Satellite - which one? Reception problems

tjjohn1001

Hi all,

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful. I live in Brittany and brought my Sky digibox and dish over from the UK when I moved. Installed it myself and it worked fine, until the Digibox died. No problem, I thought, I just want the basic free channels because French TV isn't as good. So I bought a generic, off the shelf digital receiver, brand name Visionic Slim 3. It tunes in Eurobird 28-5, Astra 19.2, and Astra 2a.

I don't know if it's the tuner or just my ignorance of how these systems work, but when I try to view CNN for example, it will say "No Signal", then the signal indicator will jump to 80 percent for a second, then back to zero, and if I keep trying, it will eventually lock in at a decent strength and quality. Some channels it will tune in instantly, from the same satellite, but other channels it will behave like the CNN example above. Is it a duff receiver? Or something else?

The other thing is, is there a "best" single satellite to tune in to? With 3 satellites to tune into, there is a lot of repetition of channels, so I get around 1000 channels and many of them are duplicates and just plain junk. Maybe there is even a fourth one I don't know about, which might be the best one to tune in to. What a disorganised mess of channels. They spent tens of millions of pounds getting these things into orbit, and their output is really quite confusing and unmethodical to the untrained eye. I suppose the Sky digibox cut a lot of the junk out, but this generic tuner takes in all the garbage, and it's a nightmare to sort through with 3 satellites.

If there is a thread which deals with just such issues please let me know, as my search produced no results. Otherwise, any advice would be most welcome.

Many thanks,

Tim

Analoguesat

There are 4 satellites at 28E (Astras 2A 2B 2D & Eurobird 1) As they are all located within a few miles of each other so are effectrively co-located - you should get all the channels off all the satellites in Britanny no problem. Picture breakup is commonly caused by a marginally misaligned dish.

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

tjjohn1001

Cheers Analogueguest

I think it must be my receiver then causing the problem. There is no rational explanation why it can receive some free Eurobird 1 channels with no problem at first attempt, while others like CNN I have to try several times before it locks in. For most channels I get a 80 percent strength and 55 percent quality reading.

Any idea which satellite is the best one to tune in to to receive the most free channels? I simply can't understand the system these satellite service providers use to beam down channels. Why four satellites, why all the redundant channels? Maybe in outer space broadcast standards don't apply. Still, there must be a method to their madness!

Cheers,

Tim

Lee-UK

You need to get Astra 2D

Where I am in France if I go out in the camper I point the dish in the direction of the sun at 12-mid day (not directly at the sun!) to get UK tv.

Lee

tjjohn1001

Thanks Lee, that's a very helpful suggestion. I'll get the freqs and transponders for 2D and give it a whirl. I wonder if there is any advantage to having all the other satellites tuned in.

Cheers

Analoguesat

You get all the free channels instead of half of them

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

Smellofdiesel

My first post on here.
I'm in France and I've setup quite a lot of these FTA boxes. They normally come with the frequencies for most of the european channels pre-installed and I've found this is more of a nuisance than a help. They are not up to date,either.
I usually start by deleting all the pre-installed channels and then,using a satellite frequency list off the internet, install the frequencies/channels I want rather than just using a satellite scan. This avoids the problem of the box downloading all the channels I don't want - the chat/shopping/gambling stuff etc.
Tim