07-05-2023 11:36 - edited 07-05-2023 11:38
I had posted my stats previously, and had loads of post RS errors.
I have a hub 5 which is fed by a 4 way amplifier. The incoming signal is by an RG6 cable given the distance, but the RF signal may be a tad too strong.
I had an engineer come out a while back and he fitted forward path attenuators on to all the boxes and the hub, and told me to keep an eye out, as it was literally trial and error. I tried it for a few days, and it made it worse, the picture on all 3 of the 360 boxes kept on pixelating. He fitted a 3dB attenuator on all 3 of the boxes and a 6 dB on the hub.
I took a screen grab of just the hub 5 having its 6dB resistor and got the following
Channel | Frequency (Hz) | Power (dBmV) | SNR (dB) | Modulation | Channel ID | Channel | Locked Status | RxMER (dB) | Pre RS Errors | Post RS Errors |
1 | 306000000 | 3.7 | 37 | QAM 256 | 22 | 1 | Locked | 37 | 814 | 41 |
2 | 138000000 | 5.7 | 36 | QAM 256 | 1 | 2 | Locked | 36 | 3766 | 293 |
3 | 146000000 | 5.5 | 39 | QAM 256 | 2 | 3 | Locked | 39 | 4709 | 569 |
4 | 154000000 | 5.3 | 38 | QAM 256 | 3 | 4 | Locked | 38 | 4059 | 1458 |
5 | 162000000 | 5.1 | 38 | QAM 256 | 4 | 5 | Locked | 38 | 2125 | 220 |
6 | 170000000 | 5 | 39 | QAM 256 | 5 | 6 | Locked | 39 | 1636 | 437 |
7 | 178000000 | 5 | 38 | QAM 256 | 6 | 7 | Locked | 38 | 1361 | 353 |
8 | 186000000 | 5 | 38 | QAM 256 | 7 | 8 | Locked | 38 | 1796 | 1064 |
9 | 194000000 | 5 | 36 | QAM 256 | 8 | 9 | Locked | 36 | 1029 | 202 |
10 | 202000000 | 4.9 | 39 | QAM 256 | 9 | 10 | Locked | 39 | 923 | 79 |
11 | 210000000 | 5 | 38 | QAM 256 | 10 | 11 | Locked | 38 | 1032 | 35 |
12 | 218000000 | 5 | 38 | QAM 256 | 11 | 12 | Locked | 38 | 1257 | 64 |
13 | 226000000 | 4.9 | 38 | QAM 256 | 12 | 13 | Locked | 38 | 1478 | 47 |
14 | 234000000 | 4.8 | 38 | QAM 256 | 13 | 14 | Locked | 38 | 1401 | 22 |
15 | 242000000 | 4.7 | 39 | QAM 256 | 14 | 15 | Locked | 39 | 1281 | 33 |
16 | 250000000 | 4.4 | 39 | QAM 256 | 15 | 16 | Locked | 39 | 1302 | 32 |
17 | 258000000 | 4.1 | 38 | QAM 256 | 16 | 17 | Locked | 38 | 1268 | 36 |
18 | 266000000 | 3.8 | 38 | QAM 256 | 17 | 18 | Locked | 38 | 1203 | 39 |
19 | 274000000 | 3.4 | 39 | QAM 256 | 18 | 19 | Locked | 39 | 1173 | 52 |
20 | 282000000 | 3.2 | 37 | QAM 256 | 19 | 20 | Locked | 37 | 1206 | 38 |
21 | 290000000 | 3.4 | 37 | QAM 256 | 20 | 21 | Locked | 37 | 1092 | 37 |
22 | 298000000 | 3.6 | 39 | QAM 256 | 21 | 22 | Locked | 39 | 982 | 37 |
23 | 314000000 | 3.7 | 38 | QAM 256 | 23 | 23 | Locked | 38 | 716 | 34 |
24 | 322000000 | 3.6 | 37 | QAM 256 | 24 | 24 | Locked | 37 | 606 | 41 |
25 | 330000000 | 3.4 | 38 | QAM 256 | 25 | 25 | Locked | 38 | 475 | 29 |
26 | 338000000 | 3.4 | 38 | QAM 256 | 26 | 26 | Locked | 38 | 386 | 37 |
27 | 346000000 | 3.3 | 38 | QAM 256 | 27 | 27 | Locked | 38 | 323 | 34 |
28 | 354000000 | 3.1 | 38 | QAM 256 | 28 | 28 | Locked | 38 | 247 | 36 |
29 | 362000000 | 3 | 38 | QAM 256 | 29 | 29 | Locked | 38 | 234 | 33 |
30 | 370000000 | 2.9 | 37 | QAM 256 | 30 | 30 | Locked | 37 | 241 | 28 |
31 | 378000000 | 3 | 38 | QAM 256 | 31 | 31 | Locked | 38 | 222 | 28 |
I then reset the hub, and placed a 3 dB attenuator on the cable before it hit the splitter, and then on the hub 5 I placed a 10 dB forward path attenuator. cont... next post down
Answered! Go to Answer
on 24-05-2023 09:38
Hi Mda99das,
Thanks for coming back to us about your connection, we're thrilled to hear the tweaking you and the engineer did has now resolved the issue 🤗
Of course if you start to see a dip in the performance please come back to us!
Thanks,
Megan_L
on 07-05-2023 11:37
Here are the results:
Channel | Frequency (Hz) | Power (dBmV) | SNR (dB) | Modulation | Channel ID | Channel | Locked Status | RxMER (dB) | Pre RS Errors | Post RS Errors |
1 | 330000000 | -3.6 | 37 | QAM 256 | 25 | 1 | Locked | 37 | 21 | 0 |
2 | 138000000 | -1.2 | 38 | QAM 256 | 1 | 2 | Locked | 38 | 99 | 39 |
3 | 146000000 | -1.2 | 39 | QAM 256 | 2 | 3 | Locked | 39 | 223 | 45 |
4 | 154000000 | -1.4 | 37 | QAM 256 | 3 | 4 | Locked | 37 | 101 | 39 |
5 | 162000000 | -1.6 | 37 | QAM 256 | 4 | 5 | Locked | 37 | 23 | 37 |
6 | 170000000 | -1.7 | 38 | QAM 256 | 5 | 6 | Locked | 38 | 30 | 34 |
7 | 178000000 | -1.7 | 39 | QAM 256 | 6 | 7 | Locked | 39 | 101 | 39 |
8 | 186000000 | -1.8 | 35 | QAM 256 | 7 | 8 | Locked | 35 | 94 | 38 |
9 | 194000000 | -1.8 | 37 | QAM 256 | 8 | 9 | Locked | 37 | 34 | 38 |
10 | 202000000 | -2 | 39 | QAM 256 | 9 | 10 | Locked | 39 | 18 | 27 |
11 | 210000000 | -1.9 | 39 | QAM 256 | 10 | 11 | Locked | 39 | 15 | 26 |
12 | 218000000 | -1.9 | 38 | QAM 256 | 11 | 12 | Locked | 38 | 19 | 28 |
13 | 226000000 | -2.1 | 37 | QAM 256 | 12 | 13 | Locked | 37 | 12 | 35 |
14 | 234000000 | -2.1 | 39 | QAM 256 | 13 | 14 | Locked | 39 | 16 | 27 |
15 | 242000000 | -2.3 | 39 | QAM 256 | 14 | 15 | Locked | 39 | 30 | 4 |
16 | 250000000 | -2.5 | 38 | QAM 256 | 15 | 16 | Locked | 38 | 28 | 0 |
17 | 258000000 | -2.8 | 38 | QAM 256 | 16 | 17 | Locked | 38 | 35 | 2 |
18 | 266000000 | -3 | 39 | QAM 256 | 17 | 18 | Locked | 39 | 24 | 16 |
19 | 274000000 | -3.5 | 39 | QAM 256 | 18 | 19 | Locked | 39 | 38 | 12 |
20 | 282000000 | -3.7 | 38 | QAM 256 | 19 | 20 | Locked | 38 | 35 | 17 |
21 | 290000000 | -3.6 | 37 | QAM 256 | 20 | 21 | Locked | 37 | 38 | 0 |
22 | 298000000 | -3.4 | 38 | QAM 256 | 21 | 22 | Locked | 38 | 37 | 0 |
23 | 306000000 | -3.2 | 37 | QAM 256 | 22 | 23 | Locked | 37 | 27 | 0 |
24 | 314000000 | -3.2 | 38 | QAM 256 | 23 | 24 | Locked | 38 | 24 | 0 |
25 | 322000000 | -3.4 | 37 | QAM 256 | 24 | 25 | Locked | 37 | 17 | 0 |
26 | 338000000 | -3.7 | 38 | QAM 256 | 26 | 26 | Locked | 38 | 27 | 0 |
27 | 346000000 | -3.9 | 37 | QAM 256 | 27 | 27 | Locked | 37 | 42 | 0 |
28 | 354000000 | -4.1 | 38 | QAM 256 | 28 | 28 | Locked | 38 | 31 | 0 |
29 | 362000000 | -4 | 38 | QAM 256 | 29 | 29 | Locked | 38 | 40 | 0 |
30 | 370000000 | -4.2 | 38 | QAM 256 | 30 | 30 | Locked | 38 | 19 | 0 |
31 | 378000000 | -4.2 | 37 | QAM 256 | 31 | 31 | Locked | 37 | 27 | 0 |
The hub has been running for 5 days now, the previous results hadn't had a physical hub restart for months.
You can see that the errors are between channels 2 and 14.
I was trying to stream the coronation in 4K from sky news you tube, but it kept buffering. The TV channels were fine.
I then later was watching the football and there was some pixilation, but if you scroll up 1 channel and come back down, its fine.
I did ask the engineer if it was possible to have a splitter that is not amplified, i.e. passive, and there would be enough resistance to keep things in check. He agreed that would be a logical solution, but did not have one in his van. Possible faults are
1) Hub 5
2) Wiring issue, unlikely as I have an RG6 cable which is chunky and has great shielding
3) possible issues with the splitter, they are very susceptible to voltage spikes, and speaking to the engineer, he mentioned that it just has to be a few mili volts out to cause issues.
Changing to a 10dB attenuator has managed to remove a lot of the error messages that said warning, in excess of 6dB, and the dBmv is closer to zero and the spread has decreased.
Any thoughts on what I should try next?
on 07-05-2023 12:14
Seems very strange that you need a powered amplifier when your signal is so strong you need to use FPA's?
I would try to get VM to supply a standard splitter and see how that works out.
As for the Hub being up for months, any VM CS will tell you to reboot the Hub on a weekly basis.
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on 07-05-2023 13:12
that's exactly my thoughts. I don't need a VM tech to keep coming back, as this is something that is literally trial and error. If they could post one out that would be great.
on 09-05-2023 13:24
Hi @mda99das,
Thank you for your posts and welcome to our community forums. We're here to help.
I'm very sorry to hear of your recent problems with your connection. I've just checked over things on our systems and I'm unable to detect any faults currently that would explain this. How are things for you today? Any better, or are the problems still present?
Thanks,
on 09-05-2023 17:19
Hi Zach, some of the sports channels become pixelated but when you scroll up one channel and back down it settles down mostly. I am still getting post RCS errors but this is much lower than the previous time. Last time the engineer came out he said it is really just trying different combinations until we get the desired outcome. I feel where the problem lies is that I have an active splitter which can be susceptible to voltage spikes. Can you arrange for a 4 way passive splitter to be sent so I can try this? I have already placed a 3dB forward path attenuator on the RF in cable, and the hub 5 has a 10dB forward path attenuator.
FYI I have 3 boxes and 1 Hub 5
on 11-05-2023 20:04
Hi mda99das,
Thanks for coming back to us on this one.
We wouldn't be able to send this sort of thing out to you I'm afraid. If one was needed then an engineer would have advised on this and provided one.
I've double checked things this end and can see many of your downstream power levels are too low. We won't be able to fix this remotely so I would like to arrange for an engineer to come to take a look at this for you. You can chat to them about the splitter you've mentioned too.
I just need to confirm the address to ensure we are booking the visit on the correct account. I have sent you a direct message to allow us to do this with you in a private space. If you are using a PC/Laptop then you can just click on the little ✉ at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox. If you are on a mobile/tablet device then instead click on the little circle icon in the top right then select 'Messages'. 😊
Thanks,
on 12-05-2023 13:05
Hi mda99das,
Thanks for coming back to via private message to confirm your information. 🤩
I have booked you in for the next available appointment. To view this please sign in to My Virgin Media here 👉 My VM. Once you log in scroll down to Orders & appointments then click on View your orders. Please note it can take up to 24 hours to show but you should also receive a text message with the details. You can also view this in the My VM app. If you have any issues with accessing your account or unable to see your visit, please do let us know and we’ll pop you a message to pass data protection and confirm the appointment details.
Just to confirm, there will be no charge for this visit unless:
Please ensure there is someone over the age of 18 present at the time of the visit. If you need to change or cancel your appointment you can do this online or via the MyVM app by 4pm the day before the appointment. If you do miss an agreed appointment for any reason, a £25 missed appointment charge will be applied to your account on the day of the appointment.
We will continue to monitor your services and if we can see that the fault has cleared and the visit is no longer required we will cancel the appointment and let you know by text and email.
Let us know how the appointment goes. 😊
Take care.
on 19-05-2023 08:11
Thanks for sending the technician out, he changed the forward path attenuator
I just rebooted the hub yesterday as there was still some post RS error, but I had a spreadsheet of what it was like before and there was a marginal gain.
24 hrs so far:
Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors
1 | Locked | 37 | 18 | 0 |
2 | Locked | 38 | 48 | 0 |
3 | Locked | 39 | 151 | 0 |
4 | Locked | 38 | 55 | 0 |
5 | Locked | 38 | 13 | 0 |
6 | Locked | 38 | 12 | 0 |
7 | Locked | 39 | 70 | 0 |
8 | Locked | 38 | 95 | 0 |
9 | Locked | 37 | 16 | 0 |
10 | Locked | 35 | 8 | 0 |
11 | Locked | 38 | 9 | 0 |
12 | Locked | 38 | 9 | 0 |
13 | Locked | 39 | 20 | 0 |
14 | Locked | 38 | 12 | 0 |
15 | Locked | 39 | 5 | 0 |
16 | Locked | 37 | 10 | 0 |
17 | Locked | 37 | 7 | 0 |
18 | Locked | 38 | 8 | 0 |
19 | Locked | 38 | 14 | 0 |
20 | Locked | 38 | 23 | 0 |
21 | Locked | 38 | 15 | 0 |
22 | Locked | 37 | 10 | 0 |
23 | Locked | 38 | 19 | 0 |
24 | Locked | 38 | 24 | 0 |
25 | Locked | 36 | 15 | 0 |
26 | Locked | 38 | 27 | 0 |
27 | Locked | 38 | 41 | 0 |
28 | Locked | 37 | 44 | 0 |
29 | Locked | 38 | 23 | 0 |
30 | Locked | 38 | 33 | 0 |
31 | Locked | 37 | 32 | 0 |
on 21-05-2023 10:38
Hi @mda99das
Thanks for your response
Have you noticed if the connection has improved since? How are you now getting on with the connection?
Regards