Sky HD (Thomson) receiver flaky (sig test)

politby

Greetings,

I have a brand new Sky HD digibox which is acting up in a strange way. Here are the symptoms/circumstances:

- No signal strength or quality indication on Input 2
- Excellent signal strength and quality on Input 1, excellent signal &
picture on all channels
- Both inputs connected via already existing cables directly to twin LNB on dish
- Both cables and LNB verified OK (same symptom after swapping cables at box inputs: signal on input 1 but not input 2)
- Have adjusted dish manually, i.e. have had no instruments, sat beepers or otherwise connected to cables
- Tested by connecting both cables to inputs to another twin tuner receiver, both working fine.

This problem appears almost every time the box is switched on from standby. On the vendor's suggestion, I tried a forced firmware update, after which the Input 2 signal indicator started showing good values. But the problem came back the next morning. And so it goes on.

When it does work, I have 85% strength and 80% (approx) quality on both signal meters and they are both rock solid - no fluctuations, so there is no indication of dish misalignment (in which case the other tested receiver should also have shown problems). My LNB is a new MTI Ultimate 0.2 dB.

Is there anyone else who has seen problems like this on the Sky HD box?

thanks in advance

snap

One thing common to Sky HD and Sky+ receivers is that there is no indication which frequency input 2 is set to. It is not the default frequency like input 1, sometimes it can be the last channel input 2's tuner was recording from.
One way to force it to monitor a known frequency is to start a recording on two channels on the same transponder, say BBC 2 and BBC4 or ITV 2 and ITV 4. If the signal strength on both inputs is identical (as it should be) there is nothing wrong with the receiver. Instead, you should look at your dish installation, as the frequency input 2 goes to when it is 'resting' may not be received properly, hence the zero signal on this input. If, during this test, input 2 is not the same as input 1, send the receiver back to where you bought it.