Quick question

[poolking]

Does anyone else suffer picture blackouts?

Sometimes the picture will disappear a few times in a couple of minutes.

[Miss NTL]

no problems here. Adjust your medication!:p

[MoneyPenny]

Originally posted by poolking
Does anyone else suffer picture blackouts?

Sometimes the picture will disappear a few times in a couple of minutes.

It depends on where you are and when you saw the blackouts. There are planned works going on most nights somewhere in the early hours and this sometimes results in very short blackouts or are you experiencing something more sustained and regular?

[Caspar]

This is happening to me too, just when a good bit comes!

sound is affected too... :grind:

Does anyone know when this is to be fixed?

I'm also get the 'information not available' too :grind:

btw - I'm in the Warrington, Cheshire area.

[Pieman]

Nothing happening here - might be worth reporting it - could be something to do with with signal levels......

[Russ]

Originally posted by poolking
Does anyone else suffer picture blackouts?

Sometimes the picture will disappear a few times in a couple of minutes.

Yes I had this over the weekend. I phoned NTL on saturday morning to moan about it and all credit to them, an engineer was at my door about 2 hours later.

Very impressive NTL, I take my hat off to you.

PS I've still got the problem however - yes the engineer was at my door but he didn't get in - I was out and he left his card but at least they sent someone that day :wavey:

[poolking]

Originally posted by Miss NTL
no problems here. Adjust your medication!:p

Yeah, gimme some weed. :smokin:

[altis]

I don't get blackouts - no TV - but my BB service does drop out like this from time to time. I guess it's when some engineer is moving a connection about. This is when having an FM hook-up is really useful as a debugging aid. Since this relies on a simple analogue service, it's blindingly obvious when all signal has been lost - you just get loads of hiss.

[Fingy]

Originally posted by Russ D
Yes I had this over the weekend. I phoned NTL on saturday morning to moan about it and all credit to them, an engineer was at my door about 2 hours later.

Very impressive NTL, I take my hat off to you.

PS I've still got the problem however - yes the engineer was at my door but he didn't get in - I was out and he left his card but at least they sent someone that day :wavey:

Let me know if you need another tech booked, back in the office in the morning. :)

[Chris]

Happens to me from time to time - Sound and picture goes off for a couple of seconds then comes back; usually happens a couple more times over the next few minutes, then is ok again.

Then we go for days or weeks with no problems and then it happens again.

I always assumed it was someone fiddling with the network or some other temporary problem. It's never really bothered me too much.

[Caspar]

Originally posted by Russ D
Yes I had this over the weekend. I phoned NTL on saturday morning to moan about it and all credit to them, an engineer was at my door about 2 hours later.

Very impressive NTL, I take my hat off to you.

PS I've still got the problem however - yes the engineer was at my door but he didn't get in - I was out and he left his card but at least they sent someone that day :wavey:

I'm worried now :disturbd: ....they sent an engineer out....is it a serious problem or something...should I unplug my CTB when I leave my house...to stop it raiding the fridge or burning the house down? :spin:

[MoneyPenny]

Dear All,

Anyone who is having channel drop-outs whether they be audio, visual or indeed both should keep a log of what happened, when this happened, on what channel and how long for.

Armeds with this data, please post the details and we will be able to tell you whether this was likely to have been caused by planned work or indeed advise you as to whether you should be calling a fault in.

In short though, if you are experiencing these types of problems between the hours of 06:00 and 23:59 then you should probably be logging a fault anyway as the vast majority of planned work is well out of these hours. The only planned work in these hours tends to be emergency fix for failures.

[Chris]

Originally posted by MoneyPenny
Dear All,

Anyone who is having channel drop-outs whether they be audio, visual or indeed both should keep a log of what happened, when this happened, on what channel and how long for.

ok MoneyPenny, will do that ... thanks for the advice.

Who says ntl should have the monopoly on helpful websites, eh? ;)

[Caspar]

Originally posted by MoneyPenny
In short though, if you are experiencing these types of problems between the hours of 06:00 and 23:59 then you should probably be logging a fault anyway as the vast majority of planned work is well out of these hours. The only planned work in these hours tends to be emergency fix for failures.

Will do thx.....but I have only experienced this in the evening, when I watch telly...I usually sleep during the night :rolleyes:

[MoneyPenny]

Originally posted by Caspar
Will do thx.....but I have only experienced this in the evening, when I watch telly...I usually sleep during the night :rolleyes:

You'd be surprised how many don't ;) (Craig J? Are you reading this Night Owl :))

Log that fault then Caspar but have some times and dates and fault info. for them as this shouldn't be happening in peak hours.

[ntlrebel]

Same problems here too.:p :shrug:

[MoneyPenny]

Again, log your fault ntlrebel.

Keep us posted here if you don't mind both of you then we can track progress too :)

[poolking]

I'll start making a note as well.

[Lord Nikon]

Sounds like it could be a problem with signal levels. Reboot the STB and hold down the UP & DOWN buttons on the D pad on the front of it, That takes you to the engineering pages. I think page 6 or 7 has the signal levels. post the average signal levels here so we can see what they are please.

Could be that the attenuator is the wrong value, or the connector in the line cab is oxidising.

[poolking]

I cant find what I'm looking for?

Here is a list of the pages on the engineer menu:

1 of 18 INSTALLATION

Default Frequency - 642.250
Default Symbol Rate - 6.887
QAM - 064
Output Channel - 57 759.250 MHz
DVB-RC Frequency - 1 24.000 MHz
DVB-RC Symbol Rate - 0.772 MSPS

2 of 18 HARDWARE ADDRESSING

3 of 18 UHF & PIN SETUP

Attenuation - DISABLED
PIN - ....

4 of 18 INSTALLATION SUMMARY

Lock Status - Locked
Signal Quality - Not Reported
Network Information - Found
Smart Card Status - OK
DVB-RC Status - Connected and Locked
Network Capability - Two-Way Interactive
Region - UK

5 of 18 DVB DEMOD STATUS

Channel Frequency (MHz) - 426,250
QAM - 064
Symbol Rate (MSPS) - 6887
Tuner AGC (0% - 100%) - 62%
IF AGC (0% - 100%) - 62%
Pre RS Error Rate - 0.0E+00
Post RS Error Rate - 0.0E+00
SNR Estimate 35.1dB
Lock Status - Locked

6 of 18 DVB SI:

7 of 18 CONDITIONAL ACCESS STATUS

8 of 18 STATUS MONITORING

9 of 18 DVB-RC DOWNSTREAM

Channel Frequency (MHz) 124.000
Baud Rate (MSPS) 0.772
Tuner AGC (0% - 100%) - 51%
IF AGC (0% - 100%) - 49%
Pre RS Error Rate 0.0E+00
Post RS Error Rate - Not Reported
SNR Estimate - 23.3dB
Lock Status - Locked
Synchronization Losses - 0
Acquisition Attempts - 2

10 of 18 DVB-RC UPSTREAM

Channel Frequency (MHz) 29.000
Baud Rate (MSPS) - 0.772
Power (dB mV) - +47.0 dBmv (+47.0 dBmV)
Connection Status - 5 Connected
Connection ID - 05018
Object Version - Boot 1.12.0 Runtime 1.12.0

Page 11 of 18 NETWORK ADDRESSING

Page 12 of 18 DTV ADDRESSING

Page 13 of 18 TIME

Page 14 of 18 LOADER & RESIDENT OBJECTS

Page 15 of 18 MEMORY MAP

Page 16 of 18 SYSTEM INFORMATION

Page 17 of 18 PURCHASE

Page 18 of 18 BAD FLASH SECTOR DISPLAY

Many apologies for the long post as I've said I don't know what to look for. :)

[Chris]

Originally posted by MoneyPenny
Anyone who is having channel drop-outs whether they be audio, visual or indeed both should keep a log of what happened, when this happened, on what channel and how long for.

Armeds with this data, please post the details and we will be able to tell you whether this was likely to have been caused by planned work or indeed advise you as to whether you should be calling a fault in.

OK, MoneyPenny, here's my log of last night's drop-outs.

Both on E4 (Guest channel 106). Picture and sound dropped out 2/3 times in quick succession just before 8pm, and again at 9.30pm.

I'm in the Hemel Hempstead area. Let me know if you need any more info.

[MoneyPenny]

Hi Towny,

The only planned work that may have affected channels last night was in the Guildford area and was at about 02:30 this morning. Looks like you do have a local problem either with levels or with the box.

I'm afraid that you will have to place that call to CS. Let us know how you get on.

[Caspar]

Originally posted by Lord Nikon
Sounds like it could be a problem with signal levels. Reboot the STB and hold down the UP & DOWN buttons on the D pad on the front of it, That takes you to the engineering pages. I think page 6 or 7 has the signal levels. post the average signal levels here so we can see what they are please.

Could be that the attenuator is the wrong value, or the connector in the line cab is oxidising.

Those button didn't do anything for me :confused:

[Lord Nikon]

Originally posted by Caspar
Those button didn't do anything for me :confused:

you hold the up & down buttons in all the way through the reboot.. should bring up a blue & white screen

[petbark]

I had similar problems kept on getting told it was signal.
Eventually they changed set top box atfer alot of insistance on my part and that seems to have sorted it out.

[spiderplant]

Originally posted by poolking
I cant find what I'm looking for?
5 of 18 DVB DEMOD STATUS

Channel Frequency (MHz) - 426,250
QAM - 064
Symbol Rate (MSPS) - 6887
Tuner AGC (0% - 100%) - 62%
IF AGC (0% - 100%) - 62%
Pre RS Error Rate - 0.0E+00
Post RS Error Rate - 0.0E+00
SNR Estimate 35.1dB
Lock Status - Locked

Many apologies for the long post as I've said I don't know what to look for. :)

Page 5 is what you want. Nowt wrong there. It's not your signal - well, at least the signal was ok at the time you looked at the engineering screens.

When it goes black, how long does it do it for, and at what intervals?

[poolking]

Originally posted by spiderplant
Page 5 is what you want. Nowt wrong there. It's not your signal - well, at least the signal was ok at the time you looked at the engineering screens.

When it goes black, how long does it do it for, and at what intervals?

About 3 to 5 seconds a time, uneven intervals, always seems to happen after 10pm

It happens quite a bit on the Sky Sports Channels.

[Proppinupthebar]

When you booted up into the engineering screens was the last channel you were watching one of the affected ones ?

Page 5 info is all about the last stream the box was locked to.

I cannot stress this enough. YOU CAN CAUSE SERIOUS GRIEF IF YOU CHANGE THE WRONG THING IN THE ENGINEERING SCREENS.

What are you going to do anyway if the levels are too high or low ? Just get a tech visit booked. Record the problem occurring if possible to show the tech the problem.

[th'engineer]

Its been happening over the weekend in Granada regions of NTL .

Ntl are aware of the problem (proberly aware but not doing nowt)

[King Blimp]

I don't know if this is a similar problem but I gradually lose TV channels (screen goes black and no sound - random channels but happens weekly)

Eventually once enough are gone to wind me up sufficently I have to go through the process of rebooting the stb and they return.

[Proppinupthebar]

Originally posted by th'engineer
Its been happening over the weekend in Granada regions of NTL .

Ntl are aware of the problem (proberly aware but not doing nowt)

On all channels or just ITV and C4 ?

[Chris]

Picture stuttered on ITV throughout that Ross Kemp / SAS programme tonight. I think I'm going to call in the engineers...