Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone can help with this problem I have with my Thomson DT135ITH SD STB

It's worked perfectly for the last 6 years and then over the last 6-8 weeks we were getting the occasional pixelsation on channels 7 & 9. Then about a fortnight ago the pixelization got worse until the last few days - all channel became unwatchable with the red error message about no signal appearing constantly.

I have reset the unit, cleared all the settings and rescanned the channels and only SBS came back working OK. I tried it again and it found SBS and 10 but 10 was unwatchable with major pixelisation. I looked at the signal strength for 10 ( it was around 30%) and bit error rate (was massive). The other channels were not found at all.

Now, I have another SD STB (Bush) in another room which was recently bought and it works fine. The antenna is on the roof and is a fairly new digital compatible one bought about 12 months old. Normal TV reception is OK (not as good as with the STD) but watchable.

Just wondering, would the STB's electronics simply packed up? There were some minor power surges here a few weeks back which might have caused this problem.

Any other things that you can suggest? I know swapping the Bush STB is an option to test things but it means a hell of lot of moving of furniture, cables etc

Thanks
Henry

The tuner has died, or is about to die

6 years is pretty good and it is likely that the power-supply is letting go....take the lid off and look for electrolytic capicitors with swollen or burst tops.
Your comment about normal TV reception being "watchable" suggests you may have developed an antenna problem...some new STBs can cope better with this for a while....until things get worse.
Don't be lazy about changing things around to check...there is never any magical fix!

6 years for a thomson ... thats about 5 years more than most people got with them..... then again I come across one every now and then still going... wouldn't expect your bush to last half as long.

Likely to be power supply dieing

Thanks...

I might have been a bit rash on the description of the non-STB reception - it is fine just not as good as it was with the STB funnily SBS is the worse via non-STB and is the only channel that now works with the STB.

Cheers
H

Thanks for that...

Hopefully the Bush (with hard drive) will perform a little better then your prediction (fingers crossed here...)

Any suggestions for a new STB, HD or SD?

Regards
H

As to the original problem. I wouldn't mind betting that the main capacitors have popped due to continuous heat/voltage. When the caps go in set top boxes they cause the tuners to go skew-whiff. Poor quality capacitors, ex-China, are a big problem for electronic products and their longevity these days.