All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Dave W: The type of problem your daughter is experiencing always has an element of hit and miss to it concerning anything that's suggested to rectify the situation, as its really a case where on site investigation is required.
That said, does your daughter know if anyone else is experiencing the same problem? as if they do then its very doubtful if changing the co-ax would make any difference, not of course that brown co-ax is always inferior to satellite cable anyway, as some of the older brown co-ax has a really thick copper
braiding which is superior to "some" types of satellite cable found around, and so satellite cable cannot automatically always be assumed as being better.
What you could do though is ask your daughter to try a signal check whilst on BBC1 (or ITV) then do similar on the programme channels she has trouble with, as that will indicate if her problem is one where the signal received on these channels is running at a low level and likewise more prone to suffering from interference problems, so its possible that alterations to the aerial system being used could well show an improvement.
Maybe you could check on her aerial as far as the wide-band issue is concerned, look at the end of the main bar that holds the elements, and if its wide-band it should have a black plastic stopper on the end, if any colour is seen it isn't.
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Dave W: Forgot to include that wide-band is necessary only because of the lesser muxes (ArqA / ArqB) being out of band with the others at Ch53 / Ch60.
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Thea: N14 indicates that you can be located at around 14 miles or so away from Crystal Palace, and which at present anyway somewhat eliminates the possibility of your signal being too strong.
I will say though that "if" the method you used to split the signal was not done by using a powered splitter then that will result in signal being weaker to both devices, the way to test being to by pass the splitter and have the aerial feeding directly into the device that shows no signal, this followed by carrying out an auto-tune to see what comes up.
If this worked then using a two way powered splitter would most likely cure the problem presently experienced, but its best that you don't make any radical changes at present as come April 18th when Crystal Palace switched to high power there should be a massive difference in your signal strength anyway making this type of splitter unnecessary.
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Eddie: When you ran the extra cable from the quad LNB on the dish are you sure that you didn't accidentally nudge the dish very slightly in the process? as your problem could suggest that happened.
What to do is this, using only the normal Sky box for a test try connecting it to each of the dish feeds one at a time and check what the signal level / quality is indicating (services-4-6) these should be level pegging about 75% or so, if the quality is lagging then the dish is slightly out.
By the way, don't expect to see exactly the same indications on the new box to that of the old one, as the circuitry is different likewise the readings will be too.
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Ken Illsley: Further to what's already been said by J and just to add to this, on the issue of where you are actually receiving your signal from select BBC1 and go into the signal strength / quality checking screen and note the Mux Channel number thats indicated associated with the level seen, if the signal is from Tacolneston it will be Ch55 whereas its Ch44 if from Sudbury, then select ITV1 and carry out a similar test, Tacolneston being Ch59 whereas if Sudbury its Ch41.
Just as a final confirmation check on a non PSB transmitter, select ITV3 and carry out the same procedure as before, Tacolneston SDN being Ch42 whereas its Ch49 from Sudbury, although as its temporarily running on low power you might not receive it anyway.
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Beth mcgookin: Have you turned the magic eyes RF2 power on? this done by pressing "services" then in a smooth continuous sequence "4-0-1-select" (on some HD boxes its "0-0-1-select")and that should take you into the engineers set up menu where you will see the option to switch the power on. By the way whilst carrying out the button pressing procedure its best to do it by NOT looking at the screen.
If though the power is already turned on try the magic eye on the HD boxes output but without it being plugged into the TV, as some TV's are not compatible with these devices.
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Peter Bayer: This type of problem can be caused by your Sony having picked up the multiplex film 4 uses from an alternative transmitter, but its impossible to give constructive advice without having knowledge of your location, (pref: post code) this to enable your reception possibilities to be checked on.
By the way this is quite a common thing to happen where more than one TV / box is in a property, and is basically caused by the sensitivity differences between tuners as well as other factors concerning scanning methods used.
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Eddie: No! that's the opposite of fine, as the "quality" shown on a normal Sky box connected to a perfectly aligned dish should be at least the same as or, even slightly exceed the actual signal strength shown, so what you have mentioned in my book suggests that the dish is slightly out of alignment, something which is likely to give problems dependant on channels selected, although the quality / strength seen is that of the default transponders frequency this being why it always indicates the same no matter what channel you might be on.
Your new Sky+ box could have a less sensitive tuner than that in the old Sky box and that will make the situation worse, so its really the case of having the alignment checked.
By the way, what I am referring to only involves the merest nudge one way or the other in the horizontal plane, or its that the "skew" is out by the complete block having been turned slightly either clock or anti-clockwise, something which might have occurred when you were screwing the "F" plug into the blocks spare outlet.
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John: No! as explained in this excerpt from a fuller and somewhat lengthier explanation, >> commercial operators decided that the cost of providing the equipment, installation and ongoing operation of services from the 1,000 smaller transmitters would cost more than any additional revenue they could get from the TV channels that rent their broadcast capacity, as the work would only expand the actual number of homes broadcast to by 9% <<
There are numerous PSB only relays similar to Perth dotted all over the UK, and with the aforementioned applying to them all.
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Monday 27 February 2012 11:23PM
Thea: As your query concerns a reception problem the you really have to indicate your location (pref: post code) to enable an assessment to be made on the signal level expected in your area.
However as far as one device being able to receive OK whereas the other doesn't is something quite commonly experienced by many, and with the usual reason for this being that because no two tuners have the same sensitivity its always the more sensitive types that's able to produce a picture on a weak signal whereas the less sensitive types cannot.
There is of course a complete reverse of this situation where excessively strong signals are involved, this being another reason for requesting your location.
Another factor to keep in mind is that there is constant engineering work taking place at Crystal Palace in preparation for the switchover in April, so glitches and breaks in reception has to be expected at any time.