All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mrs. M. Wilson: East Lothian is a large area and as such you have to be more precise with regards to your location such as providing a post code, or at least one from nearby premises like a shop or pub, as this will enable signal checking to be carried out, although when you say that all other programmes are fine does that also include EPG 10-ITV3 / 11-Pick TV / 12-Yesterday?
That being said though, it could be that your signal level is running a bit on the low side and is dropping out of the box in the evenings though natural fluctuations in signal strength that generally occurs then, so when this happens again keep the TV or box on the same channel and carry out a signal strength check (done via tuning menu) and noting the level seen, then when the signal returns do the same check again and note what the difference is, as you "might" require a booster to overcome this problem unless there is some deficiency in your aerial system that requires rectification.
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Malcolm Prior: You should carry out a reset on your box just in case that the tuners memory is overloaded by attempting to store more channels than its technically capable of doing, this accessed by pressing - "Menu" and highlighting "Box settings" then highlight "restore factory settings" and press OK.
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roy privett: This can be caused by one of two separate reasons, the first being that the signal being received is excessively strong to the extent that its blocking the tuner, post code required to verify if this is likely to apply or not, and the second reason being that your Ferguson Freeview box cannot respond to the new 8K operating mode that the BBC transmitter is now on, which of course come the 18th the other channels will be as well.
Maybe you could indicate the exact model of the box as well as your location, or somewhere very near to!
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boo: As you are only located at 12 miles away from Crystal Palace its possible that this "might" be caused by signal overloading, so if you have access to a set top aerial connect that into the set and carry out a re-tune.
Needless to say, that if you have any type of booster in line then by pass it, as if this did apply and you by passed it then a set top aerial test would be unnecessary.
By the way, if you do get the BBC channels it doesn't matter what like any other channels might be, as its only a BBC test.
Give an update on results, but should this not make any difference then it could be an issue concerning the actual TV which I am unable to check at this present time, but give an update on the result of the test suggested.
Another point being that provided you aren't in a basement environment then a piece of wire of about 8 inches long pushed into the inner part of the aerial socket is a good substitute for a set top aerial, but only when at the sort of distances from a high powered transmitter such as applies in your own situation.
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Chris: If you are referring to Crystal Palaces Freeview HD service then its presently only operating on 10Kw but will be switching to 200Kw on the 18th of this month.
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Kent Smith: My latter comment was really being said purely from the ultimate "safety to the person" point of view if working at heights, as the actual booster cannot be damaged if you leave it switched on whilst working on an aerial as there is no voltage on the aerial side of the booster to short circuit.
When you had asked the original question you didn't actually define as to whether or not you were enquiring from a danger of damaging the booster point of view or your question was one of personal safety.
When I referred to a slight tingle, this is what many people have experienced if they are holding a metal coax plug in their hand and touch the socket on the equipment they intend to insert the plug into, its not dangerous but could be if holding onto something metallic on a roof at the time, although the power supplies used for boosters is technically safer to the non- transformer types as have been used in domestic entertainment equipment from about 25 years ago to the present.
In other words, a person will NOT get the tingle referred to if dealing with an older fashioned and "heavy" VCR recorder, these being heavy because of using transformers.
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Sarby: If you are referring to the TV that the Sky box is sitting next to and connected into then are you meaning that you cannot receive Freeview? or is it that you cannot view Sky on the TV via the scart or HDMI lead between the box and the TV?
If though its Freeview then do you have a normal aerial connected directly into the TV and are located in a Freeview reception area? as you have not mentioned your location, a post code enabling your reception possibilities to be assessed.
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sparky: You have just beat me to it, as when you mentioned the model I was going to say that if it still cannot record using the set top aerial then the device requires an upgrade, the problem there being that any over air upgrades from recent times have not been for that chassis, if as I suspect its a T810 depending on the age of the unit.
I was also going to say that its not worth the bother trying to do it in conjunction with a PC either (an RS232 cable between both) as its fraught with the danger that after having gone to the trouble of downloading the software etc that any slight glitch that might occur during the upgrade will render the device useless.
A good and reasonably priced upgrade to that model is the current Hitachi HDR325 twin tuner 320gb PVR sold by Argos, as these have the same user friendly remote control menu systems used by all Vestel chassis devices.
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sparky: Also meant to say to say that I would be interested to know what software version your box has, this accessed by pressing Menu - set up - configuration.
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Friday 6 April 2012 6:39PM
Aaron: If you have access to a set top aerial plug that in and carry out a manual tune of Ch23 "if" your device allows manual tuning, other wise its an auto tune, this being necessary as the BBC mux channel will NOT be stored in the TV's memory and you have no way of picking it up unless it is.
The reason for the set top aerial being suggested, or even a piece of copper wire about 8 inches long pushed into the inner part of the aerial socket, is that by you being located at only 3 miles away from Crystal Palaces 200Kw BBC transmitter its a wonder that you can receive anything, and so the possibility always exists that the excessively high level of signal from the BBC mux is being blocked in the tuner, and this is something that has to be eliminated, that is as well as taking the other valid points into account as raised by Mark Fletcher and Dave Lindsay respectively.