[Saltire]

Before you do any of this make sure your area has not had the full rollout of nagra 3 firstly otherwise your wasting your time !

I have mentioned this before in either this forum or one of the other main forums on the net !

If you have tried reflashing and rescans etc and still have the same problem, YOU NEED TO FIT A BOOSTER ! to increase the signal level, the signal the box is receiving is too weak and is stopping the tuner from picking all the channels up it should be, all my channels went off the other day, and this method sorted it out

For some reason virgin must have reduced the signal power going out just very slightly, wouldnt even make any difference to a normal subscribed virgin tv box as they have really tolerant tuners (and thier modems are tolerant too), but the original dreambox 500c has one of the weakest tuners in any receiver, and therefore, weak signal = not picking all channels up.
I can only guess that virgin thought to themselves "how can we really piss off all the dreambox owners", and this was the answer, the dummies took long enough to work that out, , yearssssssssssss.

The reason why this took most of us by surprise is because it happened to nearly everyone with the 500c, so we all thought its just virgin playing funny buggers, which they were, but we didnt think about them reducing the signal level ever so slightly nationwide, and that fraction of a drop in signal was enough to do what its doing now and has been for months.

I have 2 boosters, i used to use them in an old property i have that had signal issues and they worked a treat, but in the other property i didnt have a signal issue until this happened months ago, but i still didnt run to plug in the booster as i simply couldnt be botherd as most of the channels i needed were still there, but then things changed a bit again the other day and i lost one or two channels that i did need, and thats when i brought out the good old booster and blew the dust off it, .

For anyone wondering, i have tried this several times this evening, erasing the flash on box, then reflashing the image and doing bruteforce scan, and it pulls in every channel every time, so this is a defo tried n tested fix I'm glad to say

This is the booster i have here >>>

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/9188195/One-For-All-SV-9542-Amplified-4-Way-Signal-Splitter/Product.html?&_$ja=tsid:11518%7Ccc:%7Cprd:9188195% 7Ccat:Accessories

As you can see thats a 4 way booster, you dont need a 4 way, just a single output is fine for one box, and you need to make sure the booster has a gain control on it so that you can adjust the power level, turn it up full is too strong, down full is turning it off, i have mines set about 3/4 of the way up, but you would need to fiddle with yours and watch the stream info on screen, pick a channel thats working good, get the stream info on screen, keep turning the gain control upwards and get the SNR level to round about 94-95%, and the BER needs to be sitting solid at 0, if the ber is all over the place then youve turned it up too high.

This will undoubtably helps loads of people, I dont need any praise as this is all old stuff to me that i just wish i would have made clear earlier, i think i did post a message in here about this like i said, cant remember though and i aint going looking for it. .

Anyway, have fun guys, and enjoy whats left of the time you have with "ALL" your channels back

Before you reflash the box, stick the booster on it, pick a channel you get without any problems, set the gain level on booster so that its spot on , then leave its all set, reflash your box, plug everything back in including booster, do a bruteforce scan, and then wait and see all the channels come back, everyone of them, you need to look in the "all services menu" as old channels that may remain in boquets etc might not be working correctly, but on the all services menu they will all be there and working just fine

p.s
all my channels went off the other day, and this method sorted it out

[cactikid]

what you are nearly saying is your box will work on nagra3,as a lot of places are moving,maybe alter title or add more info .

[southpaw]

I wonder if the op has shares in a booster manufacturer
this "solution" is gonna be music to the ears of noobs up and down the uk , only to be bitterly dissapointed when there screens are still blank !

[JohnO1234]

I've ordered 50 so I get them cheaper ;-)

JohnO

[CHRISTOF]

i thot i noticed a change in the signal power for the dm well done thomson

[mistikmike]

Yes I can confirm the above. Last week I lost all channels only to find that the channel numbers had changed and needed a rescan. I got back 90% of channels and the remainder appeared when I slightly increased the output from the booster. I also found too much booster and channels can be lost.

[witchy2k1]

Handy if you already have a booster on hand, but I wouldn't recommend anyone run out and buy a booster just for a few extra days/weeks of free telly.

[Saltire]

Originally Posted by witchy2k1 Handy if you already have a booster on hand, but I wouldn't recommend anyone run out and buy a booster just for a few extra days/weeks of free telly.

how much is a booster ? and how much is the subscription fee monthly to virgin for every single channel, sky sports/movies/espn, porn, the lot, your booster will only cost between about 10-17quid, and how much would it cost to view all those channels, £££'s, and who says you would only get a month out of it, you might get a few months, you might even get 6 months, 1 year, 2day, 2 weeks, who knows, how longs a piece of string,

[Saltire]

Originally Posted by southpaw I wonder if the op has shares in a booster manufacturer this "solution" is gonna be music to the ears of noobs up and down the uk , only to be bitterly dissapointed when there screens are still blank !

screens wont be blank mate, not if nagra 3 hasnt rolled out in the region, and for some regions that may be quite some time off, maybe several months, who knows how long a piece of string is.

[Saltire]

Originally Posted by cactikid what you are nearly saying is your box will work on nagra3,as a lot of places are moving,maybe alter title or add more info .

never once mentioned anything of the sort mate, show me where i said boxs will work on nagra 3, just read my post a bit more carefully matey

[Elric]

Originally Posted by Thomson how long a piece of string.

twice its own length

[southpaw]

Originally Posted by Thomson screens wont be blank mate, not if nagra 3 hasnt rolled out in the region, and for some regions that may be quite some time off, maybe several months, who knows how long a piece of string is.

Hate to disapoint mate , but your only kidding yourself , screens will be blank , no doubt about that , and sooner rather than later ,
Areas switched over to Nagra 3

- Acton London
- Ashford
- Aylesbury
- Barking
- Batley
- Bexleyheath
- Bournemouth
- Chesham
- Chiltern Hills
- Chingford
- Dagenham
- Dartford
- Dewsbury
- East Ham London
- East London
- Essex 1 (NTL/Excw parts only)
- Harrogate
- Huddersfield (NTL parts only)
- Ilford
- Kirklees
- Leeds
- Mirfield
- Poole
- Portsmouth
- Rainham
- Rickmansworth
- Romford (Excw parts only)
- Seven Kings
- Shepherds Bush
- Solent
- South Hertfordshire
- St Albans (Excw parts only)
- Upton Park
- Waltham Abbey
- Walthamstow
- Watford
- Wessex
- West Yorkshire (NTL parts only)
- York
and it seems virmin are picking up the pace ,my opinion for what its worth is 90% of UK will be nagra 3 within 4 weeks

[Saltire]

Originally Posted by southpaw Hate to disapoint mate , but your only kidding yourself , screens will be blank , no doubt about that , and sooner rather than later ,

not disapointing me mate, i really dont care either way as i have a fully paid subscription as backup, and i also have sky too, and freesat, and freeview, no big deal here, .

why dont we just let people do as they please while they can, if thats for 2 day, 2 weeks, 2 months or whatever, just let it be, who really cares, i dont, no need to post about nagra 3 in here me matey

(this thread is not for posting messages about nagra 3)

[dctyper]

i think the idea is great for a few weeks. but, let the individuals justify the spend. they all should know nag 3 will be in place by the end of march

dc

[southpaw]

Originally Posted by Thomson not disapointing me mate, i really dont care either way as i have a fully paid subscription as backup, and i also have sky too, and freesat, and freeview, no big deal here, . why dont we just let people do as they please while they can, if thats for 2 day, 2 weeks, 2 months or whatever, just let it be, who really cares, i dont, no need to post about nagra 3 in here me matey (this thread is not for posting messages about nagra 3)

I think there is a need to post nagra 3 info here , the title of your thread is somewhat misleading , and you wouldn`t want people wasting £17 for somethin that aint a "100% fix for lost channels" would you ?