B&Q Satellite - Ross freesat box and dish

If the cable is decent quality, the signal loss over 5m shouldn't be significant. Precise dish alignment is always the number one priority.

[Kymmy]

Just fell in love with my system again just figured out how to stream the channels to my PC

[El En Bee]

Originally Posted by midland58

My box goes back today. Was watching a programme recorded onto a Verbatim 6GB stick and all of a sudden the playback froze. Eventually got it restarted but kept freezing every 4/5 mins thereafter. The coloured file management options (including delete) have disappeared as well! Not as happy as I was 7 days ago. Will see what they say but might be time to upgrade. Will report back.

The disappearing CFM options caught me out too - but if you press 'exit' a couple of times to cause the file and 'PVR' folder to be tucked inside the 'device' folder - then press ok to reveal the 'PVR' folder again - the options reappear!

I've been using a 4Gb PNY stick for testing and found that the boot up from standby is around a couple of minutes - probably because the box is expecting to load an update. I've since (last night) tried a 30Gb 2.5" Toshiba HD fitted in an IDE-to-USB adapter/case and found that the boot time is now only a few seconds.

Regarding the playback - I have issues with recordings off ITV1 HD.

At the minute I have two ITV1 HD's - the first one broadcasts perfectly, but when recorded and played back, either has lip sync issues or causes the screen to go blank and freezes the box (which I then have to turn off by the switch on the back. The second suffers from an intermittent stutter in the video - yet has perfect audio and plays back perfectly (apart from the video stutter of the live broadcast).

I've tested with a couple of memory sticks and the 2.5" HD - and the results remain the same.

BBC HD, BBC1 HD, LUX HD and all the SD channels (tried so far) record and playback perfectly.

The details of the two ITV1 HD's are: -

10936 V, 22000, video pid 0513, audio pid 0641, pmt pid 0289, pcr pid 0513, tele pid 8191, service ID 03851- 63% quality, perfect picture/sound - playback lip sync issues or system hang.

10832H 22000, video pid 2362, audio pid 2369, pmt pid 0288, pcr pid 2362, tele pid 8191, service ID 10000 - 63% quality, picture stutter/perfect sound - perfect playback.

Perhaps there's a third ITV1 HD that I could manually programme in?

[Kymmy]

Question for you guys with a Ross FTA box... Do you get access to the bbc red button streams?

Details should be as follows

BBC interactive 'channels'
12441 V
27500
2/3

* Service...VPID APID
* BBCi 1....2305 2306
* BBCi 2....2321 2322
* BBCi 3....2325 2326
* BBCi 4....2329 2330
* BBCi 5....2333 2334
* BBCi 6....2337 2338
* BBCi 7....2345 2346

I didn't on my FTA system until I changed the status of the streams from DATA to TV.. no idea though if you can do that on a ROSS system but you may be able to manually add the channels

That all depends on the Ross firmware. You never used to be able to do it on Sky boxes, until they eventually hit the +HD ones with an update so users could manually add ITV1 HD, which at that time was a red-button-only channel (and, as a result, a Freesat exclusive).

With the Ross being a bargain basement box I would personally be very surprised if you can order it to treat a data stream as a TV stream ... but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. As you say, one for the Ross owners to answer.

[Kymmy]

Most bypass the channel on an autoscan due to them being marked as data.. The ROSS boxes should have a manual input

True, but the Sky boxes do have a manual tune feature - they just can't (with the exception of the +HD box) be forced to tune to a channel marked as data.

[Kymmy]

Ahhh, I see.. On mine I just ftp the settings in/out using dreambox-edit, whilst in there I can change the status

[MTJR]

On my 8130 model pressing the TXT button on any of the channels except the HD ones brings up a screen that looks like the old CEEFAX screen with the page number in the top left. Not surprisingly, nothing happens.

Pressing the RED button at any other time brings up a SCAN menu.

However, flicking through the channels last week I did find the old Grand Prix highlights that I know run on the BBC red button service. The channel was marked something like "STREAM-1". So the video sections are there, you just have to hunt for them a bit.

In the book it says the TXT button is "Not available on this model". Which I assume to mean it doesn't actually work.

John

[Kymmy]

The red buttons channels are the STREAM0 to Stream6 channels, if you have them then you have the GP/sport and anything else BBC would put on a red button channel..

Please though do not confuse what I'm saying with red button interactive services like teletext

[MTJR]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Please though do not confuse what I'm saying with red button interactive services like teletext

That's why I answered both as I wasn't completely sure which service the question was asking about.

So, just to clear up my confusion is the only difference between a Freesat box and a FTA box the fact that the Freesat box has a 7-day EPG?

John

Branded Freesat boxes have:

- at least 7 days epg (some have more)
- A basic digital teletext service on the red button
- An increasing number of the PVR boxes also have iPlayer, if you connect them up to your home network via the ethernet port

[mikedmc]

Just joined forum and just read the 18 pages of this thread. Interesting read but still not answered my reason for finding this site .

I saw the Ross HD package in B & Q yesterday (£89.99), although since I have found that it is available in Homebase at £79.99.

It looks ok as a start into the world of satellite TV, especially paired with an HD TV. Reading through this thread the verdict still seems undecided. So as I am obviously interested in Sat TV, HD included, what would you recommend as a starter system?

What would be available with this starter system that is not available with the Ross system?

And what potential for expansion does your starter system give me over the Ross system?

As an aside I do have an old Sky Dish and receiver buried in my shed somewhere, assuming I have it right reading through these threads I could use this sky dish and the ross dish to have the receiver pick up from different sats at same time (save moving the dish around etc.) - is my assumption correct? Could the Sky receiver be used to receive some basic free to air channels in a different room?

Any and all advice appreciated. Thank you.

Ding dong .... Could Kymmy please attend the Ross thread immediately. Thank you. <click>

There you go. The forum's biggest satellite nerd will be here shortly.

[mikedmc]

Originally Posted by Chris

Ding dong .... Could Kymmy please attend the Ross thread immediately. Thank you. <click>

There you go. The forum's biggest satellite nerd will be here shortly.

Thank you Chris. Out of curiosity who is the second biggest satellite nerd on the forum .

One other thing, I noticed (again reading through the 18 pages) that the Ross HD was only £50 in B & Q last month, whereas now the SD is that price in B&Q and homebase. Is the price likely to drop again and worth waiting.

The world of satellite TV is indeed intriguing but creates a lot of questions for us noobies.