All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Steve Williams: Sudbury (308 degrees) is only 14 miles away from your location, but as far as those other stations mentioned are concerned you could if you wish carry out an ITV1 mux signal test on each of them, this achieved by going into your TV or boxes tuning menu / manual tune and entering Dovers C51 (714.00Mhz) but NOT followed by pressing search or scan after having entered the number, because on most devices if any signal is being received the level / quality of will appear in the signal indicator bars as this procedure causes the tuner to act like a signal meter.
If nothing is seen then change the number entered to Bluebell Hills C43 (650.00 Mhz) and see if anything appears, you could even try Crystal Palaces C26 (514.00Mhz) although judging by that indicated on two separate prediction sites I am very doubtful if anything will be seen from either Dover or bluebell Hill but "might" from Crystal Palace, as every one of its muxes are indicated as being receivable at your location albeit with the status of "variable".
By the way, Dover is located at 167 degrees / 53 miles and with Bluebell Hill at 208 degrees / 43 miles, Crystal Palace at 235 degrees / 57 miles.
| link to this comment |
Steve Williams: Yes, you should give it a try! even if only for test purposes, although if you do maybe you could give an update on your findings as I would be interested in the results.
As far as your comment on reception is concerned, as digital reception basically works on a threshold level system this automatically makes it not near so tolerant as analogue to a less than perfect signal, because if the signal drops to under a certain level the reception will cut out thereby giving the impression that the signal has vanished altogether when in most cases it hasn't, the aforementioned manual tuning procedure by-passing the threshold circuitry provided that search or scan is not pressed, because if it is the threshold circuitry jumps in.
| link to this comment |
Lee : Its not really possible for anyone to be able to say for certain whether the problem "is" being caused by a faulty LNB or not as a defect in the boxes tuner can also result in a similar range of problems being experienced, and so the quickest way by far of determining which of the two applies is by either trying your box out on someone else's dish or alternatively theirs on yours, because even although you have a Sky+HD box the dishes LNB can still be signal strength / quality tested using an ordinary single input Sky box on each of the input feeds one at a time whilst on the boxes signal check screen, this accessed on a normal Sky box (or white + box) by pressing "Services - 4 - 6".
However, this type of problem can also be caused by water having entered the "F" connector on the dish resulting in intermittent short circuiting of the band switching control voltages sent from the box to the LNB, therefore if you can access the dish it would be prudent to check this out by unscrewing each of the "F" connectors from the LNB "one at a time" by loosening the connectors gland nut sufficiently to enable the connector to be pulled free of the LNB, then further unscrewing the body of the connector from the coax to check for water, this action being taken on both connectors.
That said, I do have to say that in your case I do have doubts if the water contamination referred is the main reason for your problem as you have reported problems on both inputs 1 and 2, this being somewhat unusual, and so as your boxes LNB1 is the main input used for viewing you should concentrate on only using that input to test each of the two feeds from the dish one at a time using your boxes signal check screen, if OK try the reception out on a range of channels.
I realise that you have already tried a few things, but you should also try placing the box in standby for about one minute before disconnecting it from the mains then leaving it for 15 minutes or so to allow the tuners power supply circuitry to cool down before reconnecting it again? because boxes that operate OK for a while before faulting again "after" having carried out this action generally have defective power supplies.
| link to this comment |
Graham: Have you carried out a retune on your box in more recent times? as in August 2013 Film4 changed from being on COM6 over to PSB2 as used by ITV1 etc, and if you haven't retuned your box its EPG would still have Film4 associated with COM6 hence the blank screen when you try to record it, as although you might well have set the PVR to record Film4 there is no way of knowing whether or not it is actually recording it unless by playing it back.
By the way, its always best to carry out a "first time installation" retune in cases like this to guarantee that the tuners memory has been blanked out, an alternative method is to carry out an auto-tune with the aerial removed then check that the EPG listing has vanished, if it has then reconnect the aerial and carry out a second retune.
| link to this comment |
Lee : Pleased that your box "appears" to be OK when tried out on another dish, appears being emphasised when keeping in mind any possibility of that said in the last paragraph of my reply being applicable!
By the way, if when the "F" connectors are unscrewed / checked out no signs of water contamination are found then you should replace the LNB, these in the form of a kit (as used by Sky) being available from a number of e-bay outlets for around £10.00 to £15.00 or so.
| link to this comment |
Briantist: Lately I have noticed that for some reason or another when a reference is being made to a price of something an A appears in front of a £ sign, an example of seen in my 3.38PM reply to Lee.
I also noticed this in replies made by others such as a posting made by vinny jones on Wednesday 19 February @ 9:22AM.
Is it possible to rectify this problem?
| link to this comment |
Paul: The chassis used in the Techwood AEDTR80S7 are manufactured by a Turkish company called Vestel who also supply virtually the same chassis to a large number of other well known brand names, e.g: Hitachi, Wharfedale, Goodmans, Alba, Digiholme etc to name but a few.
Since those chassis were first released in 2007 they have undergone a series of software updates and with V13 being the final "over air" download back in 2010, this being released in an attempt to cure a notorious stuttering, jumping problem that affected playback of previous recordings on a number of models.
However, as it appears that you have not reported any problems with playback other than with Film4 I was curious as to what version of software is installed in your box? this being revealed by pressing - menu / set up / configuration, receiver upgrade indicating the number required.
The other aspect I wondered about being, does this blank screen on playback issue also apply if you carry out an "instant record" at the start of a programme? also if you wish to "view" Film4 from say ITV3 rather than inching up the channels one at a time from 10 does pressing button1 then 5 result in Film4 being seen?
My only reason for enquiring being that I coupled up (then rescanned) an old Hitachi PVR I have that uses the same chassis as your Techwood and it recorded / played back Film4 OK, that is with the exception of the stuttering problem previously referred to simply because of me not (as yet) having installed the V13 software update that I downloaded last year from the website.
By the way, I do realise you are considering having a look at the Humax range as suggested by MikeB and which is a good idea!, albeit that although Humax manufactures a range of good quality reliable devices they unfortunately all lack the sheer user friendliness of the menu system used in the Vestel range of PVR's.
| link to this comment |
Paul: On the basis of what you had reported before leaving for work this morning I set the Hitachi PVR to record two programmes of a more lengthy nature over that of the 45 minute test recording I had previously reported as having worked perfectly OK, both programmes set for recording having running times of about 105 minutes or so and with one being set for recording on Film4 and the other for recording on Film4+1.
Checking the result of tests this evening rather indicates that things have deteriorated since the box was first stored away approximately two years ago, as the programme set for recording on Film4+1 (45) was also seen to have been recorded on Film4 (15) even although I had double checked that it hadn't been duplicated on the recording list, the other programme (Please Sir) set for recording on Film4 having been split shortly after an hour by its latter part being partially recorded on Film4 +1, this being similar to what you have experienced.
When I get around to finding the time to fish out my RS232 cable I intend to install the V13 upgrade as the boxes software version is presently 2.7, that said I don't really hold out much hope for the device as those software updates are up to a point a bit hit and miss as to whether or not they will improve the situation or even make it worse, although the whole thing is really being done as an exercise as I have two Humax Freeview PVR's I can use for recording, my wife though much preferring the user friendly menu system used in Vestel chassis devices.
| link to this comment |
Briantist : Re the articles featured in the heading of this page, I was just wondering if you were aware that both Tony Hall and Danny Cohans speeches would appear to have been duplicated.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 26 February 2014 9:12PM
Briantist : re:- Steve Williams, yes indeed! but only if a signal of any significant level could be received from Rouncefall and something I very much doubt, especially by it being located at 24 miles away from him and only radiating on 4Kw compared to Sudbury's 100Kw at only 14 miles away, Steve being line-of-sight from it.
I feel that his signal in his area is possibly that strong the null points on his aerial hasn't been noticed, and with rear reception levels on some aerials not being that terribly much different from a signal approaching from the front..
Still, nothing is ever exact where RF reception of a UHF nature is concerned.