All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Tony Hill: As far as the UK is concerned, I feel that this type of facility would only possibly be of appeal to a limited number of people that reside in locations where by necessity their dishes had be mounted on the sides of a chimney or some other high up location due to it being the only possible position that enabled the dish to have a clear view of the S/South Eastern Sky, or on the other hand with it maybe being of interest to a disabled person who was physically unable brush the snow off the dish.
Of course it has to be admitted, that after someone has gone to a lot of bother fitting such a device then its almost guaranteed that the following winter the classic "Murphy's law" situation would no doubt come into the equation, insomuch that it would turn out to be a mild one with only the occasional flurry of snow being experienced, and with this being of a magnitude that only required the very slightest of breeze to clear the dish.
However I do feel that in places like Canada or some of the Northern European countries such a device would in many cases be of interest, if known about! although by its very nature of having elements of a "custom build" attached to it, would in my opinion result in it being classed as being the type of thing that's more in the realms of a kit aimed at being fitted by a keen enthusiast rather than by dish installers, unless that is by request!
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martyh: Well, anyone who is intending to purchase a new TV and is thinking along the lines of a Panasonic brand set cannot in my opinion, really go far wrong no-matter what model in the range is being considered, including of course the two mentioned by yourself, as Panasonic is one of the few brands that I take no hesitation in unreservedly recommending to anyone that is after a reliable TV capable of giving excellent performance "once its been set up", this meaning after the picture settings having been adjusted for personal taste from that of their default settings, and in particular the three modes usually seen at the bottom of the selection list, namely: Vivid colour - S.A.T.S - P-NR, and with these being changed to OFF before adjusting the brilliance / contrast etc.
I do have to say though that as an engineer I am inclined to look at these sets more from the technical side of the equation as far as their internals are concerned and also their performance as an actual TV for the purpose of displaying a high quality picture that is received via an aerial, or in the case of a Freesat model including a dish , and my recommendation of these models concerns only their RF performance and picture quality aspects rather than what they are capable of achieving / facilities obtainable when connected to a modem.
However as far as reception is concerned, these models are also fitted with top class tuners that are capable of performing well over a wide range of signal conditions, the only minor criticism that I do have of them being that they tend to give a slightly embroidered indication of the levels received when compared to a proper signal meter, of course most sets are inaccurate in this respect and with the only device I know that isn't being the tuners used in a Humax Freeview box, top class!
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pat: I am unaware as to what you have tried but my information and which I have just verified on my Sky box as being correct is as follows.
(Standard Sky box)
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 and press on FIND CHANNELS
When the new channels are found, highlight FIVE (or more) by pressing the
Yellow button then press "select" to continue.
To watch channel 5 etc select SERVICES, then OTHER CHANNELS then select the
channel required.
This said tough, if you havent already done so you should first of all unplug your box from the mains supply, then after waiting about 30 seconds plug it back in again then once it starts to respond to the remote control let it search for listings and it should find Ch5 itself.
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Robert: Levels such as these indicate that the dish alignment is perfectly OK and so this can be crossed off the list, but though it doesn't exclude another possibility, and being that water has entered the "F" connector on the coax that feeds the boxes LNB2 input and something which can either cut off reception completely or result in the type of problem you are experiencing, and so this would require to be unscrewed from the block and then further unscrewed from the coax for purposes of inspection and drying out with a tissue should it be required.
One this is done smear some Vaseline on the inside of the connector and screw it back onto the coax again but first of all! making sure that all strands of the braiding are pulled back over the coax's outer cover.
It wouldn't do any harm though to check the other "F" connector as well, however the fact of your initial test having revealed that the low signal indication on LNB2 input did not change when you swapped the cables over still points to an intermittent fault on that input on the box, as the action of swapping cables doesn't just check the cables themselves but also the port on the LNB.
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Anne: If you are referring to an actual Freesat box and are recording from this onto a DVD or HDD (hard disk) recorder then this is quite normal as you are only dealing with one tuner, however if you are meaning a Freesat "twin tuner" PVR (personal video) recorder that uses two inputs from the dish then are you sure that its not set up for single feed operation?
Maybe you could indicate the model number of the device in question.
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Katherine: You are indicated as being located at approximately 35 miles away from the Winter Hill transmitter and with the terrain between both you and the transmitting station seen to be of a nature that's liable to cause problems to an RF signal, and of course the naturally occurring seasonal atmospheric changes will always affect reception to a greater extent if its being received over a distance, therefore rather than concentrate on the possible causes of your particular problem I would advise that you carry out a check with some of your neighbours for purposes of ascertaining if they are also experiencing problems of a similar nature to yourself, because if they are then the problem is out with your control and with Freesat possibly being the only way to get over this type of problem.
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john: On the assumption that its a Sky+ box that you were using then the simple answer is to remove the scart connection from the rear of the Sky box and plug it into the Humax's similar AV1 socket, the Sky box being out of the equation.
If though by any chance its a Sky+ HD box that you are using then you will possibly have it connected into the TV via an HDMI lead, and so once again remove it from the Sky boxes HDMI socket and connect it into the HDMI socket on the Humax box.
If the other devices mentioned are already working in conjunction with the Sky box then nothing should change in this respect.
By the way the 9300T is a non HD Freeview box and which requires a normal aerial for reception, and so once again its assumed that this requirement can be catered for?
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Anne: It would be of assistance if you indicated the model number of the box in question, but if it is a Freesat twin tuner PVR then you can record one programme whilst watching another or record two programmes at the same time whilst viewing one that's already been recorded.
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john: On re-reading your posting I should also have said that dependant on the number of input facilities that you have on your TV you could simply connect the Humax box into one of them (scart or HDMI) and use your TV's "input select" button to decide what you want to use, this meaning that you do not really alter anything but simply add the Humax box to the system.
That said only applies if you already have the TV and the surround system in operation and that you have simply purchased the Humax box, if though you have just purchased all three devices mentioned then please ignore anything said and supply the model numbers of the TV and also the surround sound system to enable their input facilities to be checked on.
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Tuesday 29 January 2013 5:06PM
Robert: If swapping the two input cables over did not make any difference and with LNB2 input still indicating a lower signal strength than one, then that certainly points to the LNB2 inputs tuner being down in performance.
Normally I might have said that maybe its just the indicator circuitry that is causing this to happen and the actually signal as such was OK, but if you are experiencing intermittent recording problems then that suggests the contrary.
Just out of curiosity what levels are being indicated? as both strength & quality should be roughly the equivalent of 60%+ for satisfactory reception, if not then the dish is slightly out of alignment and that will make the situation with LNB2 worse.