Lost all signal quality

[acrophobe]

A year ago a friend set me up with an old Sky digibox, a new dish, wired it all up, we found the satellite, and hoop-de-doo, I had all the free to air Sky channels except when the wind was blowing so hard the antenna wouldn't hold still. All was well until yesterday, when I turned the box on for the first time in a few weeks and there was 0 signal quality, no lock. Signal strength still at 60-80 percent.

I did the most obvious stuff, like unplugging the box then turning it back on; checking the antenna positioning (can't improve on the signal); checking the wiring for loose/wet/frayed connections. No joy.

Browsing here I saw a thread started by a guy who spent about a month on top of his garage swapping antennas, lmbs (whatever those are), cables, etc., toward the end even beating off his wife's solicitor with a long stick so he didn't get served with divorce papers, all to discover that it came down to a bad receiver box in the sitting room. (My wife says his wife had the patience of Job and asked if I caught her drift.)

Questions, then: (1) is the old Sky box indeed likely to be the problem, because if it is and I can buy a new box for <= the price of a tech coming out then that makes sense (even a little bit more is cheaper than divorce); and (2) does it have to be a Sky digibox to pick up the free Sky channels, and if I get something else what channels do I get? (I saw mention of "converter" software somewhere.)

Thanks a bunch for any advice.

[acrophobe]

P.S. - I'm located in France, and I've been reading about the new Freesat service. Any reason why (assuming the box is my problem) I can't just go down to the local brico (hardware store), pick up an FTA box, adjust my dish by 9 degrees or so (Astra1 -> Astra 2/Eurobird), and crack a beer?

[nvingo]

It's possible that in the few weeks the digibox hasn't been used, that it has "forgotten" how it was set up, and defaulted the LNB settings (that's the gadget on the dish arm that the coax connects to) to no longer match the one you have.
Since your friend set it up with a new dish, and you're in France (so the dish may well not be a Sky minidish), that may be the problem.
The digibox may have failed, a power supply fault could easily cause the LNB not to work properly even though the box seems OK.
Unless the LNB is actually standard (and the only problem is a faulty digibox), you may run into the same problem when installing an FTA receiver.

An FTA box would still receive 200+ free channels from Astra (that's all except the HD Freesat channels, the Freesat EPG and the interactive stuff).

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by acrophobe

P.S. - I'm located in France, and I've been reading about the new Freesat service. Any reason why (assuming the box is my problem) I can't just go down to the local brico (hardware store), pick up an FTA box, adjust my dish by 9 degrees or so (Astra1 -> Astra 2/Eurobird), and crack a beer?

Yep, you can do that, no problem, but make sure you get a digital one as the French still use analogue.

Least this way you would have another box to try, but remember you will have to set it up manually,unlike the Sky digibox, it won't be as plug and play.

If that doesn't fix it, then the only things left to try are dish alignment, cable problems, LNB. It is a process of elimination I'm afraid.

Robbo

[acrophobe]

Thanks, guys. I'm sitting in front of the box now, and after finding the hidden installer setup menu (http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/setup.html did the trick), LNB setup appears correct. Going through the "new installation" routine produces a message that "No default transponder found." Would that indicate the problem is with the LNB or the box itself?

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by acrophobe

"No default transponder found." Would that indicate the problem is with the LNB or the box itself?

It doesn't point to either, as I said before, it could be dish alignment, LNB failure, dodgy cable or box failure. No way of telling from that info.

If you could chuck your box on a dish already on 28E, then you could discount the receiver.

[acrophobe]

Guys,

Just FYI, it was the Sky digibox. As luck would have it, no stores near me had an LNB in stock (and none available to order for less than 60 euros!), so I grabbed a TNT decoder (129 euros) to try. Signal strength and quality showed up immediately upon plugging it in (and I then improved it by adjusting the antenna a wee bit).

Interesting, that mine is at least the second post here where the box turned out to be the problem in a "signal strength but no signal quality" situation.

The TNT box is designed for Astra1 -- it actually was plug and play for the FTA French channels. An excellent OOBE. Once I figured out how to scan for all the FTA channels, I had more than I could shake a stick at, in about 8 languages to boot. Not as wide an English language selection as the free stuff I had on the Sky box but more than adequate.

Further questions -
(1) Why is the English language selection more limited than on the Sky box? Isn't FTA on one decoder FTA on every decoder?
(2) I have excellent signal strength and quality on most transponders in the Astra1 constellation, but not all. Is that a matter of further antenna adjustment, or is there a reason why some transponders come in strong and others practically not at all? (And are the weak transponders where additional content lies?)

Thanks again.

[robbo71]

You are confusing me now.

I thought your dish was pointed at 28E i.e including Astra 2 , yet you are talking about Astra 1 transponders?


If the dish is still pointed at 28E as it was before, you will need to either modify the transponder list to include all the FTA transponders, so that when you scan you get all the channels. Or add a new satellite with all the correct details if it is possible.

Correct, any standard FTA receiver should pick up the same FTA channels, excluding the few oddities like ITV HD foe example.

Robbo

[bigtee]

Likely that dish was/is not on 28e and digibox was struggling as a consequence?

[acrophobe]

The dish was and remains on Astra 1 (at least that's what the new decoder tells me). That's where the guy who set up the Sky digibox put it. If the digibox was pulling a signal off Astra2 with the dish pointed at Astra1 then it died a very noble death indeed! (LOL)