Problem with DishTV STB and Sky

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Seakiwi

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Topic # 93886 1-Dec-2011 13:21
Hi all, I have one a DishTV S7090PVR installed in a boat running 12 volt, with diablo2 cam and I am having problems with the unscrambling of Sky channels. Sole reason for using this box is that it is 12 volt and I want to avoid the need for inverters etc. Under 1.27 of the software the box would regularly put up the "scrambled channel" message and play would stop/freeze for between 1 and 5 seconds then carry on for a random amount of time (up to about 20 minutes) and repeat. I have upgraded to the latest release of the software for the box, 1.3 and the problem has become worse, the stop in descrambling is now 10 seconds or more in some cases and makes watching Sky untenable. While in the "scrambled signal" mode with the picture frozen I can access the menu for the box but any attempt to access the CI menu item puts up the message "CAM busy" and won't proceed. I can change to a Freeview channel which works fine. The guys at Dishtv are saying this is a problem that has only been occurring for the last month or so and initially have said it is something Sky have changed. They have then said their programmers have said it is something Sky has changed that is causing a problem with the Diablo2 CAM however as above the problem has gotten worse when I installed the 1.3 update. I don't have any issues with Freeview channels at all obviously. Anyone else experiencing this problem? Anyone out there using a different CAM successfully? Dragon CAM? Other suggestions? Thanks

Seakiwi

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Reply # 552275 1-Dec-2011 14:32
or anyone used Giga-Blue or T-Rex CAMs in NZ?

Jaxson

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Reply # 552294 1-Dec-2011 15:20
Sorry, most people in NZ with a valid sky card use it in a sky device. The exception being htpc and the occasional user who has a Vu+ Duo or Ultraplus unit which natively accept the sky card easily.

Seakiwi

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Reply # 552296 1-Dec-2011 15:24
Jaxson: Sorry, most people in NZ with a valid sky card use it in a sky device. The exception being htpc and the occasional user who has a Vu+ Duo or Ultraplus unit which natively accept the sky card easily. Agreed, my HTPC has both a standard Sky decoder attached and I have MySky HD STB as well. Would gladly use a Sky STB on the boat as well but they don't have enough brains to have a 12 volt option available!

Jaxson

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Reply # 552301 1-Dec-2011 15:37
Fergusson/Octagon models were geared up for 12V + Sky card from memory. Not a PVR but could get you going perhaps?

Seakiwi

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Reply # 552304 1-Dec-2011 15:46
Jaxson: Fergusson/Octagon models were geared up for 12V + Sky card from memory. Not a PVR but could get you going perhaps? HD? Is there a local source?

Jaxson

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Reply # 552306 1-Dec-2011 15:53
No, not HD either sorry. I didn't realise the DishTV S7090PVR offered support for CAMs/cards etc. That's pretty good. Given the issues others are having and the various updates that are coming out for that device; I'd suggest contacting the supplier directly in the first instance. Maybe your problem can be added to this list and hopefully solved?

Seakiwi

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Reply # 552309 1-Dec-2011 16:01
yes, I have contacted them as well, bit surprised that they don't seem to have a CAM or Sky card to test with most of the time! I am providing as much feedback to them as I can and have offered to test any updates for them as well but their prime areas seem to be more Freeview orientated. I think the box itself is actually quite good, probably released a bit early so that early adopters become beta testers and the UI particularly for the ESG for the sky channels which are not included in the Freeview EPG, of course, is a bit clunky. But would really like to test another CAM to see if the problem is identical. The t-Rex looks the most likely but would prefer not to import one just to test at this stage. I was hoping to find someone else already on this path as well. I will check out the other STBs you mention as well though thanks.

Niel

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Reply # 552417 1-Dec-2011 21:44
An inverter produces a very nasty AC waveform. A better option is to modify an STB to run directly off DC. As an electronic engineer with many years experience I'm more than happy to have a look for anyone to see if their box can be converted. Typically it runs off a 12V, 5V and/or 3.3V internal power supply anyway. As a start all I need to do is look at the circuit board, no cutting/drilling/spitting/farting required (although it helps ;-). Just send me a PM if anyone interested. I'm in East Auckland. You can never have enough Volvos!

Jaxson

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Reply # 552446 1-Dec-2011 23:16
Thanks for the offer Niel. Yeah nearly all consumer electronics drop to low voltage internally so technically you should be able to feed these sections directly. Having said that, there are various quality levels of inverter though too.

Niel

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Reply # 552479 2-Dec-2011 06:10
Unless you spend a huge amount of money, you will always get rubbish AC from an inverter which stresses components. Your efficiency is also in the order of 50% or less, so if running on batteries you are wasting half the power. I am more than capable of building a quality DC power supply as my job is designing world class industrial products. In primary school I already worked 10h a week at a TV repair shop. Feel free to contact me. You can never have enough Volvos!

Seakiwi

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Reply # 552529 2-Dec-2011 10:10
Thanks for the offer Niel, Yes it is the inefficiency that is the problem for me. I don't have a genset on the boat so rely on spinning an 80 amp alternator to recharge my (currently) 240 amp hour deep cycle house battery. Pulling excess amps from it to put through an inverter at low efficiency so that the internal power supply in an STB can drop it back to 12 volts or less just causes me to have to burn more deisel to replenish the amps used and decreases that battery life as well. To watch TV I am already running a motorised sat dish (Raymarine) and a Teac 12 volt LED TV. With the DishTV 12 volt box all of these use only 5 amps in total. I may well come back to you if I can't get the problems with this STB sorted.

Seakiwi

25 posts

Geek

Reply # 629338 23-May-2012 10:03
Thought I had better update this thread as the problem I had appears to have been resolved at last by version 1.4c of the software. I no longer have any "scrambled signal" messages using my Diablo CAM and MySky card. Yah!