All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John: The Cullingworth relay is listed with a warning of "possible service interruptions".
If though you are actually meaning that you reside in the Cullingworth area? but are, or (magically!) have been receiving Freeview from the Idle transmitter, then there isn't any problems, as Cullingworth is well outwith the coverage area of the Idle transmitter, and as such, anything that might have been received from Idle is almost guaranteed to be totally erratic.
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John : In addition / alteration to that said. Although as previously mentioned, the Cullingworth area is seen to be well outside the Idle transmitters coverage area (as indicated on the TX's coverage map), however, a Cullingworth test p/code of BD13-5 did indicate that reception was possible in that particular area.
The point which intrigued me was your reference to "everything gone with the exception of 6 German channels", as this points to interference from foreign channels, something which can happen as seasons change, and a possible reason why so many problems are being experienced by viewers residing in the Eastern areas of the UK, whereas not to any great extent elsewhere.
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Sallyam : When the picture on the main TV was found to be pixelated, was it "immediately" moved into the bedroom? or was there a considerable gap in time between the two events?
If the main TV is easily moved, a better test would have been to try it out in the bedroom, if its found to be OK, see what happens if its tried it back in the living room again.
Purely out of curiosity, if the TV sits near to a wall in the living room, what's behind / through the wall?
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Sallyam : Another couple of things to try. If the picture on main TV is once again found to be pixelated when its returned to the living room, even although it was OK in the bedroom, switch the BT vision box off completely (from mains) rather than just bypassing it.
If this makes no difference, the next thing to try is moving the TV as far away from the wall as the jumper lead will allow, this being especially important if the wall is dividing two separate households, as the problem you are experiencing "might" possibly be caused by interference picked up via direct injection into your TV (i.e: not aerial, but via rear casing) from some electronic device located nearby, and nearby can mean through a wall.
The reason for suggesting the aforementioned being the fact of the bedroom TV being OK in the living room.
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MikeB : Just noticed that you had also replied to Sallyam.
Yes, this problem is reminiscent of another of a very similar nature from well over a year ago, the reason for the problem in that case subsequently found to be caused by a defective Virgin Media cable box belonging to the neighbour on the other side of the dividing wall.
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gemma : Although you may well have followed the procedure shown at the top of this page, this advice is basically based on the reason for "no signal" being connected with some form of malfunction having occurred within the box itself, and not that the reason could possibly be due to the dish having been moved (accidentally or otherwise) slightly out of alignment.
That said, have you tried swapping the two leads from the dish over? as LNB1 is the main input, therefore if the lead going into LNB1's input is defective nothing will be received. By the way, swapping the leads over should be carried out whilst the box is switched off, this (switching off) only being necessary because the procedure previously carried out "might" have deleted them, and so its best to start afresh, as Sky boxes search for channels when they are powered up.
Apart from that, that there is no real way of finding out if the dish is slightly out of alignment except by trying another box on your dish, or alternatively testing your box out on someone else's dish, but though, if you can still access the menu OK, try carrying out a signal check using the following procedure.
1:- Press "Services" on your Sky remote control and you will see the main menu with "Options" highlighted.
2:- Highlight the Settings menu using the right arrow button and press select.
3:- Scroll along to "signal" using the left / right arrows then press select.
4:- The grey bars displayed will show the strength of the signal to your SkyHD box.
If strength / quality is being indicated then it "has" to be around 55% or more to produce a reasonably reliable picture, if its under, then this points to the dish being slightly out of alignment, this usually being in the horizontal (right/ left) plane. Further advice on this if requested.
If though nothing is indicated, then the dish has been moved (blown or knocked) well out of alignment, or that the actual box is defective, internal power supplies being the usual culprit!
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Sallyam: Sorry for going on about this, but does "totally disconnected the BT vision box" mean that you disconnected it from the mains? as the test is not valid unless you did.
The reason for requesting that you move the main TV back into the living room "after" having tested it out in the bedroom (and found it OK), is basically because I wanted to eliminate the possibility of the pixelation problem being caused by a fault having developed within the actual TV, but which can be, or is, rectified by switching the set off and then on again (rebooting!), and with this possibly being the reason why the main set apparently works OK in the bedroom.
Of course, the easy way to find out if the aforementioned (rebooting) is applicable or not, is by temporarily moving the main TV into the bedroom ready for switching on in the morning. Although this theory can easily be tested out without moving the living room TV, i.e: simply by switching it completely off (from mains) as soon as the pixelation starts, followed by switching it back on again after a minute or so.
By the way, do you have access to a small portable radio capable of receiving medium and long wave radio transmissions? e.g: Radio 4 LW
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Dan A: Unfortunately, there really isn't any way of getting around this problem except by mounting the aerial as high as possible, even, as a temporary measure, the one you are presently using if its suitably waterproofed, e.g: covered by such as a good quality freezer bag.
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Sallyam: As far as source of the interference is concerned, about the only thing that "can" positively be eliminated from the equation is the possibility of it being picked up in the coax feeding your main TV's aerial connection socket, because if it was, it would also have affected the bedroom TV temporarily connected into that socket.
On the subject of the BT vision box, the interference I referred to is of the "direct injection" variety, that is it radiates from the actual box itself and "not" along cables between the box and the TV, i.e: disconnecting cables makes no difference, this being why I had said that the test is not valid unless the box is unpowered.
Although the interference would appear to have vanished you can still carry a test using your portable radio, as the result of can be used against that found "if" it returns.
For accuracy, the test has to be carried out whilst your BT vision box "is" powered up, but "not" the TV which should be switched off, as the radio would pick up interference from the TV.
The procedure is to select LW on the portable radio and tune it to either above or below Radio 4 long wave, as you only want the background noise and not an actual station, then turn up the volume.
The next thing is to position the radio at a distance above the box (maybe 12" or so) enough to hear interference being picked up from the boxes circuitry, making a mental note of that heard for possible future reference.
The idea of the test being, that this test can be carried out again if the pixelation does return, as should the box be the source of the problem, the interference picked in the radio will manifest itself at a significantly higher volume level.
By the way, a useless piece of information as far as your problem is concerned, but though, this type of test can be used to detect most sources of interference capable of affecting TV reception, such as from a variety of domestic appliances or devices (thermostat's etc) controlling central heating systems, the procedure simply being to move the radio around near to anything suspected of being responsible for a problem.
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Friday 2 October 2015 7:22PM
Capt Bill Lowe / (MikeB) : Although as MikeB has correctly said, insomuch that no faults (as yet) is reported on DUK's TX engineering page concerning the Arrochar relay station, however the Radio & Television investigation service does indicate a series of intermittent "reduced quality" problems from the Sep 29th until 13.12 today, or 13.14 where the HD channels are concerned.