Problems with new Freesat box

pinkllama

hi all,

hopefully someone can help me with this.

I've just bought a Bush HD Freesat box from Argos.

Reception is showing as 69%

I have a Logik 720p HD TV & the two are connected via an HDMI cable.

When the box is set to output 720p HD channels suffer from signal drop (the screen goes blank and sound is lost) for about 2 seconds every 30 seconds or so. When watching SD channels a white flash appears on the screen for a few milliseconds every 30 seconds or so.

If, through the Freesat settings, I set the box to output at 576p, both HD and SD channels display a perfect picture.

Does anyone know how I can view HD channels at 720p? There are no settings on the TV's menu that seem to be relevant.

Thanks

almillar

This sounds like a poor quality HDMI cable. As long as the cable is plugged in properly at both ends, the next thing I would do would be to test with another (known good) cable, sounds like it can't even cope with 720p badwidth, never mind full HD!

macman

If that's the 'budget' (I'm trying to be polite here) box made by Alba and branded variously as Goodmans/Bush etc, and the HDMI cable is bundled with it, I would imagine it's the cheapest one they could find, hence the problem.

pinkllama

thanks for the advice.

how much should i spend to get a quality HDMI cable?

lucylucky

No more than £5

pinkllama

Would this one be ok?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5349704/Trail/searchtext%3EHDMI+CABLE.htm

I know it's a Bush one! I'm hoping it'll be of a better quality than the one in the box.

Inactive

pinkllama wrote: »

Would this one be ok?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5349704/Trail/searchtext%3EHDMI+CABLE.htm

I know it's a Bush one! I'm hoping it'll be of a better quality than the one in the box.

Buy it, try it, take it back if it is no good.;)

pinkllama

I've just been on the phone to Bush U.K

The guy I spoke to seemed to know his stuff regarding the problem. An update that fixes some HD picture problems (amoung other things) is being released OTA on the 11th June. He did'nt have a specific changelog for the update.

He said that if the update does not fix the problem, then it's most likely a 'handshake protocol' problem, ie an incompatibility with my TV.

I'm going to wait until the 11th to see if the update fixes the problem.

Even if the update doesn't fix the problem, I may just keep the box, as at a viewing distance of about 3 metres, I can't tell the difference between 720p and 576p on my 32" LCD TV. Not sure if that means my screen is a duffer!