menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Archive (2002-)

 

 

Click to see updates

All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Dave Timm: Well this type of problem can also occur if a person is receiving a signal thats verging on being excessively high as a slightly over the top signal can cause instability to occur in the tuner (especially LG's and Samsungs) but though as you are located at approximately 14 miles away from the Emley Moor transmitters its not very likely that this will be applicable in your case albeit that you may well be receiving a strong signal.

Just out of curiosity, when you do have a fully populated EPG list will this still be retained if you put the set into standby for a few minutes, remove the aerial while its in this state, then take it back out of standby again and select the EPG guide?

The other point being, could you please supply me with the model number of the TV in question.

link to this comment
GB flag
J
Feedback | Feedback
Monday 17 December 2012 8:16PM

Stephen P: Yes quite so, and I do realise that you were only indicating to Kari Rives a possible way to obtain UK TV programmes in the US without being blocked when an IP address from outwith the UK was detected, what I mentioned was just an example of the same thing being done but in reverse.

I personally dont really know anything about the legalities of using a proxy, but it has to be admitted that by using one for the purposes referred to involves an element of deception, but whether its deception in a legal sense is another matter, although I suppose the legal aspect might only come into it if the proxy was being used for criminal purposes.


link to this comment
GB flag
J
Upgrading from Sky+HD to Freesat+HD | Freesat
Monday 17 December 2012 11:47PM

Mark: The only advantage of having a Sky free to view card is that it enables viewing of the correct regional news channels for a persons location, as otherwise apart from being able to view an odd channel here and there you are just as well not having a card installed in an old Sky box.

By the way, its to my belief that the latest price for the card in question is £25.00, and with the card lasting for an indeterminable period of time as renewal times are decided by Sky, my own one being in use for nearly four years now.

The only thing is that if anyone uses a Sky+ box then it will revert to being a standard non-recordable (or play back) box when the contract is cancelled with Sky, as they retain access control to this side of the box on a permanent basis and will only release it upon payment of the appropriate subscription fee, which I believe was in the region of approximately £12.00 per month, although this well have altered by now.

As far as being able to view HD channels is concerned this is the info concerning this.

Free to view "without" a Sky card being used. (none inserted into slot)

BBC1 HD - BBC HD - NHK World HD
------------------------------
Free to view "with" a Sky viewing card.

BBC1 HD - BBC HD - ITV1 HD (England and Wales only) Ch4 HD - Ch5 HD - NHK
World HD.


link to this comment
GB flag

Nick Hayes: This could suggest that your mothers TV or box has tuned to the local (very, less than 1 mile) Durham relay and which as a PSB only station does not transmit commercial channels.

The problem is that the usual procedure of removing the aerial connector during an auto tune then reconnecting it at a certain point along the scale might not work at your mothers location, as the gap between the channels used by Durham and Pontop Pike are too close for accuracy, but if all other channels are coming in OK then it might be possible just to add ITV3 by going into the tuning menu / manual tune selecting and then scanning on mux Ch50, this being used by a number of different programme operators, although to test if this is already stored see if you can receive EPG Ch38 Quest, as Quest uses the same multiplex as ITV3.

Further info dependant on results.



link to this comment
GB flag
J
Some UK Free upgrades
Tuesday 18 December 2012 4:57PM

Wilf Fletcher: BBC1 North West is From Winter Hill on Ch62 (802.000Mhz), the ITV1 match being Granada on C59 (778.000Mhz)

link to this comment
GB flag

Gerry: Well I am pleased to have been of assistance! however with regards to the warning message that pops up for a second or so, press "menu" then select "installation" (4th icon down on LHS) select "antenna power" and press the OK button then use the > button to switch this "off" as I suspect that it may be on.

link to this comment
GB flag

Mike: Outlets from an LNB are technically identical, and so if the one used in the LNB2 position did not work when tested in the boxes LNB1 input then a defect exists in this feed and most likely being caused by one of aforementioned reasons, plus though another possible one not actually mentioned, and being that water has entered the LNB2 feeds "F" connector (on the LNB) this requiring it to be unscrewed from the block and then further unscrewed from the coax for purposes of drying out with a tissue.

However this is only really important when these feeds are being used with the Humax HDR box as a Sky boxes LNB2 input is effectively redundant when no contract is in force, and so as far as the Sky box is concerned just leave the feed that works (in a fashion) connected into the boxes LNB1, and then either (1) disconnect the boxes power supply lead for about 30 seconds or so before reconnecting it again and allowing it to go through the "searching for listings" procedure, or (2) use the following procedure which is dedicated to a Sky+ HD box, although slight variations might be encountered as Sky menu's are not exactly the same dependant on the version of box used.

Press SERVICES on the remote control then press the right arrow once to navigate from OPTIONS to SETTINGS.

Press SELECT and a tab showing PICTURE should be highlighted.

On the remote control type in 0 - 1 then press SELECT and the SET UP tab should be highlighted.

Press the RIGHT arrow 5 times to navigate to INSTALL (this changes to NEW INSTALL once selected) and press SELECT.

Follow the on screen instructions until INSTALLATION COMPLETE is displayed and press SELECT to continue.

Ignore any warning messages that might be seen referring to LNB2's input, but when dealing with a reception problem on a Sky box the thing to remember is, that if the box did not find listings because of a feed from the dish problem then should the fault be subsequently rectified the box has to be allowed to search for listings again to enable the EPG to be populated.

By the way a 60% indication for strength and quality is fine in a lower sense as 75% is the ideal norm.

link to this comment
GB flag
J
Freeview retune day - how was it for you? | Blogs
Tuesday 18 December 2012 11:31PM

M S Hahn: There are no technical differences whatsoever between Sky and Freesat as far as anything connected to the dish or LNB used on is concerned.

And if you are referring to the analogue RF modulators fitted in most Sky boxes for purposes of sending the Sky signal to a remotely positioned TV's located in bedrooms etc, yes you are quite correct insomuch that Freesat boxes do not have this facility and so if its required an external RF modulator has to be used.

link to this comment
GB flag
J
Connecting it all up | Installing
Wednesday 19 December 2012 12:22AM

vance: What I cant quite understand is, if you have a Panasonic dual tuner Freesat recorder that you report as working perfectly OK then why was a new dish fitted? as the fault was obviously with either the TV or the feed from the dish to it.

Also, as you are using three of the four outlets on the dishes LNB (on assumption that a quad block is being used) i.e: two for the recorder and one for the Freesat TV then this leaves a spare outlet on the LNB that can be used for test purposes, so has it?

Finally, if the Panasonic Freesat recorder is indeed working perfectly OK on the dish, then for a test you should temporarily transfer the recorders LNB1 input connector over to the TV and check if this link operates OK.

link to this comment
GB flag

Mike: Well nothing is lost by trying the single feed mode, although this should not make any difference (in theory anyway!) as far as your particular problem is concerned as that mode is only really for use in situations where the Sky box is capable of recording and yours isn't!

However what Mike D has mentioned regarding the LNB's lower frequency (as well as other things to observe) could be a factor, as the programmes that you can view are on the high band albeit that there are others up there that you cant, and so although I do realise that you have already said in your original posting that you had tried all three reset procedures (hence why I did not mention them) you should carry out another check on the High & Low frequencies to ensure that they are indicated as below, except that is for the single feed mode being set to ON.

The correct LNB values should read:

LNB Type: Standard
1:- Low Band LO Frequency: 9.75
2:- High Band LO Frequency:10.60
3:- LNB Power Supply: ON
4:- 22 KHz Command: ON
5:- Single feed mode normally off.

Press the red button to reset them to default values "even although they may already be indicating them" (important!)

The other thing to check is that the default transponder values also match up to below.

Default Transponder values should read:

1:- Frequency: 11.778
2:- Polarisation: V
3:- Symbol Rate (Mbaud): 27.5
4:- FEC: 2/3

Another point to note being, that although the signal level test indicated OK this only represents the default transponders frequency and not necessarily what you are trying to receive, plus that even although the High or Low band frequencies might well be correctly set that's all it means, i.e: that they are set, and not that all is OK because the LNB could still be defective.

However all these procedures could be cut short if you could find a way of testing your box on someone else's installation or alternatively trying their box on yours as that would instantly indicate whether its the LNB or box at fault, because when dealing with certain types of odd faults sometimes substitution of equipment is the only way forward as I cant really see the problem being solved using the Sky box for testing, this being the case I think that you should revert to using the Humax box for your experiments as the LNB settings above are not dedicated to Sky boxes and you can use both feeds from the dish, but before taking the "F" connectors out of the Sky box mark the coax lead that's used for LNB1 so that this can be coupled into the Humax's LNB1 input.

However should the Humax box also respond in a similar fashion to the Sky box then that is inclined to point to a fault on the LNB.


link to this comment
GB flag