NTL/UPC - blank subscribed channels

PauloMN

I've had problems lately with channels I've subscribed to being blank on my Pace STB. On numerous Fridays, my Celtic TV (414) has been blank when the guide and browse shows that programs are on. I called NTL who sent an engineer, of course it was working fine when he called so nothing was done. Went again the Friday after that. All other sports channels appeared fine.

Tonight sat down to watch a film on Sky Premiere +1 (321) at 9pm, and it's blank. The normal Sky Premiere (320) is working fine.

No errors are being reported by the box, the analogue is fine as are any other digital channels I checked and the signal reading is over 30 (engineer told me to check that).

Tried all the usual stuff - resetting, power out/in, card out/in etc. etc.. No joy.

Anyone on the inside know what could be wrong here? Seems strange that only certain sport/movie channels are affected and only at certain times.

I've had other problems as well with the widescreen clipping, channel freeze-ups, the guide taking 5 minutes to load sometimes and channels going "missing" until I reset, but this is the most annoying of all of them. Such as shame as I have everything with NTL/UPC - phone, broadband and digital TV - and the phone and broadband have been OK overall, but the digital TV is a real let down. Had Sky before and it was brilliant, and will probably have to switch back.

DingDong

Sky movies + was missing on me too last night but its back fine now.
The small pace(DC221kn) often had channels going missing on myself but usually a reset sorted it out(help and yellow). The guide was terribly slow and I never bother with it and always used the browes function. There is a newer pace box available which uses the new guide(same one as the DVR) its alot more reliable from what I told.

gerryo

PauloMN wrote: »

I've had problems lately with channels I've subscribed to being blank on my Pace STB.

Are you on MMDS or cable?

I had this before, only one channel was missing, it was caused by a bad combiner (I have Band I/III & Band IV antennas combined with the MMDS feed).

If you are not MMDS, did you add a new TV point recently?
Try removing everything except the UPC box, see if that makes a difference.
Go to the help menu, see what the signal strength is, should be above 30 (MMDS anyway).

PauloMN

I'm on cable Gerry, and it's a relatively new house so good underground cable. Have my broadband and phone also via NTL/UPC.

Signal is always at least 32 on any channel, even when I have problems with them. No new TV points added for years.

Engineer called again today, this time I got the box swapped out. Same small Pace box, so we'll see how it goes. The guide is still awful slow at times - I asked the engineer about this and he said it's a known problem, and is something they are working on. DingDong, he mentioned the newer non-DVR decoders and that the guide is a lot better on them, but I got the impression they are not giving those out at the moment. I certainly didn't get one .

DingDong

As far as I know the new STB's are in use now. If the guide does keep giving you problem's ring up and ask for the newer model telling them how unhappy you are with the current service.

Only other thing I'll say is the DVR is only a fiver extra a month now and no install charge so that might be worth looking into. Its worth it IMO. I never thought I needed one till I had one.
https://www.upc.ie/television/digitaltv/extras/dvr/

PauloMN

DingDong wrote: »

Only other thing I'll say is the DVR is only a fiver extra a month now and no install charge so that might be worth looking into. Its worth it IMO. I never thought I needed one till I had one.
https://www.upc.ie/television/digitaltv/extras/dvr/

Just noticed that this evening when I browsed their website. I was only saying to my wife that it's the closest thing to Sky+ on UPC digital. The mere mention of being able to pause live Desperate Housewives or Prison Break when the in-laws phone for the price of a pint per month got instant approval.

Looks like I'll have UPC out again for the 3rd time in a month. From what I read, they actually have an offer for €2.50 for the first 6 months for existing digital customers. I'd check but their site is down right now.

Deise-lad

Hi PauloMN

I was having a similiar problem not so long ago with my UPC, DVR, STB here in Waterford, when the engineer was here installing all the equipment that UPC provide, i watched him carefully and he enters a 3 digit Region Code, the 3 digit region code he entered for Waterford was 292.

Enventally i started to have the same problem as you and I was losing channels, especially the ones i wanted to watch, so i reset the box and entered the same 3 digit code that the engineer had entered and WHAM all my channels were back (For a few days!:rolleyes:)

The problem kept continuously happening so eventually i called UPC and explained the problem, the agent was able to tell me that they had changed the 3 digit area code for my area and that i should try 291 for Waterford instead of the old 292, even though 292 will still work for some people it would workn't for me.....

Sure enough this little change of a region code worked and i haven't had a problem since, so maybe give them a ring and ask them for the different 3 digit area codes for where your living (there may be more then one, especially in Dublin), reset your box and try each one when your setting the box up again. And then keep the one with the strongest signal.

The tax man

[QUOTE=Deise-lad;58132051
Sure enough this little change of a region code worked and i haven't had a problem since, so maybe give them a ring and ask them for the different 3 digit area codes for where your living (there may be more then one, especially in Dublin), reset your box and try each one when your setting the box up again. And then keep the one with the strongest signal.[/QUOTE]

Welcome to Boards Deise-lad.

That solution won't work with the type of box PauloMN has. You can't input an area code on it like you can with your model box.


@PauloMN when you checked your signal and it said 32 did you notice what line 4 was saying?? All 0's or random numbers hoping all over the place?? If it goes again check that line also.