Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

I just wanted to ask this out of curiosity. I had noticed some time
ago when watching one of those Top 100 celebrity buttmunch Things
They Did which are Stupid programs on a sat channel that the sound
died, completely. I kept checking back and after a very long time a
message came up to say the sound was faulty. Anyway, some time over
the Christmas period there was a series of Catherine Cookson showings
on UKTVdrama which, due to their length, my wife asked me to tape on
my dvdr machine. I recorded each night and generally they were fine,
but no way could I sit through these things as they recorded, it would
have driven me even more insane... any road up, to cut a long story
short and to stop beating about the bush when it came to her watching
the recordings she found one (The Girl) had a few minutes of blank
sound, at the end of which the picture kind of kicked then the sound
came back on. This struck me as a possible DVDr thing, with the
picture doing the little kick thing too. But the other recording was
much worse. This was a story called the Round Tower. About forty
minutes or so into the recording the sound drops off entirely and
never returned.

I have been having other problems with my setup but I'll write about
those on another occasion, I am just curious whether anyone else has
come across similar problems. I have often noticed very small sound
glitches on SKY anyway, specially if recording music channels, and
have recently switched from my old Amstrad sky box to a newer Pace
one, so I'll see how it goes.


Sorry this is all so long winded but I really have been getting
problems lately and this is just one of them. The only other things I
can point out are that my setup then threaded the signal via scart
through my VCR and into my dvdr and also, with this Panasonic recorder
I often and did use the exact length recording trick to set precise 2
hours 50 minutes or whatever... don't know if that may have effected
anything. I have watched other recordings without problem and my wife
has watched the rest of the Cooksons without anything other than small
glitches. We certainly haven't had the time to watch ALL of the
recordings I made during this period though.


--
Paul (Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Paul Heslop wrote:
the recordings she found one (The Girl) had a few minutes of blank
sound, at the end of which the picture kind of kicked then the sound
came back on. This struck me as a possible DVDr thing, with the
picture doing the little kick thing too. But the other recording was
much worse. This was a story called the Round Tower. About forty
minutes or so into the recording the sound drops off entirely and
never returned.

There's a few possibilities. The main two would be a) there was a
transmission problem - the only way you could verify that was if someone
else was watching or recording the transmission via Sky and remembers
the same problem, and b) you've got a dodgy SCART connection somewhere -
depending on what pins lose contact you can lose sound, or just left or
right, or a varying combination of sound and picture. The "kick" on the
first recording could have been a vibration somewhere remaking the
connection (and momentarily breaking others). Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs between the Sky box and the DVDR, or
remaking all the connections?

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs .. . .

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team


So that's what science and engineering is!

Cheers

Bill

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Angus Rae wrote:

Paul Heslop wrote:
the recordings she found one (The Girl) had a few minutes of blank
sound, at the end of which the picture kind of kicked then the sound
came back on. This struck me as a possible DVDr thing, with the
picture doing the little kick thing too. But the other recording was
much worse. This was a story called the Round Tower. About forty
minutes or so into the recording the sound drops off entirely and
never returned.

There's a few possibilities. The main two would be a) there was a
transmission problem - the only way you could verify that was if someone
else was watching or recording the transmission via Sky and remembers
the same problem, and b) you've got a dodgy SCART connection somewhere -
depending on what pins lose contact you can lose sound, or just left or
right, or a varying combination of sound and picture. The "kick" on the
first recording could have been a vibration somewhere remaking the
connection (and momentarily breaking others). Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs between the Sky box and the DVDR, or
remaking all the connections?

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

I have actually gone a little further than that in replacing a couple
of older scarts since then. I have a problem in that I suffer from OCD
(obsessive compulsive disorder) and have a fight on with myself to put
things right when they go wrong, the old brain starts screaming about
the end of the world if you touch that plug etc etc, so it was a long
struggle before I plucked up courage, bought a couple of newer heavy
duty scarts to replace two smaller thin ones. Now I have four heavy
duty leads.

The other problems I mentioned having also affect sound though, and
are much more complex, but like I said, I'll post re those in a
separate thread when I can get my head round it.

My main concern was that the dvd recorder was not the cause of the
problem, obviously it wouldn't be much fun doing loads of recordings
then finding half of them have huge blank swathes in their sound.

--
Paul (Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Bill Wright wrote:

"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs .. . .

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team


So that's what science and engineering is!

Cheers

Bill

Heh heh, thanks for the chuckle Bill :O)

--
Paul (Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Bill Wright wrote:
"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs .. . .

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team


So that's what science and engineering is!

At least it didn't cost £1.50 per minute for that advice.

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Bill Wright wrote:
"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs .. . .
--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team

So that's what science and engineering is!

I've just noticed that my signature appears to have lost the massively
important "Computing Services" part at some point... I do computer
support, me. Not science or engineering. Just _for_ science &
engineering. Must fix that.

But, having said that - tapping and or hitting things is a remarkably
efficient way of determining and fixing some issues. Older computer
fixers will remember the power of the six inch drop...

Percussive maintenance rules!

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team
Computing Services
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Angus Rae wrote:

snip

But, having said that - tapping and or hitting things is a
remarkably efficient way of determining and fixing some issues.
Older computer fixers will remember the power of the six inch
drop...

Percussive maintenance rules!

*****

I have always assumed that 90% of all electronic faults are actually
electrical faults, and 90% of all electrical faults are actually
mechanical faults.

André Coutanche

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Angus Rae wrote:

Bill Wright wrote:
"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Have you tried gently
tapping all the SCART plugs .. . .
--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team

So that's what science and engineering is!

I've just noticed that my signature appears to have lost the massively
important "Computing Services" part at some point... I do computer
support, me. Not science or engineering. Just _for_ science &
engineering. Must fix that.

But, having said that - tapping and or hitting things is a remarkably
efficient way of determining and fixing some issues. Older computer
fixers will remember the power of the six inch drop...

Percussive maintenance rules!

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team
Computing Services
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

Our old TV, a samsung, was transported from yorkshire to the north
East, and when we came to use it there was a distinct high pitched
squeal. Rather than risk something blowing I just switched it off and
used a reserve tv, but some months later I was thinking of having it
repaired, brought it out, hooked it up and switched, to be greeted by
the squeal... at which point I gave the machine a sharp slap on the
side and ping, the noise stopped! I assume something had worked loose
during transport?
--
Paul (Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Bill Wright wrote:
"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
I've just noticed that my signature appears to have lost the massively
important "Computing Services" part at some point... I do computer
support, me. Not science or engineering. Just _for_ science & engineering.
Must fix that.

Give it a tap.

Bill

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

"André Coutanche" wrote in message
...
Angus Rae wrote:


I have always assumed that 90% of all electronic faults are actually
electrical faults, and 90% of all electrical faults are actually
mechanical faults.

and 90% of all mechanical faults are human faults in the factory.

Bill

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

"Paul Heslop" wrote in message
...
Our old TV, a samsung, was transported from yorkshire to the north
East, and when we came to use it there was a distinct high pitched
squeal. Rather than risk something blowing I just switched it off and
used a reserve tv, but some months later I was thinking of having it
repaired, brought it out, hooked it up and switched, to be greeted by
the squeal... at which point I gave the machine a sharp slap on the
side and ping, the noise stopped! I assume something had worked loose
during transport?

No you'd given the mouse a heart attack!

Bill

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

Bill Wright wrote:

"Paul Heslop" wrote in message
...
Our old TV, a samsung, was transported from yorkshire to the north
East, and when we came to use it there was a distinct high pitched
squeal. Rather than risk something blowing I just switched it off and
used a reserve tv, but some months later I was thinking of having it
repaired, brought it out, hooked it up and switched, to be greeted by
the squeal... at which point I gave the machine a sharp slap on the
side and ping, the noise stopped! I assume something had worked loose
during transport?

No you'd given the mouse a heart attack!

Bill

heh heh
--
Paul (Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Massive audio loss when recording from sky?
 

The message
from "André Coutanche" contains these words:

Angus Rae wrote:

snip

But, having said that - tapping and or hitting things is a
remarkably efficient way of determining and fixing some issues.
Older computer fixers will remember the power of the six inch
drop...

Percussive maintenance rules!

*****

I have always assumed that 90% of all electronic faults are actually
electrical faults, and 90% of all electrical faults are actually
mechanical faults.

So, overall, 81% of all electronic faults are actually mechanical
faults? Well, I won't disagree with that hypothesis, I believe that
approximates pretty close to the underlying causes of electronic
failures myself.

However, most computer problems tend to be software related but it's as
well to make the obvious hardware tests before being led up the garden
path in search of the impossible dream, a software fix to a hardware
problem.

When I get my customers to deliver their ailing system boxes to my
workbench, the "Six Inch Drop Test" is redundent since the act of
transportation usually acts as an equivilent substitute. :-)

If a customer's PC fails to demonstrate the reported fault when set up
on my workbench, it's obvious that anything and everything that remotely
involves some sort of connector needs a good looking at before
proceeding any further.

Even when the fault remains unaffected by the stresses of
transportation to my workbench, I'll still check the 'connectors' if
there's the slightest hint to suggest the possibility of any such
mechanical problems being the root cause of failure.

With experience, it becomes common sense to do such checks to eliminate
"The Usual Suspects" in the matter of detecting the true culprit for the
problem.

--
Regards, John.

To reply directly, please remove "buttplug" .Mail via the
"Reply Direct" button and Spam-bots will be rejected.