On Jun 6, 6:02 pm, " wrote:
On Jun 5, 5:50 pm, Steve wrote:

About troubles with TV & Hotbird... much snipped.

Steve:

Been there (al Khobar (Al Bustan) 2.5 years), done that. Where are
you?

My experience along the lines you are suggesting is that you are
likely feeding the wrong signal to the TV. Unless it is a multi-system
set (NTSC, NTSC2, PAL, PAL2, SECAM) the Hotbird down load might not be
compatible with the front-end on the set. So, either you change the
output to the set, or you go to the *auto-search* setting on the set
itself such that it finds the correct system to match the input. We
brought our Sony "smart-set" WEGA back with us and it has been quite
an interesting transition seeing it with only NTSC (Never The Same
Color) only signals as compared to PAL rF signal or direct signal
from our DVD player (which we also brought back).

But it can be solved unless the set does not have a smart front-end.
Further to this, some Sony models have inputs that are not
identical... example, the dedicated DVD input on the Sony does not
like our US obtained Chinese Philips DVD player, whereas that player
is fine when connected to the AUX 1 position. And it yet works fine
with our Saudi-obtained Panasonic DVD player. And channel numbers in
the US do not register with the channel numbers on the Sony. Sometimes
auto-search put the TV broadcast and/or cable channel as many as 5
numbers different than the US channel.

Hope this helps.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

21 June 07

Hi Peter

Thanx for the advice and sorry for the delayed response. I've been in
Dhahran for 16 years now, obviously a total basket case. I work for
BAE Systems and started off living in the infamous Al Gosaibi
compound, moving to Golden belt for a while and then Riyadh A
compound, a mirror of the original Riyadh B compound that used to be
near Al Bustan. BAE also used to rent the Al Hada compound opposite
Al Bustan, it was much loved by it's bachelor residents which is
presumable why BAE built a new bachelor complex at Aziziyah directly
under the airbase flightpath and about as far away from shops and
amenities as it's possible to get and then forced the bachelors out of
Al Hada to move there... still, the 'Sid' is still relatively cheap!

Concerning the TV, it is auto multisystem with the smart front end.
Retuning the TV and selecting another Channel number for the satbox
output didn't help. Other S video devices (using S Video to S Video
cable) work fine in the Bravia's S video input socket and the sat
box's composite video out also works fine. A different SCART to S
Video cable didn't help, still giving me the 'B/W' picture. See below
for my answer to another suggestion of checking a 'test card'
screen. I have not located another similar satbox to try. It's
quite frustrating, I'll probably find the satbox's S video chrominance
signal is 1 nanovolt too small for the Bravias or something like
that...