Hi,

I have just got a Wintal PVR-X10 but can't get SBS.

My first thought was the old hunk of aluminium blowing in the wind (aerial) was not up to it, so I bought a new Hills OMX400 PLUS and also replaced the coax with new RG6. The analog reception for SBS is now great. I am in Glen Waverley (Melbourne), and from my roof I have a very clear view of the towers on the Dandenongs.

Then I read about others SBS problems in this forum (and channel 7 too). The "fix" is to do a reset and choose "other" in places where you would expect to use "Australia"...

But still no SBS.

I have been doing:

1. Menu > Main Menu > Edit Settings > Factory Defaults
2. Select "English" as the OSD language
3. Select <other> from the "Please select your location" page
4. Select "Australia"
5. Select "Victoria"
6. Select "Search Channels" ... and is starts to scan.

After a while it says that 20 TV & 2 radio channels have been found.

I also tried different things like selecting "Australia", but <other> for state, etc... SBS is still not found.

The firmware version of my box is: STBOS E/3.39[B] 2004-10-18 08:19

Am I doing the selection/defaults/reset right?

Brian

Sounds to me like you've done everything right - this one's a bit odd. I have the same firmware as you do, but I got SBS scanned in just fine using the method you used above.

Have you tried manually entering the channel frequency etc? (Details for those will be lurking on this site somewhere!)

I had a heap of trouble getting SBS found also.

How I got it was by doing your steps 1 - 4 but choosing "Other" instead of Victoria.

give that a go.

I have the same firmware revision as you.

I had the same problem , called radio parts who are very helpful, worked through the solution over the phone as the factory setting for SBS does not allow the scan to pick up the signal, I still had problems,I took the box to radio Parts in Dandenong Rd, they tuned SBS in for me , the idea being that my antenna may have been the problem , took it home and it works perfectly

Hi,
There is a setting for mobile antenna I believe, I had mine set to on and it was not receiving a couple of channels. Maybe if you just check this setting. It is in the installation section. I switched mine to off and it now works perfectly.
Regards
Juz





quote=bmmiller,Apr 14 2005, 12:51 AM]
Hi,

I have just got a Wintal PVR-X10 but can't get SBS.

My first thought was the old hunk of aluminium blowing in the wind (aerial) was not up to it, so I bought a new Hills OMX400 PLUS and also replaced the coax with new RG6. The analog reception for SBS is now great. I am in Glen Waverley (Melbourne), and from my roof I have a very clear view of the towers on the Dandenongs.

Then I read about others SBS problems in this forum (and channel 7 too). The "fix" is to do a reset and choose "other" in places where you would expect to use "Australia"...

But still no SBS.

I have been doing:

1. Menu > Main Menu > Edit Settings > Factory Defaults
2. Select "English" as the OSD language
3. Select <other> from the "Please select your location" page
4. Select "Australia"
5. Select "Victoria"
6. Select "Search Channels" ... and is starts to scan.

After a while it says that 20 TV & 2 radio channels have been found.

I also tried different things like selecting "Australia", but <other> for state, etc... SBS is still not found.

The firmware version of my box is: STBOS E/3.39[B] 2004-10-18 08:19

Am I doing the selection/defaults/reset right?

Brian

[/quote]

Yep, all you need to do is change to "Other" instead of Victoria and that should fix the problem.

Me again... the original poster...

I spent a lot of time last night playing with the Wintal. Trying different combinations of <other>/Australia and <other>/Victoria in various places. All failed.

So I gave up and turned it off (at the power point) and went to bed.

This morning my wife had a go and it worked first time by selecting "Australia", then <other> for the state!!! SBS worked.

To test this I then tried the same. No SBS. I'd lost it. I tried a few more times (varying the <other>/Australia/Victoria options. Nothing. My wife tried again, and still nothing. So we powered it off (again at the power point).

A little later she had another go. Same procedure (Australia then <other>) and it again worked. SBS is back again.

So it looks like the powering off may also have something to do with it too. Only the first attempt after it is powered up works. I'm not going to have another go now as the elusive SBS is there.

UPDATE:

The above was a summary of what happened this morning... It's now evening time.

But all is not well now. When I select the SBS channel (3), I get a "no signal" message. About all that I can think that has changed is it was raining this morning when we had success, and now the rain has stopped.

Bummer!!! No SBS again. Maybe I have to sacrifice a few more chickens.)

UPDATE 2

Well, it's now 24 hours since I had SBS, and it's still gone. Looks like I need the rain.


Brian

Me again,

I was about to climb onto the roof and adjust the direction of the aerial to see of I could get things working. My idea was to select SBS (channel 3) and turn the volume up loud so I could hear it from up on the roof (not ideal, but all I can do alone).

So I selected channel 3, and up came the Greek news. Perfect signal!

I had a look at the signal strength for SBS and it's about 3/4 (in the green) on the vertical graphial scale, and the C/N is 24.1. All of the other stations (2, 7, 9 & 10) also have these same signal strength stats.


A thought... Last night the Wintal was left powered on all night. (I recorded something in the wee hours.) After there was no SBS this morning I powered it off. Then an hour later I turned it back on to start my testing and SBS is back. Food for thought maybe. It was also after powering on that I was able tune SBS as well.

Brian

After more playing/testing...

I have found that if I power the Wintal off (at the power point) for at least 20 seconds, then power it back on I can get SBS if I try within a short space of time (something like 10 to 20 seconds or so).

I can watch SBS for as long as I want.

If I then change channels to anything else, and try and go back to SBS, then "no signal".

So it looks like the Wintal's memory is losing it's SBS tuning after about 20 seconds after powering up.

Time to take it back and get another one.

Brian

The mobile antenna option is actually just an obsolete artifact left over from the software's moonlighting use as a cable box..

It's for supplying power (5v) to a rotating antenna. In any case it has, of course, been disabled and has no effect whatsoever. Sending 5v back up to your mast head amp wouldnt be a great idea anyway.

I took the box back and got another one.

It did it's "let's lose SBS after a while" trick at the shop. Although it took a little longer.

The new one already had all TV channels pre-tuned and 3 of the 4 radio stations tuned. A straight scan picked up the remaining radio station (and all TV stations too).

So I'm now a happy camper with a functioning SBS.

Thanks for the help peoples.

Brian