BBC Channels gone! - Freecom DVB-T

[AnthoNYC]

I have 3 Freecom DVB-T sticks and things have been running pretty smoothly for the last few months but last week recordings started to fail. I found that if I tuned to BBC1 it said that there was no signal.

I did a rescan and many channels including all the main BBC channels could not be found. This morning I tried again after many attempts and one of the sticks picked up BBC1 but again 'no signal' when I tried to play it.

I installed TotalMedia 3.5 as a test, and that IS picking up all the channels including the BBC.

I'm kind of perplexed at this point! I have attached my log files.

I'm in NW England using Winter Hill and running Windows XP.

Thanks for any help,
Anthony

[Calmpool]

I have the same problem with a Freecom DVB stick. All was well until recently and now when I try to select BBC channels the LED flashes green and there is no signal. I suspec some other channels are smissing, but I'm not sure which worked before. I know that the BBC channels did.

I carried out a rescan from Media Centre and it found all of the channels it had before, including the BBC ones, but still the symptoms are the same.

I am using Vista Ultimate 32bit on a Dell Optiplex 745, 2.4GHz Intel dual core, 2GB ram.

I notice from Windows Update that an update to Media Centre was installed on the 15th June. I can't swear to it, but this is around when it failed.

I am near Crewe and also use Winterhill.

[AnthoNYC]

Interesting point. I went through my update history and found a security update for a vulnerability in the "Pragmatic General Multicast" on June 13th. I removed the update and tried scanning again. It's not fixed the problem. My scan is now finding a whole load of 'Unknown' channels. I'm only picking up a few named channels and none of them are the main network channels.

And in fact using Arcsoft's TotalMedia BBC1 is blank, ITV1 is scrambled etc. too.

I'm really starting to miss my two analogue WinTV tuners now.

[Calmpool]

I've just done another rescan and then checked through all of the channels with a couple of interesting results. All of the missing channels appear to be on MUX 1 (BBC1 & 2, CBBC, BBC News) and MUX A (Ch5, BidTV, Price Drop, Five US, Fiver). However, if I sit and wait on some of the missing channels (BBC2, Price Drop, Fiver) I get sporadic bursts of the channel audio. This leads me to think the transmission power from Winterhill has dropped for Mux 1 & A and the Freecom stick is struggling to lock. (Hence the flashing green LED?)

I also have a few radio channels missing, but these are dotted across MUX, A, B & D so may not be totally related as there are TV channels working on B & D. Most of the radio channels on B & D are working.

I can't find anything about this specifically on any web sites, but there are various comments about occasional interruption of service etc.

[AnthoNYC]

I just did a rescan and compared the channels found with the muxes and I am getting TV channels from Muxes B, C & D but nothing from 1, 2 & A. And 1 & 2 are the big kahunas with the terrestrial channels!

[martint123]

I'd use the scanchannelsbda utility. It's on the Hauppauge site, but works with DBA drivers and produces results for all the devices I've tried.

You can make it scan and display mux's and their channels, along with strength and quality. You can also leave it running on a mux, keeping track of the signal. Stuff gets logged to a file.

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=12082

Martin

[AnthoNYC]

Thanks Martint123, I'll definitely check that out.

I found a couple of articles on ukfree.tv which may be relevant too:-

http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051307
http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051308

Am thinking of going back to analog until Winter Hill up their power next year.

[garymeds]

i also use winter hill and had no problems yesterday. in fact, i re-scanned around that time in order to pick up the daytime kids channels (citv etc). no problems using gbpvr 1.2.9

i prefer auto updates off from microsoft - rather look for a fix and apply it than keep adding patches. if it ain't broke, etc.

my vista machine didn't wake from sleep properly since SP1 install, so uninstalled and now i can't install anythig for vista SP0 as still thinks is at SP1!

[AnthoNYC]

Ok I ran the scan. It's confirming what I see when I scan in config.exe.

Incidentally I have a very new (< 1 year) roof-mounted digital aerial and a quality signal booster (4 outputs).

I've just ordered a 2 USB extension cables to see if moving the sticks away from everything else makes a difference.

[Graham]

This is the second year in a row that my reception has degraded at this time of year. The most likely explanation is the leaves on the trees that are near my house and in a direct line to the transmitter.

And they ain't my trees ...

Graham