DSE SD Set Top Box

[Phil Allison]

"Kissing Lettuce"

What I find interesting is that there are two meters for the signal
one that measures signal level and one that measures the quality
of the signal.

Now correct me if I am wrong but I have found if the quality
of the signal drops below 50% the box drops that channel
and the screen says "Bad or no signal"

Yet I find when that happens the signal level is still around 60%
despite the quality level being around 50 or 55%. This is my
experience when trying to get channel 7 digital....

I wonder if that aspect of the unit could be hacked a bit
to make it less picky?

** The signal quality bar indicates how well the MPEG data contained in the
signal is being extracted - there is a degree of redundancy included so it
need not be 100 % to get a perfect result.

Once the data is corrupted by a certain amount the picture cannot be fully
reconstructed so the DSE unit momentarily freezes on the the previous
complete frame or if the data corruption is on going, it just goes blank.

Basically -go fix your antenna problem - you are on the wrong track .




............. Phil

 

[Kissing Lettuce]

Lord-Data wrote:

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"Phil Allison" <philallison@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3g7j5gFb31uoU1@individual.net...

"Kissing Lettuce"
Not a bad little product


** Yep - got one myself.


Some questions though.

1.
It isn't mentioned much in the manual but where and how
do you upgrade the software for this. The STB has an
RS-232 serial port on the back. Anyone played around with
this feature?


** Ask the nice folk at DSE - they have a phone number.

You can also email the support email addy from the dse webpage, they will
email you back the firmware .. I got an update for mine the other day.. You
will need a null modem cable to do the upgrade tho, and DSE no longer sell
these ..

So a bog standard serial cable won't work? Bugger!!!!!

What I find interesting is that there are two meters for the signal
one that measures signal level and one that measures the quality
of the signal.

Now correct me if I am wrong but I have found if the quality
of the signal drops below 50% the box drops that channel
and the screen says "Bad or no signal"

Yet I find when that happens the signal level is still around 60%
despite the quality level being around 50 or 55%. This is my
experience when trying to get channel 7 digital....

I wonder if that aspect of the unit could be hacked a bit
to make it less picky?

 

[Kissing Lettuce]

Chriz wrote:

Once upon a time Kissing Lettuce decided to write:

Not a bad little product

Got one just yesterday. Happy with it so far.

Some questions though.

2.
I can get ABC, ABC2, and ABC Adelaide, Nine Digital, Ten
Digital and the Ten Guide as well as the EPG. The only
channel I can't get is 7.

Anyone know of a decent indoor antenna for this STB? Everything
except channel 7 is working on this.

You forgot about SBS and possibly any other special digital TV stations in
your city/town (Macquarie for me). All stations should also have a guide
station, not just Ten.

SBS does indeed work as does ten. But why no guide for channel 9 and
why bother when you have the EPG to program the times and all?

Oh and do any of the channels do Teletext?

I assume most do. Ten and Seven seems to have it when I checked.

I am told channel 7 do teletext

 

[Chriz]

Once upon a time Kissing Lettuce decided to write:

You forgot about SBS and possibly any other special digital TV
stations in your city/town (Macquarie for me). All stations should
also have a guide station, not just Ten.


SBS does indeed work as does ten. But why no guide for channel 9 and
why bother when you have the EPG to program the times and all?

Does ABC have a guide?

--
Remove ALL_YOUR_HARDWARE to reply by email.

 

[Mark H]

Not a bad little product

Return it while you still can!

#1: Would not recieve signal at all.
#2: Left channel sound dead (Staff member trying to convince me it was my
cabling. Produced RCA cable from pocket, inserted into nearest TV, shut him
right up)
#3: Refund.

From what I've seen, digital doesn't need a particularly strong signal to
recreate it on your TV (anything over 60ish percent), you just drop a few
FPS on a worse signal.
Mine picked up extremely well on rabbitears, out near the blue mountains.

Just make sure you try it out before you buy it. If they won't let you,
don't get it.
And screw around with it, if you can't change settings without reading the
manual, forget it

-mark

 

[Pete]

<dean@impartsp.com.au> wrote in message
news:1117765125.705004.137250@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Kissing Lettuce wrote:
Not a bad little product

I find the debouncing of the on/off key on the box and the remote
really bad. I try and press the button to turn the set off and most of
the time it turns off and then back on again.

So true I find it a prick to use.I find the RF connection in the back of it
a bit sloppy too.

 

[Dug Graves]

Chriz wrote:

Once upon a time dean@impartsp.com.au decided to write:


Kissing Lettuce wrote:

Not a bad little product


I find the debouncing of the on/off key on the box and the remote
really bad. I try and press the button to turn the set off and most
of the time it turns off and then back on again.


Well the Teac ones cost the same (around $148). Anyone own one of these? If
so, are they good or would you know if they're better than the DSE ones. I
may buy another in the future and may try the Teac one.

I have the TEAC DVB420 (I think thats it...) cost $160 at Myer 6 months ago.

Novice user, no electronic skills or understanding... set it up with no
probs and the thing has not missed a beat. Oh, not quite true, every now
and then (maybe once a month) it will lock up and require off/on to
reset. Maybe firmware upgrade will fix that?

Brisbane northside (Strathpine)user.

I'm happy with it but have nothing to compare it with...

 

[ant]

Chriz wrote:

Well the Teac ones cost the same (around $148). Anyone own one of
these? If so, are they good or would you know if they're better than
the DSE ones. I may buy another in the future and may try the Teac
one.

I hope they're better than their TVs. Which look nice but break a lot (like
mine did).

 

[Kevin Hendrikssen]

"Chriz" <chrizizhereALL_YOUR_HARDWARE@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:42a02d38@duster.adelaide.on.net...

Once upon a time Kissing Lettuce decided to write:

You forgot about SBS and possibly any other special digital TV
stations in your city/town (Macquarie for me). All stations should
also have a guide station, not just Ten.


SBS does indeed work as does ten. But why no guide for channel 9 and
why bother when you have the EPG to program the times and all?

Does ABC have a guide?

They will in the next few weeks.

 

[blob]

On Fri, 03 Jun 2005 23:37:01 +1000, Dug Graves <dugraves@ausi.com>
wrote:

Chriz wrote:
Once upon a time dean@impartsp.com.au decided to write:


Kissing Lettuce wrote:

Not a bad little product


I find the debouncing of the on/off key on the box and the remote
really bad. I try and press the button to turn the set off and most
of the time it turns off and then back on again.


Well the Teac ones cost the same (around $148). Anyone own one of these? If
so, are they good or would you know if they're better than the DSE ones. I
may buy another in the future and may try the Teac one.

I have the TEAC DVB420 (I think thats it...) cost $160 at Myer 6 months ago.

Novice user, no electronic skills or understanding... set it up with no
probs and the thing has not missed a beat. Oh, not quite true, every now
and then (maybe once a month) it will lock up and require off/on to
reset. Maybe firmware upgrade will fix that?

Brisbane northside (Strathpine)user.

I'm happy with it but have nothing to compare it with...

Not even a summer's day?

dashdash*space*
http://tinyurl.com/a7upx

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On 2 Jun 2005 17:44:45 -0700, cmwmjt@netspace.net.au put finger to
keyboard and composed:

I actually used to work for DSE Powerhouse. All I can say is their DSE
branded STB's are rubbish.

Your pretty lucky, considering most that bought them, returned them
with faults.

I wonder how many people buy these STBs in the hope of "fixing" an
existing reception problem? How many of these faults were genuine
failures and how many were simply pixelation issues due to bad
reception?


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Chriz]

Once upon a time ant decided to write:

Chriz wrote:

Well the Teac ones cost the same (around $148). Anyone own one of
these? If so, are they good or would you know if they're better than
the DSE ones. I may buy another in the future and may try the Teac
one.

I hope they're better than their TVs. Which look nice but break a lot
(like mine did).

I've had two experiences with Teac in the past and their products don't seem
to last as long as better brands. I guess they're on the upper scale of the
cheap brand products though because they are known well enough.

--
Remove ALL_YOUR_HARDWARE to reply by email.

 

[Kissing Lettuce]

Thankyou to everyone that replied and offered
advice.... Problem with 7 digital seems to be
mostly solved now...

Using an amplified antenna

I noticed 3 chips while poking around in the box too
but can't seem to find any information via google
and am wondering what else to try.

So far I only found info on one of them.



The chips are as follows

Vdata
P0442E
VDS66164A4A-6

I have found data for this one and it is a I megabit memory
chip


Omega
STI 5518B0C
D1S-G410921
AAAAN VG
TWN AA 422


MALAYSIA
29LV800TE-90PFTN
8420 F32

If anyone can help with identifying these chips

 

[rob]

I wonder how many people buy these STBs in the hope of "fixing" an
existing reception problem? How many of these faults were genuine
failures and how many were simply pixelation issues due to bad
reception?


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

Frank we got our DSE STB about 6 months ago - we live behind a large hill -
Ch2 reception was crap - SBS etc were poor. Reception is now good on all
channels - we get occasional pixelation due to poor signal but it sure beats
watching a snow storm on ch2. I must look at getting a digital antenna some
day.

I can imagine some people taking their sets back as "faulty" due to antenna
problems.
r.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 16:52:23 +0930, Kissing Lettuce
<sittinginthepool@internode.on.net> put finger to keyboard and
composed:

Thankyou to everyone that replied and offered
advice.... Problem with 7 digital seems to be
mostly solved now...

Using an amplified antenna

I noticed 3 chips while poking around in the box too
but can't seem to find any information via google
and am wondering what else to try.

So far I only found info on one of them.



The chips are as follows

Vdata
P0442E
VDS66164A4A-6

I have found data for this one and it is a I megabit memory
chip


Omega
STI 5518B0C
D1S-G410921
AAAAN VG
TWN AA 422

Microprocessor/decoder/chipset by ST Microelectronics. Datasheet is
probably subject to a NDA.

http://www.st.com/stonline/press/news/year2000/p845p.htm

MALAYSIA
29LV800TE-90PFTN

Low voltage 8Mbit (1Mx8) 90ns flash EEPROM, possibly by Fujitsu.

8420 F32
^^^^

If this is a YYWW date code, then I expect it should read "0420".

If anyone can help with identifying these chips

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Lord-Data]

You're one of those really annoying customers.. arn't you .. Ever get the
impression sales people hate you?

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[ http://www.VIDGuide.com ]


"Mark H" <nukeleerATinternodeDOTonDOTnetREMOVECAPSAU> wrote in message
news:42a037c1$1@duster.adelaide.on.net...

Not a bad little product

Return it while you still can!

#1: Would not recieve signal at all.

This before mentioning that you were using rabbit ears only? Mmm.. must be a
faulty box .. of course ..

#2: Left channel sound dead (Staff member trying to convince me it was my
cabling. Produced RCA cable from pocket, inserted into nearest TV, shut
him
right up)

Genuine fault obviously.. but ..

#3: Refund.

So why refund? Obviously a faulty machine .. Take another one. The fact you
had one faulty box does not mean theyr a bad box, nor qualify as grounds to
advise others to not buy one..

Curious tho, how exactly did you determine an audio problem if it "Would not
recieve signal at all."?

From what I've seen, digital doesn't need a particularly strong signal to
recreate it on your TV (anything over 60ish percent), you just drop a few
FPS on a worse signal.

Dropping ANY FPS is a bad thing, and signifies you don't have good enough
signal. Any box, regardless of make/brand is going to have glitches/issues
below ~65-70 signal QUALITY (not level)

Mine picked up extremely well on rabbitears, out near the blue mountains.

Helps the "> #1: Would not recieve signal at all." statement, of course ..

Just make sure you try it out before you buy it. If they won't let you,
don't get it.

Because obviously the level of signal and availability of an antenna in a
retail outlet is going to be SOOOO related to your actual location and
antenna. Not to mention a lot of places use lights that interfere with tv
signal reception, digital included, meaning you won't do too well within the
location with a rabbit ears ..

And screw around with it, if you can't change settings without reading the
manual, forget it

This may also be because your a clueless moron, but I guess even a manual
won't help with that ..

-mark

 

[Mark H]

You're one of those really annoying customers.. arn't you .. Ever get the
impression sales people hate you?

I'm more of an annoying store manager. But yeah, i often get that
impression.

How about going back and using some intelligence whilst reading my OP.

#1: Would not recieve signal at all.

This before mentioning that you were using rabbit ears only? Mmm.. must be
a
faulty box .. of course ..

Tried on two diff rabbitears and one house aerial.

#2: Left channel sound dead (Staff member trying to convince me it was
my
cabling. Produced RCA cable from pocket, inserted into nearest TV, shut
him
right up)

Genuine fault obviously.. but ..

#3: Refund.

So why refund? Obviously a faulty machine .. Take another one. The fact
you
had one faulty box does not mean theyr a bad box, nor qualify as grounds
to
advise others to not buy one..

Curious tho, how exactly did you determine an audio problem if it "Would
not
recieve signal at all."?

Two STBs, idiot.

From what I've seen, digital doesn't need a particularly strong signal
to
recreate it on your TV (anything over 60ish percent), you just drop a
few
FPS on a worse signal.

Dropping ANY FPS is a bad thing, and signifies you don't have good enough
signal. Any box, regardless of make/brand is going to have glitches/issues
below ~65-70 signal QUALITY (not level)

If you're only dropping 5fps, chances are you are not going to notice the
loss in quality.
Some STBs have intelligent software that does not freeze on a single frame,
instead caches ~10 seconds of video and audio to combat such glitches. If a
frame doesn't turn out, it simply drops it and displays the next one with no
discernable difference to the viewer, except in the case of a fast-moving
action scene.

Mine picked up extremely well on rabbitears, out near the blue
mountains.

Helps the "> #1: Would not recieve signal at all." statement, of course ..

See above, jackass.

Just make sure you try it out before you buy it. If they won't let you,
don't get it.

Because obviously the level of signal and availability of an antenna in a
retail outlet is going to be SOOOO related to your actual location and
antenna. Not to mention a lot of places use lights that interfere with tv
signal reception, digital included, meaning you won't do too well within
the
location with a rabbit ears ..

If you'll buy something without trying it out, you're going to be quite a
disappointed customer one day.

And screw around with it, if you can't change settings without reading
the
manual, forget it

This may also be because your a clueless moron, but I guess even a manual
won't help with that ..

Ha. Haha. Joke, you know, those comical sentances with the winks at the end?

--mark

 

Don't hold it against me because I hate Indonesia(s)

 

Franc Zabkar wrote:

On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 16:52:23 +0930, Kissing Lettuce
sittinginthepool@internode.on.net> put finger to keyboard and
composed:

Thankyou to everyone that replied and offered
advice.... Problem with 7 digital seems to be
mostly solved now...

Using an amplified antenna

I noticed 3 chips while poking around in the box too
but can't seem to find any information via google
and am wondering what else to try.

So far I only found info on one of them.



The chips are as follows

Vdata
P0442E
VDS66164A4A-6

I have found data for this one and it is a I megabit memory
chip


Omega
STI 5518B0C
D1S-G410921
AAAAN VG
TWN AA 422

Microprocessor/decoder/chipset by ST Microelectronics. Datasheet is
probably subject to a NDA.

http://www.st.com/stonline/press/news/year2000/p845p.htm

What's an NDA? And for that matter I did use
google but could not find the Omega chip.

What did you use for your search query?

I tried various combinations of lines in the printed
text on the actual chips.

MALAYSIA
29LV800TE-90PFTN

Low voltage 8Mbit (1Mx8) 90ns flash EEPROM, possibly by Fujitsu.

I am realy curious now where are you getting your info?

8420 F32
^^^^
If this is a YYWW date code, then I expect it should read "0420".

It's definitely 8420 F32

See here
http://www.users.on.net/~aviannix37/PeekInside.html

There's photos of the board in the STB and it's
definitely 8420 F32

 

Well simply the problems stemmed from the cheaply and poorly built
boxes.

The DSE brandname is mostly junk, aside from one or two decent items.