Picture break up on T2, but not from TV tuner

Steart

New Member
Am trying to talk my distant mother thru solving a picture break up problem. She gets break up on some channels, mainly SD, but recently HD as well. She's retuned several times. When she watches thru her Samsung tuner, no break up. She's tried to search for software update, but hummy just keeps searching. Set was new in Jan, she lives in SL6. Any help gratefully rec'd.
 
Damned difficult. Forget firmware update search, it won't be found unless it is transmitting, and if it is the box will automatically pick it up anyway. Chances are she's on 1.02.20 (unless she turns he box off at night - not the best idea). In any case, this is unlikely to be related to firmware.

I suggest a factory reset, but it would be best not to accept an auto tune and do a manual one - but that will be tough from a distance. If no joy after that you may have a faulty unit.

Last thought: does it have adequate ventilation?
 
ahmmm, she's 88, just getting her to retune has consumed hours! Any idea why the Samsung TV didn't need it but the hummy seems to?
 
ahmmm, she's 88, just getting her to retune has consumed hours! Any idea why the Samsung TV didn't need it but the hummy seems to?
Experience suggests that the Humax tuning software does get confused when presented with multipe transmitters; you would need to ask the software developers why it happens.
 
Had the same problem and went to the horses mouth. The answer is frustratingly simple; turn off power saving! This is on by default.
Cheers
Max
 
Had the same problem and went to the horses mouth. The answer is frustratingly simple; turn off power saving! This is on by default.
No you probably didn't have the same problem. The problem described by the OP is good TV reception but poor reception via the box; I would suggest your problem was no TV reception when the box is in standby.
 
ahmmm, she's 88, just getting her to retune has consumed hours! Any idea why the Samsung TV didn't need it but the hummy seems to?
It's not unusual to find that different bits of kit have more or less sensitive tuners than eachother. My Panasonic TV seems to have a more sensitive tuner than the Humax which gives me a similar problem (but the other way round) My TV's picture breaks up because the signal from Crystal Palace (to where I live in TW5) would seem to be 'too strong'. I suspect that you mother's problem may well be, that if she's pointing at Crystal Palace from SL6 (Maidenhead?), her TV, just supposing that it has a more sensitive tuner, is giving a good picture, whereas the less sensitive tuners in the Humax can't. I know it's difficult being a telephone 'help desk' to anyone let alone an 88-year-old, but I don't think you're going to get to the bottom of this without looking at the signal strength and quality as shown by the Humax. If quality fluctuates at all, this can be the cause of picture break up. As others have said, it could be that she's picking up signals from multiple sources, which is always a risk especially when on the fringe of your main transmitter area. You'd need to talk her through her list of channels to see if she has duplicates. I hope you're patient.
 
"Too strong" a signal is not a myth, and there is probably more variability in how well different items of equipment are able to cope with a strong signal than with a weak one. It amazes me that receivers are able to extract clean signals at microvolt levels (even more amazed that satnavs can pick up the GPS signal), and stuffing a nearby 250kW transmitter up them must be deafening - just like turning your amp up to 11 the result will be distortion and clipping resulting in garbling of the information content.

A proper aerial installer will know this and fit the right aerial for the situation (in some cases a wet piece of string will be enough), and bear in mind that DSO has changed the conditions so a change of aerial might be called for. If it is strong signal problems, you might be able to get over them by fitting an aerial lead attenuator - eg Maplin (click). A signal strength meter might also be handy (same source).
 
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