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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
Thursday 26 January 2012 11:42PM

Emma: The local Norwich station located at only 1 mile away stands a chance of being picked up by a suitably positioned indoor aerial, but there is a much better chance of good reception from the main high powered station Tacolneston at 11 miles.

It has to be said though that its always a hit and miss with "same room" type aerials as they are vulnerable to any movements occurring within the room, so I would always advise that if at all possible to borrow one for a test before making a purchase, or alternatively purchase it with a guarantee of return if unsuitable.

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J
Connecting it all up | Installing
Friday 27 January 2012 12:05AM

Toni: I realise that your equipment has numerous connection facilities, but basically two of the devices have HDMI sockets and one with only a scart connection, the VHS / DVD recorder, that being the case then the Sony and Sky HD box use an HDMI each on your TV and with the TV's only scart socket being used for the VHS / DVD recorder.

The Sky HD box does not require a normal aerial to be connected into it "if" you are not using its RF2 modulated output for feeding into an analogue TV in another room.(DRX595 models do not have this)

The other aspect you will have to indicate is what you want the VHS / DVD to be able to record from, as the other connections cannot be decided upon until this is known.


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F Canfield: Yes please do! as I would be interested in what you find.

The point is though, that when I suggested carrying out a test using the procedure mentioned it was basically because that anyone trying to get a picture by moving an indoor aerial about whilst "not" using the signal strength bar as a guide, hasn't really any clues as to whether a movement one way or the other is causing a signal to increase or the reverse, with this even applying if the picture does suddenly come on, as unlike analogue where speckles start appearing as a signal drops, with digital reception the picture quality doesn't change from a signal that's reached just above the reception threshold and no more, right up to one that full strength to the point of near overload.

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J
Diagnostics - old version
Friday 27 January 2012 12:11PM

Nikki: Thanks, as that enables me to check on the station that covers your area, this indicating as being Emley Moor and which is reported as having engineering work in progress, so this "may" have been responsible for your problem.

If though you have re-scanned since you made the posting you may well by now have succeeded in getting a signal again as transmitter down times are never for very long and can even be as short as a few minutes, if though you still cannot get anything on your box then its liable to point to the aerial, and so this will require checking out. (is it in the loft or outdoors?)

I will say though, that you are also indicated as being able to receive from your more local Beecroft Hill relay at only 3 miles away, so just out of interest if you can actually see your aerial have a check if the elements are sitting flat (horizontal) or whether positioned vertically (up and downwards facing) as if the latter you are on Beecroft Hill which as a Freeview "light" PSB only station has limited programmes.

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Mark: Have you tried viewing the signal strengths indicated on both channels for about 5 minutes or so just to see if one of the scales is fluctuating, as going by what you say has been done then it points to either a bad "F" plug connection on the LNB
or alternatively the block itself is faulty, or even one of the boxes tuners, as resetting it (the box) wont make any difference to that type of fault.

The other thing you could try for a test is swapping the two "F" plugs over on the back of your box, as if its No2 input on the box thats faulty then there wont be any difference seen with the problem, but if the problem is at the LNB end then there will be.

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J
Feedback | Feedback
Friday 27 January 2012 4:44PM

Nigel Cory: I am afraid I beg to differ! as you are making the mistake of looking at the Humax PVR (personal video recorder) referred to as though it is another form of standard hard drive recording device such as your DVDR3750, and because it is a standard recording device is equipped with a number of "inputs" to enable video / audio from any analogue source (i.e: scart or phono inputs) to be stored on its internal hard drive prior to being recorded onto a DVD disc, or alternatively just kept away for future viewing.

PVR's (all) do "not" have any inputs for recording as they only record directly from their tuners, whether satellite or terrestrial Freeview, and that's exactly what I told Duncan in an unambiguous fashion.

In other words PVR's only have outputs, although a Humax can also output what's already recorded via a USB connection to another stand alone hard drive so as not to use its internal hard drive space up, then at a later point the programmes stored on the external hard drive can be viewed via (and only) the Humax again, but its not recording from anything external, but simply transferring to an external store what it has already recorded then recovering it again.

Hope this somewhat clarifies the situation.

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jen: The only thing you can do is try swapping the box with the no signal indication over to the dish feed of another that you know is working, as either its a case of the lead that was repaired having a faulty connection, or that the box has been damaged because of its polarity switching voltage which runs through the cable at all times having been shorted out when the connection lead was chewed.

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Mark: I did say that if no difference was noticed by swapping them over then its the boxes (actual box) No2 input that's faulty, but as you "now" notice a change then that indicates that its either the cable to the dish or the connection on the dish end of it that's defective, this requiring the "F" connector plug on the LNB to be unscrewed and checked for corrosion though moisture or general water seepage.

If nothing amiss is seen then its likely the block itself that developed a fault, so if by any chance a quad block is fitted which will have two spare outlets, then the input to the suss LNB port can just be changed over.

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Mark: And just to emphasise, your test has proven that its "not" the box at fault, as the problem is definitely caused by one of the things mentioned.

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Malcolm: You may have already found it by now, but the auto-upgrade ON/OFF facility is illustrated on page 29 of the WLT66 series user manual under the "features" heading.

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