Digital Breakup on 101 C Band

[wvman]

Just got a FreeSAT V7 HD delivered today. It plays the channels fine without breakup.

Here's a real oddball. I was watching MeTV SD last night about 9:30 and right in the middle of the show, the signal dropped from 74 to 49 and went to no service. I picked up the remote, moved the dish a couple clicks and it popped back in, but I never did get the signal above 53% after that. This morning when I got up, the signal was back to 74% and I never had to move the dish. H&I, Movies and Decades are back at 76%, but they still break up.

I've never completely lost MeTV, but at times it's so unstable it's a pain in the butt to watch. I find it odd that MeTV dropped out the way it did, and then I had to move the dish to get it back in. Nothing is loose outside. I checked all the bolts on the actuator and polar mount, and everything is tight. I went out back last evening and blew the dust off the 10 foot Prodelin dish I bought years ago. This weekend, I'm going to string a new cable to it and mount a Titanium PLL LNBF on it and turn it to SES-2 and see what happens.

I know this dish is 2 degree capable and the efficiency rating on this dish is somewhere around 90%. When I bought this dish in the late 90's, I gave $2500.00 for it to use on a commercial application and ended up getting it back when the project was completed. It was actually used to transmit data to a radio station in Alaska. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't peg these receivers out on signal level. If these channels don't work on this dish, then the problem has to be with the receivers.

 

[Gulcher]

Well, for me, it is back to badly broken up, oscillating signal, even worse than it had been for the previous few weeks.
Started to post last night that it was breaking up again, but still sort of watchable. Just as well I waited.

 

[fred555]

Its all gone to crap for me again, nothing on Heroes Decades or Movies. MeTVHD
has even started to break up a little.

 

[Titanium]

Can confirm in Northern California today (2pm PDT) the channels are playing fine without any break-up on these receivers:
FreeSat V7
HDVR3500
TBS6983
K1+

Not Working on these receivers:
HDVR1200
DJ1997
X2 Premium
microHD

 

[Magic Static]

Working good on the HTPC Tevii DVBS2 card but not on the two microHDs here also

 

[FTA4PA]

5:17pm Eastern - 8' Tek2000 mesh with Titanium C1-PLL

Amiko Mini HD SE
MeTV - OK, occasional breakup
Decades, H&I and Movies! - No signal

X2 M1HD
MeTV - Solid Lock
Decades and H&I - Very good, only occasional stutter in video
Movies! - Watchable but some stutter in video

 

[KE4EST]

Merged the two threads with different names about the same thing.

 

[wvman]

Can confirm in Northern California today (2pm PDT) the channels are playing fine without any break-up on these receivers:
FreeSat V7
HDVR3500
TBS6983
K1+

Not Working on these receivers:
HDVR1200
DJ1997
X2 Premium
microHD

Here's something I stumbled onto with the HDVR1200. Bear in mind, this worked on my system, may not on yours. I got Movies and MeTV back by doing this and so far they are working fine. Enter this information on Galaxy 16 as follows under Manually Add Satellite.

Service ID 0005 VPID 0081 APID 0084 Polarity H Symbol Rate 08704 PMT PID 0005 Compression MPEG2 Frequency 03719 PCR PID 0081 Audio Type AC3. This information is for the MOVIES channel.

Service ID 0004 Frequency 03719 VPID 0065 APID 0068 Polarity H PMT PID 0004 PCR PID 0065 Compression MPEG2 Symbol Rate 08704 Audio Type AC3 This information if for MeTV.

With the HDVR1200, it will automatically add the transponder number after adding the Frequency. Under the Compression, you will not see MPEG2, so select MPEG. Also, you will have to use the channel editor to rename the channels. Be sure to save your settings after each entry. So far, I have not been able to get H&I and Decades to work like these, but I'm working on it. I have two of these receivers, and only one of them would auto-tune MeTV & MOVIES, so be sure to save this information on your computer.

You will also notice that the Service ID changed from what they are on SES-1. If you don't want to re-scan and lose the channel names on Galaxy 16 that had to manually named, you can add these and avoid a re-scan. So far, these two channels have been working flawlessly with only an occasional stumble. If and when I get H&I and Decades working, I'll let you know. Let me know if this information helped you. It may also work with different models of receivers. BTW, even though these are tuned in on the wrong satellite, I am still getting a signal quality of 65, which is sufficient to achieve a lock. Cheers!

 

[fred555]

They are working again........for now.

 

[pacificrim]

Working almost perfectly now - only glitches about once every 3-5 mins for a second on A2

 

[FaT Air]

Doesn't affect me too much tho, got 'em all on OTA (But they do appear to get better PQ on the amiko) Have only noticed a 'hiccup', once, via OTA. It only lasted a few seconds.
Theory - think they got some problems, Maybe their phase and amplitude may be going below a threshold some receivers can't 'handle'. (?)
Could, or did, someone with a card take some screen shots of the constellation to confirm?
IDK, idle mind, wandering.

 

[radio]

Well, on a day when installing another C-band to replace a fixed Ku dish, my channels from this discussion are holding!
We'll see what happens over time. THAT will determine if I switch the 101 to a fixed 6 footer, or use it for the strong 99W as originally planned.

 

[radio]

...evening falls. Signal quality goes with it here. Any other observers?

 

[. Raine]

They're all playing good here right now, 9:35 PM Eastern.

 

[TvMind]

Loaded August, 29 2012 firmwareon microHD. Problem solved, except for the occasional glitch and receiver losing lock (morphing to a neigbouring channel). I can live with this. Sure beats buying another box. Never liked the June "fix". Not ideal for unattended recording. Happy again.

 

[TvMind]

Well so much for that theory..guess I downgraded when they were behaving. I apologize for the false assumption.

Nobody has addressed this so I will. On 99 W, or whatever the f--k they call it now, Movies! plays much better, even though the signal quality varies wildly - like alot of S2 signals do on this old lnb system I have. In fact I am watching it right now and it is very 'watchable', nothing like the aggravating mess it on 101 W. Now, how can this be the stations issue if it's fine on one satellite -well ,watchable, but useless on 101? I have been tempted to order one of the better Norsat PLL lnb's but can't justify the expense for only one or two channels. Can anyone with one of these lnbs chime in here and enlighten us about the signal on 99W (Movies!), confirm or deny my findings.

Much appreciated.

Question: If there is initial 'lock' of these troublesome channels, followed by breakup, it is obviously the receiver's horrible software, or cheap ass tuner. I have tried to identify the one in the microHD but there are no signs of its origins - generic pos?

Has anyone had the gall to email the companies and ask them about this. They are free over the VHF/UHF in the states so.... Be interesting to hear their reply. (Not usually recommended to call attention to BUD owners pinching providers signals, just in case someone out there heeded this mad suggestion.)

The mystery continues. Thanks to Titanium for suggesting alternative boxes. Will try and hunt one of those down in my city.

 

[Magic Static]

The expensive PLLs make no difference to the affected STBs for me. While I can still watch the channels on my HTPC, the signal quality is lower than normal.

 

[TvMind]

The expensive PLLs make no difference to the affected STBs for me.

Thanks for chiming in here. Frankly surprised these PLL types don't have better local oscillators - hence steadier and accurate scanned frequencies (mine are off by 100 khz or so, consistently.

 

[daylight]

Thanks for chiming in here. Frankly surprised these PLL types don't have better local oscillators - hence steadier and accurate scanned frequencies (mine are off by 100 khz or so, consistently.

Using the cheapest c-band lnbs i could find. These channels play fine for a while and then signal drops below threshold of receiver. The channels on 99w the signal varies wildly also but is more stable overall and very watchable compared to 101w, this would indicate springfield is also having problems with the feeds. But overall they have been good over the last week. Using a X2 premium 3 which has an ali 3606 chip didn't try the X2 premium 2 its dedicated to ku. The azbox elite plays them quite well on both 99w and 101w.

 

[primestar31]

Has anyone had the gall to email the companies and ask them about this. They are free over the VHF/UHF in the states so.... Be interesting to hear their reply. (Not usually recommended to call attention to BUD owners pinching providers signals, just in case someone out there heeded this mad suggestion.)

The mystery continues. Thanks to Titanium for suggesting alternative boxes. Will try and hunt one of those down in my city.

Do not EVER attempt to contact these FTA channels via phone calls or emails! Not even if they put on a phone number. These signals aren't really meant for FTA'ers, and all contact does is push them to encrypt.

Just ask Dee Ann what happens, she's the last one to try, and she still regrets it...