A handful of channels have stopped working

[AndyPet57]

Since Saturday afternoon I have been unable to receive BBC 1 SW, SyFy, Universal and possibly a few others.

All the other channels work perfectly, including all the other BBC1 regionals from around the country.

Nonetheless I have troubleshooted it, rebooted box, checked cables, checked incoming signal levels and all are fine.

Anyone have any further ideas or have come across this - I don't particularly want to do a Planner rebuild as we have some 10 hours of recorded programs still to watch

We have an old style HD box, and live in North Devon area. Our Freesat box which is also connected to the same dish, receives the channel BBC1 SW fine, as does another television which only uses an indoor portable aerial.

 

[Analoguesat]

SyFy & Universal are on Eutel 28A.

Its possible your dish has moved in the gales. Or rain has got into a badly waterproofed connection. Or a tree has drooped wet foliage into the line of sight of the dish. Or the receiver is failing.

Etc etc.

 

[Lazarus]

Is it a Thomson Box?

Degradation of the Power Supply Smoothing Capacitors is the likely cause: Very common and easily rectified (Particularly so if you are handy with a Soldering Iron).

 

[Analoguesat]

If it is a Thompson Sky are currently withdrawing these and swapping them for a newer box as they will stop working with encrypted HD channels at the next card change.

 

[AndyPet57]

As an update - this morning all channels are back to normal, yet signal strength is still showing strong as it did over the weekend, no variance at all.

What is weird that these were the only 3 channels I found affected - I would have expected other BBC channels to have suffered, also should not my FreeSat decoder have had problems seeing as its connected to the same dish - yet the BBC was ok on that one.

 

[AndyPet57]

As an update - been working fine for most of the time since last posted. This morning however BBC South West, BBC South and Northern Ireland channels could not be received.

I ran a system test etc and the signal quality was showing as fine and no problems with other channels.

The Box is a Pace one.

Weather is heavy rain, but signal quality as mentioned was good and only these channels of the main ones tested had the problem. Other BBC regions and BBC2 were fine.

Checked with someone a couple of miles down the road and they were receiving all the channels fine.

Starting to sound like the Sky+ box has an intermittent problem, or could it be transmittors - I dont understand how SKY signals come in, do they come direct via satellites or via transmittors ?

 

[Lazarus]

It isn't a Satellite problem.

I still suspect failing Power Supply Capacitors.

Repair Kits are easily available.

 

[AndyPet57]

It isn't a Satellite problem.

I still suspect failing Power Supply Capacitors.

Repair Kits are easily available.

Think you are right on this - the box must be around 7 years old now, I was thinking of getting a HD one (not via Sky though) for the "terrestrial channels" that have HD output - do you think a box upgrade is better than waste time on repairs - Im guessing that after this time Sky dont have any liability to provide a new box

Thanks for your help

 

[rolfw]

Phone Sky and tell them that your plus box is broken, they'll probably offer a replacement HD box for very little money, otherwise there are lots of them on ebay. Not worth repairing an old plus box in my opinion.

 

[Lazarus]

Think you are right on this - the box must be around 7 years old now, I was thinking of getting a HD one (not via Sky though) for the "terrestrial channels" that have HD output - do you think a box upgrade is better than waste time on repairs - Im guessing that after this time Sky dont have any liability to provide a new box

Thanks for your help

If the HD "Terrestrials" are your main target, a Freesat Box (Full EPG) or even a generic HD Receiver (But Now & Next EPG only) might be viable. No Five HD though.

 

[AndyPet57]

Think thats what I will do - hopefully then with a new box the problem will go away. What has stopped me upgrading the box before is we have no telephone point in the room where the TV is and to connect to our main phone socket will be a considerable job due to location and thickness of walls. Our internet supply is routed around the house using adaptors which plug into normal electric sockets and use the house wiring - Im wondering if there might be some solution here to connecting the box -- having just rethought that it wont work because thats a Net connection not a Phone connection

 

[timo_w2s]

You only need a phoneline for Sky if it's for a multiroom setup or if you use some of the interactive services (but more of those are now working with just an internet connection, especially with the newest boxes I believe).

 

[t.m]

It is just a move around. 102 is now bbc2 hd on hd boxes

 

[Analoguesat]

It is just a move around. 102 is now bbc2 hd on hd boxes

Unlikely from the symptoms to OP reported.

And from your profile "thomson sky h.d box" you might want to think about getting rid of that antiquated pile of junk before it fails completely - they are so bad Sky are withdrawing them here in the UK.

 

[smoggy07]

Think thats what I will do - hopefully then with a new box the problem will go away. What has stopped me upgrading the box before is we have no telephone point in the room where the TV is and to connect to our main phone socket will be a considerable job due to location and thickness of walls. Our internet supply is routed around the house using adaptors which plug into normal electric sockets and use the house wiring - Im wondering if there might be some solution here to connecting the box -- having just rethought that it wont work because thats a Net connection not a Phone connection

You only need the phone line connected for the first year (I think) or if you have multiroom, you can have the install tech run a fly lead to the phone point to do the callback then he can take the fly lead away with him when the call back is done, the only problem with the phone line was for multiroom customers (if both boxes didn't call home from the same phone number/line Sky are within their rights to cut off the second box and/or charge you a second full subscription)

Ring them and say your "box is failing and it's rendering their services unusable" if they try and hit you with fees for a new box or a tech visit ask them how they can justify billing you when Virginmedia service and replace the equipment for free when it goes wrong

Ask them how long you've been out of contract with them, tell them that Virgin will come and install a new Tivo box, internet and phone free plus give you an extra HD tv box for the bedroom free and tell them with Virgin you'll be paying less out every month than you do now

TBH you shouldn't need to go that far and they will probably send someone to trouble shoot the receiver and when the he comes he'll simply swap it out for a new one and see if the problem goes away, if you're lucky and he works for Sky and not a sub contractor he might get his ladders out and replace the dish and cabling while he's there but at very least he'll leave you a new box

In an old house I had a second hand contract with Sky and when we moved I called Sky and they sent a man to install the dish, when he'd finished with the dish and ran the coax in he noticed I was using was an old Sky+ HD receiver that had no hard drive installed (I'd robbed it for a computer that needed a new drive lol), he went out to the van and came back with a brand new HD box and paired up the card before he went
Not bad considering all I got from sky when I joined was 2 cards on a second hand contract

 

[timo_w2s]

You only need the phone line connected for the first year (I think) ...

Pretty sure that requirement doesn't apply any more. There was an option to pay £25 if you didn't have a phone line but I think that extra payment might even have been dropped now.