All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
cath hunter: If your problem just started after the plumber had been in the attic, then as you will most likely be receiving Freeview from the Craigkelly transmitter (@ 13 miles) you can carry out a check on your aerial, as it should be pointing towards 309 degrees and be mounted horizontally.
As you may or may not, already know, Craigkelly is located across the water near Burntisland.
| link to this comment |
Sandy Scrimgeour: If you have previously managed to receive signals from the Angus transmitter then you must be located in a choice spot, as Angus is not predicted as being receivable in Perth, and with this being why Perth has its own Freeview light transmitter.
A more accurate prediction is possible but only if you provide a post code, or at least one from nearby (a shop etc), as I used Perth post office as a test code.
With regards to the aerial, the three booms are indeed stacked on top of each other for horizontal polarity as is used by Angus, your local Perth transmitter being vertically polarised.
| link to this comment |
Steve 72: I thought that might be the case, and which indicates that the "F" connector on the dish end of the coax that is presently connected into the boxes LNB2 input is possibly water logged, and so the "F" connector in question will require to be unscrewed from the LNB and then further unscrewed from the coax, then both the connector and the end of the coax dried out with a tissue.
After this is done smear some Vaseline on the inside of the "F" connector and likewise on the end of the coax then screw the connector back onto the coax, first of all double checking that all strands of the braiding are pulled back over the coax's outer covering, then screw the connector back onto the LNB.
But though before carrying out the above it would be prudent to make sure that it isn't the actual port on the LNB that is faulty, and so after tracing which coax is used to feed each of two inputs on the box (LNB1 and LNB2), remove (on the LNB end) the one used to feed the boxes LNB2 input and just leave it unconnected, then transfer the one used to feed the boxes LNB1 (which you know is working) over to the port you have just removed the LNB 2 feed from.
If after having done this the signal is found to have vanished again then the port is defective, but if it hasn't vanished then that confirms that its the connector at fault, or maybe even the cable!
By the way although the LNB1 input is now working OK the connector on the other end of this input (at the dish end) would possibly benefit from the same treatment as you have given to LNB2's connector, as this might be the reason for the less than perfect signal strength indications.
Hope you can follow these instructions OK! as I have tried to simplify them as much as is possible.
| link to this comment |
Radical: Although a "no signal" warning can be caused by a either a fault on the LNB or the "F" connectors used on with the most common reason being caused by water having crept inside the connector thereby shorting out the signal it can however also be caused by a fault in the box, its internal power supply being the usual reason by a reduced voltage being fed to the tuners, but though as you apparently use two Sky+ HD boxes then the easiest and quickest way by far in pinpointing the source of the problem is by swapping the boxes over for a few days, as that would soon indicate whether its a box or a dish related problem and save you the trouble of needlessly working outdoors checking LNB connections etc.
By the way, if error 29 had not appeared then an intermittent distorted picture could have been HDMI cable related like the connector not being fully seated properly.
| link to this comment |
Nicola: Although the other Sky boxes used in your house are reported as being OK the LNB ports used for the problem box might not be, and so the best way to determine as to whether they are or not is to temporarily swap the problem box over with one of the others, giving an update on the results, further advice being dependant on findings.
Just another little point I wondered about, when you said that you reset the box was this via the boxes "Reset" option on the menu? and although you have only had the box for 10 days was it a new box? as there are different versions of these.
| link to this comment |
Bob Loader: This is a more commonly experienced problem than might actually be thought, and is something that can be caused by either a glitch in reception having occurred during a re-tuning exercise resulting in corrupted data being stored, or if reception was "apparently" OK (this emphasised as not always noticed) at the time then the problem is then directly linked to some difficulty at the transmission end, and to be quite honest about it its impossible to say which one of the two applies unless an engineer armed with suitable equipment was monitoring the signal at the time, however no matter which one of the two might apply completely resetting the equipment nearly always gets over the difficulty by eliminating everything lurking around the tuners memory, as retuning on some devices does not completely wipe out the memory.
Of course on the other hand, Humax devices good as they may be, can have some odd problems spring up from time to time associated with their operating system software, and so this possibility cannot be completely eliminated either.
The point though to remember being, that in the case of Freeview transmissions each of the muliplexes used on the station transmits an EPG that is "only" associated with the programme channels it contains, and so its relatively easy the pinpoint the source of an EPG problem, and when you had only mentioned BBC1 & BBC2 being affected I wondered if any higher EPG listings were shown, such as BBC news or CBBC etc?
| link to this comment |
andy: Your problem is very likely to be caused by your equipments tuner suffering from an excessive signal level when using the outdoor aerial by being located at only around 4 miles away from a 100 Kw transmitter, and to exacerbate the problem just about 1 mile away from a 100 watt transmitter.
This problem will most likely vanish if you fit an in line attenuator on the aerial feed to your equipment, the attenuator being fitted just before the aerial input socket and an example of what's being referred to seen on the link.
0 - 20db attenuator - E-bay store (£3.15 free delivery:
TV Aerial Attenuator Variable 0-20Db Freeview Digital | eBay
| link to this comment |
andy: Further to what I had mentioned regarding your relatively close proximity to a high powered transmitter and the likely hood of this causing excessive signal level problems, on having a look at the terrain indicator something which I couldn't do last evening as the browser wasn't compatible, it would appear that this might not be the case in your particular situation, and it could actually be caused by an aerial problem such as a bad connection where the coax is connected into the aerial, you should also unscrew the aerials coax plug to make sure that a strand of the braiding isn't touching the middle core.
The reason I now suspect that this might be the case is that if something is stored in an EPG but cannot be viewed its nearly always because the signal level is just under the threshold for reception and a faulty connection on your aerial can do that, as the mux channel numbers you mention refer to the local Darwen transmitter and not the Winter Hill transmitter.
I would therefore suggest that you carry out a signal strength test on any of channels mentioned as although the screen might be blank the signal level will still be indicated, and whilst still on the check screen swap the aerial connections over and see what the changes are.
Another thing to try (purely for a test) is blank out what you have stored by auto scanning with the aerial disconnected, then when completed go into your boxes manual tune screen and enter Ch62 (Winter Hills BBC) but do NOT press scan or search, as if any signal is there it will be indicated.
Give an update on what you find, although my prime suspicion is now concerning the aerial.
| link to this comment |
andy: Any by the way, the reason you cannot receive Ch42 is because that channel is an HD mux, and according to the manual for your box its not capable of receiving this mode, the HDMI socket being purely for upscaling purposes.
Just out of curiosity, is your aerial on the roof newly installed or was it an existing one? and is the TVonics box your first Freeview receiver? as I just wondered if you previously received it on anything else, because if you did and managed to receive Winter Hill then you would likely have had to manually tune it in by being so close to the Darwen transmitter.
Winter Hill channels being: 62 - 59 - 54 (HD) - 58 - 61 - 55.
| link to this comment |
Thursday 27 December 2012 5:06PM
Steve 72: Excluding the possibility of the box having developed a fault and which can result in the error warning seen, the more likely reason is that either the dish has been moved slightly out of alignment by a sudden strong wind, or that water has entered the "F" connectors on the dishes LNB.
As its a Sky+ box it will have two coax feeds on the rear so try swapping them over, because should it be a water in the plug problem then water is not likely to have affected both connectors and swapping them over "might" bring the signal back, this being because LNB1 input is the one used for normal reception and with LNB2 being mainly for recording.
Before carrying out the above though you should go into the signal test screen and check if any levels are being indicated, if they are then they (both strength and quality) must be no lower that 60% (or equiv of) to produce a reliable picture.
Further advice dependant on findings.