All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Big Mart: Apologies for late reply which was unavoidable due to pressure of work, but the thick brown coax you mentioned should be perfectly suffice for your requirements, but if you wish to verify this then assuming that your DVD recorder is coupled to the TV via a scart (or HDMI lead) select BBC1 (or anything) and note the signal level indicated, then whilst still on that screen swap the thick brown coax jumper lead over for the white one with moulded plugs and check if the level seen is different, and if "significantly" not then there is nothing wrong with the jumper leads.
However further detailed back checking of your various postings concerning the issue of variable HD reception seemingly indicates that this problem has really plagued you since early March, the significant thing about March being that you did indicate at one point that the HD reception was OK and that dates to before DSO1, but the fact of it being OK at anytime in March when the HD service was still on low power indicates that the communal aerial sited on the other side of the road is capable of receiving a reasonable level of signal from Crystal Palace, but since CP's high powered switchover is now maybe one where its running at a level that is bordering on the verges of being "problem inducing" excessively high and is causing instability to creep in, the point about this being, that signal overloading will usually always show up on HD before SD because of the formers signal complexity, and with in many cases (dependant on tuner) SD not being particularly affected which can mislead a viewer by giving the impression that the signal is OK.
The other snag about this problem in cases such as yours being, that should the high level of signal be affecting the communal aerial systems distribution amplifier, then the signal that you receive could be corrupted before it even reaches your apartment, and is something which might possibly account for the relatively low HD signal level you have reported, as signal readings obtained in an overload situation are very seldom ever accurate and by nearly always indicating low, with in the more extreme cases a level of 100% strength being indicated accompanied by zero quality, this always associated with "no signal being received" in situations where a signal has totally swamped the tuner.
There is a test I would like you to try albeit that on the face of it might appear to be a waste of time, but not! that being to see if HD reception is at all possible when using a set top aerial, because this is one of the best non-technical ways of checking if a person resides in an exceptionally high signal level area.
Other than that you will have to suss out if any of your neighbours use HD reception and if so what their reception is like, as should it be a problem with the communal amp then they "might" also experience the problem, might being emphasised as they could be on a different circuit.
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NICK ADSL UK: I havent had time to properly check as yet, but what has allegedly been done to improve the situation regarding transmissions from Crystal Palace?
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Eric Hayman: Thanks for the update re your purchase of a Toshiba HDR5010 and pleased to hear that you have found it to be totally satisfactory for your requirements, the only slight reservation I have with Toshiba devices being by them having a tendency to be sluggish to commands, as other than that I rather approve of Toshiba products and are easy to work on.
I also feel that you were wise to ditch the DTR160, because any attempts to cure its deficiencies in my book comes into the category of, and to use the expression, "flogging a dead horse", as you can spend no end of time downloading the firmware upgrade into the PC, then having the inconvenience of transferring the file into the Digihome via an RS232 lead, only to find out that after having done so that the whole exercise had turned out to be a waste of time, as in many cases these older devices really requires a hardware update in the form of tuner, rather than a software attempt to cure their ailments.
Anyway, thanks again for your update.
Regards / jb.
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Jim Davies; I realise that its listed as 61- on this page but since April 13th ArqA has been transmitting on Ch49 from Winter Hill.
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maureen williams: You do not, and should not, require to alter anything regarding the settings on a Sky box, and if you find that the 430n does not work then try it on the dish feed to the other box in the living room, if though it doesn't work there either then the boxes power unit has most likely failed, NOT exactly an uncommon thing to happen on a box of that age, and so you should keep your eyes open for another second hand one as there are copious supplies of them around.
By the way the Prima box is an old analogue type and is useless nowadays for reception, most of them having been binned.
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Tigminor; EPG programme channel 62 is on mux channel 59 from Oxford, and so if no actual programme is seen on the other TV either then it suggests that the programme hasn't actually started as yet, as Pick TV on EPG 11 and Dave on EPG 19 is on the same mux transmitter as Stars TV on EPG 62.
You should check with someone else local to you, as I have no way of verifying if the programme is operational as yet, but have you carried out a factory reset before re-tuning? as that's always advisable as it gets rid of any corrupted data that might be stored in the memory.
Regarding analogue, yes!! it did have a certain robustness attached to it that digital TV most certainly does not have, basically because of its reception threshold level whereby that under a certain signal strength it cuts off completely, unlike analogue that could slowly vanish into the background speckles.
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Mark Fletcher; Yes, you are of course quite correct as its not April 13th but April 2013, so Jim Davies please ignore what I had said.
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Mandy: If you have used all four outputs on the dishes quad LNB then you could change it for an "Octo" version, but as you mentioned that its acceptable for the extra bedroom location just to be able to view the same programme as on the Freesat box (PVR?) then all that's required is to purchase an RF modulator and couple this into the Freesat boxes scart socket, as that will then give you exactly the same facility as a Sky boxes RF1 output.
The point I am not quite clear about though is, that although you had mentioned the old analogue aerial you haven't indicated as to whether or not this is used for Freeview reception, so maybe you could clarify that point.
This is a link to a popular type of modulator.
Programmable Universal Modulator : Video Switches : Maplin Electronics
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maureen williams: As far as the dish is concerned, if you have (or are getting) Sky HD then two of the leads will be used, but these leads are all of equal status and are absolutely identical to each other as well as being electrically independent, so you can use anyone you want for a test.
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Tuesday 1 May 2012 11:21PM
Stephen Singer: Apart from whats already been mentioned, but by the fact of you having used the word "local" when referring to the station could suggest that you are not that terribly far away from the transmitter, and as such are possibly receiving an excessively high level of signal which is partially blocking the Humax's tuner, albeit this in an intermittent fashion as this would result in exactly the symptoms you have mentioned.
Should this situation apply to you, then if you have any type of aerial booster fitted it must be by-passed, but if you do not have a booster then for a test try a short piece of wire (about 12") pushed into the inner part of the Humax's aerial socket and giving an update on the results.