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Saorview & Recording - PROBLEM!

  • 21-06-2011 2:09pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭


    I have a Walker box for receiving the Saorview channels, all connected up to the aerial and was working fine for the 1st couple of weeks. In the last few days I've noticed some problems, namely:

    1. An awful lot of freezing and skipping on live tv (my mum has a Sky dish that's half melted from the chimney which gives similar problems but my aerial is 100% intact and had perfect picture pre-Saorview box)

    2. Last week a program I recorded (got a 32gb memory stick from Tescos to plug into the Saorview box as I record quite a bit) would come out of the program totally if I tried to fastforward or rewind. A program I recorded on Sunday said it had recorded 53 minutes but when I played it, it skipped from 5 minutes to 38 and no matter how many times I went out of it and back in it just would not show the missing section.

    Has anyone had these problems? Is the Memory stick I have not good enough quality or is it the Walker box that's likely to be the problem?

    Really rely on recorded programs a lot as RTE have a habit of putting the good shows on at all hours of the night.

    Please try to reply as if you're speaking to a total idiot, I'm very non-technical minded!! :-P


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 272 ✭✭Vince Cable


    What part of the country are you in & how many 'perfect picture' analogue channels do you have?


  • Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    I'm in north County Cork, Doneraile/Buttevant area so would probably be picking up signal from Mitchelstown, I think. Always have had very good signal from my aerial (on the chimney) on all 4 Irish channels and I've got an indoor aerial still set up in the bedroom that has 100% perfect RTE and very good TV3 and average TG4.

    As I said, the Saorview worked fine for the first couple of weeks but just this last week has been acting up so not sure why.

    Thanks for replying so quickly!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 272 ✭✭Vince Cable


    You're not the only one reporting problems in that area, can you list the UHF channel nos. (will be in the range 21-68) that your Saorview & analogue services are being received on?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭Moon54


    Is the Memory stick I have not good enough quality or is it the
    Walker box that's likely to be the problem?

    Yep, I'd say it's the memory stick is not up to recording.
    Those no-name/own branded ones are likely to be slow.

    There is a warning in my STB manual about having a hard drive/flash drive
    that can at least do 9Mb/sec.


  • Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    You're not the only one reporting problems in that area, can you list the UHF channel nos. (will be in the range 21-68) that your Saorview & analogue services are being received on?

    How do I find these? Sorry but I'm a total technical know-nothing.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,178 ✭✭✭STB


    Stick your USB drive in your computer right click on the drive and do an "error check" and possibly a "defrag".

    USB flash drives get fecked up very easily on sat/dtt boxes.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 272 ✭✭Vince Cable


    The channel nos. can probably be found with the 'information' button or in the tuning menu.
    Check here for transmitter locations & see what direction your aerial is pointing.
    TV3 analogue would be coming from Mullaghanish, which requires 2 aerials for all the analogue channels.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,370 ✭✭✭jgbyr


    I live in the Charleville area & get my signal from Woodcock Hill. The picture is perfect & I have recorded programs using the epg with no issues.(Its not a walker box) The mountains would block this signal though in Buttevant/Doneraile. My parents who live close by have their aerial pointing towards Mullaghanish & their saorview picture is also fine.


  • Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    The channel nos. can probably be found with the 'information' button or in the tuning menu.
    Check here for transmitter locations & see what direction your aerial is pointing.
    TV3 analogue would be coming from Mullaghanish, which requires 2 aerials for all the analogue channels.

    I actually managed to find that info! :-P It's channel 21. Signal quality is 100% and signal level 85%, though when I went into that menu when it was freezing/skipping the signal quality was fluctuating down to 70%. Guess this is the problem.

    So....do I need to get someone to adjust my aerial?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 272 ✭✭Vince Cable


    Channel 21 is Mullaghanish, does your aerial point that way?

    Maybe you have some kind of electrical interference problem; it may be visible on the analogue channels as white specks etc. or there might also be sound interference.
    RTE also made a vague announcement about 'transmitter outages' but with no detailed info.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    Channel 21 is Mullaghanish, does your aerial point that way?

    Maybe you have some kind of electrical interference problem; it may be visible on the analogue channels as white specks etc. or there might also be sound interference.
    RTE also made a vague announcement about 'transmitter outages' but with no detailed info.

    Yep, aerial is pointing in the right direction alright. Might get someone to look at the aerial itself to see if there's a problem with it.

    USB memory stick packed up totally last night, box wouldn't recognise it at all. Have now got another one in and will have to see if this one lasts longer than a few weeks!


  • Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    Ok, me back again! Got a guy to come and look at my aerial, he said it needed a new wire running from chimney to tv, which he replaced. Thought that would solve the problem but lo and behold, it's still freezing and the signal Level is jumping from 100% to 25%.

    Bought a high-speed memory stick to use for recording but the Walker box wouldn't recognise it at all so can't use it! Got it on Amazon and it wasn't cheap so P*ssed off that it won't work. It's a Verbatim 47341 16gb Executive Hi-speed flash.

    Could it be the USB port that's faulty? I say this as it won't accept the new memory stick and takes a bit of jiggling to get it to realise the other one was in and just flat out refused to read the 1st one that I bought at all after a couple of week's using it. (I used that same memory stick in a PC and it worked fine so it wasn't the stick that was wrong, just the Walker box wouldn't recognise it was plugged in)

    Does anyone know of issues like this with the Walker saorview box? I rely on recording ALOT so would really be lost without the ability to record programmes.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,178 ✭✭✭STB


    Download this.... http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

    And format the key with it.

    Then insert it in the box.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,519 ✭✭✭Gerry Wicklow


    RTFM :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23 Clareman08


    There are a number of issues here:

    1. The intermittent freezing reported by Fonril.

    - there seems to have been a technical problem affecting the Saorview transmission system, as I was getting the same frequent dip in signal quality with picture freeze during the past week from both Clifden and Casla transmitters (on two separate aerials). This never happened over the past few months in all sorts of weather and atmospheric conditions. However I notice that it's OK again, so the problem must be fixed.

    2. Recording on the Walker Box using USB sticks.

    - there is a great little free program which I found on the internet which will test the read and write speeds of memory devices - search for "h2testw_1.4". I tested a number of USB 2.0 sticks with it and found that none could read faster than 5MB/s, which is too slow for the Walker box. I recently picked up a 16GB Busbi Bolt USB 3.0 stick in PC World and the test shows this reads at 14MB/s on a conventional USB 2.0 port. This works pretty well on the Walker box. So my advice is to go for the new faster breed of USB 3.0 devices - all of these are supposed to be compatible with USB 2.0 ports.

    3. USB Sticks not recognised by Walker Box.

    - yes, I had this problem with a couple of the older sticks. However, after inserting in the computer, right-clicking and doing a quick format to FAT32, all were recognised. You then need to format it in the box itself where it will be renamed "NO NAME"!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23 Clareman08


    Sorry everyone, meant to say WRITE, not READ!


  • Registered Users Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    Well, I emailed them explaining the fluctuating signal and really their response was kinda laughable:

    have consulted with our technicians about your signal fluctation and they have advised the following:

    "This isn’t a transmitter problem, as the power output from our transmitters is constant unless we have it reduced, or off, for planned maintenance or unplanned faults. But the description of the receive signal varying constantly over a period of time is due to something local to her installation.
    There are several possibilities. Trees blowing back and forth in front of her receive aerial. Interference caused by a faulty mast head amplifier in the vicinity. A deflector system in the area. The Gardai’s TETRA system. Wind Farm interference... all possibilities."


    Really, if trees blowing is gonna disrupt the signal then half the country won't be able to watch Saorview! :rolleyes:


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,285 ✭✭✭Peter Rhea


    There's nothing laughable about that explanation, it's all perfectly reasonable.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23 Clareman08


    No, but in fairness to Fonril I had the same problem of the signal intermittently dropping out at the time and there is nothing like that in this area - not even the trees. Quality has been rock steady at 100% again since then, so it must have been a transmission fault which lasted a few days.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 19,254 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sam Russell


    Surely you can see the funny side of

    as the power output from our transmitters is constant unless we have it reduced

    Well, of course the output power is constant unless you fiddle with it. What are these people on?




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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭swoofer


    did you ever get sorted?? a friend in clare has a glitch with rte1 analogue, its like a pulse, its more noticeable if he switches to text, words letters jumps but it is causing a serious problem with his phillips dvd player.


    gbc


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