Dear DStv - technical faults thread

How do you rate the DStv service *technically* ?

  • 10 (Best)

    Votes: 4 1.6%

  • 9

    Votes: 6 2.4%

  • 8

    Votes: 6 2.4%

  • 7

    Votes: 8 3.2%

  • 6

    Votes: 10 4.0%

  • 5

    Votes: 15 6.0%

  • 4

    Votes: 18 7.2%

  • 3

    Votes: 32 12.9%

  • 2

    Votes: 17 6.8%

  • 1 (Worst)

    Votes: 133 53.4%
  • Total voters
    249
How come M-Movies 2 has the new movie "97 Minutes" scheduled for the Wednesday in 2 week's time, yet it's only being released in the US on the 9th of June? :unsure:
 
We already get bombarded by so many adverts. Now we have adverts showing during our shows which block out a good portion of the screen. Then, in some cases, like tonight, the advert is stuck there the whole time during the show. This is beyond ridiculous.
 
A few channels on satellite - transmission's disappeared, and simply have light purple screens ; only checked 176, 189 so far, but I don't have all of them by a long shot.

EDIT - now show an apology message concerning the interruption.
 
First noticeably cooler morning in Jo'burg today and our original Explora had a new kind of error after loadshedding - E06 which suggests smartcard failure.

After cleaning the card with a soft cloth more than once we had a blank screen on all channels (except 100). Left it alone while I did something else, when I returned all was working normally. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Tomorrow this thread is 2 years old. Would be interesting to hear how many faults detailed in it ever got fixed....?
 
DSTV are clever, they dont have a safe shutdown option in the decoders to turn it off before loadshedding. They know the loadshedding kills the HDD's hence more sales.
 
Rickster said:
DSTV are clever, they dont have a safe shutdown option in the decoders to turn it off before loadshedding. They know the loadshedding kills the HDD's hence more sales.
Click to expand...
They also need an option to schedule updates so it doesn't start 5 minutes before loadshedding. But they not as clever as they think. There are some of us out there that don't think that their services is worth buying a new Explora.

Brian_G said:
First noticeably cooler morning in Jo'burg today and our original Explora had a new kind of error after loadshedding - E06 which suggests smartcard failure.

After cleaning the card with a soft cloth more than once we had a blank screen on all channels (except 100). Left it alone while I did something else, when I returned all was working normally. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
Always nice when these things solve themselves.
 
Is the disappearing shows you're watching bug back?? Definitely happening on my main decoder. Need to watch a show twice before my list of shows reappears.

P- also removes everything again :mad:
 
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Newer online guide is basically blank today, so no online guide at all, again. Round and round we go... until they all fall off?
 
Rickster said:
DSTV are clever, they dont have a safe shutdown option in the decoders to turn it off before loadshedding. They know the loadshedding kills the HDD's hence more sales.
Click to expand...

My original Explora has been alive since I bought it in Feb 2014 and was still functioning in Oct 2022 when I retired it into a cupboard. Over 8.5 years was not bad at all for about R2.4k back in the day with a 2Tb HDD.

They don't quite make them like they used to. While this new Explora Ultra (also for about R2.4k) has some nice-to-haves (ability to watch 4K events once a year, somehow looks clearer even on normal channels) it has no channel LED, a 1Tb HDD, and has random bugs - audio not returning after a reboot until you mute and unmute it, randomly dimming itself after changing sources for a while requiring you to hard reboot or just leave it for some time so it comes right by itself, not responding to remote etc.

Thankfully nothing too major but I don't see this one lasting the same length of time, Multichoice seems to focus more on profits than quality products and more affordable packages that aren't butchered of sport and the good channels.
 
NR7 said:
Thankfully nothing too major but I don't see this one lasting the same length of time, Multichoice seems to focus more on profits than quality products and more affordable packages that aren't butchered of sport and the good channels.
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Their mindset is still based and focused on being a monopoly, which they're very far from these days, so they're now their own worst enemy.
 
Anyone know what could cause a channel to not appear, only on the second decoder, and needing multiple manual scans to get it to appear...?
 
Vorastra said:
Anyone know what could cause a channel to not appear, only on the second decoder, and needing multiple manual scans to get it to appear...?
Click to expand...
See if it repeats and how often
Weak signals can do that, check LNB cabling for damage or maybe replace if more than 5 yrs old.
But could be other things - aging tuners, faulty LNB, Multichoice & co. mucking around (sometimes even in the middle of the night). Loadshedding wear and tear also very possible.
 
o_O My Explora 1 is suddenly working properly again. It has found the signal, time is back on front display and catchup is there. Nothing to do with me, just a 100 or so reboots seemed to do the trick thanks to Eskom. I'll just have to see if it lasts.
 
Brian_G said:
See if it repeats and how often
Weak signals can do that, check LNB cabling for damage or maybe replace if more than 5 yrs old.
But could be other things - aging tuners, faulty LNB, Multichoice & co. mucking around (sometimes even in the middle of the night). Loadshedding wear and tear also very possible.
Click to expand...
Swop decoders around just to get the possibility of a faulty decoder resolved. I'd look at cable/LNB , as Brian suggested
 
So powering up after pulling the plug last night before load shedding the 3A downloaded a software update.
Shows your are watching is gone again, replaced by What's new on Mnet. No catchup plus although the connection checker show it is connected and the download speed is acceptable.
If Mc is trying to lose more subscribers, they are really doing a very good job. With load shedding we are really only dependent on Catchup and catchup plus to watch our programs. No point in subscribing if we cant keep up without catchup.
 
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Nemesys said:
So powering up after pulling the plug last night before load shedding the 3A downloaded a software update.
Shows your are watching is gone again, replaced by What's new on Mnet. Now catchup plus although the connection checker show it is connected and the download speed is acceptable.
If Mc is trying to lose more subscribers, they are really doing a very good job. With load shedding we are really only dependent on Catchup and catchup plus to watch our programs. No point in subscribing if we cant keep up without catchup.
Click to expand...
Use the app?
 
Explora 1 got the update tonight, same problem with missing Catch Up +. But we had a message that it's initialising and to check back in a few minutes, which didn't help. Much later all appears back to normal.

joshuatree said:
Use the app?
Click to expand...
In our case not much involved with mobile and don't want a smaller screen.
 
Brian_G said:
Explora 1 got the update tonight, same problem with missing Catch Up +. But we had a message that it's initialising and to check back in a few minutes, which didn't help. Much later all appears back to normal.


In our case not much involved with mobile and don't want a smaller screen.
Click to expand...

Same here. Checked the 2A last night because I thought I could swop decoders around and found I had to reformat the HDD because it was corrupted. Today the 3A is back to normal and the 2A is still populating all the catchup titles.
 
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