Mystar and FTA reception

[viewer]

My daughter has just had Mystar installed, and naturally the technician fed her terrestrial antenna into the box.

He says he cannot get one hd or 10 to scan into the box.

Just recently, my daughter turned here antenna to a new transmission site located in Boambee, and gets perfect reception on both her t-box and inbuilt hd receiver in her flat screen tv.

The installer said the problem appeared to be too much signal coming into the antenna, and he fitted an attenuater inline, but this has not still got the mystar to scan these channels in.

He suggested her husband to try to remove the amplifier from the antenna to see what effect that would have, or repoint the antenna to the other transmission site at Mt Moombil. The problem with turning the antenna to Mt Moombil, is that was where it was pointed to before, but her area suffered lots of pixelation, and that is why the new transmitter site was put at Boambee, and everyone tuned to that, and are happy campers.

Do you fellows have any suggestions?

Thanks

[OSIRUS]

I wonder if the Mystar is tuning from Boambee, (has it been programmed in at Foxtel's End for the Mystar to scan for channels from the Boambee site) does it indicate that it is or not when scanning ?

Is the mystar programmed to receive all the FTA channels from both sites ?

Do you know anyone else in your area who has a Mystar STB & is getting all the FTA channels ok ? & which transmitter site do they appear to be using,

It is either a Mystar/Foxtel problem or a FTA Antenna Setup problem ?

usually the more amplifiers, attenuators, splitters etc there are in the FTA Antenna setup the more noise is created in the line .......

But your other devices (T Box and inbuilt hd receiver in her flat screen tv) are not having the problem .... ?

If it is thought the FTA antenna setup is the problem then you probably need an installer to use a meter to see if the signals are within the correct limits,

[viewer]

Thanks osirus....I wonder if it indeed may be tuning mt moombil instead of Boambee....maybe we should call them and check...thanks

[dixons]

When I had a Mystar HD it would search through all the possible transmitters in the region.This was in rural Victoria and it tried as far as the Victorian/NSW border. Can't remember which ones in particular, but it was a real pain after a power failure because it took so long for the box to find a signal.
I can't see them only installing some of the transmitter information for your region, so you would assume that it is possible for the box to boot up and do a fresh search.

[Antennaman]

The installer said the problem appeared to be too much signal coming into the antenna, and he fitted an attenuater inline, but this has not still got the mystar to scan these channels in.

His meter, if one was used, should have enabled this diagnosis to be performed rapidly.

Guess it depends on how motivated the installer was. After all, they are just to install Foxtel, not to sort out FTA stuff. I would suggest, however, if it is a myStar configuration issue, it should be able to be sorted.

I wonder if the Mystar is tuning from Boambee, (has it been programmed in at Foxtel's End for the Mystar to scan for channels from the Boambee site) does it indicate that it is or not when scanning ?

My thought as well.

Try a free to air rescan:

Step 3: Rescan the Free To Air signal
Rescan the Free To Air signal through your MyStar box. This won’t delete any programs in your MyStar planner, however it will interrupt a current recording.

Using your Foxtel remote press the ‘active’ button
Select ‘setup’
Select ‘mystar settings’
Select ‘Free To Air rescan’
Press ‘select’ again to start the Free To Air rescan
The reboot process takes about six minutes. Most of our boxes will automatically turn themselves back on. If your box sits on the red standby light, try turning it on by pressing the Standby button at the top of your remote.

Still no Free To Air signal? Please contact Foxtel.

Watch the data as it comes on the screen to see if the local 10 channels come up: If the data changes too fast, record it with a camera or smartphone, & play it back at a more acceptable speed.

[gordon_s1942]

From what I see of the FTA channels, they appear to allocated in set groups throughout the country and what may be going on here is your Daughters Post code/location may not be what Austar/Foxtel has on their list.
From previous postings, we know if you move a STB out of its 'area', you often loose the FTA channels unless their identical in both areas and that the tuners on these STB's are programed into the STB.
Get the allocation of channel/Frequencies for BOTH of the receivable channels and then give Foxtel a call and see what they show as being available in her location.

[Tiny]

Watch the data as it comes on the screen to see if the local 10 channels come up: If the data changes too fast, record it with a camera or smartphone, & play it back at a more acceptable speed.

Mate the data scan for FTA on my MyStar box is like paint drying. Can't miss if it's scanned every transmitter around as it takes so long.
Could be that I don't have a terrestrial cable connected due to nil reception.


As for some of the the Foxstar installers, they don't have time in their budgeted install to frig around, that's for the Technical assistance line.


What sounds fishy to me in the OP; is the New Transmission site, wonder if Foxtel have programed in the right scan frequencies for those channels, strange it gets some not others.

OSIRUS advice in post 2 is odds on favorite.

[Antennaman]

Mate the data scan for FTA on my MyStar box is like paint drying. Can't miss if it's scanned every transmitter around as it takes so long.
Could be that I don't have a terrestrial cable connected due to nil reception.

Takes about 1'30" to scan all the transmitter sites available up in my neck of the woods.

My internal processing speed can't keep up with this, so if there is an issue, I video it for review.

[viewer]

Still no go for them. They say they rang foxtel, whom said the receiver would scan for all available channels...he said he saw it doing moombil, bruxner, boambee, and even Lismore. Still has the same problem

[Antennaman]

Has the masthead amplifier been removed?

[viewer]

No, not removed...looks like that may be the next move then?

[Antennaman]

No, not removed...looks like that may be the next move then?

Certainly give it a try. Ensure whoever does it joins the coaxial cable correctly, ie inner conductor to inner conductor, outer shield to outer shield, no short circuits between the two.

Lack of the 10 group of channels could be a case of signal overload, taking out the masthead should stop this from happening.

[gordon_s1942]

Does the 'standard' Mystar tune in the HD FTA channels as I vaguely remember they didnt also a friend who had a Mystar said when an 'additional' channel was introduced (like 7mate for instance) his STB couldnt tune it in.

I could be wrong (heaven help me) but I still think its to do with the STB's programming.

[viewer]

Thanks gordon, it is the mystar hd receiver, so yes it does accept the hd channels and display.

[viewer]

Certainly give it a try. Ensure whoever does it joins the coaxial cable correctly, ie inner conductor to inner conductor, outer shield to outer shield, no short circuits between the two.

Lack of the 10 group of channels could be a case of signal overload, taking out the masthead should stop this from happening.

Do you think that the problem is the antenna though, because the tv and t box both load and display those "10" channels perfectly?....it is just the new mystar that won't co-operate.

Thanks

[dixons]

See if they will replace the box.Tell them you can do a self install.They will send a new box out and a label to send the other back via Australia Post. I had two this way as they couldn't work out why it would not record programs via the guide. Turned out that the software had not been updated on either box.

[viewer]

Good idea dixons....I'll contact my daughter now, and see if she "can get the ball rolling".

Thanks

[Antennaman]

Do you think that the problem is the antenna though, because the tv and t box both load and display those "10" channels perfectly?....it is just the new mystar that won't co-operate.

Thanks

I don't know, as I am not on the ground to do measurements of the FTA signal.

See if they will replace the box.Tell them you can do a self install.They will send a new box out and a label to send the other back via Australia Post. I had two this way as they couldn't work out why it would not record programs via the guide. Turned out that the software had not been updated on either box.

That's a good idea.

[viewer]

We also had another thought, but means disconnecting all our stuff, a bit of a nightmare....we also have mystar, but not the hd model, even though it accepts 10 and the others ( not HD channels), and I could take that there and try as well, if need be!!

[Tiny]

That sounds like a good test, put the HD box on at your place as well & see if it scans the channels in.