tuner works, then doesn't...

[vku]

Hi All, I have just submitted this problem with support but maybe someone has had this problem before. My tuner decides it doesn't want to receive a channel, usually ABC. Then it can't receive 9 or 7 and eventually cant receive most stations. Turn it off and all channels come back except 2. leave it for a few hours and re-tune and all channels work again... for a while.

Its not the aerial as all channels are fine with the TV's tuner. This problem only started a few months back but prior to this beyonwiz was faultless. I still reckon its the best pvr out there and a bonus that its Australian.

[prl]

Hi All, I have just submitted this problem with support but maybe someone has had this problem before. My tuner decides it doesn't want to receive a channel, usually ABC. Then it can't receive 9 or 7 and eventually cant receive most stations. Turn it off and all channels come back except 2. leave it for a few hours and re-tune and all channels work again... for a while.

Its not the aerial as all channels are fine with the TV's tuner.

Tuners vary in sensitivity between devices. The fact that the TV still works on all channels when the Beyonwiz doesn't doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't an antenna or cabling issue. In fact, because it's an intermittent problem, that suggests that it might be a connection problem.

You didn't say which model, either. If it's a T3, that model has its tuners in sockets, and sometimes re-seating the tuners in their sockets can fix problems like this.

[vku]

Its a T4, and to elaborate, the tuners worked fine for some time. If I tun the device off for a significant amount of time all channels work fine. It seems to degrade the longer its left on.

[MrQuade]

Is your T4's fan operating correctly and does the T4 have plenty of ventilation room around its case?

[vku]

Yes to both questions. I turned if off for an hour and now all channels perfect except it cant find the ABC

[stevebow]

A possibility may be that there is a problem with the "default" tuner, usually tuner A. You could try use Tuner B instead.

Firstly, disconnect all the tuner loop-thru cables behind the T4 and connect a single antenna cable from the wall antenna socket to Tuner B "IN" behind the T4. Then, force the T4 to use tuner B:

Menu->Setup->Tuners->Tuner allocation->Preferred tuner->Tuner B (usually "auto") -> Power cycle the T4 for this setting to take effect.

On any working channels, when changing channels, confirm that the "B" letter is green (and A,C,D are grey) to the left of the signal strength bars in the on-screen info bar.

Does this make any difference?

Steve

[Grumpy_Geoff]

...
Menu->Setup->Tuners->Tuner allocation->Preferred tuner->Tuner B (usually "auto") -> Power cycle the T4 for this setting to take effect.

No need to 'Power cycle', just zap (change the live TV service) to a different broadcast network provider as this will force a retune.

[vku]

tried changing to tuner b. have confirmed that tuner b is working (comes up when changing channels). No luck im afraid

did a factory reset, no luck

now i dont have the blue epg screen, i now get the screen that i used to get when pressing the epg button twice. this is pretty frustrating.

[vku]

I should say tuner a an b do the same thing, cant find abc, and sometimes other channels when re-tuning

[vku]

ok, so i have turned beyon wiz off. sequence of events....

-channel 7 reception started to fail
- all channels reception gone
- i notice tuner a decided to become default all by itself
-operating system crashed
-i powered off, restarted
channel 7 now gone

the machine is having issues. not overly impressed. Shame as it really was the best thing since media centre imo

[Grumpy_Geoff]

How did tuner A become the preferred tuner - did you factory reset?
Have you got the antenna back feeding tuner A input, and have you got the loop-through cables going to tuners B, C and D?

What is the signal strength (top bar) and quality (bottom bar) on the problematic broadcast channels?

Did you rescan after swapping tuners? If you bypassed tuner A, did you disable it in tuner config?

Attach the crash log (from /home/root/logs/)

[vku]

as per previous suggestions i changed to tuner b and my beyonwiz decided to go to tuner a ALL BY ITSELF. I'm not kidding!

i swapped the aerial back into a and had some channels

the operating system then crashed

i re-scanned and that came up with an error msg

i gave up

now using my sony tv, crappy guide and all but the channels all work

[prl]

as per previous suggestions i changed to tuner b and my beyonwiz decided to go to tuner a ALL BY ITSELF. I'm not kidding!

If there's a recording being made on your preferred tuner, then if you change the live TV channel to broadcaster other than the one being recorded, it will use a different tuner from the preferred tuner. It has no choice but to do that. There isn't enough information in your post to tell whether that's why it happened in your case. Tests of specific tuners need to be done when there are no recordings being made.

the operating system then crashed

Was it the operating system that crashed (with a reboot back to the Beyonwiz "button" screen), or just the PVR application hat crashed, with a black screenful of white text, and a restart from the "bubble" startup screen? If the latter, there will be a crash log, and someone may be able to fix the cause of the crash. There may even be some hint of the cause of the underlying problem in the crash log.

i re-scanned and that came up with an error msg

Please be more specific, if possible, than "an error message". The main body of the PVR code is about 500000 lines. It helps to be able to localise where a problem may be occuring.

[vku]

mystery solved!

It seems that even thought the TV could tune all channels the beyonwiz couldnt. That threw me. Today i replaced all the connectors to the cabling from tv airial to where it goes into the house. Hey presto! All channels came back to beyonwiz. My guess is the tuner isn't as strong as the TV's

Thanks to everyone for trying to help. Much appreciated. Also thanks to the team @ beyonwiz who agreed to have the unit returned and fixed for a flat fee of $50. Very reasonable.

Now to get the EPG working again....

[prl]

... My guess is the tuner isn't as strong as the TV's ...

...
Tuners vary in sensitivity between devices. The fact that the TV still works on all channels when the Beyonwiz doesn't doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't an antenna or cabling issue. In fact, because it's an intermittent problem, that suggests that it might be a connection problem.
...