NTL Digital - Picture and Audio corrupted/jumpy

Third_Echelon

Hi,

Just got NTL digital installed. Its the new small silver set-top box PACE DC221.

On certain channels, the picture and audio is jumpy and unwatchable to be honest. It happens every minute or so... and is really starting to piss me off bigtime.

And it happens on MTV2 and VH2 mainly, which are 2 of my favourite channels...

Other problem channels are Euronews and things like that.

Sky sports etc are all fine.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how can it be fixed?

This is an additional box. We have another box on the account as well...

The tax man

Well for a start all those channels you mentioned are on the same freq 387mhz.
While on one of these channels press the help button on the remote and see what no.5 says. It should be roughly in the mid 30's. No.4 should read all 0's.
You could also check Bravo+1 which is on 395mhz. Whats the picture quality like on it??

What is the other stb like for these stations??

Third_Echelon

The tax man wrote:

Well for a start all those channels you mentioned are on the same freq 387mhz.
While on one of these channels press the help button on the remote and see what no.5 says. It should be roughly in the mid 30's. No.4 should read all 0's.
You could also check Bravo+1 which is on 395mhz. Whats the picture quality like on it??

What is the other stb like for these stations??

On MTV2 when i press the help button the technical info for No.5 is jumping from 20 to 24.5 (numbers in that range)

No.4 isn't all zeros. Random figure when posting this is 1.695E - 6 - 0.0E 00

Bravo+1 seems to be fine. Picture quality is fine....

The other (older model) box is in my flatmates bedroom... not here at the moment, so i'll ask him later...

Thanks for your help...

paulm17781

This thread is very useful for me. I too have problems with Vh2 and MTV2. If you get anything from NTL please let us know.

Third_Echelon

just an update:

flatmates quality on these channels is ok. He only reports that every 20 mins or so there is a slight 'freeze' for a second or two. So its ok in his opinion.

He saw the problem with mine and thought it was pretty bad.

Just looking at the help section again and when the picture and audio freezes/corrupts the No.4 section is up at 2 or 3. When it goes back to zero, normal service resumes.

Gonna call NTL anyway to come out and have a look....

The tax man

Sounds like somethings effecting 387mhz so. By those figures you're getting loads bit errors.
No.5 in the 20's is also very poor.
The reason I mentioned Bravo+1 was just to see what a higher frequency was acting like.
If 395 seems ok its probably not a basic signal level roll off.
A mates stb decided to act up on 371mhz even though all the readings were bang on. Ended up getting a new stb and it sorted the problem.
Lets us know what NTL do when they call out.

Third_Echelon

Thanks!

Never thought I'd be thanking a tax man

paulm17781

The tax man wrote:

Sounds like somethings effecting 387mhz so. By those figures you're getting loads bit errors.
No.5 in the 20's is also very poor.
The reason I mentioned Bravo+1 was just to see what a higher frequency was acting like.
If 395 seems ok its probably not a basic signal level roll off.
A mates stb decided to act up on 371mhz even though all the readings were bang on. Ended up getting a new stb and it sorted the problem.
Lets us know what NTL do when they call out.

All my figures seem fine although MTV2, VH2 and most music channels are dodgy, I wonder if that is my STB?

The tax man

paulm17781 wrote:

All my figures seem fine although MTV2, VH2 and most music channels are dodgy, I wonder if that is my STB?

Could be. Thing is to keep that screen on for a while and see if any of the figures change much.


A Tax man ONLY by nick