Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bill McMurray on May 2, 2014 at 14:29

Hi Paul,

Try another receiver! - It seems you've tried everything else anyway, and I probably would have gone there after the dish and LNB checked out okay.

We do sometimes have a situation where a receiver will have trouble locking onto one particular transponder, but will pick up other transponders okay, - Hope this fixes it.

Cheers, Bill.

Permalink Reply by Paul Blacquiere on May 2, 2014 at 16:11

Hi,

I will Bill, the bad news is that currently there  are two cards attached to the same dish, and both suffer the same issue (also note I have removed the splitter and driven each card/Pc in isolation).

I will try the receiver from the caravan this weekend.

Cheers

Bill McMurray said:

Hi Paul,

Try another receiver! - It seems you've tried everything else anyway, and I probably would have gone there after the dish and LNB checked out okay.

We do sometimes have a situation where a receiver will have trouble locking onto one particular transponder, but will pick up other transponders okay, - Hope this fixes it.

Cheers, Bill.

Permalink Reply by willis on May 3, 2014 at 0:22

43 cm dish seems a bit small......

Permalink Reply by Paul Blacquiere on May 3, 2014 at 18:00

My bad, I assumed it was a 43cm dish, turns out it is about 54cm across the narrower side (being elliptical).

Saying that, it used to work fine once upon a time ...

willis said:

43 cm dish seems a bit small......

Permalink Reply by Paul Blacquiere on May 3, 2014 at 18:23

Further to earlier fault finding...

hooked al-cheapo receiver from caravan onto house dish and similar experience.  TP12456 all good, TP12483 about half the SNR 50% but still a better picture than seen on the Hauppauge receivers?

Then tried caravan dish on the other side of the house, maybe some reflection or interference has sprung up...unfortunately same result.

So in summary...three receivers all showing between 50-70% SNR on TP12483, while close to 100% for others transponders...two dishes, two RG6 cables and three LNB all same result...

An there is not suddenly a high-rise building in my path so all I can think is happening is that it was always on the threshold of acceptable receptions, and green house gasses or some interference has pushed my setup(s) below the threshold.

What to do, move to terrestrial or buy a bigger dish with better LNB?

Cheers

Permalink Reply by nzdtv.com on May 3, 2014 at 21:18

Pc Tuner cards are usually lacking in sensitivty.

A bigger dish is the answer

 

Permalink Reply by Bill McMurray on May 4, 2014 at 23:10

- Hi Paul,

A bigger dish will give you a stronger signal on all transponders, so will probably alleviate the problem, but I'm not convinced that the size of your dish IS THE PROBLEM. The incoming signal from each transponder can rise or drop a few Db from one day to another, but that much difference continually can't be caused by the dish - Unless it's bent out of shape - And you're getting the same problem using another dish.

I thought it may be something blocking the incoming signal, then I read that you'd got the same problem with the caravan dish on the other side of the house. - So does the caravan dish give the problem anywhere on your property??? - And what about neighbours? - Maybe you've got an incoming transmission signal problem! - This is becoming a real mystery! Cheers, Bill.

Permalink Reply by nzdtv.com on May 5, 2014 at 0:14

"Hauppauge Nova-S receiver(s)"

 

These are pc tuner cards, as mentioned they lack sensativty compared to normal receiver

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/tv-tuner-card...

"Video and audio quality are excellent, so clearly Hauppauge's MPEG decoders are up to scratch. The unit is not as sensitive as standalone receivers, but it will be good enough for reception of the Astras and Hot Birds."

Permalink Reply by Paul Blacquiere on May 5, 2014 at 9:41

Hi Bill,

Yes I ha d a similar thought, in that larger dish would mean larger signal, but maybe not better  SNR...

I would like to try the mobile dish even further, but the challenge is getting it high enough, while still close enough to the receivers (house is on northern border and land falls away to south)...

Putting a long cable will add some attenuation, but maybe that is acceptable as the signal strength is ok (+97%).  

So moving it further away or behind the house might get it away from the noise source (which is currently where my head is at)

When I started using PC based satellite receivers a few years ago, I would see maybe one other wifi SSID, now there is a list of ten or more...could something like this be the source of noise disrupting this transponders frequency (some noisy odd harmonic off a wifi bridge)?

Or is noise unlikely to be the cause of our issue....

I will have to do a poll on the neighbors to see who is using freeview, and not sky?

Cheers

PaulB.

Bill McMurray said:

- Hi Paul,

A bigger dish will give you a stronger signal on all transponders, so will probably alleviate the problem, but I'm not convinced that the size of your dish IS THE PROBLEM. The incoming signal from each transponder can rise or drop a few Db from one day to another, but that much difference continually can't be caused by the dish - Unless it's bent out of shape - And you're getting the same problem using another dish.

I thought it may be something blocking the incoming signal, then I read that you'd got the same problem with the caravan dish on the other side of the house. - So does the caravan dish give the problem anywhere on your property??? - And what about neighbours? - Maybe you've got an incoming transmission signal problem! - This is becoming a real mystery! Cheers, Bill.

Permalink Reply by Paul Blacquiere on May 5, 2014 at 9:52

Hi,

Yup I have been using these cards on this setup successful for many years...It is only recently that their performance has dropped (please note one of the cards is new, as it replaces an older one that died, so i do not think this is some aging issue).

So I could patch-around the problem by getting better quality equipment...but it bugs me not to know the root cause of the issue...and maybe that knowledge will still result in improving the quality of my reception chain?

Cheers

PaulB.

nzdtv.com said:

"Hauppauge Nova-S receiver(s)"

 

These are pc tuner cards, as mentioned they lack sensativty compared to normal receiver

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/tv-tuner-card...

"Video and audio quality are excellent, so clearly Hauppauge's MPEG decoders are up to scratch. The unit is not as sensitive as standalone receivers, but it will be good enough for reception of the Astras and Hot Birds."