All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Paul Robins: If you are referring to an ex Sky dish being used for Freesat (whether HD or not) then no adjustments should be required "if" the Sky dish was previously performing perfectly OK.
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steve bevan: Well although predictors (any!) do have their faults because they cannot really cater properly for reception problems that may be in existence caused by for instance the local terrain, the Digital UK's trade view predictor (link below) which I use as a guide shows Bluebell Hill in effect as being no-go for your area, as everything seen is a mixture of poor or variable, or in some cases nothing at all.
Dover on the other hand is of course shown as presently being possible, but as far as reliability is concerned this only really applies to the PSB muxes, as although from 27th June two of the three commercial muxes may well come on board but with the permanent status of variable, and not even good at that! and nothing at all shown for the ArqB multiplex.
There would be nothing stopping you from experimenting as in nearly every iffy reception area little pockets of good reception exist, but rather than changing the aerial which as aforementioned wouldn't in my opinion really achieve anything, using an amplifier of about 15dB or so inline with it, the dB figure mentioned being ideal for experiments.
Postcode Checker - Trade View
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Sue 2201: If the trees referred to are reasonably dense and are located from about 100 to 500 feet away, then even when the transmitter is on high power they "might" still have an effect, but its one of these situations that cannot really be accurately predicted so its really a case of wait and see.
As far as Sky's "free to view" and Freesat is concerned there are many similarities between them, with some programmes being on Sky and not on Freesat, and vice-versa.
You do not require any form of subscription with Sky to view the channels referred to, and nothing requires to be altered with your dish either, this even applying to the future should you decide at any point in time to purchase a twin channel Freesat PVR to enable you to record one channel whilst viewing another.
The only qualification to this being that if you did purchase a twin tuner device then the dishes LNB would require to be altered to a quad version and another cable run from it, as twin channel devices require two cables.
By the way quad LNB's are generally under £10.00 and simplicity to install by being a push fit onto the end of the dishes arm.
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Gay Skinner: There is a distinct possibility that it is the TV at fault, as I note that Guildfords BBC mux has a negative offset on its frequency and is something which can cause problems on some devices, usually if of the slightly older variety should this apply, other than that I cannot see any other external reasons for the problem.
I will say though that at stage one of the switchover on April 4th this offset is being switched over to the ITV mux until April the 18th, when at that point its being permanently removed at switchover stage two.
Maybe you could indicate the model of TV involved.
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Peter Holme: You have heard correctly, insomuch that unless a subscription of I believe £10.00 is taken out with Sky you wont be able to use the recording or playback side of the box, as Sky permanently retains access control to the operation of the box removing it on the cancellation of a subscription.
Channel 5 should not require a card to access it as only Pick TV (epg 152) requires it, try resetting the box by removing the mains plug for about 15 secs or so before reconnecting it again.
By the way if you are referring to a Sky+ box it will effectively turn into a normal single channel device, as the second tuner is only really for recording purposes.
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CaroM40: I would really advise you "not" to make any radical changes at present even although the problems you are experiencing is most likely due to your signal being on the weak side, as this situation will massively change between April 4th and the 18th, particularly the latter, because on these dates Crystal Palace is completely changing over to high power operation.
Just out of interest though, what method is used to feed the aerial to the different rooms? is it done by a powered distribution amplifier? which of course is the correct way to do things. However when Crystal Palace does switch over if you then start getting picture break up or any other peculiar problems then it will likely be due to the signal being too strong, this fault can be completely rectified though by the inclusion of an attenuator in line with the input to the distribution amplifier, if used that is!
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Mark: I wouldn't personally advise a stacker to be used, because apart from the fact that you have to install the sender unit behind the LNB meaning that you require to have access to the dish in the first place, also in practice these devices can sometimes prove to be quite critical in setting up in roughly a similar way as sometimes happens when people experience problems when setting up a magic eye for remote channel changing, insomuch that in a few cases it might require a cable that's already installed to be changed to one of the exactly type specified, as intermittent reception problems are liable to occur if you don't.
With regards to the number of input feeds required on a satellite PVR, I feel that you are possibly getting mixed up with terrestrial Freeview devices which only requires one input, this basically because that unlike with satellite equipment the polarity of the signal being received does not come into the equation, as "all" (no matter of what brand) twin channel satellite PVR's require two inputs, and a Sky+ box is really just a twin channel PVR but dedicated mainly for Sky use.
Its because that in twin channel satellite recording equipment the tuners operate totally independently from the other, and this is why each of them requires a separate feed, i.e:- one tuner might be recording a programme received on vertical polarisation whereas the other tuner might be recording another programme received horizontally, and there are no exceptions to this! so anything you might see with a single input is "not" a twin channel satellite device but more likely a box designed for Freeview.
Of course the aerial socket tells you instantly what
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BevB: Just to add to that already said, BT vision is basically a Freeview box such as you presently have but which also requires a broadband connection for full use of the additional features it offers.
I am inclined to agree that Freesat is likely to be the best option, that is so long as when standing with your back against a South facing wall you can have an unobstructed view of the Sky when looking up at about an angle of 25 degrees or so from the horizontal.
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Mark: In case you are wondering about the somewhat abrupt end to my reply, this is the remaining part of my reply which I have just noticed I didn't paste into the reply box properly.
Of course the aerial socket tells you instantly what a box is designed to receive, "F" sockets (screw threads) being satellite.
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Thursday 16 February 2012 4:54PM
Steve: The reception predictions seen for your post code does not for the time being indicate very promising, insomuch that your present reception of Sudbury's PSB muxes plus SDN (ITV3 etc) is about the only choice you have, even at that the SDN mux is indicated as being variable, meaning that glitches in reception can be expected.
I don't feel that you would really achieve anything by changing your aerial as the missing muxes (ArqA & ArqB) are not indicated as being possible to receive anyway, and so called high gain aerials have a lot of hype attached to what they can actually achieve, as the only time that they "might" give a positive improvement is in circumstances where exceptional distances of a near line-of-site nature are involved, your situation at 19 miles not being!
However, from June 27th you should be able to receive all six muxes from Sudbury when the presently low powered commercial muxes also start transmitting on high power, as the PSB muxes are presently doing.
By the way, you are not predicted to have good reception from Crystal Palace at any time and that's right into 2014.