Humax Foxsat HDR signal quality; either 100% or 0%!

unicorne

Dear all,
I have recently become the proud owner of a Humax Foxsat HDR and have had a lot of issues with the receiver over the past two weeks which has also led me to returning one receiver in order to see if that particular one was at fault!

In a nutshell, this receiver when it works is excellent. In the past I have been through a Pace MSS 1000, Nokia 9600 and also currently have a Humax HDCI 2000 in another room.

The problem lies with variable signal quality. I have the HDR connected to a motor and regularly watch programmes from Hotbird, Atlantic Bird (5W), Astra 1 as well as 28.2 & 28.5E.

My previous Echostar motor driver had no issues with any channel across those 5 satellites and more however after installing the HDR everything was fine for a day or two then when trying to tune in in Freesat mode to BBC1/BBC2/ITV1 London, Five amongst others the signal strength would be 100% but the signal quality would be 0% with the on screen banner showing 'no or bad signal'. In non Freesat mode Brit shorts would have the same. Channel 4 would be the only channel still functioning, albeit with a 50% signal quality where there was 100% previously. Across on Hotbird 'Radio DEEJAY' would have the same issue with many of the higher frequency channels on Hotbird also suffering.

I thought it was just a cable issue at fault. I would just remove the downlead from the receiver or from the flush socket or both, or change the cable, and everything would be fine again. This 'restored' signal quality worked on a few occasions but would not work all of the time. I even removed the flush dual panel from the wall and extracted the downlead in order to connect it directly to the receiver or with a lnb cable coupler but this also yielded the same variable results of sometimes yes sometimes no.

I returned the receiver for an exchange but the new receiver showed the same symptoms.

I have enjoyed a relatively trouble free week with the new receiver watching by day & late into the night until the night of Sunday 8 February. Most of the daytime is spent listening to DEEJAY on Hotbird. On the morning of Monday 9 I had been listening to DEEJAY for about an hour, switched the receiver off for a while then after switching back on again there was 'no or bad signal'. It had been 100/100 but now it was 100/0.

Today, Wednesday 11 after not having most of Hotbird for the day I put the receiver on DEEJAY which was 100/0 and left the room for a few minutes & upon returning to the room it was playing, 100/100! In Freesat mode the same thing happened; BBC1/BBC2/ITV1 London/Five would have 80/60 and after leaving the receiver on either of those channels for a few minutes the meters would go up to 85/100! Scrolling through the channels up to ITV2 ITV2+1 would bring about the 'no or bad signal' scenario again on those 2 channels and returning to BBC1/BBC2/ITV1 London/Five would be back down to 80/60 again. Leaving the receiver on either of those channels would bring about the 100/100 signal again. (BBC NEWS 24 remains 80% strength and quality remains in the red).

The HDR is in one room connected via motor to the 90cm dish. The dish has two twin lnbs and the HDCI2000 in a separate room is connected via a diseqc switch to the second ouptut on each twin lnb & the dish is always parked at Hotbird so that the HDCI can receive Hotbird & Astra 1. The spare offset lnb exit is connected via a single cable to a Strong 6410 TNTSAT.

So, relative calm has been restored as now it seems that if anything plays up, all I need to do is leave the receiver on a channel for between one and five minutes & the channel will be alright again.

However, what is the issue here!?

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