DStv Explora tuner stats - advice needed

aktor

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
841
Reaction score
18
Location
Cape Town
Got a new Explora installed earlier today - went with the new DStv SmartLNB, which has 1 unicable running from it directly into the decoder. (No xtraview or any other decoders set up). The other 3 unused unicable outputs on the SmartLNB are terminated properly.

The Explora tuners show as follows:

Tuner 1: Strength 91%, quality 86%
Tuner 2: Strength 96%, quality 87%
Tuner 3: Strength 84%, quality 69%

I know the Explora shows lower strengths/qualities than the HD PVR's used to - so my question really is, is the above okay? The installer double-checked the LNB as well as the cabling and the connectors, and nothing should account for signal loss.
 
Last edited:
Nah everything seems to be working fine for now, but I was curious what the tuner stats would be - so I checked. Just want to know whether there's cause for concern with the stats above or not :)

Can't really test BoxOffice (that functions mostly on tuner 3 afaik) because it's still downloading the content, will probably take a day or two.
 
Yeah, that's what baffled me as well - usually strength is low but quality is 100%. Don't really understand why it's showing these figures. So your Tuner 3 quality is also weirdly lower than tuners 1 and 2?

Still not sure why tuners 1 and 2 are on 87% quality, but apparently there's no degradation in picture as long as it's above 50%?
 
Installer that did mine, said that different channels give out different values for strength and quality
 
Installer that did mine, said that different channels give out different values for strength and quality
Ah, that's exactly it. Switching to MNet HD showed both tuners 1 and 2 on 100% now.
Tuner 3 still on 69% though :confused:
 
T2 is for recording
Yes, so when I switch to MNet HD, T1 is 100%. When I record MNet HD, T2 is 100%. All good.
Tuner 3 is what has me confused. It's used for BoxOffice,Catchup and EPG afaik, so not sure why it's so low.
 
Did some further testing:

All the HD channels seem to be on Vertical. On T1 they all show 92% strength and 100% quality. On T2 while recording, it's 100% and 100%.

I tested some SD channels, on Horizontal. On T1 they show 92% strength and 82% quality. On T2 while recording, it's 92% strength and 82% quality.

This made me suspect LNB skew, since Vertical is perfect and Horizontal is not.
But then I then tested channel 127, which is Vertical again. Now T1 shows 91% strength, 69% quality. The other Vertical channels still show 92% strength and 100% quality.

All the while, T3 still on 69%.
 
Last edited:
my figures are below 60% for strength but quality is at 98% and all is 100% have had less issues losing signal then my old pvr.
 
Ok now this is weird. In the Settings it shows the strength/quality like this:

O8Jsmyx.jpg

But in the Tuner Status screen it shows this:

kQv3t6n.jpg
 
As an update, I went through the channel list. Some horizontal channels have 100% quality, some don't. Likewise, some vertical channels have 100% quality and some don't. It doesn't seem to be that only horizontal or only vertical has issues.
(Picture quality still looks good on all channels, so I'm not sure if the low signal quality is maybe just a false positive or something)
 
There are no issues... Forget about those readings, until you have actual problems.
Yip seems to be the safest route here. But I did pay a lot of money for those readings (LNB + installation ) :p
By the way, speaking of problems - I did notice the i-plate went completely crazy last night. Showed wrong times, couldn't scroll down or up while in a channel, on some channels the iplate was blank, etc. Reboot of the decoder didn't help. This wouldn't be related to Tuner 3, would it? (the EPG seemed to work fine, however).
Was back to normal again this morning.
 
Last edited:
Hi every1,

I have a problem on Tuner 3 of my new DSTV Explora... even after a second out-of-the-box Smart LNB was used... no signal. it drops signal after 2mins... then takes 30 mins, gets signal, drops it again.. etc etc

penny for your thoughts?

Appreciate any feedback,

regards
Scuzz
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X