channel 4HD Lost on Freesat Fortec Star Passion

[briangw]

I too am running on latest software and have no problem watching,but am confused as to why viewing older programes ie Kojak 4HD is been shown in 4.2 aspect while changing channels to 4SD it is shown in 16.9 widescreen

I have noticed this with other HD channels (eg Fools & Horses on BBC1 HD) . I think what they are trying to do is keep the picture quality up (and possibly adhere to the original feel of the program) by not allowing your TVs or Sat boxes to 'stretchify' the 4:3 image up to 16:9. To do this they embed the black side bars into the transmitted 16:9 image. That way the picture is seen as a 16:9 transmission by TV/Sat box and no picture manipulation occurs.

This by the way is slightly off topic.

 

[Unhban]

Hi again guys. Re. the freezing. I tried Llew's .dnl file and found the freezing to be much worse with his. Also, it took about ten seconds before the picture came up, and before that no signal strength showed and after a couple of seconds it said NO SIGNAL, and when the picture came up the freezing started virtually straight away.

Looking at Llew's .dnl file and mine, I see there are two differences. One, the APID is set to 2306 and mine 2307 (this surely shouldn't make any difference as both are allowable). However Llew's FEC is not set at all and mine is set to AUTO. Perhaps I should play about with the FEC setting manually.

Otherwise I just wonder why both Llew and TJL have no problems watching Channel 4 HD. The freeezing with my .dnl file is only slight but enough for her indoors to complain - I could certainly watch it. I just wonder if there is a setting in the menu or the TP setting that is wrong in my machine - as I say I have PILOT set to AUTO, the OFF setting wouldn't work.

Unh.

 

[PaulR]

To do this they embed the black side bars into the transmitted 16:9 image. That way the picture is seen as a 16:9 transmission by TV/Sat box and no picture manipulation occurs.

That could very well be the case. When Lord Clark's Civilisation series was remastered into HD it was transmitted in 16:9 but with black bars at either side of the original aspect 4:3 image.

This by the way is slightly off topic.

Guilty also.

 

[Llew]

Are we using the same file? Mine does show the FEC.

It shouldn't make any difference, but I used the later version of Setedit (105 Build 187) to make the .dnl, and it has a different channel parameter box to make any changes (CH4HD parameters.jpg below). The earlier Satedit version has a different style, where you simply change from SD to HD in a box below, rather than one at the top (CH4HD parameters_1.jpg)

EDIT - Wrong way round- I used the old Setedit version. That's the problem with having two PC's with different versions of Setedit...

 

[Unhban]

Could the MODERATOR please remove these off-topic remarks? I'm trying to solve a problem here and no doubt in the end this will help others with this problem.

Regards, Unh.

 

[Unhban]

Are we using the same file? Mine does show the FEC.

It shouldn't make any difference, but I used the later version of Setedit (105 Build 187) to make the .dnl, and it has a different channel parameter box to make any changes (CH4HD parameters.jpg below). The earlier Satedit version has a different style, where you simply change from SD to HD in a box below, rather than one at the top (CH4HD parameters_1.jpg)

Ah yes, I'm using v.101 build 119 - the original version I think! No problem. I also see you have the word FREESAT in the Provider window, whereas I don't have anything there, but presume that's just for reference compared to 'FTA'?

Unh.

 

[Llew]

Yes, well that's what Brian had in his original file. I haven't changed anything as far as I can remember, except flag up HD for CH4HD and added the CH5, 5+1 etc.

 

[Llew]

OK, I've had a more thorough check of CH4 HD on my Passion today, to spot any possible freezing.

I watched 'Great Expectations', an old B/W film, from 12:50 to 3:10PM (including adverts) - no freezing that I was aware of.

I then watched Jamie Oliver between 09:00 to 10:00PM, and noticed three or four skipped frames during the last half hour.

So the problem does exist for me, albeit perhaps less than others have reported.

Therefore I have to put my hands up and say sorry guys if I might have misled you earlier. Back to square one then.

 

[tjl]

Could the MODERATOR please remove these off-topic remarks? I'm trying to solve a problem here and no doubt in the end this will help others with this problem.

Regards, Unh.

As a means of an apology for going of thread I googled 4HD freesat problems and found this it may help or it may not
_www.uksatellitehelp.co.uk/2011/03/19/having-channel-4-hd-problems-in-the-uk/

Unparsed URL [Admin]

 

[Unhban]

Thanks TJL for the honourable apology, and thanks for the link. The fact that Channel 4HD has moved to 1N went through my mind too, but I am getting 80% signal which is the same as 2D and Eurosat (and 100% quality), also I had the freezing when the channel was on 2D too. That signal strength is the same as the other HD channels, and no freezing there.

I must have a general play with settings, which really I've done before, but is the answer really that there's something in the firmware that cannot be changed, and Fortec seem unlikely to help?

 

[briangw]

As a means of an apology for going of thread I googled 4HD freesat problems and found this it may help or it may not
_www.uksatellitehelp.co.uk/2011/03/19/having-channel-4-hd-problems-in-the-uk/

Unparsed URL [Admin]

No need to apologise really. I get a bit frustrated when threads go off at a tangent. It makes it so difficult to find and resolve queries, and I see it so often on many other forums.

Back to the thread (nearly guilty myself then !) . When CH4HD went FTA, initially on EB1 at 28.5 (12607V), this dish misalignment was a common theory. However now that it has moved to 1N at 28.2 (11127V), this argument doesnt hold water. I think what we are seeing here is that the P/P+s are not handling the live DVB-S2 stream well. Obviously CH4 are doing something slightly different than BBC, because there are no such problems with the BBC HD TP which is also DVB-S2. The strange thing is that recordings and timeshift play perfectly.
One assumes that Fortec Star must have put some work into correcting this for the upcoming Real Digital box, so why cant they release a fix for the P/P+s ? Over to you Fortec Star ! ! ! ! !

 

[tjl]

No need to apologise really. I get a bit frustrated when threads go off at a tangent. It makes it so difficult to find and resolve queries, and I see it so often on many other forums.

Back to the thread (nearly guilty myself then !) . When CH4HD went FTA, initially on EB1 at 28.5 (12607V), this dish misalignment was a common theory. However now that it has moved to 1N at 28.2 (11127V), this argument doesnt hold water. I think what we are seeing here is that the P/P+s are not handling the live DVB-S2 stream well. Obviously CH4 are doing something slightly different than BBC, because there are no such problems with the BBC HD TP which is also DVB-S2. The strange thing is that recordings and timeshift play perfectly.
One assumes that Fortec Star must have put some work into correcting this for the upcoming Real Digital box, so why cant they release a fix for the P/P+s ? Over to you Fortec Star ! ! ! ! !

As they have not updated any thing since 2010 and that update didnt do anything,I for one will not hold my breath

 

[briangw]

As they have not updated any thing since 2010 and that update didnt do anything,I for one will not hold my breath

There is also this version (v1.31) for the P+ which is not generally available, but is approaching its 1st birthday tomorrow. As well as a tidying up of the Channel List (as at that date) it includes :-

Fixes/Enhancements

• New FF & RW speeds - 16x and 32x speeds are a welcome addition on recording. Personally, I am not convinced of the usefulness/advantage of 1.5x speed - its too close to 2x speed.
• Back button flip-flop between last 2 channels
• Maximum events increased from 20 to 50 in Personal Planner
• Ability to watch another channel on same TP as current scheduled (as well as manual) recording if watching live
• Find function for Channel Name by Full or Partial Name.

BUT BEWARE THIS :-

Consecutive scheduled recordings when watching live - the second recording fails to take place unless there is 2 minutes or more between scheduled events.
It may seem unimportant to be able record consecutive events while watching live but, for example, I may be watching programs live but still need to record them so that my partner can watch them later. Certainly, we were able to do this up to V1.30. In practice we generally set it up to record every program we like to watch, just in case of any problem or interruption, and then delete later when we are satisfied that we have watched them.


After this date, they were supposedly still working on further features, but I fear that the development going on with Real Digital changed their focus. I had hoped that the new box would consist of the same core code, and that ongoing development would be passed back to the older models as a method of testing if nothing else.

Admin edit - please do not post receiver firmware on the forum. Put in on a file host site and then put a none live (none clickable) link to it.

We had no end of problems with firmware containing embedded keys being posted a while back and we dont want to encourage that again by allowing firmware in some areas and not others.

My Edit (sorry Admin I wasnt aware of that rule, I hope the following is OK)

If anybody would like this version, PM me and I will send it on to you. Obviously I hold no responsibility should anything go wrong, but I can assure you that I and about 30 of my customers have been using this version for the last year with only the above known new glitch .

 

[Analoguesat]

One assumes that Fortec Star must have put some work into correcting this for the upcoming Real Digital box, so why cant they release a fix for the P/P+s ? Over to you Fortec Star ! ! ! ! !

Dont hold your breathe - Fortec Star have a terrible reputation for dropping support of older boxes. They seem to be much more interested in developing new lines than updating older boxes.

 

[jupiter]

Hi briangw,
I would like like a copy of this v1.31 file for my passion+ HD,
but I still haven't worked out how to PM you.
Any clues?
Thanks.
bruce

 

[Analoguesat]

Hi briangw,
I would like like a copy of this v1.31 file for my passion+ HD,
but I still haven't worked out how to PM you.
Any clues?
Thanks.
bruce

You cant - you havent been a member long enough and dont have enough posts. Dont be offended - we had to restrict PM from new members due to problems with spammers a while back.

 

[jupiter]

OK - thanks Analoguesat for the reply.
I'm not offended.

How many posts have I got to make?
I think my score will be 4 with this one.

 

[PaulR]

We don't like to publicise it too much for obvious reasons but you have to get into double figures...

 

[Channel Hopper]

We don't like to publicise it too much for obvious reasons but you have to get into double figures...

and they have to be ones that are worth reading, non-constructive/negative posts will reduce your score.

 

[Joeyblog]

I've managed to retune channel 4HD on both my Passion HD and my Passion+ HD and like others I too get the stuttering video on both machines but like briangw it doesn't affect recordings on the Passion+ HD which replay OK even if the live transmission I was recording did stutter. What I'm not clear about is whether update version v1.31 mentioned by briangw (which we can't have a copy of???) addressed this issue?