Diesel

I ask as I cant fathom the no BBC1/BBC2 (and several others) issue. I have a full locked signal on both inputs (from LNB) and ITV1 (and some others) are fine.

Being a bit of a techie geek it's all been reset properly to death but essentially still no BBC1/2.

It's a Thompson HD box...and missus has already had a long pointless chat with a nice chap in India this afternoon. His computer 'wasn't working' but she insisted he tell her how to rebuild the planner. Sky 0, missus 1!!!

D

j4ckos mate

Hang on i will have a look,




i cant tell its too dark

EddScott

The news is about to start if thats any help. Probably nothing very feel good so your best off watching something else.

tath

My Sky's not ok, the bloody thing is not recording anything and occasionally losing channels (in fact BBC1/2 went last night). POS HD box, 50 bloody quid a month they have off me and they still think it's ok to miss a couple of things out, e.g. the live viewing and the recorded viewing.

It's a Thompson HD box as well. Flicking switch off, waiting, then back on sorts it temporarily. I think they've broken the HD boxes so the guy's with the current issue with Sky+ don't feel left out tbh.

pmsl @ j4ckos mate though, nugget

wiley

iTrader: (63)

mine is ok but does fail to record sometimes on timer, bit of a bugger when you work til late and come home when top gear has finished

wiley

alistair

The HD boxes have some 'known issues' - the classic is showing future recordings as failed, another is randomly losing the signal.

It's usually down to a dodgy power supply, in pareticular the cheap capacitors they use. If you're handy with a soldering iron you can buy new capacitors, if not you need to send off the power supply and have someone else do it.

Some details here. I put new capacitors in mine last week and it's been fine so far.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Have issues with my Thompson HD box at the moment where for example I record a 1 hour show on one channel and 2 half hour shows on another at the sametime, one after the other on the same channel and the second half hour show will not play back.

Tried the old Sky planner rebuild by going into 'Services', then doing 4,0,1,Select to get to the menu. But mine on occassion still has issues. Noticed since taking off the Sky Anytime option off, the box has behaved a little bit better than in the past. I am wondering if this is now the next thing to happen to us poor Thompson owners.
On another note, been googling on this box, and one person thinks the issue is with the PSU inside not being cooled down enough, and therefore has taken it upon himslef to make a purpose built fan for this issue.

tath

But the vast majority of HD boxes must still be under warranty??! I'm not going to take the lid of something in warranty as Sky are utter barstewards without giving them excuses not to fix things.

Diesel

Thanks guys. Symptoms make no sense or have any continuity/logic really. Could be the 'out of warranty' PSU issue. Ohh and yes future recordings 'failed due to powercut' that hasnt yet happened are regular regularities. £299 for the b box too

ITV was OK tonight, as I rarely if ever watch it. However will not shop at Iceland again having seen the ads. I have clearly been underselling myself!!!

Who makes that new HD Freesat (no subs) PVR box? Was it Humax? There is no way I'm phoning Mumbai for a bit of help and advice tonight yarr!!!

D

tath

think it's humax yeah

scoobyboy

mine is fine in all respects

tath

People aren't interested in things that work, we want to know when things BREAK dammit.

ScoobyWon't

The last time I had a similar problem - I could not get ITV1 - was due to the wind loosening the dish. It was solved by the dish be re-pointed and tightening.

It may sound silly, but it could be something as daft as that.

Ant

If it's just the loosing some channels first call would be change the lnb (thing on end of dish) even though sky box saying there Is a signal they can still be faulty. It's either the LNB can't switch polarity or the box isn't sending the polarity switch signal.

Hope this helps any more questions just ask

Steve_PPP

iTrader: (3)

no problems with mine

although the mrs didn't agree last night, for some reason the damn thing was stuck on the football

EddScott

We recently had a samsung HD box and its lip sync is terrible. Can't get it in sync and gives the appearance of watching dubbed foreign programs.

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

My sky is more tempremental than a woman, sometimes it does as its told where as other times its giving me loads of grief.

Matteeboy

I can report all this directly to Sky's board of directors.

And will do.

Matteeboy

Have you all tried Sky's customer services? Have they been okay?
I'm hearing more and more of these issues.

Diesel

I always find the robotic illogical procedure list frustrating mate. On a totally powered down box they made me unplug the coax last time, which of course did nothing!

I just did a full reset on the box, loosing all my saved progs and its just the same Full signal but still no BBC. God GMTV is cr@p!!!

The third LNB feeds the TV upstairs and we get all channels through this basic box. Methinks some lead swapping up at the LNB end to test if its the box or the LNB is in order?

D

OllyK

Yes it's fine, thank you for asking

Matteeboy

Diesel et al - if you could list your issues, let me know how they have been dealt with and whether you are waiting to hear back (or not) and I'll have words.

This probably sounds like I'm being a name dropping uppity git but I do genuinely have close links with the senior management of Sky. Any feedback for them is very useful. Might even be able to do something about it too!

Ant

diesel it's very rare for ports to stop working , if the other box is fine it's the sky box not switching polarity.i do this for a living and see it all the time . Of you think it's bad now wait till the new epg is out

NXG

Then I'm sure the vast majority of Sky HD owners would appreciate it if you could pass on that their hardware sucks and the EPG is worse.

Every week I have a recording fail due to it being next to a running recording, or the 'signal lost' problem, or just the damm thing resetting itself. I'm on my third box and now they want £150 to warranty the thing, even though they already take over £50 a month off me.

Do they even bother to look at places live AVForums where all these problems and more are listed ad-nauseam?

Films and programs easily streamed on demand from other providers isn't far away, and unless Sky get their act together and sort the hardware/software before that happens, they'll lose half their customer base overnight...

Ant

sky ATM moment is so busy there is a shortage of hd boxes as the company I work for can't get any from our 3 main suppliers. And we are not a small company neither. Turning off auto standy helps slot since doing it on mine never had a problem where I was before I'm on my 3rd but I can just go to van and get one

Torquemada

My Sky box and channels (non HD) have been fine.
Me saying that will be the kiss of death now though, I'm sure there will be smoke pouring out of it by the end of tonight

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

not got hd on the plus box (thomson 160gb) and only use it for the sky freesat although they contacted me the other day offering full package for £23 per month on no contract.

Box froze and then switched off the other day and then seemed to take a while to reboot. Just thought I would share that snippet with you

Diesel

Mate by 'ports' do you mean LNB outputs?

It does sound like the box aint sending the different voltages out required for LNB TX polarity switching between channels. Does that point to PSU voltage supply issues? Ridiculous realiability and v bad design - I'm seeing its common on a £300 box Are Thompson doing the decent thing here I wonder? If not I guess I could try to source one?

Matee - I'm out of warranty and handy with a soldering iron. I think it is increasingly looking like a genuine hardware fault, and once diagnosed I'll call SKY to see what they can do or I'll get the Freesat PVR.

Anyone know if Freesat is on the same 'bird' or will I need to move the dish?

Mr ITV - get me out of hereeeeee!!!!

Ant

hd side of the freesat is ****. Quality nowhere near as good as skys.

You could try the psu caps or changing the f connector cards (there like PCI cards).

The reliabilty kits can be found on eBay .

The pace hd boxes are the best so far but far from perfect