AZBOX AZ Box Finds TPs But NO Channels On Blind Scan

[Lone Gunman]

Ok so both my AZBox receivers had started acting kinda funky so I decided that I would "fix" them?? Ask me how that has worked out so far?!?!?! NOT TOO GOOD!!

On my Ultra I went from 5020 up to 5305 after backing up my channel data. The update went without problems and after that I did a factory reset then reloaded my channel backup data.

Once I got everything reconfigured I did a scan to see how it worked and I did that scan on a known satellite that I had just scanned in on my S9. It found 21 channels on two TPs. When I did a scan on that same satellite with the AZBox with the 5305 firmware I got the same two TPs but NO channels?

So, thinking that something had gone wrong with the upgrade I proceeded to do it all over again. This time I formatted the application area then loaded the 5305 firmware again then once I got it booted back up I did another factory reset and configured everything yet again adding my channel list data. Did another scan of that same satellite and got the same results, ie, two TPs scanned in but NO CHANNELS? WTF??

So I backed out of that menu then went to the satellite scan menu and it scanned in 22 channels from those two TPs?? Deleted those channels and TPs and tried another blind scan and STILL got NO channels?? Then went to the Satellite scan menu and those channels scanned in again like before??

I went back and formatted the application area yet again and installed 5020, etc and guess what? SAME CRAP!! Scans in those same two TPs but no channels unless I go up to the other scan menu and rescan it there.

So about now I'm pulling my hair out wondering why this isn't working? So I did yet another format and 5020 install but didn't install my channel backup thinking that might be causing this problem but alas, even after setting up that single satellite and doing a scan I get the same thing, two TPs and no channels.

So does anyone have any idea why this is happening or how to fix it? I mean it's working but has that extra step to get the channels to scan in.

 

[Magic Static]

I feel your pain. My Ultra went down hill with every update and I never did get it to work as good as when I first got it. I finally sold it. Let someone else have some fun.

 

[Lone Gunman]

My Ultra went down hill with every update

Thanks for the encouraging words.

Kinda seems that these firmware upgrades DO NOT replace all the files that are in that OS, which makes me wonder if there IS a procedure/firmware that does?

Good news is that it's still usable like it is, just another step to complete the blind scan process is all. If I can't fix it then I'll just use it like it is as I mostly use my S9 anyway except for 4.2.2 stuff.

One thing I've learned though is I'll never ever pay that much money for ANY receiver again.

 

[Keith Brannen]

It has been talked about before:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/279818-Blind-scan-finds-transponders-but-shows-0-channels

Besides what is talked about on that thread, I also wonder whether during the blind scan phase that it doesn't wait as long on each transponder to get the information needed, whereas on the satellite scan (or transponder scan) it waits a bit longer and gets the information. I have noticed on both my Pansat and the AZBox that some transponders give up their information quickly, while with others it takes a lot longer.

 

[madmadworld]

8 out 10 times after a blind scan it will miss a few channels. and need a sat scan to get them. did this from day 1.
20- 30 a scan. almost never misses anything above 3000 sr
this is why if looking for live event not the box to use.
5020 here too since i got it.
heres hooping it just the 1 sat for you.
good luck

 

[madmadworld]

I have noticed on both my Pansat and the AZBox that some transponders give up their information quickly, while with others it takes a lot longer.

Pansat's hate some of those 3074 sr's on g3 even before the 16psk's showed up
the 3500 is the best non s2 blind scan ever made. where is that code writer ?

 

[Lone Gunman]

heres hooping it just the 1 sat for you.
good luck

Nope, it did it on a half dozen others that I tried last night so I'd say it's system wide not an isolated satellite problem. FYI it NEVER did this before I upgraded the firmware yesterday morning.

 

[Lone Gunman]

It has been talked about before:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/279818-Blind-scan-finds-transponders-but-shows-0-channels

Besides what is talked about on that thread, I also wonder whether during the blind scan phase that it doesn't wait as long on each transponder to get the information needed, whereas on the satellite scan (or transponder scan) it waits a bit longer and gets the information. I have noticed on both my Pansat and the AZBox that some transponders give up their information quickly, while with others it takes a lot longer.

Hey Keith, thanks for the link! That one didn't show up when I searched for it. Wrong search terms I guess.

I'd never heard of this happening before but then again, I don't read every post here especially when I'm not having any problems with that particular piece of equipment. Since others seem to have this problem I guess it's something I'll just have to learn to live with. As I said up the page, I don't normally use this receiver that much anyway so I guess it won't be that much of a problem for me. Only down side is I was actually considering selling it but if it's horked up, good luck with that, hey!

Guess I'll start doing some reading on other sites in Europe and elsewhere to see if something might accidentally show up that will fix it.

Thanks,

 

[pwrsurge]

Did you try the latest 0.9.5402 firmware version along with the included satellite list? It seems that your backup satellite/channel list could be corrupted so for best results, do a "format application area" first then install the current 0.9.5402 firmware and try scanning with the included satellite list instead of restoring your backup. Please note that once installed, you may have to do a factory default and then install 0.9.5402 again if you were running older firmware in order to properly reset everything.


Best regards,

PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[Keith Brannen]

Pansat's hate some of those 3074 sr's on g3 even before the 16psk's showed up
the 3500 is the best non s2 blind scan ever made. where is that code writer ?

While I have only owned 2 FTA receivers, so I don't have hands-on experience of any others (just from what I have read), I definitely agree with the statement about the Pansat 3500! It worked great out of the box, excellent display while blind scanning (showing a list of transponders found, etc.), and performed well. I still use it, and especially use it for setup and finding of new satellites, excellent meter display and response.

 

[Keith Brannen]

Nope, it did it on a half dozen others that I tried last night so I'd say it's system wide not an isolated satellite problem. FYI it NEVER did this before I upgraded the firmware yesterday morning.

Mine might miss the odd transponder, but not a lot. Does sound like there is more to the problem (like a corrupt channel list, as pwrsurge mentions), and you did mention the receivers as being "funky" prior to this.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Did you try the latest 0.9.5402 firmware version along with the included satellite list? It seems that your backup satellite/channel list could be corrupted so for best results, do a "format application area" first then install the current 0.9.5402 firmware and try scanning with the included satellite list instead of restoring your backup. Please note that once installed, you may have to do a factory default and then install 0.9.5402 again if you were running older firmware in order to properly reset everything.


Best regards,

PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

7th paragraph down in my original post? Yes I did try 5020 WITHOUT MY CHANNEL LIST and got the same results.

And YES, I did eventually try your firmware and I did try it WITHOUT my channel backup so it's not my channel list. Formatted the application area, installed your 5402 then setup that one satellite to see if it made a difference. It DIDN'T.

Right now I'm back on 5020 WITH my channel list as I've seen nothing to tell me that there is a problem with it.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Mine might miss the odd transponder, but not a lot. Does sound like there is more to the problem (like a corrupt channel list, as pwrsurge mentions), and you did mention the receivers as being "funky" prior to this.

Keith, see my above post.

Also, the "funky" I was seeing is that anything I did with the remote took a much longer than normal and sometimes didn't work at all. I did a factory reset on my Elite and it fixed it on that one but I did have some issues with that one where PVR is concerned, ie, lockups and wouldn't play multiple music videos one after the other. This was the reason I was trying 5305 on my Ultra to see if it had any problems playing back those videos. It didn't but this other problem manifest itself as a result.

Oh, and thanks guys for trying to help. I'm not above trying stuff as maybe someone will come up with something that will fix it.

 

[pwrsurge]

7th paragraph down in my original post? Yes I did try 5020 WITHOUT MY CHANNEL LIST and got the same results.

And YES, I did eventually try your firmware and I did try it WITHOUT my channel backup so it's not my channel list. Formatted the application area, installed your 5402 then setup that one satellite to see if it made a difference. It DIDN'T.

Right now I'm back on 5020 WITH my channel list as I've seen nothing to tell me that there is a problem with it.

Which satellite and transponder(s) are you trying to blindscan in and what parameters are you using for the blindscan? We will attempt to replicate the issue over here.


Regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

 

[Keith Brannen]

Keith, see my above post.

Also, the "funky" I was seeing is that anything I did with the remote took a much longer than normal and sometimes didn't work at all. I did a factory reset on my Elite and it fixed it on that one but I did have some issues with that one where PVR is concerned, ie, lockups and wouldn't play multiple music videos one after the other. This was the reason I was trying 5305 on my Ultra to see if it had any problems playing back those videos. It didn't but this other problem manifest itself as a result.

Oh, and thanks guys for trying to help. I'm not above trying stuff as maybe someone will come up with something that will fix it.

Thanks for the detailed explanations. Strange. What satellite band, c or ku, or both? Anyhow, at least the satellite scan will get you the channels, so there is a workaround for now, if nobody can come up with anything else.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Which satellite and transponder(s) are you trying to blindscan in and what parameters are you using for the blindscan? We will attempt to replicate the issue over here.


Regards,


PwrSurge
AzBox Canada

78w, which is closest to due south (79) for me. 3885 V 23000 and 4005 V 26997 but it's also done it on 72w C/Ku, 91Ku, 99w Ku and a couple of others that don't come to mind right now. In other words, all of them at this point. Oh, and my Openbox S9 on this same system scans in those same two 78w TPs along with the same channels.

RE: Settings, I've tried it with default and also with 25000 instead of 5000 and 2000 instead of 1000 and that makes no difference either? I also only scan in TV and FTA, no radio or scrambled stuff.

I did a re-scan of 91w Ku this am and left the original TPs and channels in and it did show channels at the end of the scan then but there wasn't any new ones?? Went back and deleted those TPs and did a re-scan and got zero channels until I did a Satellite Scan.

Anyone know what firmware the Ultra was shipped with as I've got most everything back to something like 2880 or so.

Just for the hell of it, later this afternoon I'm going to put the Ultra in the SAMI system to see what it does there. I'll post those results later.

 

[Keith Brannen]

I did a re-scan of 91w Ku this am and left the original TPs and channels in and it did show channels at the end of the scan then but there wasn't any new ones?? Went back and deleted those TPs and did a re-scan and got zero channels until I did a Satellite Scan.

Walk me through how you do a scan. Do you normally delete transponders (I assume you leave one transponder per satellite?). Do you delete all channels from the satellite? If you do delete them, do you delete them from your channel list and then go delete the transponder, or just by deleting the transponder?

For example, here is how I do a blind scan. Depending on the satellite, I may delete all transponders (usually depends on when I did it last, or whether I want to spend the time deleting them, LOL!), except for those with 24/7 channels (any temporary channels are automatically removed when I re-load in my saved channel list after scanning for feeds). So, for example 91 Ku, only will have the one transponder (ABC news feeds) left. I then blind scan, for all (TV, Radio, Scrambled, & FTA).

 

[Lone Gunman]

Keith when you delete a transponder in an AZBox Elite or Ultra it automatically deletes any channels that were on it. It might do that on others too but I don't have any others to know for sure. FYI, my Openbox S9 does the same thing, ie, delete TPs and channels go away but on those you DO NOT have to keep one TP on the list.

In my channel list I always have one TP @ either 4205 H 29270 or 12205 H 29270 per satellite depending on whether it's a C or Ku bird, which are NOT TPs we would "normally" scan in. Those keep the channel list from horking up because there's no TP in a particular Sat. If there's a known TP that has something I want to make sure I keep then I leave that TP on the list, which in turn saves the associated channels, then delete the rest and do a scan.

Ok so I just got done doing a scan on my SAMI with the Ultra and it's the S. O. S.! Has TP but no channels until I back out and do a Satellite Scan. And BTW, this Ultra will only find one TP on 78w @ 3885. It won't lock the one at 4005. I guess that's the difference between a 7.5 and 10ft reflector, hey.

EDIT: Firmware 4879 is a number I remembered from way back. Did a search here and found that someone had an Ultra that had that one in so that's going in now!

EDIT2: Firmware 4879 acts the same way as the rest I've tried.

 

[Keith Brannen]

Thanks, just wanted to know what you were doing differently, to see if by doing the same thing I could duplicate the problem. After all, some times it is the stupid little things, or certain steps in a process, that really shouldn't cause any problems, but do cause it! Anyhow, still had no luck duplicating the problem, which, of course, is probably a good thing for me!

From what you have described, it appears that it requires two scans before you get the channels to come in (either from a previous scan when the channels/transponders have not been deleted, or from the satellite scan after a blind scan to find them in the first place). Very weird, especially since both of your receivers are doing the same thing.

 

[Lone Gunman]

Nope, not both receivers Keith!! The Elite doesn't do blind scan so it doesn't do it. I use the Ultra for scans on the 10ft Winegard system then transfer the Channel.bak to the Elite for that system.

Oh, and I loaded 5305 back in it tonight and picked up that missing 4005 TP on 78w with that 7.5ft dish so that firmware does lock that weak TP when 5020 and 4879 would not.

Things that make you go........................HUMMMMMMMMM!