Another Astra / Eurobird 1 UK thread - Boo!

[Pob]

Not sure if a hardware (Nova HD S2) or GBPVR issue;
Inconsistent scan results, and channels disappear!
When I first installed the card I got most channels. I scanned once using the 0282 Astra .ini file, and then again using the 0285,ini for Eurobird 1. I got most of the Freesat channels, including BBC HD and the ZONE channels, plus I got Luxe HD.
However - and this is where it started to get flaky - I later re-scanned, when I realised I did not have Chanel 4 (AKA 8350), nor BBC News 24. I put a check in the 'ignore CRC errors during scan', and I did get 8350, but now I can never find any of the Zone channels, nor Luxe HD...And I never did find BBC News!
And to make things odder, the existing entries I had like the ZONE channels stopped working - just get a blank screen and the 'no signal' message (though it says signal strength and quality 100%). Also the stats indicate the blank screen with no audio is 'Mpeg 2 1024 * 576' with Mpeg layer 2 sound!
I never can get ITV HD - I added the settings into the scan.cache file manually, as advised by others, but have never seen a picture or got sound. I read they that are broadcasting more & more on this test channel, for example yesterday they simulcast the film 'Liar Liar' - which many watched and posted screen-caps of.
So I am at a loss - cannot understand why the first scan picked up channels that no amount of rescanning can ever find again:confused:
Maybe someone could post their scan.cache file(s) if they are getting everything available on Astra / Eurobird 1 - I could try it to see if it is a problem unique to me, like my dish has moved in the week?

[martint123]

This is what I get most of the time for ITV HD (screen grab a few moments ago). This is the entry from the database, I can't remember the relationship between this and the cache file as I can't genergate one of those at the moment. You should be able to pick out the bits needed though.

T:11426,H,27500,23~NID:59~ONID:2~TSID:2315~P:10510

[Pob]

Well sometimes sending a forum post is as good as talking a problem through - it makes you think about it. I got to thinking about last week when I installed the card - the sequence. The first thing I did was detach the sat cable from the Sky box to connect to my PC. So I reattached the sky box - and all the 'missing' channels are there, including the Eurobird ones.
Disconnected the cable and put back on PC - guess what? All the channels reappear - Luxe, Euronews, UK Shorts, all the Zones...
So then I am thinking there must be a problem with the LNB switching...
Then I remembered this:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ht=hwclear
So I have now used HWCLEAR and installed the Hauppauge software from scratch. Time will tell if this was the issue...I still have an 'unused component' in my device manager though!
And yes thank you Martin123 - I now can see the message on ITV HD - Hooray!

[Pob]

Well my success was short lived:-(
Today all the Eurobird 1 channels have stopped working again. So reinstalling the drivers made no difference; the only thing that does work is attaching the sat cable to the Sky box, watching a Eurobird 1 channel like Zone Horror, then putting the cable back on the Nova card. It's a Heath Robinson method of LNB switching!
Because I get the same issue with PowerCinema, not just GBPVR, I think the card must be faulty, or incompatible. I read on the Hauppauge forums that the Nova S cards do not actually output any power for Diseq switching - at least one guy tested it with a multimeter...
The daft thing is that although I have a quad LNB, I only have one cable connected - so Diseq is not needed, right? You can probably detect that I know nothing about how satellite TV works! I thought Astra 2a, 2b, 2c etc was one satellite with three aerials sticking out the top...
And I thought that switching between vertical and horizontal polarity on the LNB was acheived by the LNB rotating inside!

[Pob]

Never overlook the simple things.
As my dish was put up by an official Sky contractor, it never occured to me to check the F connector...
What happened is I was about to try my bodge fix of connecting to the Sky box & then re-connecting to the PC. I had one of the non-working Eurobird 1 channels on screen, displaying the usual 'no signal found' message. As I started to unscrew it, the signal suddenly jumped in and the channel appeared! Looks like stray copper shielding was making intermittent contact against the centre core. Why it only effected the Eurobird 1 signal I don't know, but I guess if it is a weaker signal, being 28.5 degrees instead of 28.2, then it was enough to stop it working.
So I have wasted probably 30 hours or more fiddling with everything you can think of, plus the time of readers of these forums, the Hauppage forums, the DigitalUK forums, the Hauppage helpline...And all because a Sky engineer cannot attach an F plug.
Sorry!

[Manxman27]

So let me get this straight. I have one HD-S2 card installed, I have one capture source configured to Astra 2A, 2B, 2D. Can I set up another capture source using the same card but configure it to Eurobird 1 and get even more channels?

[Pob]

So let me get this straight. I have one HD-S2 card installed, I have one capture source configured to Astra 2A, 2B, 2D. Can I set up another capture source using the same card but configure it to Eurobird 1 and get even more channels?

Yes you will get more channels, as some are broadcast from Eurobird 1 and not on Astra. However, the easiest opton in my view is to use a replacement 0282.ini file that has all the transponders listed.
If you are setting up two capture sources using the card I think you would need to set them with different device numbers? Perhaps Sub could clarify.
I tried the two capture card method, and somehow it really screwed up my install - not sure if it was because of duplicate entries, using the same device number, or what...
Attached is a combined Astra / Eurobird 1 0282.ini file I got from http://en.kingofsat.net/tv-28.5E.php
It has 106 transponders compared to the 95 in the regular 0282.ini
(The ini files are located in the BDA / DVB-S folder)

[sub]

If you are setting up two capture sources using the card I think you would need to set them with different device numbers?

No, you're suppose to use the same device number.

Either of those two scenes should work fine (one big .ini file with all satellites, or multiple captrue source for single card). Behind the scenes both are treated pretty much the same.