Walker WP645TS-HD

fat-tony

It's the previous poster who had the issue with the listings. I don't own one of these boxes but I could see that he/she was assuming the RTE channel info on the sat list was actually terrestrial when it was the SKY encrypted version. I just didn't know if the EPGs could be combined. Presumably he/she could either scan only FTA on satellite or just delete the scrambled channels?

Antenna

Someone I know with one of these Walker combo boxes, after relocating the box - discovered satellite reception to be totally dead.

Investigating this it was found that there was zero DC voltage going out to power the LNB.

An abandoned MMDS powerinserter lying around was installed between the box and the dish, as hoped this resulted in some satellite channels working once again (inserts 18Volts DC, which is the same voltage to power the LNB for horizontal channels) !

Eventally I got around to dismantling the box, and after removing a screen enclosure surrounding satellite input saw the problem (see attached photo, the gold coloured wire from the satellite F socket had dislodged from the PCB) and doing a resoldering job it was back to normal once again !

just posting this in case anyone else encounters the same type of fault (and is competent in soldering/repair or knows someone who is) ... the above is likely the cause

fat-tony

Looks like someone used a spanner to tighten the F plug :P

Antenna

A couple of 'hidden'/secret OSDs (On Screen Displays) with this Walker/Vestel WP645TS-HD box:

Press Menu then press 0 and this 'Diagnostics' screen appears:



I assume the date is when the software update to V3.8 happened. Also shows a London Postcode! Don't know what the satellite transponder frequency (10714 H) represents (it's the lowest one carrying C4s etc) as this shows doing this when viewing something else/terrestrial.

And here's another one:
Press Menu and then all four coloured buttons from left to right (Red Green Yellow Blue) and this appears ("Microcontroller Firmware Version:1") :




anyone know of other 'hidden' displays or engineering modes/menus with this box??

These show with a box with V3.8 software, which came automatically via over-the-air update. I do not know if these show on boxes with previous software versions?

BSOH

Thanks for the warning, Antenna. I was just about to go out and buy another brand because I thought the Walker was banjaxed, when I happened to read your post:

Antenna wrote: »

you were in 'SATFREE' mode? - its VERY unstable and the box goes totally unresponsive as you describe and I'm afraid its best ignore it and just use regular Satellite mode. Its not just due to recording, this happens with no recording devices connected at all, the box can lock up while you're just changing channels in SATFREE mode

The box locks up as you describe and all you can do is switch off and back on at the mains socket (which can be very awkward for elderly people if the mains socket is not easily got at - such as behind the TV down at floor level)

Mind you, I might just buy another-brand non-Saorview box, because as well as the failings of the SATFREE mode, this box really annoys me with its recording format that cannot be played on a PC with any of the many excellent media players out there. A really stupid decision, on a par with Sony's refusal years ago to allow the transfer of digital recordings out of their MiniDisc recorders, thus condemning the recorders to oblivion.

The thing is, is there any other combo box out there that will provide a 7 day EPG? Because it would be a deal breaker for me not to have it.

Due to that I just went for the Humax HDR-1000S for satellite and use my TV's internal Saorview tuner. I can't record the Irish channels but I can live with that.

Antenna

Antenna wrote: »

A couple of 'hidden'/secret OSDs (On Screen Displays) with this Walker/Vestel WP645TS-HD box:

Here's another one, pressing
MENU 3 4 2
results in this being displayed:

DukeOfTheSharp

Just opened a new forum for the issue I was having today, got sent here instead so I'm hoping this forum isn't completely dead.

The satellite option has been incredibly unreliable. Thought it was the box, but had it tested in the shop and was told it was fine. Retuned the dish and it still wouldn't pick up signals. Then, a few hours later, it did; no differences with how we were scanning, it just decided it found the signal again. Got the old channels back but still dealing with the same old problem: the screen freezes and the signal is lost. Sometimes it comes back after turning the box off and on again, sometimes it comes back itself. There's no reason I can see why this is happening, so I'm wondering if anyone knows what's going on, or if they've experienced the same problems?

Just a side-note, the box does come on in the middle of the night, and turns off a few seconds after. Now it has started doing this twice a night. It's like clockwork. Since there have been no new updates, it just seems like something worth mentioning. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

inc21

Get a loan of a sat box and test your dish. Problem might be there.

zg3409

DukeOfTheSharp wrote: »

Retuned the dish and it still wouldn't pick up signals. Then, a few hours later, it did; no differences with how we were scanning, it just decided it found the signal again. Got the old channels back but still dealing with the same old problem: the screen freezes and the signal is lost. .

How are you tuning the dish? The shop seems to say the box is OK, so most likely the dish needs to be repointed. Was it set up initially by a professional?

Screeen freezing is a classic signal of a bad signal normally caused by a dish not pointing correctly. It is very hard to set a dish up correctly if you do not have the correct equipment and training. I would suggest paying a professional about 50 euros to align your dish and check the signal. If the professional says the dish is OK, then you can go back to the shop with the box again.

Machinehead

Looks like Walker have done something this morning with new v.4.0 update. Info dialogue panel on terrestrial now displays programme info. Not aware of any other changes that might have resulted from this update.

DukeOfTheSharp

zg3409 wrote: »

How are you tuning the dish? The shop seems to say the box is OK, so most likely the dish needs to be repointed. Was it set up initially by a professional?

Screeen freezing is a classic signal of a bad signal normally caused by a dish not pointing correctly. It is very hard to set a dish up correctly if you do not have the correct equipment and training. I would suggest paying a professional about 50 euros to align your dish and check the signal. If the professional says the dish is OK, then you can go back to the shop with the box again.

Bought a satellite tuner, it's telling us that the signal is strong. Still, this isn't a usual case given that initially, the signal is always fine but within weeks it starts to drop. The issue I'm having with the shop test is that it was only a minute's worth of checking, whereas this is a completely random event.

inc21

DukeOfTheSharp wrote: »

Bought a satellite tuner, it's telling us that the signal is strong. Still, this isn't a usual case given that initially, the signal is always fine but within weeks it starts to drop. The issue I'm having with the shop test is that it was only a minute's worth of checking, whereas this is a completely random event.

That's exactly what you should tell them.
Working in electrical shop I know walker is not too bad to deal with. Get them to send it away.

Machinehead

Machinehead wrote: »

Looks like Walker have done something this morning with new v.4.0 update. Info dialogue panel on terrestrial now displays programme info. Not aware of any other changes that might have resulted from this update.

How did you get this update? OTA?

DukeOfTheSharp

inc21 wrote: »

That's exactly what you should tell them.
Working in electrical shop I know walker is not too bad to deal with. Get them to send it away.

I did, they kind of just avoided the topic of sending it back. It may be the only option though...

Edit: Something just occurred to me this morning; when we were initially retuning the satellite, despite the fact that the satellite was giving a strong reading, it couldn't find astra 2. About four hours later, we retried it, and it found it. The strange thing is that we couldn't actually select any other transponders, like the other astras, which we could do when we initially set up the box. Is this normal?

Did a manual OTA update and got version 4.0. Is it just me or is it not as slow when navigating the EPG?

Antenna

Anyone else observe the issues with Subtitles with BBC HD channels (other satellite HD channels seem to be unaffected) on this box, see attached picture. The BBC HD subtitles usually suffer from what is best described as a block of noise in front of the subtitle text. This issue pre-existed the recent update.

mgn

Have one of them walker combi box and today all im getting on satellite channels is tuner overload.Irish channels all okay

zg3409

mgn wrote: »

Have one of them walker combi box and today all im getting on satellite channels is tuner overload.Irish channels all okay

That might be a fault on the satellite cable. Try disconnecting the satellite cable and see does the error dissapear. If so you may have a fault with the satellite cable inside or outside. It would be worth bringing your box to another house with a dish and checking to see if the box is OK.

mgn

The box is okay.have another box in another room so changed them around and box works okay so satellite okay too,Is there anything else i can check Thanks

zg3409

If box is OK, then it looks there is probably a fault in the cable. Check the connector at each end and make sure there are not shorts from outside (screen) to center pin

hernie

Is anyone having problems with recording? I find a lot of my recordings fail and some have disappeared. I'm using a 160GB usb powered drive. Could this be related to the HDCP setting? Would encrypted programs fail to record when it's switched off or would the power settings have any effect?

amdaley28

hernie wrote: »

Is anyone having problems with recording? I find a lot of my recordings fail and some have disappeared. I'm using a 160GB usb powered drive. Could this be related to the HDCP setting? Would encrypted programs fail to record when it's switched off or would the power settings have any effect?

Some manufacturers suggest that if using an external hard drive that it should have its own power supply.
We have a Zoro receiver in the kitchen & we use an external usb hard drive which has its own power supply. Some receivers can't supply enough power to keep the hard drive running.

USB powered hard drives can be iffy at best. Many 2.5" hard drives have power requirements greater than the 500 mA that a USB 2.0 port can provide. I've seen one drive that required 800 mA.

pigtail33

I use an externally powered 500GB hard drive and I have the same issues with recording. I do find the Timer option much more reliable that recording via the EPG, but it's still not perfect.

hernie

hernie wrote: »

Is anyone having problems with recording? I find a lot of my recordings fail and some have disappeared. I'm using a 160GB usb powered drive. Could this be related to the HDCP setting? Would encrypted programs fail to record when it's switched off or would the power settings have any effect?

Just an update on this. My recordings work if I turn off the low power option. When the low power option is off the hard drive stays powered up and the recordings work. When the low power option is set to on, it seems to have problems powering up the hard disk when the recordings are due to start.

dacogawa

Does anyone know how to hard reset one of these boxes please?

I turned it on a few weeks back & it asked if I wanted to do a software update, I did & when it turns on now there's nothing on the screen & 'INIT' is on the front display of the box, is there a key combination to hold down on the box to get it to factory reset?

Thanks in advance for any help!

steveon

dacogawa wrote: »

Does anyone know how to hard reset one of these boxes please?

I turned it on a few weeks back & it asked if I wanted to do a software update, I did & when it turns on now there's nothing on the screen & 'INIT' is on the front display of the box, is there a key combination to hold down on the box to get it to factory reset?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Remove the terrestrial aerial from the back of the box and unplug it for 1 to 2 mins. Then return the power and wait for the box to reboot. If successful you can now put the aerial back into the box. Check the software revision on the info page and if not version 3.8 you can download it from tvtrade.is or walkers own website

dacogawa

Thanks steveon, will try that now & let you know (fingers crossed)

steveon

dacogawa wrote: »

Thanks steveon, will try that now & let you know (fingers crossed)

Sorry im on a tablet at the moment and it went nuts in my original reply I have had to do this on lots of occasion with the Walker combos very annoying but it seems to work.

dacogawa

No bother & thanks for the advice steveon, no luck with that, tried it also with the sat lead out too and nothing, it's just coming straight up with 'init' when plugged in, remote does nothing, I've tried a few things now and nothing has changed, the only sign of anything changing is when I put in a USB key & the light on the key flashes.

There must be a button combo somewhere to flash it back to factory settings

steveon

dacogawa wrote: »

No bother & thanks for the advice steveon, no luck with that, tried it also with the sat lead out too and nothing, it's just coming straight up with 'init' when plugged in, remote does nothing, I've tried a few things now and nothing has changed, the only sign of anything changing is when I put in a USB key & the light on the key flashes.

There must be a button combo somewhere to flash it back to factory settings

Have u tried downloading the latest firmware and put it onhto a USB pen ? It can be got in the download section on the TV trade.is website just search for the box and there's a download section

dacogawa

steveon wrote: »

Have u tried downloading the latest firmware and put it onhto a USB pen ? It can be got in the download section on the TV trade.is website just search for the box and there's a download section

Yes, that's what I tried with the usb key first, it didn't do anything (left it for about 4 hours)

khumbu

steveon wrote: »

Remove the terrestrial aerial from the back of the box and unplug it for 1 to 2 mins. Then return the power and wait for the box to reboot. If successful you can now put the aerial back into the box. Check the software revision on the info page and if not version 3.8 you can download it from tvtrade.is or walkers own website

No need pus any files on USB stick. latest version V4.0 available over air until December 2nd.
http://www.saorview.ie/get-saorview/equipment-upgrade-schedule/

St Senan

Contact Walker.ie and tell them about the INIT. I know people who who sent boxes back to them because of this issue.

Antenna

Navarre wrote: »

Contact Walker.ie and tell them about the INIT. I know people who who sent boxes back to them because of this issue.

I wonder might this problem happen if there was just a brief blip in the reception during an over-the-air software update, due to some momentary local interference (like impulse interference from something being turned on) ?

dacogawa

Navarre wrote: »

Contact Walker.ie and tell them about the INIT. I know people who who sent boxes back to them because of this issue.

Thanks Navarre, I've sent them a mail & will let the thread know how it goes...

rebelfido

Hi has anybody had issues with the saorview? I have lost most channels except rte. rte+1. And rte junior. I haven't got the satellite bit hooked up. This box is in a spare room and rarely used. It is updated to v4.0. I have tried to retune them in and a reset and a first installation all to no avail! Just wondering did anybody else come across this problem before???

steveon

rebelfido wrote: »

Hi has anybody had issues with the saorview? I have lost most channels except rte. rte+1. And rte junior. I haven't got the satellite bit hooked up. This box is in a spare room and rarely used. It is updated to v4.0. I have tried to retune them in and a reset and a first installation all to no avail! Just wondering did anybody else come across this problem before???

Just had a call bout the same thing had to downgrade the box to version 3.8 and it worked again fine, hopefully they will fix the software problem.

rebelfido

steveon wrote: »

Just had a call bout the same thing had to downgrade the box to version 3.8 and it worked again fine, hopefully they will fix the software problem.

Ok cheers tx how do I do that?

Lanigamadan

Just a thought about losing configurations etc on the Walker. I find that after setting it up the way I want it (channels etc), I use the Save Configuration option to store these settings and when I have had a problem with channels disappearing or the box freezing when I use the EPG then I use the Restore Configuration and find it fixes most problems.

From time to time I scan the channels again and use the Save Configuration to ensure it is up to date.

steveon

rebelfido wrote: »

Ok cheers tx how do I do that?

http://www.tvtrade.ie/saorview-combo-walker.html

Go to tvtrades website here and click the download section and you will see the 3.8 firmware..they give a video guide showing how to do it.

Antenna

A box with the up-to-date 4.0 software, which (as well as v3.8) as people here know gives two satellite mode, regular satellite and Satfree

- I notice that if a Satfree Scan is done (to update the Satfree channel list if necessary) it will however mess up the channel list in regular Satellite mode with most of the channels in that customised list there being deleted

Anyone have an explanation?

Antenna

rebelfido wrote: »

Hi has anybody had issues with the saorview? I have lost most channels except rte. rte+1. And rte junior. I haven't got the satellite bit hooked up. This box is in a spare room and rarely used. It is updated to v4.0. I have tried to retune them in and a reset and a first installation all to no avail! Just wondering did anybody else come across this problem before???

I do not know if this was related but I discovered the same channels apparently lost a few days ago (I cannot remember what day) on one of these boxes. It transpired the missing channels were actually there but somehow got shifted up onto high channel numbers. A rescan did however fix it and moved the channels back down to the usual channel numbers. Something must have happened overnight when the box would automatically rescan (if powered down from terrestrial mode)

dacogawa

Navarre wrote: »

Contact Walker.ie and tell them about the INIT. I know people who who sent boxes back to them because of this issue.

Just to let you all know Walker did replace the box & were very fast & helpful thanks for all the advice & help!

AnCatDubh

Question on this box for anyone who has one -

Do you know if the Antenna/TV Out and Scart function at the same time?

Use case is as follows - Satelite and Saorview Antenna unsurprisingly get presented at the same location. At the moment they go into a basic (and rather old) sky box. I take a feed from the sky box scart to a wireless digisender thing and bounce the skybox output to another room to a non saorview enabled TV. The TV Out from the sky box gets a coaxial cable which runs through the house and into another room (this time with a saorview enabled TV). Via this setup saorview is available in the other room as well as sky reception (sky via a sigle channel/individual channels for saorview).

I'm proposing to drop the sky service to go free as there isn't a whole lot of basic sky that we'll miss and i'm wondering will the Walker WP645TS-HD provide for the above scenario.

I know I can just use the sky box to get the uk/free stations but that leaves me short of saorview on the TV in the first location (via digisender mentioned above). Hence I reckon I need a saorview/sat combo box that will behave the same as the sky box but obviously output the saorview stations as well as free satelite.

Maybe this is normal - apologies if it's a stoopid question

Assuming the above works, does anyone know is there the equiivalent of the 'magic eye' receiver on sky to control the box from the second room. The digisender has a remote sender from the first location. It's non sky specific so I reckon that should continue to work for that location.

Thanks for any advice or experiences which you may have.

Cheers.

Thurston?

AnCatDubh wrote: »

does anyone know is there the equiivalent of the 'magic eye' receiver on sky to control the box from the second room.

Triax Tri-Link has a modulator to take care of the picture & sound, & can also look after the 'magic eye' remote control function. Can be used with any receiver that has an SD AV output & the Tri-Link also has an input for the Saorview aerial.

If you use it with Triax own Saorview approved combi, the TSC114, there is a direct wired connection on the rear panel for the remote control signal, rather than having to stick the IR emitter onto the receiver's IR sensor.

FRIENDO

Hi guys,

Has anybody used this box for Saorsat?

powercity have the Walker combo advertised as saorsat approved.

thanks

homer911

One for sale on ebay.ie:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/121519208611?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

FRIENDO

thanks, very cheap, however I will stick with a known shop, I don't know too much about eBay