Prime & Maori TV freezing

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sultanoswing

818 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 160

#65883 8-Aug-2010 15:01

Just last night (while waiting for the rugby replay!) PrimeTV and Maori TV have been unwatchable due to freezes every 2 seconds.

The sound keeps playing, but picture freezes for about 10 seconds, before turning black briefly then playing another few seconds.

I initially thought it was due to last night's bad weather, but it's still happening today.

Been up on the roof and checked and rechecked the alignment of the UHF aerial - all seems good. Currently aiming at Te Aroha from Hamilton, but also tried the 'Infill' transmitter in the Hamilton CBD (the problem here is that the HT3000 doesn't seem to want to save the setting after using the 'Regional Scan').

Prime & Maori have pretty bad reception when I tried analog - but have always done so, and I'm curious as to why they are bad on digital, when ALL the other channels are fine (TVNZ, C4, Chinese etc etc.).

Gear: Homecast HT3000

Bad reception?
Dying HT3000?
Something else?

sultanoswing

818 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 160

#365591 9-Aug-2010 19:37

Not to bump my own thread (and it's only moved three down), but I'm going to clean up & double check all the cabling later this week - run some fresh RC6, new F-connection balun, and remove the old UHF/VHF duplex box on the mast head and splitter in the lounge.

Will report back in due course.

sultanoswing

818 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 160

#366871 12-Aug-2010 17:13

Solved.

After further trial and error with the aerial and cabling, I finally achieved pretty good analog reception on Prime and Maori (and Chinese, Trackside and Central as a bonus). Best it's ever been at our place, in fact.

The freezing was still present on Prime, Maori, Preview, and Chinese, however.

At this point I figured it might just be something else, so took the HT3000 back to JB. On their aerial, experienced the same symptoms, so it's now gone in for assessment and repair (one month out of the twelve month warranty, but I'm sure the CGA would expect a lightly used Freeview box to last better than 13 months).

If repaired - great, if not, will look around for a PVR solution.

[EDIT: Hmmm. No way to mark threads as [solved] - oh well.]

scuwp

3927 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2510

#366909 12-Aug-2010 18:51

Hope you have better luck with the HT3000 than I have had, on my 3rd replacement now.

The only good point is that the distributor seems to have above average after sales service and support in NZ, and they seem to stand behind their product which is a refreshing change.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

sultanoswing

818 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 160

#366913 12-Aug-2010 19:03

scuwp: Hope you have better luck with the HT3000 than I have had, on my 3rd replacement now.

The only good point is that the distributor seems to have above average after sales service and support in NZ, and they seem to stand behind their product which is a refreshing change.

Indeed. I shan't be considering the Homecast PVR, that's for sure!