[mythtv-users] Reception/Channel Locking/Nova T 500

Mike Perkins mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk
Fri Jul 27 15:46:51 UTC 2007


James Cummings wrote:
> 
> Hi There,
> 
> I'm rather new to mythtv, but I bought a box from efficientpc.co.uk 
> <http://efficientpc.co.uk> with a Nova T 500 card in it running Ubuntu 
> Feisty.  Although I'm in a flat with a shared antenna/aerial, we've had 
> several off-the-shelf freeview receivers over the years and they have 
> worked fine.  But with mythtv I'm occasionally getting lots of problems 
> locking on to channels. I have tried doing a full scan, with no 
> benefits.  I've tried creating a channel.conf (luckily there exists an 
> example one for my transmitter (Oxford, UK)), and importing that.
> 
> The symptoms seem to be if the box is left for a long time (overnight 
> say) then it will have difficult locking on channels when I try in the 
> morning, even though it says signal is high and it is a perfectly clear 
> day.  But if we restart mythtv-backend then it will suddenly be able to 
> lock on the channels again.  While this workaround works, it is 
> frustrating.  My initial tests with tzap confirm that it is getting a 
> lock on these channels, but I don't really understand the numbers in the 
> output to be honest.
> 
> Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?  I keep looking through the 
> setup and preferences, etc. to see if there is some setting I've mis-set. 
> 

The weather can play a part in reception quality if you are any distance 
from the transmitter. You don't say exactly where you are. Also trees 
(leaves in spring/summer), hills, changes in nearby buildings, etc.

"if the box is left for a long time" might imply you have a ventilation 
problem. Make sure that everything in the box has a clear run for the 
airflow from fans. In my boxes the hottest things are the tv cards.

Also look through the mailing lists for problems with recent Nova-T 
cards, which may have a bearing on your problems.

Mike Perkins


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