General TV Stations for MMDS(?) TV

Sully

Hey all,

Im wondering what TV Stations I should have (or be able to obtain legaly) on my TV. We have, I assume its MMDS, the standard dishes that come with most houses. I got a connection wired into my room and the TV Auto Scan picked up RTE 1 & 2, TV3, TG4, BBC1, ITV and CH4. Should I have some more? Whats this Channel 6 - only available to digital I take it?

The main room has Sky Digital, so how can I pick up what they are watching? (I assume there is no way for me to change the channels without wiring something out or getting a box?

Cheers.

steveon

Channel 6 is currently only available on Sky Digital and on the Chorus And Ntl Digital Networks. In order to watch your sky digibox in another room, you have two options, firstly hard-wired by running a cable from the back of the digibox to the second room.

Or Secondly use of A wireless video sender which arent always 100% successful depending on the structures of your home etc..

Witcher

steveon wrote:

Channel 6 is currently only available on Sky Digital and on the Chorus And Ntl Digital Networks..

who told you this ??? channel 6 is available with standard ntl packages you dont need ntl digital you just have to tune it in!!

:cool: :cool: :cool:

Solair

If you're receiving free-to-air television by just connecting up your TV, it's highly unlikely it's coming from MMDS. The vast majority of MMDS sites on ex Chorus and all exNTL MMDS are digital so you'd have nothing that your tv could pick up.

Even analogue MMDS would require a downconverter, this may not necessarily be located on the antenna, so you'd be unlikely to pick anything up by connecting your TV to the MMDS antenna directly!

If you're getting RTE1,2,TV3,TG4,BBC1,2, UTV(or HTV), channel 4( Or S4C).. then it's more likely you're just picking them up directly off air.
UTV and C4 if from a Northern Irish Transmitter
HTV and S4C if it's coming from Wales.

It's also possible that your home's wired for basic cable.

MMDS antennae also don't come as standard with most houses, you need to subscribe to UPC (i.e. NTL or Chorus) to get one.

If it's a flat fairly wide mesh rectangular panel with "bow tye" type components on the front, it's a normal UHF antenna.
MMDS antennae are usually a curved curved mesh antenna with an LNB on a stalk in front of it
or, in newer digital installations, they can be a flat plastic square panel.

watty

The MMDS aerial / dish needs a power supply too. Tramore I suppose might have a local "deflector" or there may be a very big aerial??
Or leakage from a local cable system (is there one)?

Solair

I'd say it's deflector system alright. Sounds like you've a UHF antenna pointed at your nearest deflector transmitter.

Speaking of power supplies.. I remember the days when the old chorus box we had used to give a nasty shock if you touched the metal part of the F-connector on the back going up to the antenna!!

Those old Jerrold Boxes were terrible junk.

If it was used with MMDS instead of cable there was a big device, which looked almost home made, screwed to the back which was used to send power up to the antenna.

steveon

Your rite about them old Jerrold Box being rubbish, apart from the shock u'd get from them I often had to chisel them off whatever they were placed on due to the fact that some earlier ones came with no legs so they layed flat on top of whatever they were on usually a vcr ..

Solair

I actually seriously doubt that they complied with European electrical safety regulations. I didn't see a CE mark anywhere, or any known EU acceptable standard stamp i.e. from any of the member states.


I don't think a palpable shock is generally a good sign in any electrical equipment!

steveon

I know in Limerick they were imported straight into Ireland for the states, and the powersupply's were made in Ireland, cant remember where but I will search the shed as I know I still have some somewhere to convert to our electric supply , according to my mates in Chorus they knew the system wasnt safe to hackers but was a relatively cheap method of getting a system off the ground...and so Id say u are definetly rite about them not being ce approved

Antenna

Solair wrote:

I actually seriously doubt that they complied with European electrical safety regulations. I didn't see a CE mark anywhere, or any known EU acceptable standard stamp i.e. from any of the member states.

I don't think a palpable shock is generally a good sign in any electrical equipment!

It could possibly have been from your VCR or TV ( I assume the box was connected to other equipment at the time), or the cumulative effect of a combination of equipment. Receiving a shock like this (due to capacitive leakage) is fairly common from VCRs/TVs I'm afraid. This would occur where one is also in contact with something else that is earthed (such as the aerial lead, prior to plugging it in). I'm not saying the cable box was blameless, but a more scientific way of verifying the above would be to see if a voltage exists to earth when it is totally disconnected from other equipment.

Ulsterman 1690

The standards of electrical safety of many TV sets and a lot of devices using switchmode powersupplies (i.e. virtually everything these days) are appalingly low even when the junk is CE certified. :mad:

Unless it has a 3 pin mains cable its almost certain to have voltages in all manner of unexpected places

watty

Many equipment with metal parts connected to the circuit and using a 2 core connection will "tingle" to slight shock, if you touch something with an earth.

Some equipments are worse. The LNB, nor its cable should be never be earthed to the dish.

steveon

No I can assure you solair was correct about the jerrold boxes being junk....you would get an electrical shock regardless of it being connected to anything. I'm just glad their aint many of them still out there......been informed almost all of them are almost all recalled in around Limerick/Clare so wont be too long before the Analog MMDS Signal is switched off.

watty

As soon as everyone has a Digital box.
The Jerrold are 1980s (or earlier?) NTSC analogue cable descramblers. They are terrible.

steveon

Does anyone the older box used in the limerick area yrs ago, it was a grey box similar in size to a vcr, used to be used on the cable and mmds networks cant remember who made them, werent a bad lil box for the time..

Also have there started to recall the pace analog mmds receivers used around the south-east tipp and waterford areas yet??? now they are a piece of junk if ever I saw one similar in style to the old PACE PRD800 & 900 Series satellite receivers....