Panasonic FreeView Box DMR-XW380 .... shop is unlikely to take back ... signal lost through Panasonic not the Samsung TV ... ???

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Panasonic FreeView Box DMR-XW380 .... shop is unlikely to take back ... signal lost through Panasonic not the Samsung TV ... ???

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mattwnz

20164 posts

Uber Geek

#571266 20-Jan-2012 14:55

ADKM:
there is a known fault

That's not it - and is wrong . There's no 'known fault'. If you supply the unit with the signal it's designed for all is well.?

So who provides that signal? The signal someone receives is outside their control, that is supplied by freeview/their supplier. Otherwise there should be big warnings on the box that this product may not work properly if your signal isn't exactly right.

wilt64

246 posts

Master Geek

#571294 20-Jan-2012 15:43

mattwnz:
ADKM:
there is a known fault

That's not it - and is wrong . There's no 'known fault'. If you supply the unit with the signal it's designed for all is well.?

So who provides that signal? The signal someone receives is outside their control, that is supplied by freeview/their supplier. Otherwise there should be big warnings on the box that this product may not work properly if your signal isn't exactly right.

The company I work for import mobile DVB-T PVR tuners for the car, they come with window mount diversity antenna's, these tuners work unbelievably well with little or no pixilation whist mobile around town (also work 100% on Japanese import radio’s with composite AV input) I have one in my car and the picture quality is stunning. The other day drove to Ashburton and the only pixilation I got is when we got into Ashburton the picture started to chop up a bit. Digital TV does not need an overly strong signal to work. Where the problem does come in is spurries and crud within the bandwidth of the DVB-T transmitter. Masthead amplifiers are notorious for this particularly broadband amps that do VHF and UHF they amplify everything including harmonics. As analog TV is shutting down DON’T buy a VHF/UHF amp just stick to UHF preferably with variable gain so you can set it to your requirements.

Jaxson

8044 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#571302 20-Jan-2012 16:00

wilt64: these tuners work unbelievably well with little or no pixilation whist mobile around town.

Hope the driver can't see it. Weren't you supposed to tie those to the handbrake signal for instance, so it wasn't a distraction whilst you drove?

I guess there's an education factor to be had now as well. So if you get an aerial specialist around they can provide filters on your UHF output to block any non UHF signals. This is the part I suspect is not happening as most are simply ensuring the UHF reception component is sufficient.

Still, if a device is going to be susceptible to non UHF frequencies then the manufacturer ought to warn you. As has been pointed out before, not all unit suffer from this.

Brunzy

2016 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#571336 20-Jan-2012 16:39

mattwnz:
ADKM:
there is a known fault

That's not it - and is wrong . There's no 'known fault'. If you supply the unit with the signal it's designed for all is well.?

So who provides that signal? The signal someone receives is outside their control, that is supplied by freeview/their supplier. Otherwise there should be big warnings on the box that this product may not work properly if your signal isn't exactly right.

Sorry I have to agree with ADKM

Suppose you & I are in the wops , I have one bar of signal on my cellphone ( which therefore works)but you dont , however on a daily basis you have no issues with your phone.
Do you take it back and start spouting CGA etc?

Before you can realistically say ( the DVD Rec) it is not fit for the purpose , you have to know what your signal levels are , just stating that one appliance works is not really valid (IMHO)

mattwnz

20164 posts

Uber Geek

#571342 20-Jan-2012 16:50

Brunzy:
mattwnz:
ADKM:
there is a known fault

That's not it - and is wrong . There's no 'known fault'. If you supply the unit with the signal it's designed for all is well.?

So who provides that signal? The signal someone receives is outside their control, that is supplied by freeview/their supplier. Otherwise there should be big warnings on the box that this product may not work properly if your signal isn't exactly right.

Sorry I have to agree with ADKM

Suppose you & I are in the wops , I have one bar of signal on my cellphone ( which therefore works)but you dont , however on a daily basis you have no issues with your phone.
Do you take it back and start spouting CGA etc?

Before you can realistically say ( the DVD Rec)?it is not fit for the purpose , you have to know what your signal levels are , just stating that one appliance works is not really valid (IMHO)

Obviously when the coverage is in a patchy area that isn't coveraged by the coverage maps, and is weak, then yes I would agree. But in this case from what the OP has said, their signal is perfect, and possibly too strong.
In your case with phones, it is unlikely both phones would vary much. Eg one phone may work with 1 bar, while the other may not work and picks up no bars. But if there is a big difference, then yes you probably could say that the reception on a particular phone is poor. But very different things, as the phone has the aerial built in, so it is a hardware limitation. While tv tuners are using the same aerial under the identical conditions.

ADKM

860 posts

Ultimate Geek

#571399 20-Jan-2012 19:03

Going back to the original fault (and remembering this only happens when raining or windy)

"When it all goes to custard again, unplug the aerial from the Panasonic and plug it directly into the Samsung (completely bypassing the Panasonic altogether). So I did this yesterday and the reception worked absolutely fine through the TV. I quickly plugged it back into the Panasonic to check, and it was still knackered."

And the Panasonic was also connected to the Samsung, so you just moved the antenna from one to the other and switched inputs on the TV?

We've never noticed the weather affecting reception here, even when we had quite a bit of (different) trouble to start with.

Any chance the shop would let you try another one to compare with yours?

Cheers - Kirk

novadonuk

12 posts

Geek

#571461 20-Jan-2012 21:20

... so to confirm, if I completely bypass the Panasonic unit and plug directly into TV it does work fine. Weather is a contributing factor, and I have mentioned this to the shop / tv aerial installers etc ....

I suppose I could ask to 'test' one, but I doubt they will allow this. I hope to receive an Attenuator from them soon to trial .... once I got that ... not wishing bad weather ... bring on the bad weather for the ultimate test.

Quic Broadband

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ADKM

860 posts

Ultimate Geek

#571482 20-Jan-2012 22:02

novadonuk: ... so to confirm, if I completely bypass the Panasonic unit and plug directly into TV it does work fine. Weather is a contributing factor, and I have mentioned this to the shop / tv aerial installers etc ....

I suppose I could ask to 'test' one, but I doubt they will allow this. I hope to receive an Attenuator from them soon to trial .... once I got that ... not wishing bad weather ... bring on the bad weather for the ultimate test.

In our case the splitter was to improve the signal for better 'digital capability'. The picture always looked OK, but it would often fail to record. Sometimes it records 3+ 1 instead of 3 (and still does). You ever get that?

Good luck with the tests On the surface it seems the tuner in the 380 may be less efficient than the tuner in your Samsung. But have noticed no difference here (between 380 and a Panasonic TV), both seem identical regardless of the weather.

Cheers - Kirk

Brunzy

2016 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#571690 21-Jan-2012 17:13

mattwnz:
Brunzy:
mattwnz:
ADKM:
there is a known fault

That's not it - and is wrong . There's no 'known fault'. If you supply the unit with the signal it's designed for all is well.?

So who provides that signal? The signal someone receives is outside their control, that is supplied by freeview/their supplier. Otherwise there should be big warnings on the box that this product may not work properly if your signal isn't exactly right.

Sorry I have to agree with ADKM

Suppose you & I are in the wops , I have one bar of signal on my cellphone ( which therefore works)but you dont , however on a daily basis you have no issues with your phone.
Do you take it back and start spouting CGA etc?

Before you can realistically say ( the DVD Rec)?it is not fit for the purpose , you have to know what your signal levels are , just stating that one appliance works is not really valid (IMHO)

Obviously when the coverage is in a patchy area that isn't coveraged by the coverage maps, and is weak, then yes I would agree. But in this case from what the OP has said, their signal is perfect, and possibly too strong.
In your case with phones, it is unlikely both phones would vary much. Eg one phone may work with 1 bar, while the other may not work and picks up no bars. But if there is a big difference, then yes you probably could say that the reception on a particular phone is poor. But very different things, as the phone has the aerial built in, so it is a hardware limitation. While tv tuners are using the same aerial under the identical conditions.

OK Let's all agree

The only thing that doesnt stack up is that it drops out in the wind / rain , which does not sound like excessive signal

novadonuk

12 posts

Geek

#593532 11-Mar-2012 14:16

Hi All,

Thought I would update this thread.

Since having the attenuator adapter that slots into the back of the Freeview box, all has been well. Its only ever dropped out once, but that was really quite bad weather.

When we had sort of drizzly weather, I swapped it out and it didnt work, slapped the attenuator back in and it worked fine.

Not sure why it is, but it worked. So for anyone else out there, give this a go.

Cheers, Ian.

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#593537 11-Mar-2012 14:36

I have a Panasonic DMR 880 recorder and when weather slightly bad it pixelates so much it is unuseable. I had same trouble with trying to build a pc media center so thought must be aerial setup. Got new sony tv in 2010 and no problem ever with picture. Recently bought Tivo and again perfect picture. The sets show 95% strength and 85% to 95% quality depending on mux.

The Panasonic doesnt seem to have the best tuners in them. Mine has also developed a clicking noise in the main case fan at the rear but works okay otherwise. but never used it much because of poor freeview performance and also only being zone 4. So since dont use it much will sell for $200 upwards on Trademe in next week or two. Was $1200 when new but dissapointed with it

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

illicit

553 posts

Ultimate Geek

#593870 12-Mar-2012 08:28

The issue is that the Panasonic units are designed for Australia where they use VHF and UHF.

The Panasonic units have amplifiers built in, which amplify both UHF and VHF.
Plugging in a VHF blocker will fix any related issues.

The actual problem is the unit amplifying VHF.
Internally amplifying VHF signals is not required and interferes with proper operation of the unit.
They may as well amplify cell phone signals, they are just as unnecessary.

So basically, not designed for NZ.

vivid

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#598436 21-Mar-2012 23:19

Hi novadonuk

I have exactly the same problem with our Panasonic DMR-XW380.

novadonuk: Hi All,

Thought I would update this thread.

Since having the attenuator adapter that slots into the back of the Freeview box, all has been well. Its only ever dropped out once, but that was really quite bad weather.

When we had sort of drizzly weather, I swapped it out and it didnt work, slapped the attenuator back in and it worked fine.

Not sure why it is, but it worked. So for anyone else out there, give this a go.

Cheers, Ian.

I was wanting to know where you got the attenuator adaptor, and is there any particular one needed. model etc. I do not know about these things.

Thanks
Jenny

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#598576 22-Mar-2012 10:54

vivid: Hi novadonuk

I have exactly the same problem with our Panasonic DMR-XW380.

I was wanting to know where you got the attenuator adaptor, and is there any particular one needed. model etc.

Thanks
Jenny

+1
I have a Panasonic BW880. No problems with it but would also like to know what sort of adaptor you have and where you got it.

novadonuk

12 posts

Geek

#599318 23-Mar-2012 22:31

100% albany got me one in,no particular model just ask for an attenuator to be ordered in suitable for your box ... good luck

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