All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
geoffrey jagger: Just to add to that already said, that come the 26th you would of course change the scart lead to an HDMI connection between your HD box and the TV if its of the HD ready variety, which I assume that you are using?
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Les Ebbage: Heavy thundery type downpours will always affect satellite reception, however weather conditions such as described will always affect reception much sooner if the dish is less than being perfectly aligned, and so you should carry out a signal strength / quality check to see what the levels are indicating.
If you are using a standard Sky box press "services" - 4 -6 and check what the signal strength / quality levels are showing as, if less then 60% (equivalent of) then the dish requires slight realigning, this usually in
the horizontal plane, left to right.
If you have a Sky+ box then press "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 however you are using a Freesat box then its not really possible to advise on the procedure to use, as Freesat boxes all use different procedures for signal checking.
The point to note being, that the signal quality should always be the same as or more than the strength with both at least 60%, if it isn't then the dish requires its alignment to be trimmed.
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Ed: As you have failed to mention your location this makes it impossible to make any detailed assessment of your situation, but 100% signal strength might well be OK for the majority of TV's but it can represent a slightly too powerful signal for some and as such will block reception on the channels that are "slightly" too powerful.
Of course the other scenario could apply whereby the TV can only pick up the most powerful signal because there is a problem with its aerial input feed, but a more precise answer can only be given with knowledge of your post code or at least one from nearby, such as a shop etc, as this would enable access to the reception predictor.
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Chris: Well there are only really two positions to try, these being 71 degrees with the aerial horizontally mounted for Stockland Hill @ 20 miles, or 280 degrees with the aerial mounted vertically for Exeter St Thomas @ 1.8 miles, this latter station being a Freeview PSB only relay.
Although the meter you refer to does serve a purpose I find it somewhat difficult to recommend their use, as the most important aspect of a digital signal, namely quality, does not always run in parallel with the indications of strength on the meter, and its much better to approximate the position of the aerial and then go into the TV's tuning menu / manual tune and enter the BBC mux channel number of the station you have pointed the aerial towards but do "not" scan it , as on most equipment as soon as the channel number is entered the strength / quality of the channel number entered will (or should) be immediately indicated.
If it appears to be OK then you could carry out an auto-tune, but if it appears to be on the low side or alternatively the quality is observed to be fluctuating, then inconvenient as it may well be but its best policy to go back to the loft and try swinging the aerial around a few degrees to either the right or left checking after each action, as you will soon know where the best position is.
By the way, Stockland Hills BBC mux is Ch26, and Exeter St Thomas's BBC mux being Ch44.
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William : If what you are meaning is that as soon as you connect the normal aerial into the Sky boxes aerial input for purposes of passing the Freeview signal through the box its killing the analogue signal sent out by the Sky box, then its likely that the RF output channel used on the Sky box is the same as a powerful digital channel from the Freeview transmitter that covers your area.
You will have to go into the Sky boxes installation menu and change the RF output channel used, unfortunately I am unable to advise on which ones to avoid as you have not given your location, a post code or one from nearby is suffice as this will enable your Freeview channels to be assessed.
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William : It goes without saying that you will of course have to rescan (in analogue) your remotely positioned TV to pick up the new RF channel used by the Sky box.
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William : What you are reporting suggests that you have a voltage leaking from somewhere that shouldn't, as you do appear to be using the correct connections for what you are doing, but though when you say that the signal vanishes when you touch the main aerial against Dish 1 or 2 inputs are you meaning against the "side" of the "F" connectors or sockets? as if you mean the centre then it will short the boxes power supply.
By the way Ch68 (the default channel) is OK for your area as none of the transmitters use it, but the other thing I wondered about was as you use a magic eye on the Sky boxes RF2 output does its light go out when you touch the main aerial onto the Sky boxes "aerial in" socket?
Another question being, do you have exclusive use of the dish and normal aerial? just asking in case its a communal distribution system.
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Ed: As you are receiving your signal from Bilsdale then the problem TV is indeed only picking up the high powered channel, and so if the other TV's are actually picking up the other channels from Bilsdale and not somewhere else, then the quickest way to verify if the feed from the splitter to the problem TV is OK or not is to temporarily try the problem set on one of the other TV's aerial feeds and carry out another rescan.
If its found that the situation hasnt changed any after trying this test I would like you go into the problem TV's tuning menu / manual tune and enter Ch21 (ITV) but do not press scan or search, because on most equipment as soon as you enter the channel number the strength / quality of the signal being received should immediately be indicated, also try the same test but using Ch31 (ITV3).
Make a note of whats seen and giving an update on results, plus the model of TV in question as it could be a sensitivity issue whereby a powerful signal is desensitizing the sets tuner to other weaker signals, because if you normally receive Bilsdales channels OK you must be in a good position as they are quite low powered of mostly 6kw except Ch42 (12:Yesterday) on 1.6kw, whereas the BBC is now on 100kw.
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frankie: No! as Sky permanently retains access to the recorder / playback side of the box and will cancel this along with your ability to view their Sky package programmes.
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Wednesday 12 September 2012 3:48PM
geoffrey jagger: You are indicated as being able to have a good signal from either Bilsdale or Emley Moor but with Bilsdale having the edge over Emley, albeit this in reality only applying to the BBC as its the only channel presently operating on high power, the remaining muxes doing likewise on the 26th.
I would suggest that rather than wait until the 26th when HD starts from Bilsdale you should temporarily couple up the HD box into your TV using a scart cable and give the box an auto-tune (or first time scan) just to make sure all is OK, then once working carry out a signal check on BBC, this not so much for signal checking purposes but to note the mux channel number that's being indicated along with the strength / quality, the channel should indicate 26.
Once the 26th arrives you can then carry out a manual tune on Ch23 which will be Bilsdales HD channel, storing the results if not done automatically.