Issues with LPB mux on 87W (SES 2)

[mattopia]

I'm having a strange issue that seems to only affect the LPB mux on 87 west. I'm using a Manhattan DJ-1997, 90cm dish, and a geosatPRO PLL LNB.

If I watch any of the channels on the LPB mux (11807 H 11149), they are fine for a few minutes and they slowly get choppy. A blindscan finds this at 11811, if I edit the TP manually to 11807, it gets a *little* better but not much. If I change to any other TP and then back to this mux, it's fine again for several minutes.

I don't seem to experience this on any other transponder on this or other satellites. Quality remains a consistent 60%. It does not seem to be due to DVB-S2, as the PBS feeds on 121W are fine with similar signal quality. Is there something else about this TP (FEC perhaps?) that makes it trickier to keep locked?

 

[FaT Air]

How do other TP's compare to their published frequency? (on this and other satellites)

 

[mattopia]

On SES 3, the NBC muxes are spot on when compared to sathint.com. They are spot on with the ABC News mux on Galaxy 17 as well. On Galaxy 16, the RT/NHK mux shows as 12040 / 26666 on the STB and 12036 / 26666 on sathint.com, but the video is perfect despite the difference.

The Newsource mux on SES 2, same bird as LPB, is spot on and seems to have no isses.

All of the above were blind-scanned.

I just changed the LPB TP to 11810 and it started to chop up after about 10 minutes. I'll keep trying different settings, but it seems odd that it consistently works for several minutes and then starts to break up, and only for this one TP.

 

[primestar31]

Delete it, and rescan it in from scratch. That might fix it.

 

[catamount]

That receiver has known issues with certain HD channels and high bitrates. There is no fix at this point. Go over to Rick's and read about it in the thread there. They call it micro-freezing/stutter.

Just a guess as it maybe your problem?

 

[Joe DC]

I have the Geosat Pro Mico HD receiver and watch LPB daily. More often than not I have a similar experience. The transponder is OK initially for a brief period of time then it gets so choppy it totally freezes. Then it seems to reset and I have no problems thereafter. This is the only transponder that has this issue.

 

[KE4EST]

I have the same issue here with the Amiko Mini HD SE on LPB. I even parked a dish on that bird one time just for a receiver in the kids room and it broke up too much even after swinging the 4 foot over there. So gave up cut a tree and went back to 125 for PBS kids shows.

 

[Balock]

I had the same problem with LPB on both my MicroHD a few years ago and the Amiko HD SE that replaced it last year.

 

[mattopia]

Well I'm feeling better knowing that it's not just me! It does seem that, after tweaking, it will "fix" itself now after a few moments. Previously I would have to change to a different TP and back. I get 125W just fine, so it's not a huge deal, but it sounds like there might be occasional non-PBS programming on LPB that would be nice to see.

 

[primestar31]

I have a Prodelin 6 ft KU dish on this sat, and a MicroHD receiver, and I've never had this issue. Now, a 6ft KU dish may be overkill, but low signal isn't a problem for me with such a large dish dedicated to KU.

Maybe that's an issue for you?

 

[mattopia]

I have a Prodelin 6 ft KU dish on this sat, and a MicroHD receiver, and I've never had this issue. Now, a 6ft KU dish may be overkill, but low signal isn't a problem for me with such a large dish dedicated to KU.

Maybe that's an issue for you?

It's possible I am watching a DVB-S2 feed right now on AMC9 with 52% quality and no issues. I get 62-63% on the LPB mux (up a bit after tweaking the dish today) and I'm still having issues. Sometimes it will be fine for 10-15 minutes. I tried a few minutes ago, hoping the few extra % Q would help, but it started to pixelate within about 2 minutes. Based on other comments in the thread, this mux must be a tricky one - I'm just not sure if it's signal, or if there's something with this mux that my receiver (and others on this thread) doesn't like.

I've squeezed all I can out of tweaking, so it shall remain a mystery for now.

 

[Titanium]

The uplinker uses a PCI based encoder/modulator. My guess is that some TS parameter is not completely DVBS compliant. Some uplinkers encode for ATSC distribution and this can cause issues with some DVBS receivers.

 

[KE4EST]

I think Brian is on track here, because with a 4 footer I have a great signal and when it breaks up the signal quality is still strong and not fluctuating.

 

[. Raine]

Strange, I've never had a problem with LPB on a 30'' with my MicroHD. I've seen the quality drop down to as low as 28% when it's raining/overcast and it still plays fine.

 

[skysurfer]

watch the weather in Baton Rouge the next time you have issues as it might be the weather.

A few weeks (or months?) ago, I was going over SES-2 Ku-band and noticed LPB was extremely low signal when I was unable to lock it while the rest of the bird looked fine. A few moments later, the signal recovered and I got lock. Minutes later, it was lower signal strength but still lockable and over the timeframe of a hour, you could see the signal at various levels until it stabilized back at normal signal strength. Out of a hunch, I pulled up the radar and they were having heavy rain over Baton Rouge and then it made some sense to me that heavy/light rain periods were likely affecting their uplinked signal.