DAB BBC Station loss finally fixed - maybe!!

[crickie]

It's only a few days but I think it may actually be fixed in D2+ f/w 1.13.

One line in the update notes piqued my curiosity - http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=34320

It states the following:

-DMB protocol does not receive due to changes SBSu Channel Fix

So I bit the bullet and loaded it onto my old standard D2.

First thing to say is for me when channel scanning in London there is still an issue of it locking up almost immediately after it has found the BBC multiplex. This does not happen out in the wilds of Herefordshire however. To overcome this problem if you tap the screen as soon as you see the BBC Multiplex appear it terminates the scan and you have the BBC stations - you don't get the last multiplex which is usually found after the BBC but that isn't a problem for me. Note this only works if you have the DMB version, with the DAB (4.xx) it doesn't show the multiplex names as they are found so would be much more difficult to do.

My evidence that it is fixed.

I was listening to 5 live on Saturday when Sports Extra was active.

This mornign Sports Extra was not active - normally this would mean a complete re-scan to get 5 live back again.

When I switched on 5 live was silent, however when I swithced to Radio 4, which would also normally have dissappeared it was there!

Switched back to 5 live and it was also there - the Sports Extra had dissappeared.

This has never happened before so is definately new behaviour to me!

Has anybody else tried this firmware on a DAB D2 or D2+ to confirm or otherwise?

I will follow up if I get any problems but I think this may be it - didn't take long did it??

[crickie]

Now I am sure it is fixed.

All this week I have been checking to see if 5 live or any other BBC channels had dissappeared and they have not. Last night Sports xtra was back and I did not have to re-tune to get it.

Will keep checking but I am pretty convinced this is now sorted!

[travelbore]

good news if it really is definitely fixed. Sorry to doubt you Crickie, but after so many problems, I've pretty much given up on DAB on my D2.

Do you know if the same patch will be applied to the D2 'classic' firmware?

Thanks for being brave enough to check this out.

[crickie]

Well despite over a week with the BBC DAB Multiplex working and 5 Live Sports extra appearing and dissappearing without any problems - disaster struck.
Last night no BBC stations at all. I don't remember this ever happening before but I'm getting old now so memory maybe fading.
I did a re-scan and it did find the BBC stations again without a problem but I was unable to listen to anything. A new multiplex had appeared called "London 3". This was found first and every time I tried to change channel it jumped back after about a second of listening. All the other channels seemed to still be there, I just couldn't listen to them.
It may be that outside London there wouldn't be an issue. I may try it again sometime when I am not in London but for now I have gone back to 4.02 as that scans without crashing. If memory serves even though it loses some BBC channels when the BBC reconfigures, Radio 1 and 2 do not dissappear!

Ah well - another kick in the teeth for us optimists!

[crickie]

Further to my previous post - I had planned to re-scan from inside my office as this was where I did my orginal scan with this version.
Firstly 4.02 did not find "London 3" when I scanned - BBC stations were found but reception not too good in the office.
Went back to 1.13 again and re-scanned and again "London 3" was not found and BBC statinos were OK.
This suggests to me at kleast that there is either some incompatibility with this version and the D2 DAB hardware or this version, although fixing one DAB problem, has encountered another - in this case more fatal problem. Somehow something found in the "London 3" multiplex is screwing up the DAB. Added to the lock-ups on scanning after hitting the BBC multiplex, you would have to say Cowon are not doing too well with their DAB software!!

[crickie]

I have now been using 1.13 for 2 months without any further issues of losing stations. I have been listening to BBC stations when they have done a "re-arrangement" and it does go quiet for a few seconds but seems to come back again. I have had no repeat of the problem where I lost everything but have kept a copy of the DMDB.CFG file just in case it happens again! Having been using this version for over 2 months now, despite the problem I had initially it seems to be a ot more reliable with DAB and BBC. The only issue that remains is with the local multiplexers which seem to screw up the scan. The BBC National DAB and the other national muxes seem OK.

[shotofadds]

I don't think the firmware version is relevant. I had loads of problems a few months ago, but now everything seems to work fine. I've been on 4.02 the whole time so I guess something must have changed for the better at the BBC's end.