Foxsat HDR - no sound from radio channels on 19.2

[Jascha]

Hi, I am new to the forum and need some help please. I happen to have 3 Foxsats HDR and it seems that as time goes by I am unable to get any sound from quite a number of Channels on Astra 1 19.2 degrees radio channels. I started noticing this issue a few months ago and yesterday when I dd a search to update channels I seem to have lost more that used to work.

Firstly my hardware isthe 1.00.13 last updated in 2010. Any chance i can get a link to the last firmware available please to see if it will cure the problem? I am struggling to download the firmware from any website as I can't seem to find any available.
The stations that I have total silence but tune in for example and to mention a few are all the ORF radio channels from Austria on 11302 mHz (22000, 2/3, H, 8psk), Bayern Klassik and sister channels on 11053 mHz (22000, 2/3, 8psk, H) and others from Germany.

I don't think it is some setting as other radio channels from other satellites such as Hotbird work and my suspicion is the firmaware being too old. Could someone please confirm if these stations are working on their HDRs with later firmware or maybe with custom firmware updates? I welcome any suggestions so I can carry on using these tuners which I quite treasure in my system.

Kind regards and thanks

 

[Dino]

If you share exactly how you get the silent Astra 1 stations I can try to reproduce - if it can be done without moving the dish.

The official software used to be at

http://beta.humaxonline.co.uk/downloads/foxsat-hdr

but I think that's gone now.
The foxsat is long out of support. The last official software release was in July 2012. If you think a later versions will make a difference to your problem and you can privately provide a mechanism (an upload link, an email or other alternative) I can let you have a copy of the version 1.00.21 zip. Someone else may have a link to a working download site.

Here are the notes for the 4 updates released after version 1.00.13

1.00.15
Update Date: 08 DEC 2010

• Dolby Digital downmix included
• Time recovered in standby after a power failure
• Resolved recording issues if left on a part-time channel
• Channel scan for channels added/removed/changed at 3am
• Postcode Table updated automatically (over air)
• Resolved crash issue on iPlayer content playback
• MHEG improvements (BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Teletext Jobsite support)

1.00.17
Update Date: 20 SEP 2011
- EPG Reservation improvement

1.00.20
Update Date: 10 Mar 2012

• Resolved rebooting issue relating to bad sectors on the HDD
• Hang-up improvements

1.00.21
Update Date: 27 Jul 2012
- Fix for 24 Olympic HD channels recording issue

Something similar has happened on Freesat TV channels relatively recently. A number of channels became unavailable and it turned out the TV providers were changing the encoding method a couple of channels at a time. This resulted in their family of channels gradually becoming unavailable. A normal retune couldn't fix this by itself unless the channels were actively deleted.

You may want to investigate if something similar is happening with the radio you are losing..

 

[Rodders53]

11302 content of Astra (19.2E)

Bitrate measurements of TV channels and Radio DAB+ DTT FIBER Satellite Cable OTT.

www.digitalbitrate.com

Those ORF radios use a modern AAC audio codec

as do the Bayern ones

11052 content of Astra (19.2E)

Bitrate measurements of TV channels and Radio DAB+ DTT FIBER Satellite Cable OTT.

www.digitalbitrate.com

The Foxsat supports: Audio Decoding MPEG-1 Layer II, Dolby-AC3 Audio

Use a different, sat receiver to decode them... or perhaps stream recordings from the Foxsat to something that can do AAC.

 

[Jascha]

Aha this explains why the silent channels. That’s such a shame and I guess no firmware flashing of the Humax will cure it. Do you know by chance if it will work if I use an external DAC?

Many thanks

 

[Black Hole]

That's an idea, the HDR-FOX user settings provide PCM or undecoded audio over HDMI or optical – I don't know whether Foxsat does.