All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
topcat: Your Sky boxes are fed by totally individual feeds from the dishes LNB even although the coax cables are all connected into the same block, and so if this problem occurred whilst no activities were going on as far as moving anything about is concerned then either the port on the LNB that feeds the main room has developed a fault, or water has gained access to the "F" connector.
What to do is trace the cable from the main room to the LNB and unscrewed it from the block holding only the retaining ring and not the body of the connector, then transfer the cable on the other port (that feeds the other room) over to the one you have just removed the main room cable from then try the box out in the other room to see if its still working, if not then that port on the LNB is defective, but should the box in the other room still be working then that points to water inside the "F" connector thats used to feed the main room.
Carefully unscrew it from the coax by holding the body of the plug and dry it out with a tissue, then if available give the inside of the connector a smear of Vaseline before screwing it back onto the coax making sure that "all" strands of braiding are pulled back over the coax cables cover, then screw the connector back onto the block.
By the way you do not require to connect it into its original port as they are all the same.
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simon: Thats inclined to indicate that one of the two feeds from the dish is faulty and so carry out a signal strength / quality check as that will soon reveal which one it is, as both should indicate levels of around 60% minimum for reliable reception.
Further advice dependant on results of the test.
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Mari : You just simply go into your TV's set up menu / select tuning / auto-tune and press on whatever is indicated to start the search, although advice of a more precise nature could have been provided if you had mentioned the model number of your TV.
By the way, you are indicated as being able to receive Freeview from either Crystal Palace or Bluebell Hill, Crystal Palace having the edge, and if you still cannot receive anything after having carried out an auto-tune then this could be connected to an aerial problem, details of your aerial system being unknown.
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John Eaton: Inconvenient as this might be, but why dont you try a test by carrying out a factory reset on the recorder to return it to its default setting and then follow this by manually tuning in Ch29 and nothing else, because all programmes on that particular mux should be indicated on the EPG, if they arent then thats inclined to indicate that the problem is with the DVD so maybe you could indicate the model of the device in question.
Of course if the EPG has returned then either use the "add channels" facility (should it have it!) to recover the missing muxes or manually tune them in, these being: 61 - 54 - 56 - 57, (HD is 58) or just reset the recorder again and follow this by another auto-tune.
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Alibobs: Are you sure that you are actually using the "Add Channels" facility to enter the number into? because the settings indicated are correct.
However apart from that, its very doubtful if you would be able to pick these channels up anyway as they are on the latest 2F Satellite, this having a very restricted footprint (coverage area) as far as European countries are concerned, with its S/Easterly end sweeping around anti-clockwise from roughly between Nantes and Bordeaux and upwards again near Stuttgart. (both approx)
By the way, the only reason that you are receiving what you do is because these other programme channels are all on the original satellite, and so I would suggest that you make some local enquiries to find out if anyone else "might" be receiving the channels in question, and if they are then have a check on the size of dish they are using.
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Keith: With regards to your recording problem, these Bush PVRs are manufactured by a company called Vestel, and although they far in a way outshine devices such as a Humax for their sheer level of user friendliness they are however not near so stable in performance as the latter mentioned by these boxes being extremely critical to signal strength levels, this applying to operation at both ends of the scale, and your report of the picture breaking up when you press record is something that can even be experienced in SD versions of these models when fed by a signal level that's bordering on being excessive.
It should be pointed out that in any area where high signal strength levels are experienced HD reception will always be first to be effected well before SD, and this applies no matter what brand of device is being used, but you have an added problem insomuch that your HD channel 28 uses a negative offset on its frequency as does COM6, (Film 4 / ITV4 etc) and although in more recent times Vestel have greatly improved their circuitry to get over this problem I have noticed on a few Vestel models that an element of instability (albeit slight) still exists when these devices are used on a transmitter station with a negative offset on one of its mux channels, and this is over and above their susceptibility to slightly excessive signal levels, although this certainly does not help matters.
Of course being so close to a transmitter where the main beams from the mast are up to a point passing over your head nearly always causes problems with reception, as the signal is generally not arriving at the aerial from a definite direction but multiple angles albeit that one angle may well favour another, and with the best position for reception not always being the one that points directly at the mast as an element of experimenting is always the order of the day in cases such as yours, sometimes satisfactory reception can even be achieved with a short length of good quality coax being connected into the aerial socket of the TV or box and with a loop of wire of about 6" in diameter connected across the braiding and middle core of the coax at the other end, the loop being placed on a window ledge in view of the mast.
Still, these are just a couple of things that I thought that you should be aware of over and above the advice given by Dave Lindsay.
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bronagh: After you entered the information given regarding frequency etc in the "add channels" menu and then followed this by pressing "search", when it came up with the channels found did you tick each one that you wanted to retain "before" pressing select? because if you failed to do this then they would be lost as soon as you returned to normal viewing.
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Sarah: If you are referring to a Sky box? and have disconnected it from the mains supply then waited 30 secs or so before reconnecting it again, then once it starts to respond to the remote control allowing it to search for listings it should find the new frequencies itself, but whether you can view them or not really depends on where you are located in the South of France, this caused by the new 2F satellite used Ch5 etc having a very restricted coverage area outside of the UK, hence this can only be received from a level roughly from between Bordeaux and Nantes on the West sweeping around and upwards towards the East near the Stuttgart area. However just in case you are not using a Sky box these are the settings to use, this enabling the the following channels to be viewed / Ch5 / Ch5+1 / 5 USA / 5 USA+1 / 5* / 5* +1 Press SERVICES on your remote control. Select (4) :- SYSTEM SET UP Select (4) :- ADD CHANNELS FREQUENCY :- Punch in 10.964 POLARISATION :- H SYMBOL RATE :- 22.0 FEC :- 5/6 then select FIND CHANNELS, once completed do not forget to select the ones required by pressing the yellow button to tick them then saving the results. (latter referring to Sky box)
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Keith: On reading your posting I just realised that I had mistakenly typed in Ch28 instead of Ch30 when referring to your HD reception, and which I apologise for and hope that it did not cause too much confusion, Ch28 obviously being COM6 the other offset frequency channel that I had referred to and which I noticed you report as being OK.
Yes, you should keep your eye on the Vestel website (albeit an Unofficial one) for any possible software updates for your box, although I see that one (the first) was made on Nov 1st 2012 connected to recording facilities, but with regards to any possible replacement have you not considered the Humax? as these are technically superior to any other box as far as their tuner circuitry is concerned and nothing touches them as far as stability is concerned, although I do fully realise that they are in the higher price bracket for Freeview PVR's.
But though even with their technical superiority I will agree that nothing really beats Vestel menu systems for sheer ease of use and the rapid response times for any commands made on the remote control, one of the boxes I have installed being a Vestel and the one favoured for use by my wife over any of the two Humax PVR's I also use, these tuned to two different stations as my reception suffers from seasonal changes, a third Humax being used for Freesat.
Anyway, I would be most interested in reading an update from you once you have tried out the new aerial, but should by any chance this prove unsatisfactory then you should try the loop aerial I suggested before giving up as the loop type limits the amount of RF that's picked up provided that the coax is good quality (thick) as far as its braiding is concerned.
Just in case the site I referred to isn't the one you are meaning this is a link to it, although the DRG's download site is really the one that gives dates / times for OA downloads for TV's and boxes.
Unofficial Vestel PVR Information (UK) - T7650 Freeview+ HD
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Sunday 6 January 2013 4:44PM
Dave Timm: In addition to that mentioned, I suppose I should also have said that the only other possible reason for the fault that I can think of other than the tuner itself, is that the power supply board has a defect on the stabilised feed to the tuner and this is resulting in it being fed by a low voltage, and although it might be enough to allow a scanning operation to take place its not sufficient for the tuners memory IC to function correctly as far as storing channels found during a rescan is concerned, this being why when its not powered it loses them.
But though I still feel that its the actual tuner! and only mentioned this other possibility as this model, because of its age, is known to suffer from failing capacitor problems on the power board.