All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Gerard Gregg-Smith: From my part anyway I would like to apologise for not replying to the question you posted on March 5th @ 4.10pm, but I only noticed about an hour or so ago that you had specifically aimed your original posting to myself, the reason I didn't notice it being that I only access this site via a twitter link and generally only see listings of postings made within the last 24 hours or so, unless that is am expecting a reply from whoever then I search further back in the listings.
However as you have obviously sussed out a possible contributory factor regarding the cause of your problem there isn't really much I can add to what you have said, although I would like to add that I do also feel that the current wave of high pressure that's presently across the country and which has / is responsible for numerous complaints of poor reception being made from many areas in the Southern half of the UK, could well be playing a large part in the reasons for your own problems, the effects of the high pressure (signal inversion) even affecting some areas where a viewer might only be located at about 15miles or so from a main transmitter operating on exceptionally high power, such as Crystal Palace will also be doing from April 18th when it switches fully to high powered operation.
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Peter: If a signal is there to receive but is only being received at a low signal strength then auto-tuning is always inclined to pass it by because of the ladder climbing way that auto tuning works, whereas manual tuning always works.
You should first of all carry out a default or factory reset on the box to guarantee that no remnants from previous scans exist to corrupt the EPG listings, then follow this action with another manual scan of the muxes required, Bluebell Hill being: 59 - 24 - 27 - 45 - 42 - 39, these channels by the way only applying until June 13th when BBC changes from 59 to 46, then with another scan being required on June 27th when other mux channel changes take place, but thankfully with these being the final ones as far as channel changes are concerned, other events happening after that date not requiring any further re-tuning to be carried out.
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Peter: Forgot to add, go into the boxes menu and switch off the automatic updates to stop the listings from continually being upset.
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Bob Abbot: Although the signal strength readings are only associated with the particular device you are observing them on i.e: a TV or box, its always best to use what's seen on the TV (or box) when carrying out experiments, so what I was meaning in the second paragraph of my previous, is to go into the "TV's" tuning menu / signal check screen whilst on BBC1 (Mux Ch28) and note the level / quality seen, then change the channel to ITV (mux Ch25) and carry out the same check, and if 100% strength is seen on both try by-passing the Vision booster in case your TV is running on the verges of overloading its tuner.
The other point is, when you say that the signal is split, then split again, are you using a powered splitter to do this? or is it the passive (unpowered) type? as if they are powered types then rather than by-passing the Vision booster try by-passing one of them, the point of the exercise being to reduce your signal, but ONLY if you have seen 100% strength being shown on the signal checks, as if not then don't by-pass anything as the problem might be caused by interference being picked up via the mains supply to the booster, or even the aerial leads if located anywhere near to mains cables like are found in lofts etc.
Anyway try the test mentioned giving an update on results and I will get back to you.
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Angela O'Neill: If you want to record the old tapes onto DVD's then all the TV will be doing is acting as a monitor via the DVD recorder, so you require a scart lead from the DVD recorders AV1's scart socket into the TV's AV1 scart input, once done make sure you can see the DVD recorder on the TV.
You then require another scart lead from the VCR tape machines AV1 scart socket into the DVD recorders AV2 input socket, after doing this select AV2 on the DVD recorders input selector and that will allow any recordings it makes to be only from the VCR.
You can test this by taking the DVD recorder out of standby then putting a tape in the VCR and pressing "play" and the tape should then be seen on the TV via the DVD recorder, but remember only "if" you have selected AV2 on the DVD's input selector.
Needless to say this is what you do when you want to record the tapes onto a DVD, insomuch that you press record on the recorder after the tape has started and with the contents of the tape still being seen on the TV.
Just a small qualification though as you have mentioned HDMI leads, if the DVD recorder has an HDMI output and the TV has HDMI inputs, then forget about the scart between the two (TV and DVD recorder) and just use the HDMI lead, but you "might" have to select HDMI input on the TV's input selector if the TV cant see the DVD recorder.
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Steve: No, as satellite receivers require individual feeds, this because when you select different channels on a sat box you are continually switching the polarity of the signal being received, this achieved by the sat box sending instructions (2 voltages) up to the dishes LNB, and this is why they cannot share the one lead as both boxes would require to be on the same signal polarity or the voltages would clash with each other.
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Russ G: You have actually beat me to it as far as the software update is concerned, as I was going to ask if it was 1.7 or the older 1.65 or maybe even the original 1.44, and should it have been the original I intended giving you a link to the so-called latest.
Anyway, "if" you have kept the CD you burned the latest firmware onto there is only about one thing left I can suggest that you try, that being the standard procedure of carrying out a complete reset on the box by pressing the "stop and off" buttons at the same time, the box automatically switching off after doing so, then once this is done and "before" using the update CD, checking if the EPG situation is still the same, and should it still be then using the CD updating procedure again.
If you have been searching about I dare say you might have noticed that your fault is not exactly an unknown one on the HX870 and with other model numbers also being affected, and even although I haven't been personally involved with that particular problem on your model I do know that in many cases that no really 100% satisfactory solution has been found by Sony to cure the guide problems, this no-matter what they might try to maintain. Plus of course, the fact that there is always a danger when carrying out software updating procedures anyway, as should any glitches occur during the process the device can effectively be rendered as only being of use for spare parts, as there is no back tracking fix for this type of problem.
Of course to be honest about it, that can happen with most other devices as well as Sony if something goes wrong during a software update.
I would be interested to know what the software number was when you first checked it, and did you update it to 1.7?
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deborah: The very fact of the TV being old virtually guarantees that is has analogue,
if I am assuming correctly you have an analogue link from the Sky box going into a Freeview box then into the TV? should this be correct then your problem is most likely caused by your Sky boxes RF2 being tuned to the same frequency as a high powered Freeview channel and which is blotting the analogue channel out.
What you require to do to stop this happening is change the RF output channel being used on the Sky box, this done in the engineers set up menu accessed by pressing Services then 4, then in one smooth operation "0-0-1-select" best achieved by NOT looking at the screen whilst doing so, then change the RF channel number seen in the box and save the changes.
If you had provided your post code I could have advised the channels to avoid, as you might select another clash, but in the mean time just try selecting one about five away from whatever number you see, if it doesn't work try another, but remember every time you change it you have to carry out a re-scan on the TV so that it can pick it up.
By the way the analogue digital selection on most TV's being by a button on the remote marked TV/DVB or similar.
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deborah: Just a point of clarification on the services then 4 then the 0-0-1-select procedure, although it will be rather obvious when you have carried this out, but you scroll down to another No4 on the choice box that comes on "after" carrying out the above mentioned procedure, the No4 box referred to called RF outlets.
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Sunday 18 March 2012 4:27PM
ben: Although I generally favour satellite reception for its sheer reliability I wouldn't consider that option at this early stage, because as I previously mentioned come April 18th when Crystal Palace switches over from 20Kw to 200Kw this should (in theory) overcome the problems experienced by numerous viewers around the London area.
A point I am not sure about though is regarding the connection cable you are using, and especially when you say that it doesn't fit the socket, does yours have a male plug and one end and a female at the other? as if it does then you are using a jumper intended to be used from a devices loop through output socket or alternatively from a VCR's output to the TV's aerial socket, this requiring you to purchase a simple male to male coupler, virtually everywhere that sells electrical cables stocking these. (average 75p)
Although you will probably know this anyway, but if the aerial socket you see protrudes slightly and have a screwed thread, then that's an "F" connection for a satellite receiver.
By the way DAB radio operates around the 220Mhz frequency range with FM on average around 100Mhz, whereas the frequencies used by TV ranges from roughly 470Mhz to just under 850Mhz, so if the socket is dedicated to FM/DAB you can see how far out it is.