All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
JB: Pleased to hear that you are back in operation again and that your ITV has returned, its difficult to pinpoint exactly what was the cause of your problem but I strongly suspect that it wasn't anything concerning your particular installation, albeit that it was still necessary to carry out a few checks to eliminate a few factors.
However, regarding your observation of a variable time factor being involved dependant on the orientation of the wire is concerned, this is because the scanning sweep rate on a tuner is always faster when no signals whatsoever are being detected on the tuners input, but when you changed the orientation of the wire and a signal "was" detected this would automatically slow the scan rate down to give the tuner a better chance to lock on to what was being detected, that is should it be at a sufficiently high enough level to trigger a "lock on" which obviously it wasn't.
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mary owen: Just a point regarding your intermittent reception, provided that you are "not" intending to record anything then you can help the situation as far as "normal" viewing is concerned by swapping the two LNB input leads over on the rear of your box, as LNB1 is basically used for viewing and LNB2 for recording.
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Niket: If you have the single feed connected into your Sky+ boxes LNB1 input then you should be able to view "free to view" channels exactly as though you were using a standard Sky box, if you cannot then the box is faulty.
You should check if any signal is actually being received by pressing "services" and you will then see the main menu with "options" being highlighted, highlight the "settings" menu using the right arrow button and press select, then using the left / right arrow buttons scroll to "signal" and press select, this will then display the signal level indicator bars.
If any signal level is indicated it has to be equivalent of 60% or more for satisfactory reception, because if 50% or under then this is too low for reception and caused by the dish being slightly out of alignment.
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Malcolm Butler: Regarding the problem of your channels dropping out, much as I do not wish to appear as a prophet of doom but as an engineer I have to say that there is very little you (or anyone) can do about that type of situation "if" its affecting all or most channels, as this indicates that its not co-channel interference being caused by atmospheric conditions but one where the only reason you are getting a signal in the first place is because the signal is being channel along by the reflective actions of the clouds, hence as you have obviously observed that when the said cloud cover vanishes so does your signal.
I have been involved in the past with trouble shooting missions to some of the more remote areas where this type of problem is common place, and although as aforementioned there is very little anyone can do as far as resolving the issue is concerned, such as spending time trying the aerial in different positions etc which in most cases is a totally futile operation, albeit of course this procedure "is" very effective on many occasions with other types of reception problems, however in your particular type of situation there is one thing that sometimes does help and it involves the use of a 20db variable gain booster such as obtainable from Argos, item
number: 534 / 4235 (£11.99) a link for same below.
Of course the use of this type of device only really helps in situations where when the signal drops out its only because that it has dropped to a lower level and "not" completely vanished altogether, something which unfortunately can happen, but the procedure is to check the signal strength / quality whilst reception is basically OK and making a note of the indications seen then when the signal drops out make another similar signal check, as in most cases even although the picture may have vanished the signal will still be there but just at a level that's under the reception threshold of your receivers tuner, once again making a note of the indications seen.
If the test made when the signal drops out reveals that its still there but is only indicating around 20 - 30% or so and that the quality is not fluctuating to any great extent, then the addition of the booster referred to could well lift it to a level that's just high enough above the reception threshold to produce a reasonable (but not perfect) picture.
Another point to note with your type of problem is to refrain from using any type of high gain aerial, as the highly directional properties of this type of aerial can be detrimental to reception rather than assist it.
Argos item number: 534 / 4235 (£11.99)
Buy Plug-In 1 Way TV Aerial Signal Booster at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for Television aerials and boosters, TV aerials, boosters and accessories, TV aerials, boosters and accessories, Television aerials and boosters.
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Niket: On re-reading your posting I see that you mention you have a communal satellite connection so obviously the dish is out with your control, but with regards to splitting the signal you cannot a satellite feed as its liable to cause a clash of polarity switching voltages, plus the LNB2 input on your box is the recording tuners feed.
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Thomas: Well, when Bilsdale's BBC switches to high power operation tomorrow you should possibly be able to receive it on the rear of your aerial as its only 2 degrees out, albeit Bilsdales BBC is only predicted as providing a variable level of reception on the given post code, and on the 26th when the other muxes switch to high powered operation the HD service joins the variable heading of BBC1, the three commercial channels not shown as being possible to receive. (in theory anyway!)
Regarding tuning, as Bilsdale's PSB transmitters use lower channel numbers and which may be picked up first, you can get over this by removing the aerial and carry out an auto-scan whilst watching the progress bar, and as soon as the scan reaches approx Ch40 immediately reconnect the aerial as Emley Moor uses Ch41 for its HD service.
If though this is difficult to achieve because of the type of tuning menu in your TV or box then erase the channels already stored by scanning without the aerial connected, then after having reconnected same manually tune in each of Emley Moors channels one at a time.
Ch47 - 44 - 41(HD) - 51 - 52 - 48
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Chris: Just out of interest I was wondering if you have the internal booster switched on or off? you will see this described on page 40 of your manual.
The other point I wondered about being, when you mention your aerial being in the roof have you any access to it? that is as far as being able to check on the direction its facing as well as its polarity angle.
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Mark Fletcher: I will be interested to see if Thomas can receive the ITV mux or any of the commercial muxes come 26th, as although you are predicted to receive both BBC and the HD service on that date with a status of good, (BBC presently good) ITV being on a variable status but with no commercials possible, Thomas on the other hand is only predicted to receive BBC and the HD service on a variable status and no commercials whatsoever, that including ITV.
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Mark Harriman: Re: Freesat adaptor query, not as far as Freesat is concerned, but if you purchased a Freesat HD box then you could use an HDMI lead to couple this into your TV, as HDMI leads and especially of the swivel end for right angle use types such as sold by Lidl stores are far more acceptable appearance wise over a thick scart lead.
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Monday 10 September 2012 3:56PM
Jim: Also meant to add, that if you are using any form of booster then try a test by-passing it, or alternatively another retune with a short piece or wire (about 2 or 3 feet long) connected into the boxes aerial socket rather than using the normal aerial.