All posts by sparky
Below are all of sparky's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
hi
i retuned my freeview(london crystal palace) recorder this morning and every thing was fine -all channels appeared,however!this evening i still get all channels but when i try recording anything it appears that the signal is not strong enough(?) and all channels freeze and jump and pixalate,
signal quality is shown as good to very good.
signal level is around 80%
i have tried an amp but no improvement.
i have also tried a small indoor aeriel get abot the same signals as the big multiband one!
does anyone have any ideas on whats going on?
thanks in advance.
sparky: hi Dave,thanks for the reply.
Location is the Chilterns 160m above sea level there is nothing higher I believe between me and Crystal palace.
I have been doing a few experiments to track this down.
All channels are fine while not recording.
If I try to record BBC 1 (haven’t tried 3 or 4) it degrades 1, 2 and BBC news but not the other channels such as ITV 1 ,yesterday,5 etc.
If I record on ITV1,yesterday etc. every thing works OK except for the BBC channels which are again degraded.
I tried the indoor aerial again,this time I lowered the aluminium blind (still in the open position)in the path of the signal,I then lost all the commercial channels but not the BBC!
This seems a trifle strange,supposing the BBC signal is too strong,if I use an attenuator I may lose the other channels.
Perhaps I ought to buy a new set and save time and effort. sparky: hi Dave,thanks for the reply.
confirmed: BBC is coming in on c23.
The recorder has ,I think,only one tuner(I can only record one program at a time and watch 1 recording at the same time).
not sure what you mean by Rf out,the recorder is connected to an analogue television by SCART, there is a Rf thru-link to the TV aerial socket for analogue reception.
The set top aerial has about the same performance as the multi-band aerial(funny enough)the only difference I have noticed is the multi-band is not affected by passing aircraft,trucks and motorcycles with no suppressors fitted!
what I don't understand is why the BBC channels which were and supposedly still are the stronger channels, are degraded while the weaker ones are not.
The behaviour has changed slightly since last night as the recording of BBC channels were degrading *all* other channels now it is just the BBC ones.
perhaps if I leave it for some more time it will rectify itself! 
sparky: thanks for the reply.
I will try an attenuator to see if that will improve the situation.
i am not used to all this digital stuff,bring back the old analogue signal meters with needles that moved and told the truth!
by the way BBC 4 has popped up on epg 802 didn't notice it last night,however if i record on 802 it behaves perfectly with no degradation of signal on 802 althogh it still affects all the other bbc channels, unlike bbc 4 on epg 8 which degrades 8 (itself) and all bbc channels except 802.strange.
i will post the results obtained with the attenuator,thanks again for your help. sparky:
Hi jb38,/Dave
When viewing bbc1 or any other BBC channel on c23 the picture is perfect,no noise,no banding or cross hatching(it's a old sony CRT which I am quite partial to)!
When I try to record say BBC1 whilst watching BBC1 the picture freezes then blanks or pixalates ,the actual recording is the same,also all the other BBC channels freeze and pixalate at the same time,except those on epg 802 and 803.BBC radio stations on 700 are also degraded,those on 800 are not affected.
When I record itv1 it records normally, picture unaffected ,recording perfect.
The PVR is a digihome 160 PVR twin tuner(I only found this out today-it's written on the front!) never had any trouble with it at all until this changeover.
at the back it has two aerial Sockets “in “and two “out,”one of the out sockets is strapped to the in socket of the other tuner,I tried removing this strap and tried two aerials,it does not respond to the second aerial which reports no signal.
I have tried an experiment with the set top aerial,stood it behind the aluminium blind (closed) and partially covered it with baking foil,this brought the BBC signal to the point of breaking up so I removed some of the foil until the picture stabilised then tried recording..still the same problem.
I have ordered an attenuator which I should be able to pick up tomorrow.
Thanks sparky: hi jb38/Dave
just found a site 
Unofficial Vestel PVR Information (UK) - Home
apparently this record problem is a known fault with this model of pvr,it mentions a software upgrade for other later models but not my one,when the other channels get fully switched over they may display the same behaviour ..looks like the easy way out(apart from the cost) is a new pvr, sparky:jb38
Software version is the latest for this model t810 v5.7 .
about yr2006.(not bad for 6 years use)
An upgrade is mentioned for a later model t825 software version v.13 but nothing for this model.
regarding the recording from a set top aerial,it will record the commercial channels correctly but not the BBC ones.
The reason I have kept this PVR is that I like the EPG style and simplicity of the controls,could have done with a series record facility though.
I will investigate the model you mention,thanks again for your help. sparky:
Hi jb38/Dave
Just an update on the continuing saga of the London switch over.
Yesterday (18/04/12) the big day arrived and it was as feared,the digihome displayed all channels as very weak signal-no recording at all,I did another factory reset with the aerial disconnected and then but I was able to receive the commercial channels and record some of them(I didn't try them all), the BBC channels remained as weak signals.
I thought that as this was taking up an inordinate amount of time and trouble I would invest in a new terrestrial receiver and bought a Humax t2 dtr.
Well,when I installed it, (this is on the multi band aerial) at first the commercial channels came up OK and it was possible to record them,the BBC channels appeared but with random pixalation -not possible to record them,later as the weather grew rather dark even the commercial channels were pixalating..
I tried the set top aerial but no signal at all even when the weather cleared some what,I then put an amp on the multi band all the channels appeared but the BBC still pixalating,I then changed the amp for a bigger output one(about 12db) and the channels all appeared and were recordable (even the BBC ) that is until the weather closed in and began raining they then reverted to pixalating/weak signal.
Before this change over I never suffered any weak signal/pixalation , some progress!
To me this indicates a weak signal from the multi band(levels are about 51% strength 100% quality without amp 80% /100% with),it's weird that the commercial channels work OK on this signal but the BBC do not.
I did read somewhere that although they have increased the power of the digital transmitters the actual range has been halved this would put my location on the boundary of the range.(I can't find the article again though)
I suppose I could try elevating the existing aerial or try a mast head amp or a bigger aerial(although the one I have has about 60 elements,I’ll probably end up with something like Jodrell bank! or even just use cable.
By the way one further problem,I don't think I mentioned that I also have a Humax freesat machine,the remotes are identical and they operate both machines (the t2),I have looked through the manuals to see if the codes can be changed but can't see anything any ideas. sparky:
Hi jb38
thanks for the reply.
The wide band aerial I have has about 60 X type elements,make not sure ,similar construction to the xb10a on the atv online aerial site, it is some years old now,can't remember exactly when,but this aerial replaced a fairly long log-periodic aerial .
I have tried the humax today now the weather seems to have cleared up,the BBC channels (BBC one/two/ news) are breaking up/pixalating without any attempt to record, the strange thing is that all the HD channels(50-54) are OK and can be recorded , also all channels on epg 810-819 are OK and can be recorded with no break up but I suppose these will disappear soon,plus all commercial channels OK.
All the signal levels are about the same 80 to 81 strength /100 quality.(this is with the amp connected)
It seems the fault or difference is only with the BBC channels on epg 1-2 and the news channel on 80 plus BBC 3 and 4 which are not on air at the moment.
I wonder if any one else is experiencing these symptoms and could the engineers still be working on this? I have heard that there is to be a further increase in power output(no date).
Thanks again for your response. sparky:
hi dave,
disregard my previos post,i have just been fiddling around with the humax and did a maual retune on c23,the first time no good same problem, so i tried altering some of the options including dbt to dbt2,no good,i then changed the bandwith from 8mhz to 7mhz and lo and behold it all works perfectly on all channels.
The strange thing is that the signal report still reports the bandwith as 8mhz!!
Any ideas why? dave,i might have spoken to soon,i just checked the bbc on epg 810 etc they seem to have aquired the same breaking up problem,so it looks like it has just swapped them in the epg. dave, i have just done an autotune to see if these channels would revert,channels 810-819 have disappeared,all other channels still working ok,including bbc channels,i have also notice in the signal checking bit that channel 44 has disappered,this is a channel on the hemel hempstead transmitter,i wonder if this could have been interfering with the cp signal.
on the old digihome it would indicate what transmitter it was scanning ,the humax does not seem to show this unless i am missing something. sparky:
Hi jb38
Thanks for your reply.
Following the 7mhz scan every thing worked perfectly,even recording all channels,the epg was in the correct order and the 800 series BBC channels have disappeared.(the ITV ones are still there but nothing on them),the signal was still being reported as 8mhz though.
The only anomaly was on the BBC channel recordings they were marked as channel 800 series although they were in position 1,2 etc. I then took the set top aerial upstairs and extended the co-ax up to one of the front bedroom windows facing CP and did a full auto-rescan(at first with no aerial plugged in).
I achieved a 51% signal /100 quality with this set-up and the Humax seems to work fine,no breaking up ,no noise on the picture and recording with the correct channels indicated in the epg.
The only thing that I think could have been incorrect is that the wideband was picking up channel 44 from the Hemel Hempstead relay (despite not pointing in that direction and in fact being horizontal opposed to it) and as Dave said,putting them in the position 1,2 etc in the epg.
On this latest rescan channel 44 is not shown in the signal section,another channel has appeared (channel 59 but there is no signal on this ) whereas channel 44 was showing sporadic 48 to 55 signal strength.
I have now reconnected the wideband aerial and the signal/quality is about the same (with out the amp)with the amp it is about 72signal /100 quality but the picture has stayed the about the same.
Apart from that I don,t know what the problem was,it seems this digital stuff is a bit more prickly than the old system and as I have read on the atv aerial site it is something of a black art,,if you had snow on the picture on the old system you probably had a signal problem!
I still think the old FM system was better quality,the picture quality on this Humax makes skin tones look pasty just like the satellite signals.
Anyway, I will replace the aerial with one of your suggestions, and use sat grade co-ax to top it off,I hope they stop fiddling around with stuff now.
Thanks again for your help, and Daves too. 
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