Rick's Notes
June 2005

 

2005/06/16

Various updates, including the breaking up of my notes into sub-pages...

bad movies and matineemovies are available, perhaps it was a faulty transponder? What I don't get - though - is why both of these channels are showing a 4:3 frame squeezed into a 16:9 matte. You get to watch lots of short wide people! It is totally weird.

The Digibox's signal has been coming and going, but seems now to be more coming than going. As the leaves sprouted on the trees obscuring the dish, the signal would be totally gone at sunrise and sunset. You can see this in my Eurovision write-up.
However, it seems now to be better. It liked it when the weather was yucky and drizzly; so will it act up again when the 32°C hits us? It seems to be backwards to what makes sense, doesn't it?

Things have been generally improved by the firmware update. The box has not 'lost channels' in over a month. It does seem to reset itself from time to time, which could be annoying if it did it in the middle of Doctor Who; but it is less troublesome than having to reboot. Having said that, the Digibox is disconnected from the mains when we go out. This is thunderstorm season and I'd rather not see various bits of hardware gently smouldering on my desk...

 

2005/06/19

Here's a tip that might be useful...

This morning, mom wanted me to record Broadcasting House on R4FM because R4LW had cricket (interestingly, R4LW off satellite was doing Archers Omnibus and NOT cricket?).
No signal on R4FM, signal for R4LW. Signal for the main BBC radio stations too, except R2.
No signal on the 'default' transponder (services, 4, 6).
I gave it a few minutes, then pulled the plug. Perhaps the EPG tuning list was messed up somehow? A reset might fix it.

Big mistake.
HUGE mistake.
How's a Digibox to initialise if it can't load the channel data? And, at this point, I can fully confirm that a Pace BSkyB 2500B in its uninitalised state will not permit access to the Other Channels list without a card installed - thus I would assume that using this Digibox on, say, 19.2°E would be next to impossible (you'd need to initialise off 28.2° and then go to 19.2°E...?).

So here is the tip. To into the Installer menu and try a manual tune on the BBC South transponder (10.818 V 22000 5/6) at it seems to be a reliable one. Does this work? Do you have a signal?

If you have a signal on BBC South and nothing on the default transponder, you can get your box working. In the Installer menu is an option to set up the default tranponder. Change it all to point to 10.818 V 22000 5/6.
Now quit. It'll say 'Searching for listings' and it'll say it forever (well, two to three minutes). Then you'll get your channels appearing. If you give it another five minutes, you will have EPG data for most (if not all) channel for the next six hours. But hey, at least you're in, right? At least you have channels, right?

When you feel/know that the normal EPG transponder is working, to reset the default settings just go to the Installer menu, choose the Default transponder option, and press red to reset everything to its normal settings.

By the way, here's a quick list of important (i.e. no sales or god) freebie channels that are affected by... weather? solar flares? who knows - some stuff works and some stuff doesn't:

The BBC TV channels work. Open Access 2 is showing an old B/W movie (Meet John Doe). Many of the other channels - Wine TV, Unlimited TV... - are doing telesales right now. Vegas 24/7 is showing 'classic game shows', a very fifties-looking woman trying to bounce a ping-pong ball into a cup held by her husband (who is dressed up like a navy person). All in B/W.
The status reports 'no signal' for every single on of Sky's own movie channels, yet the FilmFours ask for a card, as they should do.
Even the I-can't-get-my-aspect-ratio-gizmo-to-work matinee movies works!
Go figure, huh?

 

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