New Freeview HD hardware: eXtra Terrestrial Freeview HD tuner

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › New Freeview HD hardware: eXtra Terrestrial Freeview HD tuner

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49 posts

Geek

#187483 5-Jan-2009 12:36

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. - Yes leave this thread unlocked.

On another forum I picked up this relating to no Sound on the latest Sony Bravia's with Freeview and producing no sound. It seems that the sound is muted when there are too many signal errors. Perfect Picture but no sound. The cure in two cases " I've experienced similar problems with RG59 coax that is stapled into place. It seems the positioning of impedance bumps caused by very tight staples form sharp filters that on an analogue signal are not to detrimental, but on a digital signal aren't workable." The cure was to replace cable with quality RG6.

inichol

29 posts

Geek

#187486 5-Jan-2009 12:45

I also vote to leave this thread unlocked

robjg63

3141 posts

Uber Geek

#187488 5-Jan-2009 12:49

My vote is for please dont lock this thread.

Robert

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

Dawg

233 posts

Master Geek

#187491 5-Jan-2009 13:00

I want to jump on the unlocked band wagon

robjg63

3141 posts

Uber Geek

#187497 5-Jan-2009 13:10

dodgemnz: Hi all im a newbie to freeview and recenty purchased an extra terrestrial reciever. I have had a few problems with it and have read a fair amount of the posts on here and they seem a bit of mirror of what ive experienced in the last week of playing with the reciever. here's a bit of a list of issues and what ive done so far....

Pixilation: Had existing Lincrad Gizmo with UHF extender, replaced with new 23 element hills UHF aerial... now another hills 43 element still no improvement.... aargh.

Have done software update to 21/Nov took 3 diferent flash drives to get this to work (purchased Toshiba 2gb from dick smith it works second switch on with it connected once you get the the idea of the screen display, certainly not displayed as USB as per the manual!)
Signal strength wont go above 50% (mostly 40-45%) and Quality always at 100%, pixilation appears to be worse on tv3 (my wife wont watch it and i agree with her its very anoying when the analog is rock steady on our old aerail) she says "whats the point if it keeps doing that" hmmmmm!

Had various issues with remote operation and random reboot that has been described on here previously, but nice to know its not just mine thats doing these things. Clock seems fine no problems, sound good to. (using YPbPr and audio)
Sound level between channels: when watching a movie on tv2 at an accepatable sound level then switch to tv3 and cant hear much so have to crank the volume right up, back to 2 and yuor ears get a bashing.. eeeek is this normal?? cant they have some sort of sound level equalisation in transmission?

Right now im thinking this whole digital freeview thing is crap and not worth the money and time ive spent mucking about trying to make the picture stable. I rang Peter and ive done all he suggested and checked the wiring, its perfect (put my sensitive DMM on the coax cable between inner and outer got infinity then joined inner and outer sheeth together at the aerial F connector and got 5.4ohms as a loop (aprox 12M coax) so i know the coax is good.
Im in Christchurch right out at the coast and i can see Sugarloaf transmitter visually and pointed the aerial right at it (like all my neighbours have).

Q: why is the signal only max 50% how else can you get a good stable picture?

Well you arent alone as this forum probably shows you. I think there are still some issues with the unit. Some people seem to have no issues - others rather a lot. Often it seems related to what should be a strong signal curiously enough.

Your experience is identical to mine.

I (and I suspect many others) are hoping that the hardware is ok and that the software is causing the gremlins.

There are only three things that can really cause issues:

1) Aerial and wiring and signal

2) Dodgy hardware in the STB

3) Software/firmware in the box

I am still suspicious that its the software - Seeing the number of random reboots that some people get (myself included) it could only be items 2 or 3.

If its the hardware, then its never going to get better .

Regarding the audio, If you try the audio button on the remote when on TV3 you will see there are 2 audio streams. I think tv3 defaults to 5.1 and the others just pick up mpeg stream. The 5.1 stream seems very quiet. If you choose the other audio stream on tv3 you would probably find the sound volume the same across all channels. The trouble is you cant set tv3 to default to the other stream as far as I can find. The sound level does seem very low on this box though - certainly lower than my DVD player and media box - and analogue TV. I think I have seen other people with different boxes complaining about the 'quiet' sound on tv3 - So I dont think this is particularly the ETs fault.

Robert

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

RustyViewer

218 posts

Master Geek

#187524 5-Jan-2009 14:32

I have a signal strength of about 60 and quality 100% (so it says). I am having terrible pixelation issues, particularly on TV3. I went to Ascot where I bought it, and when they used their aerial, it was fine. They said that the problem is probably that I have a too old a cable and UHF for the signal - it was installed by Sky in 1995 when I briefly had a subscription to their UHF channels, but, as I said, the strength is about 60 so...?

I had hoped to get my money back but that doesn't seem likely. I also have the USB incompatability issue. Why should I buy another flash drive to do any future updates? It's just annoying!

Brunzy

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#187560 5-Jan-2009 16:04

I've tried two of these boxes here and they pixellated constantly.

I have direct LOS to the Tx,have no signal problems,had various Zinwells,now have a PVR,and they do not pixellate !

The fact people all over the country are having similar issues would suggest a common denominator..

Jaxson

7109 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#187578 5-Jan-2009 16:25

The fact people all over the country are having similar issues would suggest a common denominator..

Was thinking that about all the many various types of receivers experiencing audio dropouts...

The problems we're experiencing could be signal related. (This conflicts with the very sensitive tuner statements made about the ET box. Pixelation/audio dropouts on just one output (coax/opt) do not happen on other boxes to my knowledge). This either means the signal being supplied is too strong (as many people like myself have line of site to the transmitter/proper uhf aerial etc) or too weak, in that even though we have line of site/uhf/coax cable it's still not enough. Maybe I'll try the variable attentuator route and see if it leads anywhere.

Does anyone know the code for the remote control for the ET?
Just trying to add it to an non learning universal remote, which needs a 5 number code.....

pete9321

105 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#187582 5-Jan-2009 16:31

pixelation is due to units being tuned to wrong Tx site...or bad antenna connections...either in wall or antenna itself...

Brunzy

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#187584 5-Jan-2009 16:38

pete9321: pixelation is due to units being tuned to wrong Tx site...or bad antenna connections...either in wall or antenna itself...

Which for some reason the Zinwell box ignores and displays the image as it should???

gibbo

30 posts

Geek

#187585 5-Jan-2009 16:41

I'd say the pixilation is SW related, given that in extreme cases you see another program trying to be renedered (breaking in some might say and as it does you get heavy pixilation).

Now before Peter says that its another channel from another transmitter, IT IS NOT. a quick check of all other channels confirms that the video image that apperas to be breaking in is not being transmitted on ANY of the other channels in NZ. i.e You see a TV3 nightline presenter's face and its 8:40 at night. So its a pretty good bet that its content thats been left in the blocks of memory in the unit and not properly flushed before its reused again. Its worse with TV3 and they may becasue they are using 1080i rather than 720P as the rest do. And it could sit around for days-weeks. Also when you power cycle the box the problem goes away and then slowly comes back. A powercycle clears memory....I just don't like having to power cylce a any product I own every 3 or 4 days just to fix issues it has.....

pete9321

105 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#187604 5-Jan-2009 17:45

Message for "rustyviewer"
did you return box to Ascotts?

inichol

29 posts

Geek

#187631 5-Jan-2009 20:23

Re the pixelation problems

If you take the unit back to the supplier it will probably be fine for a while as its had a power reboot which has cleared all the memory out.

My first ET box I had very bad pixelation problems - especially on TV3 (but also other channels to a lesser extent). This unit eventually went faulty so was replaced with another unit.

The replacement unit was much better with the Pixelation problems. It was only really noticeable on TV3
When the picture breaks up I cant make out any other picture trying to break through as others have reported

Still getting audio drop outs via the optical output. This is most notable on TV1

I have proved that these problems are not due to aerial or coax feeder as I have tried brand new lead directly from brand new aerial to ET. The effects seen were exactly the same. And it does not matter if I tune into Pine Hill or Waiatarua ( after repointing antenna and retuning ET). The effects seen and heard are exactly the same.

Having said all that I am not experiencing any sound drop outs on TV1 tonight (so far) - and I have not touched anything except to turn the power off yesterday.

I will change to TV3 later to see if the picture is still pixelating.

I strongly suspect firmware/Hardware/software issue as others report by plugging in other manufactures equipment that these issues are not apparent.

pete9321

105 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#187646 5-Jan-2009 21:27

we get some units returned to us with 'supposed" [pxilation...default them,. and test here...perfect....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
end of story...too many geeks with bad antennas...simple....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

robjg63

3141 posts

Uber Geek

#187650 5-Jan-2009 21:48

pete9321: we get some units returned to us with 'supposed" [pxilation...default them,. and test here...perfect....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
end of story...too many geeks with bad antennas...simple....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

End of story?

If people have managed to test other brands in the same situation and got them to work 100% where the ET does not then doesnt that tell you that under some circumstances the ET is not functioning correctly?

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

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