My Humax Forum » Freeview HD » FVP 4000T, 5000T

Tuner problem

(11 posts)
  1. Chris O

    Chris O

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    FVP 5000T 3 month old. Retuned for Freeview a week ago. Retuned 6 times since for various reasons. I wasn’t receiving all channels, then the sound disappeared again.
    Now I’m only getting one tuner tuned in, is this correct?

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    | Sat 24 Mar 2018 13:18:29 #1 |
  2. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    Only used tuners are shown. Record a channel from 2 different mux and watch a channel live from a 3rd mux. Now check the signals. Re the lost channels telling us your local transmitter will help. Changes to the COM 7 and COM 8 frequencies to UHF 55 and 56 may have moved them outside your existing aerial capability. This especially applies to Crystal Palace as the standard group A aerial has no gain at 55 and up.

    | Sat 24 Mar 2018 13:58:15 #2 |
  3. Chris O

    Chris O

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    Thanks. You’re correct.

    | Sat 24 Mar 2018 22:48:16 #3 |
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    rikki

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    grahamlthompson - 1 day ago  » 
    Re the lost channels telling us your local transmitter will help. Changes to the COM 7 and COM 8 frequencies to UHF 55 and 56 may have moved them outside your existing aerial capability. This especially applies to Crystal Palace as the standard group A aerial has no gain at 55 and up.

    I've just lost RT HD, 4SevenHD, Al Jazeera Eng HD, and BBC News amongst others. I'm in North London so I think Crystal Palace is my transmitter.

    What changed? Is there a solution?

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 14:08:02 #4 |
  5. grahamlthompson

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    The two multiplexes COM 7 and COM 8 have moved to a higher frequency carrier.

    COM 7 UHF 33 to UHF 55 and COM 8 UHF 35 to UHF 55.

    For many years Crystal Palace has had all it's Mux in a Group A aerial range (UHF 21 to 37). The above puts COM 7 and COM 8 out of the frequency range a Group A aerial can receive.

    http://www.aerialsandtv.com/aerials.html#aerialgroups

    Group A gain curves

    http://www.aerialsandtv.com/atvstockaerialtests.html#Agroup

    You need a aerial that extends coverage up to UHF 56, see the log 36 curve in black at the above link.

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 15:08:23 #5 |
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    fedman1

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    As Graham has already said COM 7 and COM 8 have moved from within group 'A' band to UHF channels 55 and 56, which puts them well outside group 'A'. Also these mux's are transmitted at a much lower power, which means unless you have a 'wideband' antenna, or live in a high signal strength area you will not receive them.
    They are only temporary anyway, and some transmitters do not transmit them anyway, mine included.

    Graham, we must have been typing at the same time.

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 15:09:26 #6 |
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    MIB

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    rikki - 1 hour ago  » 
    I've just lost RT HD, 4SevenHD, Al Jazeera Eng HD, and BBC News amongst others. I'm in North London so I think Crystal Palace is my transmitter.
    What changed? Is there a solution?

    I'm from just outside London but Crystal Palace is my transmitter. I've suffered the same problem, which I've discussed in the latter pages of this thread: the-receiver-is-not-receiving-a-signal

    I found out today that the receiver in my 4000T isn't strong enough to pick up the signals for these channels and is not reading the new transmitters at all; I can get them on my TV but not my PVR so I can't record on them (or have to use the SD equivalent for HD channels).

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 15:12:06 #7 |
  8. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    MIB - 3 minutes ago  » 

    rikki - 1 hour ago  » 

    rikki - 1 hour ago  » 
    I've just lost RT HD, 4SevenHD, Al Jazeera Eng HD, and BBC News amongst others. I'm in North London so I think Crystal Palace is my transmitter.
    What changed? Is there a solution?

    I'm from just outside London but Crystal Palace is my transmitter. I've suffered the same problem, which I've discussed in the latter pages of this thread: the-receiver-is-not-receiving-a-signal
    I found out today that the receiver in my 4000T isn't strong enough to pick up the signals for these channels and is not reading the new transmitters at all; I can get them on my TV but not my PVR so I can't record on them (or have to use the SD equivalent for HD channels).

    Seems strange afaik the erp hasn't changed just the frequency. The one thing that determines how much signal you get is the gain curve of the aerial you are using.

    Look at the 2nd link in post 5.

    My 5000T (essentially the same box) works reliably using a loft mounted log 36 with a signal strength of just 40% (quality 100%). You can have too high a signal strength especially if using amplification). It might sound odd but in your case adding a variable attenuator might fix the issue. Humax boxes in general have sensitive tuners, probably capable of using a much lower level than your TV needs, I would try reducing the level.

    https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p86843?r=googleshopping&rr=marin&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkd3VBRDzARIsAAdGzMAtcl4FurNCg2UsDWagxFVee7N9uk3XIrG1H9B4H8Clh89VbibmgT8aAoWBEALw_wcB

    There is another factor that may affect some, COM 7 and COM 8 will share the same UHF channel numbers for all transmitters that have then. This arrangement is known as a Single Frequency Network. They use a calculated guard interval to attempt to avoid one transmitter interfering with the others. In some locations this may not work very well.

    As an example the transmitter I use (Lark Stoke) is a SFN with Bromsgrove and The Wrekin.

    A while ago something went wrong with the guard interval setting at one of the group, it screwed up my terrestrial reception till they fixed it.

    As more transmitters join the SFN it's possible this may screw up reception for some viewers who's transmitters haven't changed anything.

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 15:29:13 #8 |
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    MIB

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    Thanks for the info!

    Come to think of it, the engineer might have said something about too much power, but a lot of it was beyond my simple ken...

    So, this is perhaps likely to be more a general Humax issue than exclusive to my box then?

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 18:58:52 #9 |
  10. grahamlthompson

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    It's not a Humax issue at all.

    Your so called engineer should have used a spectrum analyser to analyse the actual conditions.

    Basically in laymen's terms.

    Every amplifier has a range of input voltages that the output is linearly amplified to be the same but larger than the input.

    That means the input waveform is the same as the output but at a higher level.

    If the input exceeds the max level the voltage output gets clipped distorting the output.

    Designing a tuner has two basic compramises.

    Making one sensitive means that it will work in weak signal areas but will be driven beyond the point where the output faithfully follows the input. This is very easy to fix, simply attenuate the input to a level that the sensitive tuner can cope with. This process reduces both the signal noise and signal level equally.

    A less sensitive tuner needs the original signal to be amplified, this also increase the noise at the same time.

    In the end without a real engineer looking at the actual signal, a cheap variable signal level reducing device as linked connected to the 4000T input may well sort the issue.

    Frankly whoever you paid to sort this out should have known this already.

    | Sun 25 Mar 2018 20:48:28 #10 |

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