All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Stuart Ahrens: Excellent news! and something to remember for the future should a problem of a similar nature ever occur again at any time, as this procedure is not displayed in a prominent fashion in Philips manuals.
Anyway thanks for the update and pleased to have been of assistance.
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Mark E7: Albeit that this is something I always ask people complaining about similar problems to yourself before suggesting carrying out any tests, but have you as yet verified with any others in your immediate locality if they are also experiencing difficulties with their reception? as dependant on answer from it could save you from carrying out needless checks on your system.
By the way, 4g interference (or the pre-service testing of should it apply) can cause receivers to give low strength indications as a result of the powerful 4g signal swamping the tuner, that said I cannot see and transmitters (4G or otherwise) being close enough to your location to cause this sort of problem.
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nick: If you do not see any choices being offered on the TV then you are likely to be using composite video, but on the subject of the potentiometer, pin 17 is the common ground and so it should be connected to one side of the potentiometer and with scart pin 19 (comp out) being connected onto the other end, the wire that was "originally" connected to pin19 and which goes into the TV being connected into the potentiometers middle tag, this then enabling the comp output to the TV to sweep from zero signal to full strength.
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nick: Yes, it should do, but with the proviso being that you have verified the problem is not being caused by a faulty connection on any of scart pin numbers 4 / 17 /18 / or 21 all of being grounding pins, because all you are effectively doing is reducing the video drive level being fed into the TV's comp video input.
But please note the following, that said concerning the mod refers to the scart plug that's connected into the box and not the TV (different pin numbers) as its easier to observe what's happening on the screen this way, but what to do first of all is remove the casing from the scart connector and for ease of identification mark the wires (using Tippex or similar) connected to pin 19 and also 16 then plug the connector back into the box.
Next, switch the TV and box on and select any channel whose picture content results in an element of buzz being heard then carry out the following test, carefully snip the wire where it joins pin 19's tag which should result in the picture vanishing as well as the buzz on the audio, albeit that the audio content of the channel the box is sitting on will still be heard, however if the picture did not vanish when you snipped 19 then the TV must be using its RGB input, and if the input mode is not selectable via the TV's set up menu then the way to force it to switch to comp is by snipping the wire on pin 16, you could check this before doing so by temporarily shorting pin 16 onto one of the ground pins, the only problem there being that you "might" have to switch the TV to standby then back on again "whilst holding the short in place" before it will switch.
The final point being, that although I mentioned using a 1k pot this is because that any enthusiast in this field is more likely to have this (or a higher) value kicking around, whereas a much lower value of say about 200 ohms (or slightly less) would be better by it give a more even sweep across the adjustment range as you are only dealing with a low impedance circuit, the effect of a pot being too high a value being that it acts more like an on / off switch rather than a variable.
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nick: Re: subject of the potentiometer, if you are acquaint with soldering on smaller items then you could use a skeleton preset of the smaller variety and solder its two fixed tags directly across pins 17 & 19 on the scart plug, the wire previously removed from 19 being soldered onto the presets variable tag, this making a really neat job of it.
The advantage with skeleton presets being that they can easily be obtained in a range of lower values plus of course they are really cheap!
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Joe: Considering the fact that you are referring to the Crystal Palace transmitter which is located at roughly 5 miles away, it would be quite unthinkable for it to be down for even 15 minutes or so let alone around 36 hours, therefore I suggest that you try and check with neighbour or whoever to find out if they also are being similarly affected and especially so if they / you are connected to any form or communal aerial system, as what you have reported suggests that the problem is being caused by something within your own installation.
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Joe : As far as I can see the work that has been taking place this week at the Crystal Palace transmitter is connected with its FM radio service and not television, however as the terrain indicator shows that your location has a clear line-of-sight (buildings excluded) to the CP transmitter then purely for test purposes should you be able to access such as a set top aerial you should connect that into your BT box and see if anything is received, even a short length of wire (about 6 feet) connected into the boxes aerial socket might bring results.
But though, much as I am fully aware that many would prefer not having to do this and in some cases with very good reason!, but you should try and check with others nearby to find out if the problem is only confined to your own installation or not, as its about the only way of finding out.
By the way, are you connected into an aerial distribution system? or does the aerial belong to yourself?
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John: If your reason for not wishing to carry out an auto-tune is caused by you possibly residing in an area where your TV or box picks up channels from other stations, then by rights you should really carry out a "first time installation" or "factory reset" followed by "manually" tuning in each of Malvern's six mux channels one at a time, storing the results after each scan.
However although this procedure is not necessarily guaranteed to work is it depends on the menu system used on the brand of TV or box you are using, but select the EPG guide listing menu (or channel edit facility) and delete 15 & 45, then go into your TV or boxes tuning menu / manual tune then entering and scanning C57, this being Malvern's PSB2 transmitter used by ITV1 and which Film4 is also now using.
Check the EPG list to see if Film4 has returned followed by verifying that you can view it, if all OK then repeat the procedure already carried out but this time enter C55 (COM6) used by Film4+1.
By the way, Malvern's six multiplexes operate on the following channels.
53 (BBC) - 57 (ITV1) - 60 (HD service) - C50 (ITV3 / Drama etc) - 59 (Pick TV / Sky news etc) - 55 (Yesterday / ITV4 etc)
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John: I had also meant to say that its not possible to add and individual programme to the guide listings screen as it can only be done by rescanning the multiplex that the programme required will be located on, this action updating the said multiplexes contribution to the guide listings screen.
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Saturday 7 September 2013 7:18PM
Viv: No problem, as although I mentioned the types sold by Argos this was just really for the convenience of purchase angle rather than anything else.
Maybe though you could give an update on results once you have had a chance to evaluate the performance of your purchase, because provided that your problem is "not" one of the quality being seen to intermittently dive downwards, boosters not being of any assistance whatsoever in this type of situation, then your intended purchase should improve things by lifting the signal up to a reasonable level above the receivers cut off threshold, signals hovering around it always suffering from glitching.