Hi,
My parents have had a Thomson DHD4000 for about 4 years or so, and it has worked perfectly up until recently. We live in Merseyside, and after the first stage of the switchover process they began having problems with the picture freezing momentarily and break-up in the sound etc. I told them (foolishly!) it may just be teething troubles, and that when switchover is complete in December the problem could right itself.
Unfortunately things are no better post 2nd December, with programmes freezing and stuttering. I have done everything I can think off - retuning, restoring the software etc, but nothing has worked.
What I did notice after hours of fiddling is that when I switched between the two tuners on the technical help page the picture stuttering etc only occured on the first tuner, the second tuner was perfect.
I am not very technical so this is where I am hoping the experts here can explain to me what is happening and if there is a fix for the problem.
As a workaround I have told them to do the following so they can at least enjoy watching the TV with a perfect picture (it may also be of help if anyone else has a similar problem!):
1. If the programme they are watching is stuttering etc, then switch over to another channel, then switchover to yet another channel, then switch back to the channel they were watching.
2. If the programme they are watching is ok and they then want to watch another channel, firstly change to a different channel and then switch to the channel they want to watch.
This is proving to be a bit of a pain in the you know what as you can imagine, so I am hoping there is a fix!! Doing the above is also no help when they are recording a channel whilst watching another as the recorded channel will have gone to tuner 1.
Hope you guys can help, and that they don't have to buy a new box!
If they do need a new box, is the Sagem DTR67320T any good, or can you recommend a better one in the £130-£150 price bracket?.
Thanks

It could be that, since DSO in Wales, they are now receiving their signals from there instead of Winter Hill. Try checking for repeats of the channels with numbers above 800.

No luck with channels above 800

I often wondered whether the looping of an output from one tuner to another tuner was the right way to go about things. Either the tuner has an amplifier which could mean the input to the second tuner is higher in level than the first (and noise) or the tuner has no amp but creates a loss into the second tuner.

I don't have these problems, but I did have breakups when I first put the box in, and along with other small changes I used a metal doubler and a short length of cable so each is equally fed with signal as far as is possible. This also means you then have two UHF outputs, in my case to the TV and DVD recorder without going through another loop-through.

Either this one http://cpc.farnell.com/triax/338365/...ter/dp/AP00090 or this one http://cpc.farnell.com/triax/338366/...ter/dp/AP00091 depending on what the connectors were like around the back.

I wonder if you have been able to loop the tuners the other way around, so aerial into tuner 2, then feed into tuner 1? Does the problem jump between tuners?

Hi guys

im having exactly the same problem, my parents live in the manchester area, cannot get any bbc chanels. i think asda are doing thomson dti6021 for £120, but im reluctant buying another thomson after this fiasco

cheers
nick

Thanks for the suggestion slimgym but to be honest I'm not too clued up on this sort of thing so don't really understand what I need to do. I only discovered the faulty tuner and the workaround by trial and error!!
On the back of the box next to the aerial input is a further two sockets which have some sort of bridging plate across them. What are these for?
Thanks

I will say that the parents had to bin their's as it didn't work Post DSO

Yes that's it - the signal goes into the "input" of one tuner, then comes out of that tuner, through the bridge piece to the input of the second tuner. Therefore the signal going into the 2nd tuner has already been through the 1st tuner, which may have made the signal stronger or weaker depending on how it's designed.

You can take the bridge piece off and put the aerial into each tuner in turn.

I just have memories of past analogue times when the incoming signal was fine, but by the time you'd put it through the analogue sky box, perhaps 2 VCR's and into the TV it overloaded the TV. It seemed better to me rather than take the signal out of one tuner and into the other, you should split it and feed each equally.

It does seem though the DHD4000 has problems after the swtich over, whether it be the extra signal or the difference in modulation there have been lots of issues reported (but also others with no issues).

Ok I see what you mean, thanks. I will have a go at tuning the box through each input sepearely to see if tuner 1 is indeed faulty. If they both work ok I will try the doubler you mention.

I have had similar problems to you as have other people Thomson know about the problem but will not be providing a solution. See my other posts on this forum about this.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...1156158&page=2

Very interesting thread, thanks for the link.
As it now looks like a new box is on the horizon, it would be a great help to get some feedback from forum members in the Granada region who have PVR's that are working perfectly after the switchover. In my price range the two I'm looking at are the Sagem DTR-67320T and the Humax PVR9300T. Is anyone using either of these successfully in Granadaland, or any other recommendations?
Thanks

I just spotted in the Fusion forum the near-identical model to the DHD4000 is also exhibiting blocking after switch-over. Some have reported a variable attenuator has sorted out the issues. Perhaps worth a go?

I tried a variable attenuator, but it didn't do the trick unfortnately.

Without professional kit to see the bit error rate it would be hard to see if you need more or less signal. I know when I first had my DHD fitted I had breakup, I had a chap around with a proper installers monitor who said there was plenty of signal there, even though the DHD only showed 6 or 7 on the strength.

Did the variable attenuator make no difference at all? I wonder if a second one in series would make any odds?

No difference whatsoever. I'm going to buy them a new box once I know the models I'm interested in are working ok. Anyone have any info on the Sagem/Humax?

When the DHD looked to be on its last legs I bought a Topfield 5800. It basic out of the box but some of the TAPs that can be loaded to it will turn it into a totally different box. They can be had for £130 which is a steal considering the functionality overall.

I dismissed the Humax 9300 because I wanted the USB out to take programmes off, and the 9200 is suffering slowdown issues after the retune event.

I'd avoid the Sagem, its not the best built/programmed of things

One thing I noticed about the Topfield - I felt the remote response was quite poor - the LED would come on but nothing would happen. However having been using it for a few weeks and going back to the DHD4000 when I had a triple-clash, it's clear the Topfield wins on CPU speed and is a lot quicker.

Hi

I have the same problem, think its time for a change, was looking at thomson but they have left a bad taste after this problem. So i was thinking of the TVonics DTR-Z250. I have read a few reviews and it appears ok.

any thoughts

Cheers

Nick

I thought the TVonics was crashy with little in terms of firmware updates from the manufacturer, shame as it's a British company

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=887876

i read this thread, unsure as they all seem quite old posts, just checked tvonics website and it looks like they do OAD.

http://www.tvonics.com/product_support/

That was all I found on a quick search, I'd love to be proven wrong. I certainly found enough complaints to steer me away from them, and the Topfield came in around the same price range with much more possibility to customise.

As you say there are some upcoming OAD's so maybe all is rosy there It could be one for my parents who I know would struggle with the Topfields complexity (due to its versatility!).

I am in West Wirral and have the same problem a the original poster. I have called Thomson's helpline and was told this was an issue relating to the receipt of signals from two transmitters. He suggested one tuner was selecting channels (Muxes?) from Winter Hill and the other from Moel y Parc. The Winter Hill transmission is weak here and would account for one of the tuners having sound and vision dropouts. He said that there was no proposed solution at the moment but suggested I email the problem to gtsuk@btconnect.com anyway, which I did. He said that this problem was not unique to Thomson because some other manufacturer's equipment suffered similarly.

I have my doubts about his explanation though, as I have two other Freeview TVs, neither of which will detect any signal at all from Winter Hill. I am more inclined to believe it relates to the mixture of the old 2k with the new 8k mode transmission since digital switchover.

Anyway, the main reason for my post is to warn others that replacing the capacitors in the power supply does not correct this problem. Or at least it didn't for me!

I am really hoping that the new Humax 9300T (or 9150T) I have decided on getting for my parents doesn't have the same problems as the Thomson!!

Would there be any difference between DHD4000 models with a low serial number and those with a higher serial number?