Faulty RF modulator?

[gman]

Morning All,

Firstly may I wish everyone a very merry Christmas and all the best for the new year!! Hope you're all having a good one.

during the holidays I've found a bit of time to spend with my 9900HD and have begun to route it through the new house to the various other TV's via an amplifier. I'm struggling to get any sound from the other TV's other than a loud hissing. Have messed about with the various settings on the SB and other TV's to ensure that I'm using PAL-I, bit still nothing. Have tried various other cables and TV's with no success. Have bypassed the Amp to rule that out and the problem seems to be the 9900.

Have spent the morning stripping it out to give a good internal clean as well as check for any loose solder connections of which there weren't any. My conclusion is that it must be the RF mod itself on the spiderbox. One thing to point out is that the RF channel on the 9900 is set to 45, but the TV's tune it in on 42! And no matter what channel I select on the 9900, the other TV's seem to pick up the signal on slightly lower frequencies.

Couple of questions I have:
1. Any idea if it would help doing a full reset of my 9900? Haven't tried yet as wasn't sure whether I'd lose my Diseqc positions.
2. Any other way I can get the signal out and into the amp?

Current set up as follows:

1m triax dish
SB 9900HD
Sly 2TB

Aerial coax comes into the house - through the Sly 2TB - through the SB 9900HD - into the amp - then out to 4 other TV's around the house.

This set up did used to work maybe 6 or so months back in the old house and the 9900 is around 3 or so years old. Maybe time for an upgrade?....

thanks in advance ;o)

gman

[archiesat]

you could get a Mercury Universal RF Modulator Converter Scart Coaxial.this uses the scart socket on 9900 and converts to rf.saves you replacing spiderbox and changing any settings in the receiver.or if you have old video recorder use scart cable from 9900 to vcr select av ch on video and use rf output to other TV's.



merry christmas

[gman]

thanks archiesat.

so I take it the 9900 is irreparable in terms of the rf out?

will more than likely opt for the universal mod so long as this wont conflict anyway with the HDMI connection on the main TV?

thanks

[echelon]

nobody can tell you if this can be repaired or not

we must assume that it can be repaired, at a cost, but the cost is unknown and may outweigh the value of the box itself (this often happens in our modern day society where the cost of replacement could be cheaper than the cost of repair)

but as with any box NOT FITTED with an rf modulator, an external RF modulator can be used from the yellow/red/white composite output of the box, or from the scart output of the box (even if using a scart to phono converter prior to any external modulator)

this will have no effect on the hdmi output and is the usual method of connection to an old vcr for example (as was mentioned for the RF distribution example)

so stick RF MODULATOR in a well known @uction site and many types come up, buy whichever suits you and your purpose, use it with any box, not just the spider 9900 , even a 6000 can be fed to other tv`s in this way (as can an older 7000 too) - or a vu or dm or whatever you wish to distribute

an external RF MOD is a one size fits all solution, providing the receiving tv`s have an@logue tuners fitted (which quite a lot dont now as they tend to have freeview digital tuners)

so yes, if the box works ok, use an old VCR or buy and use an external RF modulator and use it for distribution from scart or phono

these methods of RF distribution have been discussed many times on this and other forums over the years , especially for boxes with no RF modulator fitted internally (the vast majority) - plus its a common method used on consoles etc to enable the use of an old an@logue tv

[gman]

thanks echelon, that's the route i'll take for now then until I decide to upgrade.

thanks