All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
R hunter: Are you in effect meaning that you "can" view a programme but not record either it or anything else? or that you "cannot" view or record anything after after 10.30pm?
By the way, no faults are seen indicated on the transmitter engineering page, but though with problems of this nature its always advisable to check locally if anyone else is experiencing similar problems to yourself.
It would also be of assistance if the model number of your Freeview recorder was known.
| link to this comment |
Cynthia: The answer is really dependant on what your intentions are as far as the VCR/DVD combo is concerned, insomuch are you intending to record Freeview programmes on it such as possibly viewed directly on the TV when not on Sky? and if you are then does the Toshiba have an inbuilt Freeview tuner?
The other question being if your HDMI splitter has either auto or manual switching between its inputs?
It would also have been of assistance if you had indicated the model number of the Toshiba and also anything seen printed on the HDMI splitter.
| link to this comment |
R hunter: Due to the nature of your problem I somewhat suspected that a BT vision device might be involved, these devices being notorious for "out of the ordinary" recording problems, but though there are silver and black versions of these boxes and with the newer types being black, which one do you have?, however no matter what version you have you should try rebooting the box by holding in the on/off button until the LED turns red before releasing, then follow this by pressing it again and allowing the box to through its usual set up procedure.
The other thing I would just like to verify being, when you are viewing a Freeview programme on your TV is it always done via the BT vision box or sometimes via the TV's internal tuner?
Finally, with reference to your query regarding the BBC channels being weak, is your aerial fed directly into the BT vision box and with a jumper lead from same then going into the TV's aerial socket?
| link to this comment |
Kenmo: Many thanks for the update and pleased to hear that you have managed to sort the problem out, I only included the additional info just in case nothing amiss was found when you checked the aerial input.
| link to this comment |
Colin: Judging by what you have now reported would certainly suggest that the box is indeed faulty and most likely for the reason mentioned in my previous reply, being that its lost its ability to operate in the 8k mode even although its been set to that in the tuning menu, although I would have liked you to have tried the manual tune test on Ch59 (ITV1) as well.
But though I cant really see any chance of the box operating again as I did notice that in your earlier replies to others you had already carried out the "first time installation" procedure etc, and as such now leaving a software update as about the only possible thing that might effect a cure, however this not being possible on that box except via an over air download which isnt forthcoming any longer.
By the way, my only reason for requesting that you take the aerial out whilst observing the signal strength was just to ensure the level seen on the indicator wasn't being caused by internal oscillation (instability) from within the tuner.
| link to this comment |
Angie: Just purely out of curiosity, although things might well have been altered by now as the street view imagery I am looking at is not bang up to date, but most of the aerials seen on the roofs of the Beckford Road properties are pointing towards either the Midhurst or Hannington transmitters, this making me wonder where your aerial is facing? Rowridge being on a bearing of 207 degrees, you can use the Sky dishes seen as roughly facing towards 152 degrees.
A terrain check of your area indicates that the signal from Rowridge is being obstructed from about 1.5 miles from your location, but considering that the 200Kw Rowridge transmitter is located at only 6.5 miles away I feel that the chances are that you could being receiving a better level of signal than you are doing by having your aerial system checked out by an installer, provided that is if its someone of the "open minded" type meaning a person who is prepared to try a few tests using such as a log periodic aerial which is perfect for applications such as yours.
I do realise that your aerial has already been checked out by a TV / electrical company, but I am inclined to agree with Mazbar's inference with regards to a spark, because (and without wishing to appear offensive) but electricians are generally not compatible with frequencies higher than 50Hz or so albeit that they might well be top people in their own field.
| link to this comment |
Pat oaks: "If" your Freesat box is a PVR (recorder) type then try swapping the two inputs from the dish over, although if its just a receiver then check the "F" connectors at each end of the coax cable by unscrewing the large gland nut that locks them onto the receivers (or dish LNB's) input, followed by carefully unscrewing the body of the plug from the coax to check if any water has entered the connector, finally screwing the connector back onto the coax "after" having ensured that no strands of the braiding are touching the middle core of the cable.
| link to this comment |
Mrs McIntyre: Nothing will be seen on the web, and simply because that zero reception is "always" caused by a problem at the viewers end as satellite signals are always there.
Try swapping the two LNB inputs over on your box, if the situation remains the same you should carry out a signal check using the following procedure as a no signal warning does not necessarily indicate that nothing at all is being received, albeit it can do if either the box has developed a fault or the dish has been knocked out of alignment.
Press "Services" on your Sky remote control and you will see the main menu with "Options" being highlighted.
2:- Select the "Settings" menu using the right arrow button and press select.
3:- Use the left / right arrows to scroll to "Signal" and press select, the grey bars displayed will show you the strength of the anything that might be received.
If you do see anything indicated then the strength / quality levels being indicated for both tuners have to be around 55% minimum or more to produce a picture, because if its significantly less than this then it points to the dish being slightly out of alignment.
However if nothing is indicated then put the box into standby for about a minute before disconnecting it from the mains supply, this followed by leaving it that way for a further 30 seconds or so before reconnecting the mains supply again and allowing it to go through the usual set up procedure.
Further advice dependant on findings.
| link to this comment |
Me: Antiference is simply a brand name of an old established company who manufactures all types of aerials including the Yagi types mentioned.
With regards to the reason for picking up a signal from WH even although your aerial was facing the reverse, yes your assumption is quite correct as the signal from WH is obviously being reflected back towards you from a hill or some other tall structure, this type of thing is quite commonly experienced by many who reside in areas where hills can be seen in the background.
As far as improving your signal is concerned, its totally futile for anyone to try and improve the performance of a manufactured aerial as it quite simply cannot be done, because "if" by any remote chance any channel is improved it will always be at the expense of another.
That said though, the only aerial that can be doctored for a specific purpose is a Log periodic, although doctored in this case means killing part of its coverage range by removing two or three of the small elements on the front of the aerial to restrict its performance from Ch60 upwards in cases where interference from 4G might be a problem.
Matter of fact, in your type of situation a DM log used in conjunction with a 20db variable gain booster such as sold by Argos is a perfect combination for carrying out experiments.
| link to this comment |
Sunday 5 May 2013 9:44AM
Tony Grove: The signal level showing on the sat finder only indicates that a signal has been found but NOT necessarily from the satellite required as the indications are not related to frequency, have you tried the old Sky box back on the dish again just to make sure that its still correctly aligned?
The other point being, if your previous box was a standard Sky type then it only required one input, and so have you fitted a quad block on the dish and run an extra cable from it as is required by your new Sky+HD box? if you have then try swapping the boxes two inputs over.