Dreambox AGC and SNR

**ingxen** · 03-04-08, 12:22 PM

I am running a DM500S with Gemini 4.3.1, CCcam 2.0.8, Newcs 1.50 connecting to greywolf midnight on local LAN.

On some channels I get occasional pixelation every 5 mins or so and sometimes pixelation last about 4 -5 seconds like on FB07. I went to the third page on the streaminfo page where it shows SNR, AGC and BER.

On FB07 I get SNR 81%, AGC 86%, BER stays on zero. While watching the third page in stream info when i get pixelation the percentages in ANR and AGC dont seem to change. My question is, is a level of around 86% AGC ok or should it be higher? Do I need to tweak my LNB/dish as the dream tuner is not as good or should i be trying a different image or version of cccam?

On some other channels I get SNR 81% and AGC 88% and BER very rarley goes upto about 8 but on these channels i don't seem to get pixelation. On INFO 156 i get about 70% SNR and 78% AGC and the BER is in the thousands and there is lots of pixelation also I get lots of pixelation on some on the ABC channels.

The ECM time is around 0.141 (which i think is pretty good), I have a 85cm dish and a dual output LNB.

On my PC sat card however I get about 63% signal and 98% quality on all austar channels. On the PC sat card i get about 93% quality on INFO 156.

Any suggestions?

**ol' boy** · 03-04-08, 03:36 PM

Should work fine..... mine used to work at 45 and 27

Try NITV?

**ingxen** · 04-04-08, 12:55 PM

Loaded PLI 2008 with cccam 2.0.8 and still have the same prob. I did a bit of reading and will try cccam 2.0.5 and see if that fixes things.

**fandtm666** · 04-04-08, 12:59 PM

if it is only local lan you can do away with the newcs and just use cccam 2.0 and just add the n: line in the cccam.cfg pointing to gwm.

also is the lan hardwired or wireless due to the fact that if it is wireless then that could be the issue

**ingxen** · 04-04-08, 01:28 PM

Yeah I tried running just cccam 2.0.8 on its own on gemini and even attached the phoenix to the serial port with cccam/newcs on gemini and still the same issue, pixelation every 5 mins or so which is very annoying. The network is local wired LAN at the moment.

I loaded Pli 2008 with just cccam 2.0.8 pointing to greywolf and still get the same thing.

I get inconsistent results on Pli and Gemini with the 5 or so ABC1 channels sometimes they are clear and sometimes they are very pixelated constantly.

**fandtm666** · 04-04-08, 01:31 PM

use the older 2.0.0 ccam

or the new 2.09

**ingxen** · 04-04-08, 01:44 PM

Ok cool thanks I will give 2.0.9 a shot, I don't think i can use 2.0.0 as a permanent solution as I read i need at least cccam 2.0.5 to send the correct emm's to greywolf as I cant get my stupid pc sat card cs client software (wincsc) sending emm's to greywolf.

**toor** · 04-04-08, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by fandtm666

use the older 2.0.0 ccam

or the new 2.09

have you unzipped this yourself fandtm666? lol

Just went to the regular places to try find 2.0.9 and could not come here unzipped and....

**warbo** · 04-04-08, 02:18 PM

I know what I'll be "dreaming" about tonight. Thanks fandtm666

**ingxen** · 04-04-08, 02:27 PM

lol I take it this file was used in a april fools joke from your reactions and from searching on the net. Damn websense at work won't let me goto rapidshare to open the file...

**fandtm666** · 04-04-08, 02:45 PM

sorry wrong file

but seriously go back to 2.0.0 just to test and see if it is actually the cccam version this way you can start eliminating items to get top the problem

**z80** · 05-04-08, 01:54 AM

@Inxgen- stop reflashing the box all the time, and leave the dish and lnb alone.

Just fix your Lan and internet connection.
Thats where the problem is.

**ingxen** · 05-04-08, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by z80

@Inxgen- stop reflashing the box all the time, and leave the dish and lnb alone.

Just fix your Lan and internet connection.
Thats where the problem is.

?? It does not use the internet connection it uses local LAN only (DM500 -> switch/router -> PC) and has a latency of about 140ms considering it has to read off the card. Also I tried with the phoenix running off the serial port of the DM500 with the gemini 4.3.1 image that came with it and i still get the same prob.

I only reflashed once to PLI as I thought I was getting the same prob with it on the serial port with phoenix it must either be a config prob, a DM500 hardware prob or a signal prob but as i said the PC card gets 98% quality and never has any prob with the picture. I tried cccam 2.0.0, 2.0.4, 2.0.5, 2.0.8 on the PLi image and all have the same prob.

I havent touched the dish and lnb yet.

Originally Posted by ingxen

Yeah I tried running just cccam 2.0.8 on its own on gemini and even attached the phoenix to the serial port with cccam/newcs on gemini and still the same issue

**Kavakid** · 05-04-08, 08:56 AM

I have found different lnbs to be the cause of massive ber rates when there is no other explanation. +/- 1 mhz can cure it

Rescan the channels using the lnb the decoder is to be used with.

KK

**ingxen** · 05-04-08, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Kavakid

I have found different lnbs to be the cause of massive ber rates when there is no other explanation. +/- 1 mhz can cure it

Rescan the channels using the lnb the decoder is to be used with.

KK

Thanks for the suggestion but I have tried that. When I installed the PLi image I downloaded the base one from the PLi website and I set everything up from scratch which included doing an automatic scan.

I also tried mgcamd and still had the same issue

So its pointing towards a hardware problem on the DM500 or dish/lnb prob

Could it be possible the DM500 tuner is not as good as the PC sat card tuner and I might need to make a slight adjustment on the LNB skew to get it better?

When I replaced my LNB because it was faulty a couple of weeks ago (could not get any horizontal channels) I used the PC card to adjust the skew on the lnb but it was getting 98% on the fox channels and 93% on info 156, I didnt have the dream then to see if moving it slighty gave me better results.

**ingxen** · 07-04-08, 01:11 PM

I adjusted my LNB skew and the SNR went from 81% to 91%, AGC only went up 1% to 87% on FB07 on the dream. Also on the PC sat card the quality on info 156 went from 93% to 98%.

Adjusting the LNB fixed the issues with ABC and info 156 on the dream, I now no longer get any BER on those channels.

I still get pixelation on Fox box office channels and a few others on the dream but some channels are completely fine! When watching a movie on showtime it is completely fine with no pixelation.

I just realised fox box office chans are on vertical and the other channels that seem to work are on horizontal. I will get lyngsat up tonight to double check and see if its only the vertical chans I have probs with.

**uflca** · 08-04-08, 12:07 AM

Hi ingxen

I may have missed something in this thread as I have read it very fast so forgive me if this post is useless to you, but I hope you are not cascading a single RG6 from the lnb to DM and PC sat card...

if you are then you will note that vertical channels run at around 14v and horizontal around 18v so if your watching a horizontally aligned channel you will not get a vertical aligned channel on the other box if fed by same cable.

sorry if this post is misaligned
uflca