whilst scanning my DVB-T in my Beo 7-40 looking for nre channels, I noticed that the module also scans for sat channels too...even bringing up a list of sats.

I had no idea the set could do this...my manual only refers to DVB-T. Would it be possible to use this instead of a sky box? A sort of freesat?

Also, will the module need to be upgraded when DVB-T HD starts next year, or is this just a software upgrade? 

The Tuner in the BS3 based BV7-40 is a DVB-T/S, S for satellite.

It would not work for SKY, but should work for Freesat.

The current DVB-T/S module is not compatible with DVB-T HD. 

You'd need to change the module, but it was mentioned here that the new HD module is DVB-T only and not "S". 

Thanks for the info.

I had to use mine last night to watch some kind of TV. The bad weather (I am assuming) messed up my Sky HD box, it froze compeltely and still didn't want to know after a reset. Got it back up and running again this morning after a hard boot. What a nightmare the DVBT was though; I was watching American Idol on ITV3 and the picture and audio were out of sync so much it made the dubbing in Bruce Lee films look good! The picture quality is as bad as SD quality on it and it lost sync virtuall every two minutes or so. I pressed the up or down arrow on the remote to change channel then change back again and this temporarily fixed the problem for about 2 mins only before it happened again. Honestly, sky boxes are rubbish, now it seems my only experience of a DVBT box is rubbish too ... who is developing these components? They're not even ready to be on the market. The quality testing must be awful. I find Sky particularly useless considering the cost of the whole package tallied against the amount of times it freezes and needs a reset.

Is using Virgin Media any better?

Simon.

The_Beonic_Man:

Honestly, sky boxes are rubbish

Sure, in your opinion Simon. I have no problem with mine at all. The 'freezing' of the signal is to do with your dish, alignment and position. A few months ago, mine was 1cm out and I had the aerial guy take a look at it recently and this made a massive difference to the signal quality.

Problem with Bath is that we get loads of seagulls and other birds that land on the roof - which can knock out the dish. Even 1cm can make a major difference.

Just as you're having issues, it doesn't mean they are rubbish.

Actually very impressed with my Sky+. Good quality picture and sound compared to analogue. Obviously using it with a CRT but very happy with it.

So you have never had freezing problems Chris or had to reset? Last year I was back and forth to our dealers over a 4 month period trying to get this resolved. They did try moving the dish, they also replaced the box 4 times, 3 of them were reconditoned ones and the fourth was a brand new one which only now must be about 5 or 6 months old. Big Al and Jack both told me that Sky boxes are renound for freezing. They said they are constantly having to reset them in the dealership so clearly they do seem to have a reputation.

Simon.

My old Sky box had terrible problems freezing in anything but the most perfect weather conditions, and frequently would not even pick up certain channels at all (Sky 3 was a problem I seem to remember). Prior to taking delivery of my Avant, I had the engineer out and he realigned the dish and replaced the box. Cue problem solved and a happy punter.

The_Beonic_Man:

So you have never had freezing problems Chris or had to reset? Last year I was back and forth to our dealers over a 4 month period trying to get this resolved.

A Sky box will freeze from time to time. So will a Playstation 3 (more often, actually). An XBOX can too. Strangely, so does Windows, too.

The problem is that it's a computer, that's on nearly all the time, can get confused/freeze and will sometimes even overheat, depending on your positioning of the box. Why you think it ought to be flawless, I don't know.

It's nearly as flawless as the sw in my BV7-40...

Whilst I wouldn't expect anything to be flawless as such, I certainly do expect the boxes to behave a lot better than they do. Computers are built these days to be left powered on 24 hrs. Heat sinks, liquid cooling, fans and case design that controls air flow have all been designed for this purpose. Years ago you could not expect that but these days you can. You work in IT yourself so you know that Mainframes/Servers/Networked PCs etc are left running all the time - mostly for houskeeping/security backups overnight. I leave my Sony desktop powered on most of the time and its fine. Do I expect the same from a Sky box and DVBT module? Yes I do.

Having just done a quick Google search it is clear that there are a number of known problems with the boxes anyway. The most common seems a PSU problem. Here a couple of links I have just skim read:

http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=68647

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Uk/uk.tech.tv.sky/2008-11/msg00137.html

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=770875

Simon.

The_Beonic_Man:

Having just done a quick Google search it is clear that there are a number of known problems with the boxes anyway.

You'll find problems with anything if you search for it. Alex, for example, says that Mac Mini's have a reputation over overheating. I've used the same Mac Mini since 2005 - 24 hours a day - and it's never crashed or overheated, nor is this a problem I'd heard of. However, do a Google search and I'm sure you'd find Mac Mini over-heating problems..

There are problems Simon, but then if you did a search for 'software issues with BV7-40', you'd find a few of those, too. But, we both own one.

It seems that human legs are rubbish. Just a quick google search for "leg problems" yields over 550,000 hits! I didn't even know there were that many legs! I'm getting rid of mine in favor of wheels. I have never personally experienced a problem with a wheel so I can only assume they don't exist.

See These Links: 

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/tools/symptom/541.html

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/leg-pain/leg-pain-and-numbness-what-might-these-symptoms-mean

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/leg-problems-noninjury-check-your-symptoms 

i've had fressat hd for a few months and hardly ever watch it

there's only one hd channel , bbc hd and that shows repeats of last of the summer whine all day long.

the rest of the channels are like freeview , ie; dross and poor bit rate to boot. the pic is actually worse than freeview imo

plus you have all the hassle of having a sat dish installed and all the wires 

 

4/10 

Flappo The Grate:

there's only one hd channel , bbc hd and that shows repeats of last of the summer whine all day long.

the rest of the channels are like freeview , ie; dross and poor bit rate to boot. the pic is actually worse than freeview imo

That's not quite true - there's also ITV HD. It shows one HD programme every third Wednesday© of the month  I'm amazed they get away with calling it a HD service!

This weeks - BBC HD and ITV HD schedule - http://www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=whatson.HDschedule

you're right !

oh and the amazing spiffing blooomin grate luxe hd

where you can see high res videos of camels walking in sand

and more camels walking in more sand etc 

it's riveting stuff !! *flappo shoots himself* 

PhilLondon:

The Tuner in the BS3 based BV7-40 is a DVB-T/S, S for satellite.

It would not work for SKY, but should work for Freesat.

The current DVB-T/S module is not compatible with DVB-T HD. 

You'd need to change the module, but it was mentioned here that the new HD module is DVB-T only and not "S". 

Can anybody confirm, that the DVB HD module is DVB T only, and no "SAT"?? Is it already avaliable ? Are there any manuals or more information,,,? - Thanks.

Stefan