How's your Phoenix hd a850 running.
- Thread starter marcus
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Wellinever
Member
I've had the a850 since last Nov and in general I'm pretty happy with it. Had my moneys worth already so from here on in its basically free cable.
I am Vermin BB only and use a Netgear wireless router. Net ID confirmed from nearby subbed box.
At first I had a lot of glitching on lower frequency channels like SS4 but after trying new splitters, cables and a konig yellow brick booster an attenuator solved most but not all of my glitching problems. However, since the last firmware update quite a few a my HD channels have been pretty bad, where before it was the SD movie channels which are now funnily enough perfect. I wish there was a signal strength/quality indicator so you could keep track of the levels and it would make adjusting the attenuator so much easier as its very sensitive and easy to miss the optimum setting. I am sure if I spent long enough I could get a pretty stable picture on most channels but that's far to much hassle so I have settled for a happy medium. There are some channels like ITV2 & ITV4 that I can never seem to fix but I can watch them on freeview anyway.
Another poster on here has recently suggested that the glitching is caused by an inadequate PCB board which isn't great. Will be keeping my eyes peeled for more info.
I am Vermin BB only and use a Netgear wireless router. Net ID confirmed from nearby subbed box.
At first I had a lot of glitching on lower frequency channels like SS4 but after trying new splitters, cables and a konig yellow brick booster an attenuator solved most but not all of my glitching problems. However, since the last firmware update quite a few a my HD channels have been pretty bad, where before it was the SD movie channels which are now funnily enough perfect. I wish there was a signal strength/quality indicator so you could keep track of the levels and it would make adjusting the attenuator so much easier as its very sensitive and easy to miss the optimum setting. I am sure if I spent long enough I could get a pretty stable picture on most channels but that's far to much hassle so I have settled for a happy medium. There are some channels like ITV2 & ITV4 that I can never seem to fix but I can watch them on freeview anyway.
Another poster on here has recently suggested that the glitching is caused by an inadequate PCB board which isn't great. Will be keeping my eyes peeled for more info.
Last edited:
Ted luxston
VIP Member
Not missing much on ITV2 & ITV4 unless your a peter " i love my kids " andrex fan then you are forgiven but it sounds like there is a happy medium with regards to channel reception..as wellinever has been trying out various gadgets with various results..share and share alike folks
My A850 HD arrived this morning, I've replaced the working A780 with it and have signal strength 0 and no channels. I've asked in another thread if anyone can PM me firmware as it's on 1.000C out of the box, hopefully that will improve things. I've also got an adjustable attenuator on the way to see if that makes it happier. I have a VM superhub. Fingers crossed I'll get through the initial problems and it'll prove to be OK. The A780 hasn't been bad although the glitching is really irritating.
barryboom
Member
having had a vast amount of experience with all types of cable box from the Dbox eurovoxs dreambox pre N3 i was excited to get back to an HD box with the KV A850 and i have to say at first i was extremely disappointed with the performance of the box on a number of channels especially sky sports 4 which was unwatchable. i am however fortunate enough to have a good supplier and was able to feedback problems back to KV team and as i was an early adopter of using the box they where glad of the feedback.
since then a lot has been done to correct this box and get it working more in line with the a780. early issues where believed to be software related and several software tweaks where tried to no avail finally the work around was to use a variable attenuator which i confirmed was a huge success but still however a pain in the rear, especially if like me you cannot set and leave it set.
several months later a proper fix has been found however this has been diagnosed as a hardware fault and needs a PSU modification and i can 100% confirm that after this fix has been implemented it has corrected the major fault and i can now watch SS4 without attenuator or boosters just straight feed and box a lot more stable.
i have now made this modification to 5 boxs and all owners are telling me that overall user experience is much better.
we need to take these box's on face value and understand what we are doing and that off course there will be issues.
i will be more than happy if i can watch Sky Sports and maybe although not as importantly a movie if is desired anything else is a bonus in my opinion if the History channel or CNN or some other obscure channel is not working tough focus needs to be on the channels that will be getting viewed by the majority.
since then a lot has been done to correct this box and get it working more in line with the a780. early issues where believed to be software related and several software tweaks where tried to no avail finally the work around was to use a variable attenuator which i confirmed was a huge success but still however a pain in the rear, especially if like me you cannot set and leave it set.
several months later a proper fix has been found however this has been diagnosed as a hardware fault and needs a PSU modification and i can 100% confirm that after this fix has been implemented it has corrected the major fault and i can now watch SS4 without attenuator or boosters just straight feed and box a lot more stable.
i have now made this modification to 5 boxs and all owners are telling me that overall user experience is much better.
we need to take these box's on face value and understand what we are doing and that off course there will be issues.
i will be more than happy if i can watch Sky Sports and maybe although not as importantly a movie if is desired anything else is a bonus in my opinion if the History channel or CNN or some other obscure channel is not working tough focus needs to be on the channels that will be getting viewed by the majority.
barryboom
Member
In all honesty I don't know if that is the same issue as I never had problems with any HD channels other than server related issue which this mod cannot fix. All my customers where local to me and all had issues with ss4 no issues with ss1 hd etc. Best to check locally people in your area if having same issue with same channels. Can you give some specifics is it sports movies or what?
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
marcus
Newbie
Hi Barry, I have sent the box off this morning to have the mod done, what i found on my hd channels were that most would get waves of pixels, sports and movies but bbc hd would run fine, most sd channels were fine, on other days this might reverse where as the hd might be ok and the sd were bad, was very strange, got the box running better with both booster/ attenuator adjustments but hopefully this mod will be an improvement at the least.
barryboom
Member
No need only reason router along side superhub was required was to allow upgrade over internet which will no longer be an issue assuming box is on latest firmware. Performance of box is not hampered by being connected to superhub router in any way shape or form.
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
yes barry boom.
now done plenty of these mods and together with the latest s/w theres a massive improvement.
main issues in my area were ss3 and ss4 bottm half of screen had a patternin effect after the mod the bottom half patterning is no longer there.
please remember after the mod has been done dont use an attenuator or booster etc
so all in all it looks like a massive improvement
now done plenty of these mods and together with the latest s/w theres a massive improvement.
main issues in my area were ss3 and ss4 bottm half of screen had a patternin effect after the mod the bottom half patterning is no longer there.
please remember after the mod has been done dont use an attenuator or booster etc
so all in all it looks like a massive improvement
yes mate.
also people who have not had the mod done if there ever do a factory reset then retune there box back in then the attenuator should be taken out when retuning as the signals drops (attenuated) so therefore could cut a few channels off.
i can image most folk making this mistake..
but getting back onto topic yes after the mod dont use boosters or attunuators at all
also people who have not had the mod done if there ever do a factory reset then retune there box back in then the attenuator should be taken out when retuning as the signals drops (attenuated) so therefore could cut a few channels off.
i can image most folk making this mistake..
but getting back onto topic yes after the mod dont use boosters or attunuators at all
proevoking
Newbie
i was the very first few people to have this box and at first i didnt get any glitches or scrambled channel, however once the box got popular then it went down hill but mine has not been that bad compared to others. I would recommend this box to anyone.
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