All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Bill Chesters: No signal problems are never in my experience cured by updating the system software, as the problem is either due to the dish having been nudged slightly out of alignment or its a possible defect in the lead from the dish caused by water having entered the "F" connector plug on the LNB, or in very odd occasions the actual LNB having failed
Another cause of this type of problem can be the boxes power supply being defective, this not necessarily being an uncommon thing to happen on boxes of five or so years old, especially if they have been in constant use.
Press "services" then 4 - 6 and check if anything is seen on the strength / quality indicator bars.
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Bill Chesters: I purposely didn't mention anything concerning stopping the update as you will most likely have done this by now.
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JAMES: Thanks for the update, the content of strongly suggesting that it could indeed be some really odd "never before heard of" problem that's developing in the box after it has been running a while, this being a classic sign of a component defect.
But though a test using another portable will nail the source of the problem once and for all, as if that also distorts after a while and it still does it when you take the normal aerial out of the Sky boxes input then it "is" the box.
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Paul H: Waltham appears to be the best bet for reception in that part of Nottingham and a standard Log 40 aerial should be a perfect replacement for your old one.
If the old aerial is of the age mentioned then I wouldn't really advise using it again because its bound to be suffering from elements of corrosion somewhere, as alloys always do.
I don't quite understand what you are meaning by why you should pay for extra TV points? or are you meaning the aerial person wanted to replace them? as if that's what was said then its unnecessary to do this if they were working OK.
This is a link where you will see the Log 40 referred to.
Online TV FM DAB Aerial sales
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Paul H: If the cable run from the loft down to the booster / splitter was working perfectly OK before the aerial problem occurred then it will still be, and as such does NOT require to be altered.
I suspect though that the aerial company is thinking along the lines of having the booster / splitter in the loft and running two feeds from the loft down to an outlet socket in each room, which of course ends up with exactly the same facilities as you presently have albeit "maybe" a little neater.
You could if you wish still use your old aerial, but speaking from an engineers viewpoint I wouldn't, and especially if it might even be older than the ten years that you know about, but of course the choice is entirely yours.
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Phil: Most reports that I have seen indicate that its nearly impossible to pick UK satellite channels in that area even when using a 3 metre dish, one report having mentioned that their 4 metre cant get a signal either because Sicily is outside of the satellites footprint.
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Paul H: Yes, in other words reinstalling everything in a somewhat more pleasing neater fashion, but though with the end result of this work only providing you with exactly the same facilities as you presently have as nothing will be be gained in the technical sense, not of course that this is required anyway if your reception was previously OK.
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Paul H: What was said is taking it that when you had previously mentioned the signal being split, that this split was for purposes of feeding the signal to the lounge and upper bedroom referred to?
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Diana Addison: 29 is just a code number that sometimes appears associated with the box not being able to pick up the default transponder and is something which can be caused by a variety of reasons as well as the actual box being faulty, however its more usually caused with the dish having been moved slightly out of alignment or alternatively water having crept into the "F" connector plug on the dishes LNB, as this will short circuit the signal. You can check on the signal strength being received (if any) by pressing "services" 4 - 6 and look to see if anything is being indicated on the strength / quality bars, if nothing is seen then the problem can be caused by one of the aforementioned reasons plus the lesser possibility of the LNB requiring to be reset, if though strength / quality indications are seen but at a level under the equivalent of 50% (as percentage as such is not shown) then this indicates that the dish has moved "very" slightly out of alignment, this type of problem sometimes cured by giving the dish (sides of) a slight nudge to the left or right. You can also check the settings on the LNB using this procedure / 1:- Press Sky followed by Services. 2:- Highlight "System Setup" (4) and press select. 3:- Press "0 then 1 then select" and the installers screen should then be seen. 4:- Press select again to access the LNB setup screen. 5:- Press the "Red" button to re-set the LNB's default settings. 6:- Using the up/down arrows, highlight "Save New Settings" and press select. 7:- Press select to confirm that the settings have been reset. The LNB's correct settings are / Low frequency - 9.75 High Frequency - 10.60 The LNB power supply should always be set to on. The 22KHz Command should always be set to on.
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Thursday 19 July 2012 5:09PM
John: I do fully appreciate that this isn't really an issue and that you were only making an enquiry about HDMI auto-switching and not actually complaining about anything as such, but though should you wish to find out which one of your TV's HDMI sockets has an auto-switch sensor (if not mentioned in your user manual) then when your TV is first switched on from being completely off (mains switched off) is to leave your Freesat box and Freeview recorder in their standby state so that you are viewing normal TV, then whilst viewing the normal TV take the Freesat box out of standby to see if it takes over the TV, if not switch it back into standby again and do exactly the same test with the Freeview recorder, as obviously the device that switches the TV over to its input is connected to the HDMI input with the auto-switch sensor.
I realise of course that it doesn't really matter either way as you can just manually select the input that you want to view, but I found what you had said interesting insomuch that when one of the boxes is updating whatever its triggering the TV to switch over to it, something which could likely be switched off via the menu on the box concerned by having a look in its user manual and deselecting "auto updates" in any menu that gives you a choice, these usually auto-channel updates as well as automatic software updates.