B&Q Satellite - Ross freesat box and dish

[Kymmy]

You'll find that to use the freesat logo they have to be type approved, but that doesn't stop any manufacturer writing firmware to recieve the specific channels and also the EPG as they are all free to recieve and not encrypted..

My sat has the enigma firmware on it that since V2 in 2008 has been freesat epg compatible

[MTJR]

Am I correct in assuming that Freesat is basically the same as the Freeview service? More specifically with regard to the red button functionality?

If so, does this not require a bit more programming on the software side of things as opposed to just putting an EPG on it? Those type of details may be what the meetings are about. Not that I know a lot about it. In fact, not that I know anything about it.

John

Freesat is meant to be the answer to the problem that Freeview cannot, and will never, reach 100% of UK households (neither will Freesat for that matter, but it comes very close).

There is a large overlap in the channels that are available but the line-up is not identical. A few popular Freeview channels (like Dave) are missing from Freesat. On the other hand Freesat has a lot more channels in total (although whether most of them are worth the bandwidth is another matter entirely).

Freesat has red-button functionality but it's quite basic at the moment. It carries information pages but tends not to have multi-screen broadcast options. The platform is constantly under development (it was a year or so post launch before the first iPlayer trials began, for example, and this was something they were trailing as a big advantage of Freesat for months before launch).

[El En Bee]

Originally Posted by MTJR

I doubt if there'd be enough space for a drive. In any case, fitting an internal drive would cause you to break the warranty seal.

The box it came in made sure you were in no doubt that the unit has NO 7-day EPG. Just now and next. The more I think about the techie's "Sky Plus" comment the more I'm confused by it.

Visually the box is black with a red LED display for the channel number, a red light to indicate power is getting to the unit and a yellow light above that to indicate it's either operating (light on) or not. There's a peculiar round button arrangement to the right of that which I've not had to use yet as the remote seems to do everything I need.

In MPEG2 Decoding the formats the 8130 is capable of are 480i/480p/576i/576p/720p and 1080i whilst audio decoding is MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (Layer I/II), AC-3 & E-AC-3 (both marked as optional) and HE-AAC (Levels 2&4). Dolby isn't mentioned at all by name.

Sampling frequency is listed as 32K/44.1K/48K.

That about covers it.

John

Thanks again for the info John.

I think apart from the additional USB port, a bit of restyling and improved audio decoding (I don't think the 6110 has the E-AC-3 option - will check later), there's no real difference between the two models.

As an aside, I've just installed the receiver at home using the included dish. After a bit of fiddling about I've managed to get a max of 63% quality (level is 99%). Back at the caravan - using a ten year old Sky dish - I got 90-95% quality.

Although the channels are displaying perfectly at the moment - would a different LNB (Sky?) improve the % quality and hence reduce the likelihood of break up during bad weather?

[Kymmy]

The LNB supplied should be fine.. Also remember that long co-ax runs can attenuate the signal..I presume at the caravan it'll be a short run

[MTJR]

I sort of did the reverse of that. Put a Sky+ receiver on the end of the supplied dish. At the time the Sky+ receiver "worked" better than the Ross receiver (e.g A bad channel on the Ross box seemed to work fine on the Sky+ box).

Unfortunately, the Sky+ box doesn't give you a figure for quality just a bar so was unable to make a direct comparison.

At the moment the Ross box tells me that I have a Signal Quality of 60% on BBC Four (the same amount as for the other BBC channels) but all I ever get when I tune in (I know it doesn't transmit before 7pm) is a black screen with no audio. All the other BBC channels work fine.

I'm hoping to resite the dish onto the side of the house and also take it up a metre or so in height and I'm hoping that might solve some of these little niggles.

John

[midland58]

Hooray - received an email from Nexus asking me to send my box back for inspection/repair/relacement with a freepost address! Seems fair enough to me and will be sending it off now that F1 is over for this year. Noticed last night that my ITV1 HD is Granada - may have picked the wrong one to re-number to get all the stations I want at the start of the guide! My "expert" next door neighbour said my dish wanted to be higher but don't think i'll bother. I was quoted £280 for professional? freesat install! Quite happy with Ross so far.

[El En Bee]

Has anyone experienced any lip sync issues with anything recorded off ITV1 HD?

The lip sync on the live broadcast is pretty much spot on - but when playing back the lip sync seems to be out by miles making viewing unbearable.

Strangely, there are no lip sync problems when playing back anything recorded off BBC HD or BBC1 HD!

TIA

[Kymmy]

What are you recording to? If it's USB what class of device is it?

[El En Bee]

Hi Kymmy,

I've been testing out the recording/playback using a 4Gb USB stick with a view to using a spare 60Gb 2.5" HD when my IDE-to-USB external HD adapter/case finally arrives.

One thing I've noticed is that ITV HD has 'disappeared' - not sure if that's somehow related to the ITV1 HD problem.

[Kymmy]

If the 4gb USB stick is of a slow class then you might get sync or stuttering problems.. It might have the class wrote on it (a number in a circle (either 1/2/4/6/8/etc..)

[El En Bee]

It's a PNY Attache - not sure of the class - I'll check it out when I get home. Funny thing is that there are no lip sync issues with any of the recordings off BBC1 HD or BBC HD - perhaps they're upscaled SD and not true HD like the ITV1 HD recordings?

I'll test the playback on my PC and see if I can determine whether it's a recording or playback issue.

[Kymmy]

A rough guess is that the HD channels are approaching the threshold of the usb devices bandwidth.. Memory cards are normally marked where usb devices may not be

BBC HD might be just under the thershold where ITV might be on or just above the threshold..

Have you tried playing the recordings on a PC and see if you get the same? (you might need to Gspot the files to get the correct codecs)

[midland58]

My box goes back today. Was watching a programme recorded onto a Verbatim 6GB stick and all of a sudden the playback froze. Eventually got it restarted but kept freezing every 4/5 mins thereafter. The coloured file management options (including delete) have disappeared as well! Not as happy as I was 7 days ago. Will see what they say but might be time to upgrade. Will report back.

[MTJR]

Sorry to hear that midland. Haven't tried hooking up a USB drive to mine yet so that joy awaits me.

Hope to have the dish anchored to the wall this weekend. Should be able to use a 5m cable rather than the 10m one supplied which may help things as well.

John