All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Gary: If you are referring to Freeview reception and you are using a communal aerial then its best to check with a neighbour to determine if others are having the same problem as yourself, if not then make sure that the jumper lead you are using is not defective, as when dealing with communal installations if your TV or box is known to be OK then the problem is in effect out with your control as far as the aerial is concerned.
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Graham: Should you be seriously considering carrying out the alterations to your aerial system as was suggested by Dave Lindsay I would just like to add a note of caution though "before" you make any purchases, insomuch that it would be prudent to first of all carry out a reception test from Belmont by swinging your present aerial around 180 degrees and turning it so that its mounted horizontally, because apart from Belmont's two commercial muxes ArqA (Pick TV) & ArqB (Film 4) your present aerial is perfectly OK for all other channels once realigned.
My reason for advising that you carry out this test being, that digital TV signals are much more prone to suffer from any slight changes in atmospheric conditions that may occur including the classic "day and night" variations when received over long distances, and Belmont at 63 miles away certainly comes into this category, and so if you realigned your present aerial and this resulted in you receiving a reasonably glitch free signal from Belmont then I would strongly advise that you use it like that for about a week or so to enable a proper assessment to be made as far as the continued reliability of the signal is concerned before making any alterations.
Although that said obviously excludes seasonal changes which can also affect reception.
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Graeme: When you refer to an "HD" box is this a Sky+ HD box or a Freesat one? and if its a Sky+ HD box are you using it in single feed mode?
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paul: Although you may not have done, but if by any chance you had made the common mistake of having carried out a rescan when you first discovered that the signal was missing then this will have wiped out everything already stored in the tuners memory, this then making it necessary to carry out another rescan to recover them.
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Graeme: Thanks for the update, the reason for asking being that although there is always the possibility that your reception problem is being caused by a fault in the boxes power supply, as what you report is a known symptom of this type of fault, however in most cases its due to the signal level received being too low whereby the slightest downward fluctuation in the level received results in partial drop out which triggers the error code mentioned being seen.
You should carry out a signal check using the undermentioned procedure.
If using a Sky+ HD box: (latest menu system)
(1): Press "Services" and you will see the main menu with "Options" being highlighted.
(2): Press the right arrow once to change from Options to "Settings" and press on once highlighted.
(3): Finally, scroll to the right to select and press on "Signal", the grey bars now displayed will show you the strength / quality of the signal.
Any signal level indicated has to around the 55% (or equivalent of) minimum level to resolve a picture and especially where the quality is concerned, because if the quality is observed to be under that of the signal strength then that generally indicates that the dish requires slight re-aligning, this usually (although not always!) being rectified by it being moved the merest fraction either way in its horizontal (right to left) plane.
Maybe you could give an update on the levels found.
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Dr. John Pritchard: Purely on the subject of your older analogue television alternating between B & W and colour, I don't really feel that anything done will rectify this problem as its most likely being caused by either a bad PCB joint on the crystal used in the colour decoder (commonly known as the colourburst crystal) or its the actual crystal itself that has developed a fault, this usually where the wire from the lead in pin is fused onto the crystal, something not exactly unheard of hence their relatively low cost.
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Doug Cheney: An excellent combination that performs well under a whole range of conditions, and unlike the so called high gain types is generally capable of providing a much less glitch prone signal when used in circumstances that could be described as being less than ideal for reception.
The problem a log aerial does have though is "image", as most make the mistake of equating a large structure on their roof as being somewhat superior.
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John: With reference to my above mentioned reply to Frank, I have just carried out another check and can confirm that nothing has changed insomuch that Showcase is being received on both Freesat and Sky, a programme on "how to plan your retirement" being shown.
I also checked its EPG listings and it is also fully populated into the early hours.
By the way its transponders frequency is 12.607 - V - 27500.
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Graeme: The fact of you managing to achieve a signal level of 95% is a positive indication that your problem is NOT one of dish alignment and so other reasons have to be checked out, that is apart from the actual box being faulty.
The first (and quite common) being that water has entered the "F" connector on the LNB and this is intermittently causing a short circuit to occur resulting in the variable levels you have observed, as the quality should be the same no matter what channel you select as its taken from the default transponder irrespective of what channel you may be on, but though when you select a channel your box sends different voltages as well as a tone up the line and this can vary the intensity of the water induced short circuit.
Anyway I suggest that you carry out the following pre-composed procedure, the "pre" because its a commonly experienced problem.
If water is suspected as having has entered the LNB's "F" connector then it requires the connector to be unscrewed from the LNB on the dish and then further unscrewed from the coax for purposes of drying out with a tissue, then after smearing the inside of the plug with some Vaseline the connector should be screwed back onto the cable again, but "IMPORTANT" before doing so making sure that all strands of the braiding wire that surrounds the coax's middle core wire has been pulled back over the coax's outer cover, then finally screw the connector with cable back onto the LNB.
The connector should then really have a layer of self amalgamating tape wrapped around it for waterproofing purposes, although if the LNB is the more modern type with a pull down shroud that partially covers the connectors it should be OK, although if it is and water has entered the
connector, then that's inclined to indicate that the installation engineer has forgot to pull the shroud down.
If though your problem still exists after having carried out this procedure then its inclined to indicate that the LNB is faulty.
Further info dependant on reply.
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Sunday 17 February 2013 7:57PM
Hope Valley
Daz: In the interests of accuracy your brothers post code is really required, but on a test code of S32 5AA (Hope Valley Post office) the Calver Peak PSB only relay is indicated as being located at just under two miles away and its HD is on mux Ch39.
If though you receive the BBC and ITV without glitching then your problem is inclined to suggest that the box being used is not fitted with a DVB-T2 tuner, this being a necessary requirement for HD reception.
Would you know the model number of the box in question?