?