Humax Foxsat HDR Only Recognising One cable

holidaysong

Hi all,

I am having an issue where my Foxsat has suddenly started only recognising one of the input cables. I have removed both cables and put them back in (tightly!) and did a factory reset and it's still only picking up one cable in the factory reset.

Now unfortunately I live in an apartment block with a communal dish so I cannot check the satellite dish end of things to see if everything is OK there - will contact the management company on Tuesday to see if they have had any complaints.

If they say everything is good with them, I'll check the box in a friends house to see if it's an issue with the box itself. For arguments sake, there is a faulty tuner that needs replacing would anyone have any idea how much it would cost to have this repaired?

Hope that all makes sense. Have no idea on the cost of the repair so hope it wouldn't be too bad.

Booms

Have you checked the lnb settings?

Hit menu then go down to setup select right arrow to highlight "freesat tune" and then press the coloured buttons on the remote in th efollowing order:

red green yellow blue green yellow blue

This accesses a hidden menu where you can see how the box is set up for your lnb.

select antenna settings and you will see "connection type"

This should state "two cables", if only "one" then it's not seeing the second input.

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Other things to check:

There are three lnb inputs at the back, the centre one is just a loop through, so the cables should be connected to the two outer inputs.

to check the inputs, you could disconnect the second cable and do a factory reset, and it will operate on one input only. If this is okay, then swap the cable for the second one, and do another factory reset, and check that it still works. This'll show if both cables are okay. If so the most likely thing is that the box is set to one input as above, and you should select the two cable option in the menu above.

holidaysong

Booms wrote: »

Have you checked the lnb settings?

Hit menu then go down to setup select right arrow to highlight "freesat tune" and then press the coloured buttons on the remote in th efollowing order:

red green yellow blue green yellow blue

This accesses a hidden menu where you can see how the box is set up for your lnb.

select antenna settings and you will see "connection type"

This should state "two cables", if only "one" then it's not seeing the second input.

Yeah I did all of this, found the way to the secret menu through a Google search. Initially it was showing 'two cables' but after I did a factory reset it is now only picking up 'one cable' in installation

Booms wrote: »

There are three lnb inputs at the back, the centre one is just a loop through, so the cables should be connected to the two outer inputs.

Cables are in the two inputs alright and not the output one.

Booms wrote: »

to check the inputs, you could disconnect the second cable and do a factory reset, and it will operate on one input only. If this is okay, then swap the cable for the second one, and do another factory reset, and check that it still works. This'll show if both cables are okay. If so the most likely thing is that the box is set to one input as above, and you should select the two cable option in the menu above.

This is a good idea to check the two cables one by one in the LNB 1 input and see if they are working individually. If so I will know the issue is with the box and not at the satellite dish end.

Will try this out as next step.

holidaysong

holidaysong wrote: »

This is a good idea to check the two cables one by one in the LNB 1 input and see if they are working individually. If so I will know the issue is with the box and not at the satellite dish end.

Both cables are working individually so it would appear to be an issue with the box. Any recommendation on a good place to get this fixed in Dublin would be appreciated as well as any info on what kind of price I might be looking at.

Booms

Sorry to hear that.

Check the box in your friend's house first - just to eliminate possibility that you've a problem with the dish end. Even better try his box on your dish also with both cables connected.

Are the cables coming from f-sockets on the wall? Make sure they're not loose or intermittently open/shorted, at the wall end.

Try another factory reset with both cables in place and check the hidden menu again for number of LNBs seen. If still only one, try setting the box to two cables and see if that does anything.


Hopefully someone will be along with better advice soon - I don't know anything about repairs for these boxes.

Do let us know how you get on - it can be useful for others if they end up in the same boat. Cheers.

branners69

This happened to me before, it is to do with one cable being detected the first time you turn it on. I had to do a factory reset to get it to pick up the second cable! There are plenty of examples on Google about this.

montgolfiere

Although they generally have a 'good reputation'... i have had issues with Humax HDRs over the years, especially when first setting them up.... I also have tried and trie and tried...and then suddenly they have broken through the 'problem' and work fine... Just not that reassuring for the end user!!! i think that their software is overly complicated!!!

Sam Russell

To check your input signals from both cables, go to Menu>lastitem>diagnotics.

The signal stength and quality for both cables are shown graphically at the bottom.

If you are unhappy with the two, try swapping them and see if the problem changes. Do a factory reset and power off at the mains and try again.

holidaysong

Sam Russell wrote: »

To check your input signals from both cables, go to Menu>lastitem>diagnotics.

The signal stength and quality for both cables are shown graphically at the bottom.

If you are unhappy with the two, try swapping them and see if the problem changes. Do a factory reset and power off at the mains and try again.

After factory resets and swapping cables and tightening them, etc. I'm at the stage where both signals are strong on the Diagnostics menu.

However, I am still in the same situation where I am unable to record both BBC 1 HD & BBC HD and watch all other channels. I can watch some channels while doing this but not others. No real pattern to it either - the odd ITV channels but not other ITV ones.

I'm at a real loss on it to be honest.

The Cush

holidaysong wrote: »

However, I am still in the same situation where I am unable to record both BBC 1 HD & BBC HD and watch all other channels. I can watch some channels while doing this but not others. No real pattern to it either - the odd ITV channels but not other ITV ones.

This is normal.

The satellte channels we receive from 28 degs east are spread across 4 sub- bands and each tuner can only tune to 1 sub-band at a time.

The sub-bands
1. Lo-Band 10.7-11.7 GHz Horizontal polarisation
2. Lo-Band 10.7-11.7 GHz Vertical polarisation
3. Hi-Band 11.7-12.75 GHz Horizontal polarisation
4. Hi-Band 11.7-12.75 GHz Vertical polarisation

When you are recording both BBC1 HD and BBC HD (10.847 Vertical) the 2 tuners are locked into this sub-band (2. Lo-Band 10.7-11.7 GHz Vertical polarisation) so you may only be able to watch channels witin this frequency range and polarisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_downconverter#Universal_LNB_.28.22Astra.22_LNB.29

http://en.kingofsat.net/pos-28.2E.php

EDIT: Just thinking further on this can you record 2 different channels on different frequencies right now?

holidaysong

The Cush, thanks for the information on this.

Have been out of the country in the past couple of months and kind of left this issue to itself. However, unfortunately I am still in the exact same situation.

Following your guidance on the range of frequencies, I tested a bit more and when I record BBC 1 HD (10.847 Vertical), I can only watch other channels that are in the 10.7-11.7 GHz Vertical polarisation range.

Any other channels appear as 'Bad or no signal'. I have done several factory resets and the box is only picking up one LNB cable on set up (despite both of them working individually). Am I right in thinking therefore that a faulty tuner has to be the diagnosis here?

That would lead me then to asking if anyone would know where and how much it would cost to have this repaired?

Liameter

If you can't find a local repairer try this: http://www.pacelink.co.uk

Sam Russell

Have you tried changing the two cables over? Did you follow the advice I gave earlier? [To check your input signals from both cables, go to Menu>lastitem>diagnotics.]


Perhaps you might post a picture of the satellite cables on the back of your unit.

There are three F connectors on the back. ?The middle one is left without a connection.

holidaysong

Sam Russell wrote: »

Have you tried changing the two cables over? Did you follow the advice I gave earlier? [To check your input signals from both cables, go to Menu>lastitem>diagnotics.]


Perhaps you might post a picture of the satellite cables on the back of your unit.

There are three F connectors on the back. ?The middle one is left without a connection.

Yes, I have switched the cables over and still I only have the use of one tuner regardless of which combination I do.

When I check the signals through the Diagnostics option they both show great - 85% Quality, 100% Strength. During installation though, only one cable is found. So it's like the box recognises that both cables are connected with good signal, but the tuner still cannot be used.

I'm aware of the 3 connectors and I'm only using the 2 input ones and not the middle one.

Sam Russell

Try a factory reset. It's on the menu somewhere. Otherwise you have a faulty box. You could try uploading the firmware, but get onto Humax support.

Sam Russell

The fault could lie with the LNB - maybe your LNB is not switching properly. You can check you receive all four quadrants from your first cable*, then swap cables and check again. Just a thought.

*Vertical, low band, Vertical, high band, Horizontal low band, Horizontal high band.

Liameter

Does the Humax have an LNB "power" setting? I know one model has "high/low" power options.