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Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Took this prior to replacing the Humax. Note the quality level (green bars) and signal strength (orange bars). Selecting the same service (Talking Pictures TV) on the TV (ie changing input from HDMI1 to Antenna) produces problem-free pictures and sound. TPTV is on the ARQIVAB/COM6 mux.- Newcoppiceman
- Post #20
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Indeed. A few hours ago I checked both tuners using the hidden menu option. It's a pity there's no indication of the UHF channel each tuner is tuned to but I did a crash-record of BBC One HD (BBCB/PSB3) and then selected C4 SD (D3&4/PSBS2) to view to ensure they were tuned to different muxes...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #19
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
I note the strength/quality bars of each mux whenever I do a rescan; I manually rescan for UHF22/23/25/26/28/30/35. Typically the readings are 70% strength and 100% quality. That would seem to confirm I'm not overdriving the Humax and is consistent with our (usually) rock-steady reception of...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #17
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Trouble is, there's about 20dB difference in received levels between the weakest and strongest muxes, so I figured I'd risk overdriving the Humax rather than allow the weakest mux to drop below the "digital window" (45-70dBuV) which is what would happen with a 10dB preamp. Over the years that's...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #16
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Very much so - and I'm aware of the problems of intermod distortion, the need for derating, etc. I used a Maxpeak TAM DVB-T meter (which I no longer have) to measure levels at the input to the preamp and at the input to the Humax. Arguably the level is too high on some muxes, but as our...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #13
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Having two tuners complicates matters - you never know which tuner is used for a recording or live viewing, do you? A duff first RF transistor in one of the tuners might explain why the PVR sometimes works ok; a combination of the tuner with poor RF gain and impaired propagation during hours of...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #12
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
They differ in that, eg, audio mutes might occur on different words in a sentence but the playback is never clean - picture and sound always breaks-up. Scrub my reference to "recorded-in" - I was still thinking analogue technology; it's basically the raw transport stream that's written to disc...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #10
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Thanks to everyone for their comments. The easy questions first: Outdoor aerial: Antiference Extragain XG14A, so Group A (see pic) Loft preamp: Antiference UP25A, so again Group A (single output) Loft PSU for preamp: Fringe P1285/2 (two outputs) All coax: Bieffe C-O-10R (foil-and-braid type...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #9
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Yes, break-up on live and playback - on live, only occurs only during hours of darkness and some muxes better than others. Thus far, analysis of recordings limited to observing same sequence several times and noting while break-up is present each time it doesn't occur at the same points...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #3
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Our repaired HDR-Fox T2 had been working fine for almost two years until a recording of Mike Read's Heritage Chart Show (Talking Pictures TV, Freeview 82) made at 04:00 on 9 Oct was unwatchable due to picture/sound breakup. At the time this was attributed to co-channel interference due to...- Newcoppiceman
- Thread
- Replies: 120
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Yes, well spotted! The bars were coming from a Snell & Wilcox TBC11P set to output a test signal (also does multiburst) - could be its coder needs a tweak, rather than a problem with the vectorscope (which I haven't tweaked at all).- Newcoppiceman
- Post #249
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Nice work. Always worth considering the best way to remove a dud component. I used a similar technique recently after the Tektronix PAL vectorscope I was refurbishing made an interesting noise and started emitting copious quantities of the magic smoke - a filter cap across the mains input had...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #246
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
So your original problem wasn't resolved by changing the cap? I think we were all left wondering whether it had!- Newcoppiceman
- Post #245
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Wise to take every precaution to reduce risk of damage to the board. With that particular approach just have to be careful no metal shards or other bits are left inside the case to cause problems later (tip: after any work, including soldering, invert-and-shake and/or use a spray-duster liberally).- Newcoppiceman
- Post #233
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Worth changing the dreaded cap "on spec" - will probably fix the problem.- Newcoppiceman
- Post #230
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Safer to remove the faulty cap, I think (provided you're confident you won't damage the board). If you don't you might have further problems in future as goodness knows what behaviours those caps are capable of exhibiting once their internal chemistry goes gaga. Sounds like this was a...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #228
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Blimey! You're right! It's a while since I checked the Humax support page, but v1.03.13 was released in early 2021 - 7 years on from the previous release. That's quite a surprise and - as you say in the Things Every... guide - remarkable. Think we'll stick with v1.03.12 though as we're not...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #226
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
I'm using the standard user interface with an original Humax remote control; software is v1.03.12 (ie, the latest - Feb 2014!) Haven't yet got round to exploring the custom firmware. On my to-do list is regularly backing-up/cloning the HDD as I'm conscious that if this dies I would likely lose...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #224
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
No USB stick or network drive involved (not network-connected). About a year ago I created "Pending" and "Current" folders for the programmes I'm interested in (very different from my wife's choices!) and move folders/programmes into, and between, them on a daily basis. The propensity for the...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #222
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Great to see people getting stuck-in to this one again recently. See posts #96 and #143 for tests I conducted on removed caps. I've attached the drawing of the circuit I made during my investigations for reference. My HDR-Fox T2 has started first time, every time, since I replaced that cap...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #220
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
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N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Took this prior to replacing the Humax. Note the quality level (green bars) and signal strength (orange bars). Selecting the same service (Talking Pictures TV) on the TV (ie changing input from HDMI1 to Antenna) produces problem-free pictures and sound. TPTV is on the ARQIVAB/COM6 mux.- Newcoppiceman
- Post #20
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Indeed. A few hours ago I checked both tuners using the hidden menu option. It's a pity there's no indication of the UHF channel each tuner is tuned to but I did a crash-record of BBC One HD (BBCB/PSB3) and then selected C4 SD (D3&4/PSBS2) to view to ensure they were tuned to different muxes...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #19
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
I note the strength/quality bars of each mux whenever I do a rescan; I manually rescan for UHF22/23/25/26/28/30/35. Typically the readings are 70% strength and 100% quality. That would seem to confirm I'm not overdriving the Humax and is consistent with our (usually) rock-steady reception of...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #17
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Trouble is, there's about 20dB difference in received levels between the weakest and strongest muxes, so I figured I'd risk overdriving the Humax rather than allow the weakest mux to drop below the "digital window" (45-70dBuV) which is what would happen with a 10dB preamp. Over the years that's...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #16
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Very much so - and I'm aware of the problems of intermod distortion, the need for derating, etc. I used a Maxpeak TAM DVB-T meter (which I no longer have) to measure levels at the input to the preamp and at the input to the Humax. Arguably the level is too high on some muxes, but as our...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #13
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Having two tuners complicates matters - you never know which tuner is used for a recording or live viewing, do you? A duff first RF transistor in one of the tuners might explain why the PVR sometimes works ok; a combination of the tuner with poor RF gain and impaired propagation during hours of...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #12
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
They differ in that, eg, audio mutes might occur on different words in a sentence but the playback is never clean - picture and sound always breaks-up. Scrub my reference to "recorded-in" - I was still thinking analogue technology; it's basically the raw transport stream that's written to disc...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #10
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Thanks to everyone for their comments. The easy questions first: Outdoor aerial: Antiference Extragain XG14A, so Group A (see pic) Loft preamp: Antiference UP25A, so again Group A (single output) Loft PSU for preamp: Fringe P1285/2 (two outputs) All coax: Bieffe C-O-10R (foil-and-braid type...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #9
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Yes, break-up on live and playback - on live, only occurs only during hours of darkness and some muxes better than others. Thus far, analysis of recordings limited to observing same sequence several times and noting while break-up is present each time it doesn't occur at the same points...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #3
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Faulty Preamp PSU Caused Humax Reception Problems on Some Muxes
Our repaired HDR-Fox T2 had been working fine for almost two years until a recording of Mike Read's Heritage Chart Show (Talking Pictures TV, Freeview 82) made at 04:00 on 9 Oct was unwatchable due to picture/sound breakup. At the time this was attributed to co-channel interference due to...- Newcoppiceman
- Thread
- Replies: 120
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Yes, well spotted! The bars were coming from a Snell & Wilcox TBC11P set to output a test signal (also does multiburst) - could be its coder needs a tweak, rather than a problem with the vectorscope (which I haven't tweaked at all).- Newcoppiceman
- Post #249
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Nice work. Always worth considering the best way to remove a dud component. I used a similar technique recently after the Tektronix PAL vectorscope I was refurbishing made an interesting noise and started emitting copious quantities of the magic smoke - a filter cap across the mains input had...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #246
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
So your original problem wasn't resolved by changing the cap? I think we were all left wondering whether it had!- Newcoppiceman
- Post #245
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Wise to take every precaution to reduce risk of damage to the board. With that particular approach just have to be careful no metal shards or other bits are left inside the case to cause problems later (tip: after any work, including soldering, invert-and-shake and/or use a spray-duster liberally).- Newcoppiceman
- Post #233
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Worth changing the dreaded cap "on spec" - will probably fix the problem.- Newcoppiceman
- Post #230
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Safer to remove the faulty cap, I think (provided you're confident you won't damage the board). If you don't you might have further problems in future as goodness knows what behaviours those caps are capable of exhibiting once their internal chemistry goes gaga. Sounds like this was a...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #228
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Blimey! You're right! It's a while since I checked the Humax support page, but v1.03.13 was released in early 2021 - 7 years on from the previous release. That's quite a surprise and - as you say in the Things Every... guide - remarkable. Think we'll stick with v1.03.12 though as we're not...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #226
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
I'm using the standard user interface with an original Humax remote control; software is v1.03.12 (ie, the latest - Feb 2014!) Haven't yet got round to exploring the custom firmware. On my to-do list is regularly backing-up/cloning the HDD as I'm conscious that if this dies I would likely lose...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #224
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
No USB stick or network drive involved (not network-connected). About a year ago I created "Pending" and "Current" folders for the programmes I'm interested in (very different from my wife's choices!) and move folders/programmes into, and between, them on a daily basis. The propensity for the...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #222
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder
-
N
Start Up Fails When HDD Connected
Great to see people getting stuck-in to this one again recently. See posts #96 and #143 for tests I conducted on removed caps. I've attached the drawing of the circuit I made during my investigations for reference. My HDR-Fox T2 has started first time, every time, since I replaced that cap...- Newcoppiceman
- Post #220
- Forum: HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder