Random glicthing on Solo SE V2

[frankiecarbone]

I've just bought a Solo SE V2 with twin DVB-S tuners ViX 4.1.016 and have it set-up with Blue HD skin, Cross EPG.I have an external hard drive connected using ESATA

The main problem I have since day 1 is that I see random glitching regardless of what channel I am watching. My old sky box never missed a beat in that respect which would lead me to think that dish setup is fine. On BBC for example I've checked signal strength and its saying 93% AGC 79% but I still see glitching. I see the glitches in both live and recorded video. I am beginning to think I may have a faulty box/Tuner as none of my friends with similar boxes see these glitches.

Anyone any idea of what I can check or what info I can provide to help resolve the issue?

Thanks for any help

[frankiecarbone]

Is the glitching/signal strength/AGC the same on both tuners?

Both tuners have the same strength/AGC.
I haven't checked which tuner I am on when I am watching TV. Does it change tuners depanding on channel or is that something that is set-up in the settings? Apologies for my ignorance but I'm new to this stuff

[Bangord30]

Your FTA is glitching too?

[frankiecarbone]

Your FTA is glitching too?

I only have FTA

[Bangord30]

Hmmm. Sounds like box if only that has changed and on FTA. Tried a reflash in case?

[frankiecarbone]

Hmmm. Sounds like box if only that has changed and on FTA. Tried a reflash in case?

Haven't tried anything really as I hadn't a clue what to try. The box is 2 weeks old and was flashed with OpenVIX by world of sat.
Do you think a reflash is likely to do anything?

[meatball1987]

Check your cables at back of box are tight this can cause builds of static which causes the glitch

sent from meatballs way too expensive gizmo

[frankiecarbone]

Check your cables at back of box are tight this can cause builds of static which causes the glitch

sent from meatballs way too expensive gizmo

Will try that when I get home and then over the weekend I'll reflash it to see if it helps.

[cactikid]

is your dish pointing at a clear sky -line of sight? trees waving in the breeze might also give issues as well as loose cables /nuts not tight on lnb.
when you say both tuners have same strength like 96% and 80.eg on bbc1hd49480

[fevgatos]

Will try that when I get home and then over the weekend I'll reflash it to see if it helps.

Hi mate, i don't think is the tuner prob ,your dish maybe need alignment,if you have 4 way lnb , replace you cable to another feed ,if you have the same issue ,try the box anyone you know he have sky dish ,and see the deference ,if is the same issue, then send it back to the supplier,this the way you can check it ,cause you don't have a sat meter to check it properly,

regards Nick

[twol]

Have to say I don,t think the tuners on these receivers (which tend to be Samsung) are as good as the tuners on Sky boxes at holding a signal, so it really is worth checking alignment or connecting to somebody elses Sky dish :)

[frankiecarbone]

Have to say I don,t think the tuners on these receivers (which tend to be Samsung) are as good as the tuners on Sky boxes at holding a signal, so it really is worth checking alignment or connecting to somebody elses Sky dish :)

If it was a signal/dish alignment issue surely I wouldn't have a signal strength of 93%. The dish is not obstructed by trees or anything. I never had any glitching with the Sky box ever and agree with you that the tuner must be better on those.

Unfortunately I am not able to check the box on someone elses set-up so I think if the reflash doesn't fix it I will have to return it.

[aido]

Slightly OT but what are usually seen as the best tuners for holding on to a signal please? The LX3 I have is full of Samsung tuners and I think the other boxes I have are all Broadcom based but to be honest there hasn't been a massive difference (other than reported signal strength) when I've tried them out on the same cable.

[Andy_Hazza]

It will be your f-connectors/cabling/LNB that is the issue. You have a weakness somewhere, nothing to do with the receiver imo. I've seen this many of times before and it will be down to your setup.


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[frankiecarbone]

It will be your f-connectors/cabling/LNB that is the issue. You have a weakness somewhere, nothing to do with the receiver imo. I've seen this many of times before and it will be down to your setup.


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I don't understand how it can be a dodgey signal issue when the signal strength is 93% AGC 79%. I've tightened everything and also didn't have any issues like this on the sky box. I've re-flashed with the latest openVix and still have the glitching. I'm contacting WOS for a replacement unit as I believe this one is faulty. If it isn't faulty then the box isn't fit for purpose but if that were the case there would be a lot more complaints on the forums about it.

[frankiecarbone]

It will be your f-connectors/cabling/LNB that is the issue. You have a weakness somewhere, nothing to do with the receiver imo. I've seen this many of times before and it will be down to your setup.


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I got my signal checked with a Satellite meter and I am getting 99% signal quality across the board. I've reseated the tuner (as instructed by World of Satellite) and tightened every thing up with a spanner. One of the nuts holding the tuner in was loose when I was taking it off so I was sure this was the issue. I hadn't watched much TV over the last week and hadn't seen a glitch until last night when it glitched again on Channel 4. I am convinced its the box but the fact that its so intermittent I think when I return it World of Satellite will say its no fault found and I'll be out the cost of return postage into the bargain.

Very disappointed with this experience I have to say

[Rob van der Does]

Those 'glitches' can have any cause, like a faulty LNB, water in coax/connectors, trees branches etc. Many of those short-term issues will never show on a meter (unless it's a professional meter and the issues shows when actually registering it on the meter).
Also descambling can be a cause, although not in your case as you reported to use FTA only.
Did you check if both tuners are affected, and if not, did you swap the cables (from tuner 1 to 2 and v.v.) and see if the issue also swaps?

[frankiecarbone]

Those 'glitches' can have any cause, like a faulty LNB, water in coax/connectors, trees branches etc. Many of those short-term issues will never show on a meter (unless it's a professional meter and the issues shows when actually registering it on the meter).
Also descambling can be a cause, although not in your case as you reported to use FTA only.
Did you check if both tuners are affected, and if not, did you swap the cables (from tuner 1 to 2 and v.v.) and see if the issue also swaps?

I've have swapped cables over, both the same.
There are 2 basic facts here.
Fact 1 Signal checked by Sky installation eng and Sig Quality was 99% across the board.
Fact 2 When I put my old sky box in, it doesn't glitch
Now, if you are doing basic fault diagnosis in any profession, the facts point to the box being the issue but World of Satellite and everyone who has been kind enough to take time out to comment on this issue think the issue is Environmental. That is just totally illogical.

W of S would told me to not waste my time comparing my box to a VU+ Duo as it had an embedded turner which has different sensitivity to the plug in tuners (contrary to what their website says)
Either the boxes the plug in tuners being used in the Solo V2 are of an inferior quality or that non-soldered tuners are not a suitable mechanism for Satellite reception.

W of S won't allow me to return the box and upgrade to a box with an Embedded tuner and have offered to test the tuner which I can either return and wait for a replacement and be without my box for over 1 week or buy a replacement and return the old one and get a refund which I was happy enough with until I realise I am going to have to spend £9 shipping (£4.50 each way).
So as it stands my VU+ Solo V2 has cost me

£169 cost
£7.50 postage
£40.00 Sky Eng to test signal
And if I return the tuner
£9.00

This will take the price to more than a Solo 2 (with its embedded tuner) which is very annoying indeed as it probably wouldn’t have this issue. Very Annoyed at this point.

[Rob van der Does]

Did you check if both tuners are affected, and if not, did you swap the cables (from tuner 1 to 2 and v.v.) and see if the issue also swaps?
If I understand you correctly you didn't try this? So you can't be sure then, as this is a basic fault diagnostic test in a case like yours.

[frankiecarbone]

If I understand you correctly you didn't try this? So you can't be sure then, as this is a basic fault diagnostic test in a case like yours.

Yes, I tried both tuners. I've connected 1 tuner at a time with each of the cables and still seen the problem. I thought put that in an earlier post but at this point can't remember what I've written:-)

I am going to see if I can try the box in someone elses set-up to rule out environmental issues.

[Huevos]

Are there any other receivers connected to the same LNB?

[frankiecarbone]

Are there any other receivers connected to the same LNB?

No other tuners connected to the same LNB.

I may have narrowed the problem down a bit.
I was recording ch5 +1 one night and while flicking through channels I noticed that every time I got to Ch5 the picture glitched about 3 seconds after I switched to this channel. This was 100% repeatable until the recording stopped. After the recording finished I was able to change channel to Ch5 and it never glitches.
I think the problem seems to be when Timeshift kicks in (I have it set to 3 seconds) and I am recording another particular channel I can get a glitch. Unfortunately The Ch5 + 1 and Ch5 combination didn't cause a glitch the next day when I tried it again.
I don't know why Ch5 glitched when recording CH5 +1, nor why it worked fine the next day on that combination. I am still getting glitches pretty often but haven't confirmed 100% if they only happen when I am recording something else at the same time.

I am still thinking the its a tuner issue or perhaps the power supply.

Storage wise, I have an external 2.5in Hard drive connected with eSATA and External USB Power if that is any releavance.

[sashires]

this could be caused by your box trying to access a sleeping hdd, can you try with a usb flash drive instead to check

[john doe]

it looks like you have tried different things, I may have missed it, and apologies if I have, but have you tried a reflash, without backup, so fresh flash and setup from new, then using ABM

[Andy_Hazza]

Try setting Timeshift to 20 seconds.


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[frankiecarbone]

this could be caused by your box trying to access a sleeping hdd, can you try with a usb flash drive instead to check

It can't be a sleeping HD if its already recording another channel at the time, unfortunately.

[frankiecarbone]

it looks like you have tried different things, I may have missed it, and apologies if I have, but have you tried a reflash, without backup, so fresh flash and setup from new, then using ABM

Yes, I tried a re-flash a few weeks back and set the whole thing up from scratch again as I was sure the glitching was some settings I had made but its still the same.

[frankiecarbone]

Try setting Timeshift to 20 seconds.


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I'll try this and see how it goes. Suspect it'll move the glitch to 20 seconds.

[frankiecarbone]

I'll try this and see how it goes. Suspect it'll move the glitch to 20 seconds.

I've changed the Timeshift to 20secs and hadn't seen the glitching as I am not staying on each channel for 20 secs for the glitch to appear (plus I don't get to watch a lot of live TV). Last night however I was watching BBC1 for about 20mins and saw a glitch and when I looked at the timers it turned out a recording had just started at the time of the glitch. Something is happening to the box when it starts to record. Maybe a sight voltage drop from the power supply or a faulty tuner. What I can't understand is why does it not happen every time a recording or timeshift starts and on every channel. I still haven't been able to figure out the connection between what's being recorded/timeshifted and the channel that glitches. WOS will let me buy a tuner and refund me when I return the old one. I think this is my next step as my last resort is to return the box for testing as this will mean a week or two without the box.

[frankiecarbone]

I've changed the tuner and still see the glitching:-(

I am going to try it in someone else's set-up next but I'm convinced its the box.

[Andy_Hazza]

Could be your HDD? Could you try a usb stick in its place to test?


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[frankiecarbone]

Could be your HDD? Could you try a usb stick in its place to test?


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I will try that next. Can't see it being the hard disk but at this point I'll try anything