My Humax Forum » Freeview HD » HDR FOX T2

Signal Dropout problems on T2

(10 posts)
  1. Yorkshire_Brian

    Yorkshire_Brian

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    Morning all,

    I've not posted for a while but something has been troubling one of the two T2 boxes we have in the household...

    Setup...

    All off air signals received by Wideband antenna on pole above roof, feeds a distribution amplified in loft (mains powered) which separates signal into 4 feeds.

    The feed comes out of the wall socket, goes to the T2, then into a Panasonic DVD recorder then into the TV.

    Problem, box has been reliable from day 1, is a 500Mb version, until last 6 months or so, now frequently enough for TV to be unwatchable we get the message "signal to weak" screen blanks and can stay that way for several minutes. If the box is rebooted (full power off using the switch on the back) the signal will return. This is making life difficult as box can't be trusted to record programs while we're not in...

    I have occasionally seen an error message "antenna short circuit" but turning the box off and on again usually clears the message.

    All 4 feeds and the feeder from the aerial have been tested and found OK, as have the leads used at the set end. The amplifier and psu are new. Using my signal strength meter at the set end signal is always strong... (I'm about 25 miles from Emley Moor, almost line of sight) Disconnecting all other kit at set end just leaving the T2 connected to the single feeder with the amplifier bridged.. i.e. just the T2 connected to the aerial the same happens.

    The only other thread I found suggested PSU in T2 box may be faulty, but that was several years ago.

    Has anyone any other ideas or seen the problem?

    Regards,

    Brian

    | Sun 18 Oct 2015 9:47:18 #1 |
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    Martin Liddle

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    Yorkshire_Brian - 2 hours ago  » 
    Problem, box has been reliable from day 1, is a 500Mb version, until last 6 months or so, now frequently enough for TV to be unwatchable we get the message "signal to weak" screen blanks and can stay that way for several minutes.

    Start by telling us what the signal strength and quality are (as reported by the Humax)?

    | Sun 18 Oct 2015 12:29:48 #2 |
  3. Yorkshire_Brian

    Yorkshire_Brian

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    Hi Martin,

    Signal Detection
    CH47
    Strength 89%
    Quality 100%

    Regards,

    Brian

    PS forgot to mention.. Box was on latest "official" firmware

    | Sun 18 Oct 2015 14:59:27 #3 |
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    Martin Liddle

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    Yorkshire_Brian - 18 hours ago  » 
    Signal Detection
    CH47
    Strength 89%
    Quality 100%

    Are any other multiplexes higher signal strength? What is the signal strength and quality with the amplifier bypassed?

    | Mon 19 Oct 2015 9:36:08 #4 |
  5. Yorkshire_Brian

    Yorkshire_Brian

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    Martin,

    Signal strength 1st

    with no amplifier and single device connected to aerial...

    Strength 81%

    Quality 100%

    amplifier was only installed to see if the problem was due to the 4 way splitter I was using previously. All other TV's in house work OK.

    Other Multiplexes...

    Yes there are, box offers Lincolnshire presumably from Belmont, and East Midlands from Sutton Coldfield(?), I'm located within a mile of M1 Junction 35. I doubt either are stronger than the signals coming from Emley Moor judging on the transmit power and distance.

    I think I can see where you are going with this.

    But, to throw another thought in.... Box hasn't been used for a few weeks, was a real pain yesterday, blocking, eventually freezing and the "weak or no signal" error message on screen. Discovered changing channel appears to resolve problem... This couldn't possibly be the capacitors in the PSU getting a bit tired (none show any signs of bulging!) could it?

    Regards,

    Brian

    | Mon 19 Oct 2015 16:51:50 #5 |
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    Martin Liddle

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    Yorkshire_Brian - 1 hour ago  » 
    Signal strength 1st
    with no amplifier and single device connected to aerial...
    Strength 81%
    Quality 100%

    That is the signal strength on a single multiplex channel. What is the strength and quality on the full range of multiplex channels (for Emley Moor I think that should be 32, 34, 41, 44, 47, 48, 51,52,56)? I am confident that you have plenty of signal strength; my concern is that you might possibly have a little too much signal strength.

    Yes there are, box offers Lincolnshire presumably from Belmont, and East Midlands from Sutton Coldfield(?), I'm located within a mile of M1 Junction 35.

    Have you checked that the Humax is correctly tuned to only receive from Emley Moor? Our box can receive from three different transmitters and some times an automatic tune works correctly and some times it selects channels with very poor signal. My preference is to tune manually using the instructions at Link to manual tune FAQ

    Box hasn't been used for a few weeks, was a real pain yesterday, blocking, eventually freezing and the "weak or no signal" error message on screen. Discovered changing channel appears to resolve problem... This couldn't possibly be the capacitors in the PSU getting a bit tired (none show any signs of bulging!) could it?

    Power supply faults are not common on the HDR-FOX T2 (they were very common on the the FOXSAT HD and this has lead to a myth (and a number of suppliers trading off the myth) that all Humax kit suffers from power supply problems; personally I don't believe it).

    In my view your problem might be too much signal strength (although I don't think this is very likely), a faulty tuner or some other motherboard hardware fault. Perhaps somebody else has other ideas?

    | Mon 19 Oct 2015 18:17:30 #6 |
  7. Yorkshire_Brian

    Yorkshire_Brian

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    Thanks for the patience Martin,

    I've been through the multiplexes on the signal detection menu..

    22 - 40%
    25 - 40%
    32 - 77%
    34 - 78%
    41 - 86%
    44 - 88%
    47 - 87%
    48 - 88%
    51 - 89%
    52 - 89%

    Quality is always 100%

    I've had a look at the manual tune instructions.. I'll try that and report back.

    Regards,

    Brian

    | Tue 20 Oct 2015 16:35:50 #7 |
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    Owen Smith

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    22 and 25 are not broadcast from Emley Moor, those two multiplexes are from another transmitter. The rest are correct for Emley Moor, though you are missing mux 56 which carries the Made In Leeds local channel if you care. It's possible you can't receive 56 where you are, I'm not sure of it's radiation pattern. My parents can get it in Holmfirth.

    Anyway, I suggest you get rid of the channels on 22 and 25, they're probably in the 800 channel numbers. If you tune to any of these you may get very poor signal. Also Accurate Recording can't cope with multiple transmitters.

    I tune manually to avoid this. Do an auto tune, stop it, say save channels, check you have none. Now manually tune the individual muxes for Emley Moor, making sure the network option (or whatever it is called) is turned off. 32, 34 and 41 will need tuning as DVB-T2 I believe, the rest are DVB-T.

    | Sun 25 Oct 2015 17:25:17 #8 |
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    Owen Smith

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    Oh yes, your signal strength is probably high enough for a passive slitter to be fine, assuming it's a good quality double screened one (there's still a lot of tat about).

    | Sun 25 Oct 2015 17:27:26 #9 |
  10. Yorkshire_Brian

    Yorkshire_Brian

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    Thanks Owen,

    I didn't tune 22 and 25 when I did a manual tune...

    There's enough "Leeds TV" on Look North thank you.

    You're spot on with the splitter, that's what I had when problem became apparent, replaced 1st, then via a single amplifier, to the current distribution amplifier.

    I've also reformatted the hard drive...

    On the recordings I've done since I've had the age old problem of "The channel is scrambled or not available" on a BBC 4 HD program... Other things have recorded OK...

    Still sticking with it for the moment, only other option really is to replace it, but what with? Is there another model which will stream video, photos and music from my Nasbox running Twonky Media.

    Regards,

    Brian

    | Mon 26 Oct 2015 18:13:16 #10 |

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