Where's The Best Place To Have My 5402 Repaired?

As the title suggests, I need to have my stb repaired. There's been a problem with its hdmi socket for some time with the display on the telly going and off at random.

This morning there's no output from this socket at all and I'd like to gt it repaired asap. The box is patched and with there being no output I can't download the original firmware. Might this be an extra concern?

Hi killdeer,

Try this mate...

Connect your TM 5402 HD to your TV with a Scart lead... then follow the instructions on the following thread...

https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/index.php?threads/285809/#2

NB
The TM 5402 HD doesn't have a 'Menu' button on the front panel... so press and hold down the 'Power' button instead.

I hope this helps...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Thanks Zorch, helpful as always.

The output from the hdmi socket has suddenly started working again but I'll have to do something about the problem sooner rather than later. I spoke on the phone to a local TV engineer but he wouldn't or couldn't fix himself and he didn't know of anyone else who might be able to apart from the manufacturer. He said that the connections to the hdmi socket are so tiny that magnification must be used to re-solder any joints.

I must admit I hadn't thought of using the scart connection to get a display. I might give Technomate a ring later this week to get some sort of estimate for the repair.

Just a thought but are you confident that there's a hardware fault as the symptoms you describe might also be caused by negotiation of the video formate between your TM and TV. I recently spent some time chasing an elusive problem untiil I realised that I must have accidentally changed the v.format from the "auto" I usually leave it on. (Apologies if I'm stating the obvious)

33Meadow said:

Just a thought but are you confident that there's a hardware fault as the symptoms you describe might also be caused by negotiation of the video formate between your TM and TV. I recently spent some time chasing an elusive problem untiil I realised that I must have accidentally changed the v.format from the "auto" I usually leave it on. (Apologies if I'm stating the obvious)

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestion but I believe it's the hdmi socket itself because when I've inadvertently touched it in the past the picture on the TV flashed and the sound crackled loudly.

The problem as I see it is the fact that the hdmi and usb sockets are much too close to each other and when I plug in a usb stick or remove it then my fingers inevitably touch the hdmi plug. I also use a WD hard drive which has to be unplugged to attach the usb stick. I tried using a flylead for usb connections but I seem to remember that the hard drive wasn't getting enough power to work properly.

I just took a look at v.formate and it was set to 1080i and reset it to auto. However, the picture on some channels seemed to suffer slightly and so I put it back to what it was.

Hi again killdeer,

Which patch did you have on mate... was it the latest 1.33p...?

I've noticed a few strange things happening on my receiver when using this patch...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Know what you mean about the proximity of the sockets. I use a flying lead for the usb but rather than a hard drive I prefer "big" memory sticks for recording and back them off to my desktop pc if there are things I want to keep longterm. Personally, I prefer the auto setting on the v. formate as I dislike 4:3 pictures being distorted which is what I get if I leave things set at 1080i.

@33Meadow

33Meadow said:

Personally, I prefer the auto setting on the v. formate as I dislike 4:3 pictures being distorted which is what I get if I leave things set at 1080i.

Click to expand...

The Video Format has no baring on 4:3 ratio pictures being distorted... set the Screen Format to 16:9... set the Display Format to Pillar-Box and set the Video Format to 1080i/1080p ...everything will then be as it should be... 16:9 signals will auto-expand to widescreen and 4:3 signals will auto-reduce the picture back to the correct ratio...

Addendum
There are however a few 16:9 ratio channels on various satellites where the auto-expand command is not present within the signal... so you'll need to use the WIDE button on the Technomate remote for those... and there's also a few channels on various satellites where the ratio of the channel should be 4:3 but the providers have intentionally distorted the picture to 16:9 to fill the screen... these channels can only be rectified/adjusted back to the correct ratio using your TV remote control...

I hope this helps...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Zorch, thanks for the input (which I tried) but I think its a TV limitation. Some, including my ageing Philips, will only display 16:9 widescreen or awful "stretch" from a 720 or 1080 input stream. To get unadulterated 4:3, where appropriate, I find it easier to set the TM to auto for output (thereby achieving 576 when appropriate) and then adjust the picture format, if needed, via the TV remote.

I think (terrible memory) I was on 1.28p and was intending to try 1.33p which, thankfully, I've now managed to do.

I've now encountered a very strange problem with the entering of biss codes. Firstly, I entered what I thought were the correct values but the channel concerned refused to clear. On inspection, two values were incorrect and so I thought I'd made a mistake which I then corrected.
Channel still wouldn't clear and I saw the two values had reverted back to the incorrect ones. What's going on I thought.
I tried turning biss off and re-entering all the values on a new line. Still no good. Running out of ideas I entered all the values this time not from the on-screen keyboard but from the remote. Yet still these incorrect values keep appearing. Ideas anyone?

Zorch said:

Hi again killdeer,

Which patch did you have on mate... was it the latest 1.33p...?

I've noticed a few strange things happening on my receiver when using this patch...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Click to expand...

@killdeer

Try entering just the first 16 values of the key... and then set the second 16 values to zero's and save...

I hope this helps...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

H Zorch, thanks for the prompt reply.

Just tried what you suggested but the line is refusing to accept any changes. The two incorrect values remain while the second set of values stays exactly the same as the first ie the zeros are not saved either.

Zorch said:

@killdeer

Try entering just the first 16 values of the key... and then set the second 16 values to zero's and save...

I hope this helps...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Click to expand...

@killdeer

Which channel are you having the problem with...?

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Just rung Technomate to explain the problem with the hdmi socket and was advised the box is beyond economic repair.:Cry:

They went on about something to do with the main board or whatever and so effectively the box is just scrap.:nopity:

Time methinks to start saving for a Vu+ or similar.

Zorch said:

@killdeer

Which channel are you having the problem with...?

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Click to expand...

The channel is Sinema TV Askyon HD, 12685H 5.160 on 4.8 east.

I've had no such problem with its sister channel Sinema TV Ask HD, same parameters.

@killdeer

No problem here mate...

Edit: You've got the wrong S/R it's now 5600

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Zorch it's got me completely dumbfounded.

I'll leave the box on standby for a while and try tackling this issue later.

@killdeer

Changing the Symbol Rate to 5600 will help considerably... however there's another factor to take into consideration... that being the level of Signal Quality that you are achieving on this DVB-S2/8PSK/MPEG-4 transponder... if your Signal Quality level drops too low (even though the signal is still locked) then all you'll get is the Scrambled Channel message on-screen... and from what I can see... Sinema TV Aksiyon HD is slightly weaker than Sinema TV Ask HD

I hope this helps...

Best Wishes,
Zorch

Hi Zorch, thanks for helping me to try and sort this out.
I've just checked this moment and I've have got the symbol rate set to 5600.
The signal quality for the Aksyion channel is 88% and so there shouldn't be a problem as far as that is concerned.
On an unused biss line I've re-entered the correct values but once again, although I've saved them, where the 4th and 12th ones are, instead of D5 I get a 1F.
Nothing I've tried has made any difference and I can't figure out why this is happening.
If I set all the values to zero then they're all stored as zero but, as before, when the correct ones are entered I get a 1F.
If I set all to 11 then at positions 4, 8, 12 and 16 I get 33 displayed!

D5 is 5th and 13th
Are you entering correct biss keys.