Black remote?

[Hogweed]

Hi all, glad to find this forum... Telewest are SUCH hard work. After 6 months of problems, and even having my MP write to their CEO’s office, I had a guy from said office phone me yesterday. While he as very polite and helpful, I don't think he knew much...

Recently, after several weeks of no service, Telewest replaced my old Pace box with a newer version. They didn’t replace the old black remote though. Now my volume is very low. This guy from the CEO office told me a button sequence to press on my remote (* + Settings for a few seconds) which would put it into some kind of “Command⠀� mode, then type 0000 to reset the thing.

He said this would give me anew kind of volume display on my screen, with numbers (which I don't have now...), and all would be well.

Except... Ta-Da – my old black remote doesn’t have a * button!

Is there anything I can do with the black remote, or do I have to badger them for a silver one?

Thanks!

[Stuart]

to the Forum. I know this may sound stupid, but have you tried phoning Customer Services, explaining the story to them and just asking for a new remote?

[Hogweed]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

to the Forum. I know this may sound stupid, but have you tried phoning Customer Services, explaining the story to them and just asking for a new remote?

Doesn’t sound at all stupid – until you try dealing with Telewest “Customer Services�. And they have promised to send me a silver remote – I just want to know if I can get the black one to behave in the meantime!

The meantime usually being a very long time, where Telewest are concerned...

[JG3870]

If you go on the blueyonder newsgroup under support.digital.tv and post a message requesting a new silver remote giving your blueyonder username, technical support will send a new remote out to you in the post.
I have seen many posts on there with people requesting new remotes and they send them out so that will be your quickest option

[Stuart]

[Hogweed]

Originally Posted by JG3870

If you go on the blueyonder newsgroup under support.digital.tv and post a message requesting a new silver remote giving your blueyonder username, technical support will send a new remote out to you in the post.
I have seen many posts on there with people requesting new remotes and they send them out so that will be your quickest option

Ummm. Yeah. Thanks all for suggesting a new silver remote, very helpful – so does that mean that nobody can tell me anything about the black one?

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Hogweed

so does that mean that nobody can tell me anything about the black one?

Do you mean the stick one with the luminous buttons and the coloured plug in the bottom? If so, it isn't programmable. The volume buttons always control the STB.

What happens when you press the volume buttons?

[Hogweed]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Do you mean the stick one with the luminous buttons and the coloured plug in the bottom? If so, it isn't programmable. The volume buttons always control the STB.

What happens when you press the volume buttons?

Yeah, think that's the one! Volume buttons create a blue sliding scale thing at the bottom left of the screen.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Hogweed

Yeah, think that's the one! Volume buttons create a blue sliding scale thing at the bottom left of the screen.

That shows it's working!

Make sure your TV is plugged into the TV SCART socket on the back of the STB.

If it's still too quiet when turned up to maximum, you'll need to report that to Telewest.

[Hogweed]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

That shows it's working!

Make sure your TV is plugged into the TV SCART socket on the back of the STB.

If it's still too quiet when turned up to maximum, you'll need to report that to Telewest.

Oh yes, it WORKS – but the volume is about half (at best) of what it was with the old STB. The Telewest chap I spoke to assured me that this was because the new STB needed to be reset in some way (by doing the 3-button-shuffle thingy on the remote). He said that this would normalise the volume, and would also convert the non-numbered volume display on the bottom left hand corner of my screen to a numbered version on the bottom right hand side... when the new silver remote arrives, I’ll try it.

I did try reporting it to Telewest at first, but they just go through a standard routine of “Is your STB plugged in?� “Please check that there’s a light on the front�, and other really patronising questions. Then they quickly get to the point where you have to take half a day off work to wait for an engineer to turn up!

[Hogweed]

Well, guess what – they sent me the wrong remote. This is for an NTL box. It would seem that NTL/Telewest staff are trained in being brainless, obstructive, unhelpful, rude and generally incompetent. How hard is it to figure out what kind of control to send me? How do these people manage to work out how to brush their teeth in the morning?

Thanks to everyone on here who tried to help me – but with NTL/Telewest, I think I really am beyond help. But I refuse to cancel all my services and give them the satisfaction of washing their hands of me.

---------- Post added at 18:23 ---------- Previous post was at 18:19 ----------

Originally Posted by JG3870

If you go on the blueyonder newsgroup under support.digital.tv

Sorry, don't know how to do that.

[v0id]

news:blueyonder.support.digitaltv

^ click it. It should open your default newsreader (most likely Thunderbird or Outlook Express)

Post a message in there

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Hogweed

Oh yes, it WORKS – but the volume is about half (at best) of what it was with the old STB.

Do you know what model box you had before and what you've got now? If you went from a Pace 1000/1010/2000 to a Pace 4000 then you are right - the maximum volume is lower. Nothing you can do about it other than ask for a different box.

Originally Posted by Hogweed

The Telewest chap I spoke to assured me that this was because the new STB needed to be reset in some way (by doing the 3-button-shuffle thingy on the remote). He said that this would normalise the volume, and would also convert the non-numbered volume display on the bottom left hand corner of my screen to a numbered version on the bottom right hand side.

Utter nonsense.

Originally Posted by Hogweed

Well, guess what – they sent me the wrong remote. This is for an NTL box. It would seem that NTL/Telewest staff are trained in being brainless, obstructive, unhelpful, rude and generally incompetent. How hard is it to figure out what kind of control to send me? How do these people manage to work out how to brush their teeth in the morning?

Which remote have they sent? Does it work at all? (Not that you need a new one anyway).

[Hogweed]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Do you know what model box you had before and what you've got now? If you went from a Pace 1000/1010/2000 to a Pace 4000 then you are right - the maximum volume is lower. Nothing you can do about it other than ask for a different box.

Sorry, I don’t always get to see these posts till I’m in work, and of course haven’t got the equipment here... all I know at this stage is that the old box was the original one, between 5 and 6 years old, and it was a Pace. The new one’s also a Pace I think, but definitely different. Maybe that’s the explanation then... it’s pretty cr4p though – I have to turn the TV WAY up for it to be normal level.

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Utter nonsense.

Tell me about it. Their staff are utterly gormless. When I couldn’t send e-mails (due to very low gain on the upstream of my broadband, as I suspected from the start, as it’s happened before), they told me to re-install Windows on my PC!

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Which remote have they sent? Does it work at all? (Not that you need a new one anyway).

It works in the sense that the red light flashes. It’s the same as my Dad’s in Ireland, who’s with NTL – I think maybe their STB’s are Samsung or something? So I’d hardly expect it to work with a Pace box... it actually says NTL on the remote.

Anyway, I tried my girlfriend’s remote; it's one of the newer Telewest ones (silver), and of course it made no difference at all, because the problem is either with the STB as you say above, or maybe gain on the line.

It’s like swimming through treacle trying to deal with these people. I've never experienced anything like it in my life, even with BT.

[v0id]

Have you tried adjusting the volume via the interactive menu: Settings & Services >> Display & Audio?