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All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


RonC: Pleased to see that you have managed to sort the problem out OK. But in answer to your latter question, not really! except by the fact that because its a full service station is able to offer the maximum number of programme channels, but which because of your proximity with respect to the local relay (fill in) transmitter I was unsure that you were able to receive in the first place, as such did not want to confuse the issue by providing channel number info not appropriate to your circumstances. However, and just purely for the record, should any further problems occur at any time on your Sharp TV use the "reset your receiver" option seen in the set up menu but quickly follow this by pressing the red button as soon you see it start automatically searching for channels as you want to select "manual search", this then followed by entering and scanning each of Winter Hills six mux channels "one at a time" and storing the results before moving onto the next mux number, this being the only way to guarantee that your TV tuners memory is not storing data from more than one station. Winter Hills channels being / 50 (BBC) - 59 (ITV1) - 54 (HD service) - 58 (ITV3 etc) - 49 (Pick TV etc) - 55 (Film 4 etc).

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J
Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
Saturday 20 July 2013 4:30PM

Gary: What is the model number of the TV that you have just acquired?

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brian: Very interesting! as that mux channel corresponds to COM5/ArqA, this making me curious as to the outcome if any other owners of these models (Dave Lindsay?) cared to delete everything stored followed by carrying out a manual tune on their particular stations COM5/ArqA mux as, I cant really see the significance of this commercial channel as software updating etc via a download uses the PSB1/BBCA mux.

That said, if everyone who had complained of experiencing this problem had indicated their location this would automatically have satisfied my curiosity "if" they were known to reside in an area where they were only served by a relay station, relays not transmitting COM channels.

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Jo: This is the advice given by Dave Lindsay to another user of these devices earlier on this evening.

>>> Press and hold the Power/Standby button on the machine for about 5 seconds to get it out of the Update state (there is no need to power it off at the mains) <<<

By the way you will not receive any communications from Sony until Monday (at the earliest), as just like most other companies their office is closed at weekends.

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brian: I have a sneaking suspicion that a few others who have also experienced this problem might well be trying out your procedure for themselves albeit with the qualification of nothing being guaranteed, but though so long as they remember NOT to use the channels numbers you have mentioned (Ch29 / Ch56) but the COM4/ SDN then COM5/ArqA channel numbers used by the station they receive from.

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Dave Lindsay: Yes, and can fully understand the reason for you having suspected that your tuner had packed in, because if it had the symptoms would have been exactly the same.

I have to say though, that when I first seen these problems being mentioned this morning I wondered what your own findings would be, as I had only noticed late yesterday evening that you had previously made a posting commenting on a suspected EPG problem you were experiencing, and had typed out a short reply (not in the reply box as I copy and paste into it) along the lines that I felt the problem was more likely to be caused by a software glitch within the actual box rather than the data sent out by the transmitters involved.

However after having seen the sheer numbers of people complaining I decided to scrub what I had previously typed out as it wouldn't really have added to that already known.

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J
Feedback | Feedback
Saturday 20 July 2013 11:43PM

Jane: I fail to understand why everyone seems to think that Sony for some reason or another is duty bound to work over weekends, especially as they are NOT associated with any form of emergency services likewise not involved in life or death situations, because in reality they are simply a manufacturer of a range of professional as well as domestic electronic equipment.

Anyone who thinks this somehow abnormal should try making a weekend communication with any of the other main manufacturers of domestic entertainment equipment and expect a reply, the results of almost guaranteed to be similar to that experienced from Sony.

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Dave Lindsay: These tests that you have carried out somewhat backs up Brian's (located within the Waltham area's) findings insomuch that something associated with COM5 (no matter where its received from) is triggering the problem in the Sony, this being why that the Sony apparently works OK when its been set up on France, simply because no EPG containing the suspect COM5 data has been stored.

This in theory meaning that if the Sony box is set up as normal in UK followed by manually tuning in each of the muxes one at a time "with the exception of COM5" this will result in EPG listings been seen as normal minus everything associated with COM5.

In other words if the BBC mux is stored first the EPG will only indicate LCN numbers relating to all BBC programmes carried by BBCA and nothing above this (meaning numbers), the additional LCN numbers being added to as they are being picked up from each of the muxes subsequently scanned, which of course is the way that LCN numbers are stored in the first place, because if you scrub everything stored and then tune in the SDN mux the EPG listings will start from LCN 010 and with no numbers below this being seen.


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Dave Lindsay: Re your 11.46am posting, yes! that's one of the pitfalls, although I suspect that the reason why no option is seen to disable channel updating (albeit it does for software) is possibly because that its tied in with keeping the programme guide information bang up to date in the same way as happens with all Vestel based PVR's, and why you are able to select a programme for recording well in advance of the present time and its there in the guide, unlike in the case of Humax PVR's of the 9200 / 9300 variety where if continually left in standby one is liable to be confronted with blank spaces until the guide catches up.

Pleasing to see that all would appear to be working OK again, and which I suspect is more likely to be connected with alterations having been made (or reversed) to COM 5's EPG data rather than anything connected with Sony.

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Dave Lindsay: Well, that certainly put the old video recorder to good use! and indeed quite a good way of getting over the problem caused by the Sony's uncontrollable channel updating procedure being carried every few hours, but though was C53 a typo for C52? or did you find that the swamping effect of the VCR's modulator on C53 took the edge off Emley's COM5 whereby it wasn't recorded? e.g: the 4G effect!

As far as the Humax is concerned, yes! that can be a problem with these models if constantly kept in standby mode until actually required such as applies in the case of my two models, although I do have to say that on taking the device out of standby the channel required plus the one following it is nearly always seen in the guide, the problem mostly arises when you want to record a programme that's a few hours away or even on the next day, as this is when real patience is required as sometimes the remaining part of the guide can take at least 3 or 4 minutes to populate, of course this is a known problem with these type of Humax boxes, slow processors!

That said though, I generally do not miss the start of anything as I have both models adjusted to start 3 minutes in advance of the programme start time, this taking the recorder out of the mode whereby its being controlled by a broadcast signal, however should a programme be cancelled altogether then this cannot be catered for and usually resulting in me landing up recording some unwanted programme.

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