New Freeview HD hardware: eXtra Terrestrial Freeview HD tuner

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69 posts

Master Geek

#171877 17-Oct-2008 22:58

robjg63: Hi Again,

Just wondering - As I mentioned earlier I updated my firmware to 1.05 today.
Since then the unit has hung up several times and made a loud peeeping sound - sometimes it has rebooted itself and one time I had to power it off because it just sat there making this loud peeping noise and wouldnt do anything else. A couple of those times was when I was in the EPG.

This isnt normal behaviour for an ET box is it?

I think your initial suspescion that your box is faulty may be true. Return it for an exchange.
Don't judge the ET yet, if the next one is the same then start worrying.
Peter (the wholesaler) is very good about swapping faulty units.

I can assure you that a normal box works very well.

By the way, the peeping on the one I had that did similar things was caused by a bad fly lead from the wall to the unit. Worked great almost all the time, but at one stage I moved the unit and got pixelation and sound peeps, lockups and other issues. After MUCH frustration and speaking to Peter, I swapped the lead for a brand new one (cut the ends off the faulty one) and now the unit has gone 2 weeks without being powered off or put into standby, no sound breakup and only pixelation caused by a cabling problem that I am rewiring the house to fix (S=100% Q=20%). Funny thing was that I tested the signal and BER and it was all fine, the faulty fly lead didn't show any problems, only showed up later.

The ET seems to be very sensitive to cabling and signal quality.

Regards
Mark

robjg63

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#171940 18-Oct-2008 13:13

Thanks Mark - A good suggestion - I swapped over the wall cable - it may be a little better now.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
I am still getting what looks like 5-10% signal strength and 100% Quality (Not sure how that works).
Anyway, I have decided I will get the aerial guy back again next week.
He mentioned something about the possibility that the VHF/UHF on the aerial may not be 'balanced' properly - I gather perhaps the VHF signal may crowd out the UHF?
He reckoned he could install something between the aerial and the splitter box in the ceiling that would correct that - I suppose its worth a shot - I assume that the unit isnt lying when it says the signal is so poor even though I get a clear analogue Prime/Triange picture.

Thanks for everyones help.

Robert

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

robjg63

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#171980 18-Oct-2008 17:22

Has anyone tried out the subtitles?
There seems to be an issue in that they appear around 2-3 seconds too soon.
I tried it on several of the channels that had programs with subtitles and they were all the same.
Impressively clear though.
Is there any way of getting this on the distributors list of things to fix - not a biggie - but its so close to being right I'm sure it probably isnt a huge thing for the manufacturer to solve.

Robert

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

inichol

29 posts

Geek

#171996 18-Oct-2008 19:47

Robert

My ET displays signal strength levels similar to yours
I am wondering if its displaying the level back to front
When tuned in to local transmssions the signal levels on all channels is showing only 5 to 10%. I think it should show 90 to 95%
Quality is always 100%
If I add attenuator in aerial lead then signal level indicator shows increase in level to about 50%. Quality is still 100%
I dont know if anyone else is experiencing this or is it just something odd about our receivers
I dont recall this being on the upgrade list

robjg63

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#172003 18-Oct-2008 21:01

Hello Ian,
I see looking back through these posts that there was a fault in the ET software where the Quality and Signal displays were reversed. I think the labels were against the wrong displays. I think I saw that that issue was fixed with firmware version 1.04.
My unit that I have had since thursday, came with 1.04 installed - I saw there was a 1.05 and a couple of people in this forum suggested I upgrade - I have done that.
As far as I could see the 1.05 version only had some fix for Cue TV or something that people around Hamilton can pick up. Anyway - Even with the 1.05 I am getting 100% Quality and barely registering any Signal strength at all. The picture is cracking up to some degree every 10-20 seconds or so - Its watchable - just- probably only the novelty of thoses HD programs that is making me still watch to be honest.

As I mentioned in my posts the aerial guy that came to check my signal on friday said his meter was giving me a really strong signal and very low error rate. He mentioned something about possibly having to put a gizmo in to 'balance the signal' - in case the aerial wasnt balanced right - I understood this to be the UHF signals may get interference from the VHF. I may have mis-understood. He left me with a 6db attenuator to plug in between the aerial lead and the ET. He said 12db would have been better but he only had the one 6db one in his van. Sorry I dont really understand the db stuff. Assuming that perhaps you do, he said the meter showed 64.5db and a BER of 1.05-06 (if that makes any sense). He reckoned they were good figures.
I dont think the attenuator he left has made a lot of difference at all to be honest.

How many db is your attenuator? Are you getting a good steady picture without breakups?
What strength were you getting without the attenuator?

Cheers

Robert

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

inichol

29 posts

Geek

#172014 18-Oct-2008 22:11

Robert

Think you are correct in that the older firmwaree had the Quality and Signal displays reversed. Had me confused for a while

Re the picture breaking up - my ET the picture breaks up to some degree every minute or so. Pete strongly suggested that its a signal problem and not the box
I am located in Mairangi Bay and can get strong signals from either Waiatarua or Pine Hill
I have tried repointing my aerial to each of these locations and manually tuned to ensure I was picking upthe approriate channels
In each case I got exactly the same results - hardly any signal strength indication (suspect its reading back to front) but 100% quality.
Picture breakups occured from both Transmitter sites
I replace the coax all the way from the aerial and nothing changed so still getting picture breakups.
I have now run out of things to try so my next step is to swap it out with another receiver to see if that fixes the problem
The software version is 1.05

Re the attenuator - mine is also 6db. A 3db attenuator reduces the signal by 50% so I assume a 6db Attenuator would reduce signal by further 50%.
The attenuator makes no difference to the picture breakups.
The signal level and BER measurments made by your antenna man look good to me

Hope that helps

Ian

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robjg63

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#172020 18-Oct-2008 22:52

Ian
It sounds like we have similar situations then, I guess the conclusion is either:
1) Dud STB unit
2) Dud aerial
3) Both of the above (unlikely?)
I have found that the unit has just locked up a couple of times today - only a power off/on at the back would get it going - so maybe its the unit.

If you manage to swap your unit I would be very interested to know if it makes a difference because at the moment I am at a bit of a loss to know what to do next.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Garglo

49 posts

Geek

#172103 19-Oct-2008 17:48

I have attended 4 people experiencing small amounts of picture pixellation on receivers and one with the motor boating.

Have cured nearly all of these with:-
- Replacing faulty / low quality aerial link cables from the wall to the receiver.
- Make sure HD receiver is the first link in the chain before on feeding to VHS or other devices.
- Setting the HD receivers output resolution to 1080i for all LCD TV's even if they are 756. This can affect the quantity of pixellation
- Aerial wiring connections. + If you can have someone at the TV end and someone on the roof rattling the antenna to see if the pixellation is due to the elements connections.

The one not perfect reception case . . pixellation only occures on TV3 / C4 and every 10mins and only just detectable. This situation signal level is very low and has a booster amplifier in circuit as well. The main problem at this site was a low quality cable.

I hope these suggestions are a help to some of you.

Only Butterflys are more beautiful.

robjg63

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#172140 19-Oct-2008 21:08

Thanks for that Gary,
All good suggestions.
I have tried a different lead from the wall to the aerial socket - That didnt make any difference.
Signal still showing around 5-10% and Quality 100%
The STB is connected directly to the wall socket and straight into the TV (HDMI and everything set to 1080i).
The picture still cracks up every 10 seconds or so (all channels) - worse when a lot of movement on the screen - maybe this makes sense if the signal is low.

I tried taking the unit around to a friends place (Its hard to find people with a UHF aerial that works!).
The UHF channels were so-so reception (I get very sharp UHF channel reception at home).
Went through automatic setup and the TVNZ channels showed very low signal strength, but the Mediaworks (3/4 etc) were at least 50%. I watched 3 for a while, but the pixelation was pretty bad - every 10s or so and quite dramatic.
So I am not sure exactly what it proves to be honest.
The box has also locked up and rebooted by itself a couple of times this weekend - I think I will take it back and see if I can get an exchange for another. If it behaves the same then I guess I need the aerial guy to ???? (rerun cable/new aerial??).
I guess I would like to know what another brand of receiver would make of my aerial etc, but I cant test that unfortunately.

Thanks for your help though - much appreciated.

Robert

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

robjg63

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#172543 21-Oct-2008 16:09

Well an update of sorts - Maybe Ian might find this useful.....
I managed to exchange the existing STB for another.
It doesnt seem to have made a great deal of difference - Signal strength still reports maybe 10% if I am lucky and Quality is still showing 100%. So not a lot of difference there. I do think that it doesnt seem to be pixelating quite as much/majorly as the old unit - but it should still be a lot better.
I have purchased a Pudney & Lee Coax cable to replace the generic no brand white moulded wall to STB cable I had before.
This has made no difference to signal strength or pixelation.
I guess the only thing left is to get the cabling in the wall and the aerial checked out again.

As an aside - I upgraded the firmware from 1.04 to 1.05 - I am almost certain that the signal strength shows less under 1.05 than it did under 1.04 - odd - didnt make any difference to the picture quality though.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

BadMac

69 posts

Master Geek

#172553 21-Oct-2008 16:31

robjg63:
Well an update of sorts - Maybe Ian might find this useful.....
I managed to exchange the existing STB for another.
It doesnt seem to have made a great deal of difference - Signal strength still reports maybe 10% if I am lucky and Quality is still showing 100%. So not a lot of difference there. I do think that it doesnt seem to be pixelating quite as much/majorly as the old unit - but it should still be a lot better.
I have purchased a Pudney & Lee Coax cable to replace the generic no brand white moulded wall to STB cable I had before.
This has made no difference to signal strength or pixelation.
I guess the only thing left is to get the cabling in the wall and the aerial checked out again.

As an aside - I upgraded the firmware from 1.04 to 1.05 - I am almost certain that the signal strength shows less under 1.05 than it did under 1.04 - odd - didnt make any difference to the picture quality though.

I agree, my signal display is worse since upgrading. I'm going to downgrade without touching anything else to prove it soon.

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Garglo

49 posts

Geek

#172728 22-Oct-2008 11:36

I have been in Wellington this week and visited a friend with an ET receiver. Had v 1.3 and upgraded to 1.5. I was amazed that TV3, C4 was so low in signal level. Q= 100, S = 7% estimated. Hey no pixellation problems on TV3!!!!!! TVNZ levels 40% as with Kordia levels similar. They have a booster amplifier and a hill is in the way of a direct line to the Kau Kau transmitter.

Replaced cable from wall to receiver and TV3 levels jumped up to 15%. Reception still perfect, no pixellation at all. These people are in a remote area and Im just thinking that maybe other peoples pixellation problems may be local radio transmission interference. See whether different times of the day could change the situation.

A suggestion would be to switch off all mobile phones, hand held phones, wireless devices, TV wireless extenders, microwaves etc to see whether these could be the cause of peoples pixellation. I believe that aerial cabling and connections are also the other main cause of pixellation problems.

Two years ago, we we called in radio Interference inspector to identify interference on analog TV. Turned ot to be a faulty insulator on the power pole outside the house.

While maybe not related to this discussion, but may be of interest, I had to ditch my Uniden hand held phone, a while ago because of an interferrace problem with a WiFi network I was running. The cure was to replaced the Uniden with a Pansonic.

Only Butterflys are more beautiful.

pete9321

105 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#172735 22-Oct-2008 11:48

E.T news update....
have met with factory, and we are working on a simple PVR function...upgradeable via usboff website..i.e. rec whatever you are watching now....
Later when Freeview upgrades its mheg5, we will add scheduling to it...for more advanced rec features.
clock issue on standby getting sorted now...
Remember Radio telephones, trunk radio for trucks ,etc...all on around 450mhz cause interference to HD receivers...usually first noticed with audio probs...then pic breakup.

BadMac

69 posts

Master Geek

#172745 22-Oct-2008 12:15

BadMac:
robjg63:
Well an update of sorts - Maybe Ian might find this useful.....
I managed to exchange the existing STB for another.
It doesnt seem to have made a great deal of difference - Signal strength still reports maybe 10% if I am lucky and Quality is still showing 100%. So not a lot of difference there. I do think that it doesnt seem to be pixelating quite as much/majorly as the old unit - but it should still be a lot better.
I have purchased a Pudney & Lee Coax cable to replace the generic no brand white moulded wall to STB cable I had before.
This has made no difference to signal strength or pixelation.
I guess the only thing left is to get the cabling in the wall and the aerial checked out again.

As an aside - I upgraded the firmware from 1.04 to 1.05 - I am almost certain that the signal strength shows less under 1.05 than it did under 1.04 - odd - didnt make any difference to the picture quality though.

I agree, my signal display is worse since upgrading. I'm going to downgrade without touching anything else to prove it soon.

Ok, I downgraded to 1.3, then up to 1.4 (both versions) and back to 1.5. Signal and quality stayed about the same, so it was perception rather than reality in my case.

Jaxson

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#172757 22-Oct-2008 12:52

Hey thanks for the update Peter, sounds good!

robjg63 sorry, but you are going to need more than 10%ish signal strength to be reliable. Need to address aerial quality, connection points, cable quality to unit. You might need to try a few different positions on your property, and ideally a straight length of coax direct to the unit as well to help you sort the best setup. Test signal with the attenuator out too maybe.

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