Sky HD poor signal

jemrodger · 07-07-2008

I have a sky mini dish but suffer from poor or no signal due to trees,in the winter the signal is fine as no leaves on the trees but in the summer
poor or no signal on the hd box ,signal is ok on the other 2 normal sky boxes,sky changed the hd box last week then left with out checking and told me it would take a few hours to reset,this was rubbish and I had to ring them to reset and the signal was worse than before.I have them comming back to look at again.
My question is will it help by installing a larger dish ,it is already on a pole on the chimney or could I install a large 1m dish at a lower level that would point through the trees missing the trunks but would still have leaves in the way.
If it may work at lower level I could install this myshelf as I have lost the will to live whenever I deal with sky .
If so what would be the best dish and lnb to use .

**Topper** · 07-07-2008

No the only way is to clear the trees, but you cannot put a big dish like that on a chimney stack. Leaves are approx 70% water hence the reason the signal is attenuated in the summer. If the surrounding trees also reduce the amount of light entering the windows of your property then there is justification for insisting them being trimmed or cut down altogether. Whose trees are they?

jemrodger · 07-07-2008

Thank you for the prompt reply.
The tree is in my neibours garden it dosent affect the light .it is about 70ft high oak tree.
I cant understand why the 2 normal sky sets are fine but the Hd box gets some channels like itv3 but not the main ones .I was thinking they could put a sky zone 2 dish on the chimney there is room to move it another couple of feet higher up the pole ,but it,s hard work trying to get them to do anything.The 1m dish I could install on a flat roof myshelf so could spend time trying to get the best signal through the trees which I do have some open space's where I can see through.

**Topper** · 07-07-2008

Personally I would be having a word with my neighbours if it is indeed the trees causing the problem.

**satelliteman** · 07-07-2008

An option

***trigger*** · 07-07-2008

Has everyone missed the fact that his other 2 boxes are working OK.

When they come back make sure that all outputs on the Quad LNB are good.

Try moving the box to one of the rooms where one of the the other boxes is and try it there.

Good Luck

**satelliteman** · 07-07-2008

Originally Posted by trigger

Has everyone missed the fact that his other 2 boxes are working OK.

When they come back make sure that all outputs on the Quad LNB are good.

Try moving the box to one of the rooms where one of the the other boxes is and try it there.

Good Luck

I haven't missed it Trigs cause I never read the whole post

**Topper** · 07-07-2008

It is the O/P that states he has

Originally Posted by jemrodger

I have a sky mini dish but suffer from poor or no signal due to trees,in the winter the signal is fine as no leaves on the trees

Who then contradicts this later in the post saying the other two stb's work and like SM admitted I also did not get that far.

So having re-read it again assuming we take the o/p's original assumption with a pinch of salt I suppose it could be the HD box that requires a longer center core protruberance on the F-connector on the back of the HD box.

Or the original installation is marginal which whilst getting away with it with an SD reception cannot get away with it with HD.

***trigger*** · 08-07-2008

Would everyone stop getting shot!!

Sorry if my post looked sarcastic, it was not meant to be.

Satelliteman shame on you for speed reading.

Topper your probably right with the marginal signal.

Jemroger can you confirm that there are no problems with your 2 SD boxes.

Triggs

jemrodger · 08-07-2008

Yes the other boxes are working ok .
I have tried a sky + box I have and slightly better signal but still no signal on input 2 and input 1 is intermitant .

**Topper** · 08-07-2008

Originally Posted by jemrodger

Yes the other boxes are working ok .
I have tried a sky + box I have and slightly better signal but still no signal on input 2 and input 1 is intermitant .

Now that is cleared up, it may be the cables have been trapped or damaged, has not been waterproofed at the lnb end and moisture is ingressing or the wrong type of cable has been used, e.g. standard internal coax that has an airgap. instead of ct100.
Or two outputs of the quad lnb are going faulty

jemrodger · 09-07-2008

Have just had sky round and actual got someone that know what they
were doing ,he moved the dish higher up the pole on the chimney.
He tried 4 new hd boxes before he got one that worked ok.
Now the signal quality is over 50% on inputs 1 and 2 and it is raining.
I did'ent think it possible someone from sky that was helpfull.
I think they have lots of proplem with the hd units.
Thank you for everyones help,

**satelliteman** · 09-07-2008

Glad you got it sorted.

Satman

**Topper** · 09-07-2008

We are all pleased they sorted that out although I am concerned that so many HD boxes could be faulty and may eventually find their way back onto the open market to disappoint others

jemrodger · 09-07-2008

spoke to soon the sky hd box has just shut down and when comes on gets no signal. spend 30min on the phone to sky who say have never had any proplems with these before .even through the internet is full of people moaning about them .
now have to wait till friday for another box ,they only replace with recon units that they say are fully tested.but the sky chap today went
through 3 of these before he found one that was working ok and that broke within hours.
I had found someone on the net that upgrades them email them but got no reply. does anyone know where I can get this done?

**Topper** · 09-07-2008

Originally Posted by jemrodger

I had found someone on the net that upgrades them email them but got no reply. does anyone know where I can get this done?

Upgrades from not working to working you mean i.e. repairs them

Or is this another kind of upgrade?

Surely it should be the manufacturers responsibility to repair them FOC, they cannot be very old. Sounds like a call to trading standards required if satisfaction is not forthcoming

***snap*** · 09-07-2008

I don't know if there are such things as class actions here in the UK, but there ought to be one in the case of Thomson HD receivers. No one should buy one of these without taking into account that it will probably fail after 18 months or so. Sky have done a very effective job in keeping the lid on the scale of the problem, but it is a very large problem indeed.
More often than not, the box a Sky 'engineer' comes with will not be new. This is another con which Sky have got away with for ages.

The upgrade you mention is probably the power supply replacement which is available from Satcure. If you are handy with a soldering iron it can be done for about £12 - worth of capacitors. Once the PSU is upgraded the box works well, better than new.

The symptoms of PSU failure are:
Progressive loss of channels, with all eventually showing the 'no signal' message. Otherwise the receiver functions as normal.
Once the case is opened up, the second- largest capacitors on the PSU (adjacent to the mains connector) will be seen to be bulging at the top, indicating failure.

jemrodger · 11-07-2008

Just an update.
Sky came today tried 3 more hd boxes none worked .
tried to say is the signal, proved that it is not by puting sky plus box on
which works fine.
Got them to ring sky office and whoever they spoke to there admited they have a proplem with the hd boxes.
They are now booked to come next thursday to try again.
I will keep you informed, dont hold out much hope.

jemrodger · 18-07-2008

another hd recon box fitted yesterday lasted 6 hours and then no signal message on 1 input.
another one now booked for monday.

***trigger*** · 19-07-2008

Does the HD box use the same default frequency as a normal box? Could be the LNB at a particular frequency. Or just crap boxes

***snap*** · 19-07-2008

Sky HD boxes use the same default frequency, and are crap.

jemrodger · 22-07-2008

new recon box installed yesterday.
fingers crossed seems to be working.
does anyone know what the version number of the latest hd boxes are,so I can see how old the box is ,it my be an upgraded box that dosent have the same proplems as the old ones.

**satelliteman** · 22-07-2008

EPG 5.04.d I believe

**tomthebomb1968** · 22-07-2008

the latest boxes start with 4E300E and have no component hd just hdmi.

jemrodger · 22-07-2008

the box I have is 4E3006.
software 5.02.f.hd
model 607120Q

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