Zgemma H7s Guide

CalamariFritti

An undisturbed cable is unlikely to develop cracks out of nowhere. So it's most likely at the connectors if anything. Could be at the LNB end too what with all the high winds we had.

greasepalm

Lnbs have a certain life span as expansion and contraction they wear out in the sun and let water inside.

Connections on LNBS also corrode and you see technician cutting the cable and fitting new F connectors.

Tight connection and not loose on box .

Bellie1

Wiggled the cables connecting to the box..now have ok picture but for a lot of satellite channels am getting 'error tune failed'. Can get random channels still like channel5,itv1hd but am getting error for most. I did autobouquetmaker scan . Should I also do automatic scan?

greasepalm

Redo F connectors as a wiggle is not fixing the issue , does ABM providers need updating?

What i would do is rescan 28.2 should pull in around 720 and any less you have issues.

If you have another slot with an image on it try on that maybe as if it fails you know.

Bellie1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123200430#Comment_123200430

Box isn't connect to broadband so ABM won't have had any updates since install last year. Rescan 28.2?

It's hard to get at the box from behind to check cables ,I'll get a proper torch and look later today. I can't grasp that would have some channels if it's the connection from the satellite cables, but yeah it's the only thing that that can have changed

swoofer

In your case you have to go slow, tune failed means no signal but you dont name the channels? I can then check. ABM does not need broadband.

The box has a signal finder but unless I know the channel I cant check to see if its on a new frequency or changed to dvb-s2.

Give me a few channel names before i go any further?

Do you know how old the lnb and dish is? Can you reach the dish?

Bellie1

I have these channels today.Channel 5hd, alba hd, itv2 hd,itv3 hd.

No itv4hd, No bbc1, bbc2, no itv4hd as I'm scrolling through channels I get attached screenshot every now and again today .

Most channels giving the tune failed error

Epg also not downloading for me today ( crossepg is what was set up when I got the box)

Also randomly.got static.on the few channels I have this am, and then started getting the tune failed error on most channels

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Was so happy with it for the past year but this is very annoying

swoofer

You are receiving channels that are on the HORIZONTAL but not on the VERTICAL and that can mean the dish is slightly out of alignment or the LNB is starting to fail BUT you have to get to the rear and make sure both cables from the dish are attached securely and correctly. That means you HAVE to unscrew them, look at the inner bit and ensure the copper bit is not touching any of the outer braid and the copper bit protrudes enough to make a good contact.

You dont say how old lnb and dish is?? thats important. And can you reach dish? Also CROSSEPG is no good anymore. You should use OPENEPGTV.

Can you also go menu, information about and read off image version and skin or do a pic. Do a pic of the dish as well.

Use signal finder FIRST and see if you get a sniff of a signal, do this, have box on CH5 then menu setup tuners and scanning, signal finder, you should now see the signal readings for CH5 ON TUNER A, put the banner on tuner A and use right arrow this checks Tuner B and see signal. That proves both tuners are working. Then back to A with arrow, arrow down to tuner, arrow right , it will say user defined, then put in the detail as shown on these pics, its a way of seeing if there is a whiff of a signal.

pic 2 is page 2 ie scroll down. If you get nothing check cables at rear and repeat. But as it worked ok I would suspect dish out or lnb needs replcing but…

IMG_8033.jpg

IMG_8034.jpg

Bellie1

Thabks so much Swoofer. Lnb is only a year and dish was fitted by sky in the last ten years(not sure when,could even be 5 years only). The satellite cables are either from last year or were fitted with sky dish and have no idea if they were changed when the dish was upgraded on the last ten years. Hopefully they had to be changed last year when the new lnb was installed ?If same cables as when originally got sky tv , they could be 20 years old. I'll take photo of dish later . In meantime here are images from box.

Was going to get the dish moved anyway as it's over a solar panel so this may just make my mind up. Thanks a mill

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swoofer

Perfect, I meant to say H was OK and V was not!, my error watching Seria A !! more in a bit.

crossepg is not working so do this, diable croos, then go menu setup, epg, down to opentvepgdownlaoder, enable it leave as auto, change update interval to 3 hours, see pic. green to save, it may update immediately. If not press blue button and select opentv .. forced. I'll tell you more later, watching tg4 now,

swoofer

here is the pic. are those solar panels new? they can be a problem, ie I would not put a dish near them .

IMG_8037.PNG

cathy427

Has anyone ever used the av output on the box?

I Went in the video settings and changed it to "jack" pressed green to save.

Cable from av to rf modulator and from there into system that was feeding sky eyes. Trying to replicate the rf2 system to 2nd and 3rd tv that I had set up with sky but the other tvs are not finding any signal.

Using openvix 6.5.003

Bellie1

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Here are photos of dish Swoofer. Thanks again. Do the tuner settings on the box seem ok ? I'll try that other epg later on. I assume crossepg is set as default on the box so I'll then have to work out how to change so that when press Epg button on the remote,it shows your epg ?

CalamariFritti

Dish look solid out and signal strength looks good too.

Bellie1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123201708#Comment_123201708

If signal strength is ok, what does that mean wrt cabling etc?

Thanks btw

swoofer

lnb from that angle looks too straight, it may need a twist for skew, here is a pic to explain

IMG_9191.PNG

and that bar coming from chimney looks level but has to be 100%

For crossepg do this menu setup epg cross configure scheduled dowlaond disabled green.

epg button will always work.

But overall dish looks fine and you have signal on both tuners but its the vertical that is the problem and bbc1 ones may be affected but others ok. i'll give a few others in a mo.

out of interest try this one for bbc1 NW use signal finder

10773h, 23000 dvb-s2, 8psk, everything else can be auto. And it should work.

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123201758#Comment_123201758

It means cabling is fine I guess. My own signal is no better.

Unless it's skin related (I have default MetrixHD) our transponder setup is different? I have an old quad LNB pre-SkyQ. I run the Sky+ box and the upstairs zgemma off it.

swoofer

Cathy

"I Went in the video settings and changed it to "jack" pressed green to save. " you have me intrigued, what image and skin? and I need a pic of the jack you are using!

Stewball

Where is the best place to pick one of these boxes up?

Freesat,ie & Satworld,ie have them for €200+ with HDD included.

Is there any need to buy one with a HDD, I've got a few portable hard drives around the house which I could use via usb port? but is there a downside to using your own HDD.

CalamariFritti

Personally I'd prefer a 2.5" SATA SSD 'cos the H7s' got a SATA slot. I found old school HDD in that internal slot bad due to vibrations/noise. My zgemma is in the bedroom and it was loud. Once you go USB that shouldn't be an issue.

greasepalm

I had portable usb ones and not worked correctly and only use internal or externally powered ones now with boxes for 20 odd years.

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123201834#Comment_123201834

Thanks for that. Hope the intrigue isn't something silly that I missed!

So using openvix with image 6.5.003

The skin is simple 1080.

This is the setting

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And thus is the a\v what I am assuming is the jack

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swoofer

🤣 I meant a picture of the jack end on the cable!!!!

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123203283#Comment_123203283

🤣🤣

This is it and the adapter that came with it

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swoofer

ok that looks ok but does it lead to 3 cables , i have a small tv I can get pic and sound but quality is dreadful. will try a bit more tomoro but not very hopeful.

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greasepalm

Wow back to old phono leads days which were only meant for SD picture quality.

Thinking with HD quality another way of thinking ?

Are Sky eyes any good in those times.

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123203481#Comment_123203481

I suppose I was used to having sky on in the background in the kitchen (via rf 2 and magic eyes) and miss it.

I would watch a match on the main TV and then at half time have the nonsense analysis etc on in the kitchen when preping dinner/doing kitchen jobs etc so quality was grand for that kind of watching. Or catch the end of something on bed.

You can buy a HD modulator but best value seems to be around €166 on freetv and prices go up from that. (And whole idea of leaving sky was to save money)

I set up the smartiptv on the 2nd tv with the programme list from the zgemma but it is buffering like mad on some channels (bbc1 hd and utv 1 hd) via both WiFi and wired via powerline adapters so is unwatchable

So trying to get the phono leads going to just have a basic picture. (The phono leads going to an rf modulator)

But .... I am really open to trying any ideas you have.

greasepalm

Having many boxes and multiple tuners i have setup a Vu Zero box in the kitchen which lost its sat feed but using it in Client mode allows me to stream a free tuner to kitchen through my home network from another box.

Other ways might be via cat 6 to stream hd through that .

I have not gone that way as i have cables everywhere.

Another user of simple 1080

cathy427

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123203585#Comment_123203585

Thank you. I have one coax coming to kitchen tv and no option to get more.

Ok, client mode is new to me that might be an option, will do some reading up.

Kitchen tv is wall mounted - would you know of a very small box that would be able to run client mode? (Ie so can slot box in behind tv)

greasepalm

My sat connection dont work so as i use all Enigma 2 boxes that can run OpenVix image

Once you use it in your kitchen it will use that tuner on other box so that box is handy if it has multiple tuners.

Boxes need to be connected to your network via lan to work , no idea if WiFi is good.

I was just looking at the OCTAGON SX88 V2

https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers/octagon-sx88-se-v2-wl