complete noob question, sorry !

Ellis Dixon

Hello !

I have a simple technical question with my Sky Digital set-up at home and this looked the it had enough people who could answer it

All the channels are fine with the exception of about 20 or so which when there is a lot of "white" on the screen I get loads of digital break-up (high pitched noises on the sound + squares of unrefreshed screen etc, I am sure you know what I mean).

The "System set-up" screen shows me at Full signal strength and almost full (all but one chuink) signal quality.

Is it my LNB or the Set Top box ? Is this a common fault with Panasonic boxes ?

So many questions so few answers......My installation company want £45 to come out and "have a look" and then god knows what else they'll charge.

Any help is appreciated,

Ellis Dixon

Old Fred

Your signal readings are unusually high. I'm wondering if your dish is too large. Where are you and what is the dish size/type?

Fred

rolfw

Certainly sounds like a possibility, which channels in particular are causing problems?

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Ellis Dixon

Thanks for the reply.

To be honest I haven't got a clue as I have never seen it ! It's not accesible without a BIG ladder and lack of a fear of heights, neither of which I possess. When it went up it looked like one of the normal ones that they slap on the side of your house.

I live right on the South Coast England, Brighton to be exact.

To answer someone elses question :

Sky One is a particular problem all of a sudden, but none of the other "main" channels. Men & Motors, lots of the crappy teleshopping and cheapo channels seem to be the worst affected.

If the dish is too large would slapping an attenuator between the LNB and STB do any good ?

Ellis

rolfw

From what you say Ellis, an attenuator is unlikely to improve things, go into the installer's menu Services/System Setup/0,1,select/ Manual Tuning, then type in:
12285 V
SR 27500
FEC 2/3

This will then show you the actual signal strength and quality for that transponder.

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Ellis Dixon

Rolf,

Thanks so much for your time, it IS apprexiated.

Okay, did as you said and then selected "find channel". Singal strength was shown as one chunk below max as was the Signal Quality.

What's the diagnosis doc ? ;-)

Thanks,

Ellis

rolfw

Well it certainly shouldn't be causing signal breakup with those readings Ellis, but perhaps you may get a better result with slight attenuation. Problem is that not everyone stocks the right type of attenuators, so if you can't find one, you could probably get away with using a two way splitter instead, it needs to have DC pass obviously and cover the full IF range, but it will have a 4 or 5 db insertion loss and might just be enough to cure the problem.

Still suprised though that any standard sized dish (45 to 85cm) would provide too much signal.

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rolfw

PS. Shame you can't borrow someone else's receiver to check if the same problems occur.

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Ellis Dixon

Rolfw,

Actually my girlfriend has exactly the same receiver as myself, I could easily borrow that to test ! Cunning Plan.

I'll report back next weekend. Thanks for the info on attenuators, i'll bear it in my mind if her receiver gives me the same results.....

Ellis