More advice needed from Ibiza!

[Huevos]

Yes but he

You might. Don't forget BBC is on the new Astra 2E craft and if your dish is now effectively marginal for 2E then it's possible you might get reception at some times during the day and not others.

Says it affects sky channels too.

 

[Lazarus]

I'll leave it in your capable hands, then.

 

[Huevos]

Well the way i see it if bbc is possible for even 1 minute per day, you have plenty of dish for 24/7 reception of sky channels.

 

[rewdan]

I don't know if this helps but I am currently in Ibiza at my house, before the switch over I spent about £30 on a freesat box from argos because I didn't want to commit to an expensive one until the new sat footprint had been established, I was bored with resetting my sky box and only ever wanted normal tv. Anyway, when I got here about 3 weeks ago I was over the moon that nothing had changed and my tv reception is normal, time to invest in a new box now! I do have a 1.5m dish but I think a 1.2 would probably get away with it here.

 

[acidliam]

So bit of an update. Managed to get hold of a basic box, Boston make, cheap Chinese thing. Plugged it in, all worked fine on Astra 1. Got all the free to air UK channels last night.

This afternoon, everythings gone again, apart from sky News. Apparently signal strength is 70, but quality is 1. Any ideas before I pay for someone?

 

[terryashbyash]

Here in gandia 10818V is the strongest transponder for BBC but SD only, I use 11023 for HD and all works well with a 1.1m, skybox F3 and inverto black ultra, 2F a little better than 2E here but almost all freesat channels available so an accurate dish alignment may be all that is needed.

 

[RichardinSpain]

So bit of an update. Managed to get hold of a basic box, Boston make, cheap Chinese thing

I think you have hit the nail on the head when you mention a cheap chinese thing, receivers act differently, some are good and some are not so good for fringe areas, for instance i have several receivers. I have a gigablue quad which since the change over to 2e and 2f has worked fine, i can get all the main channels, bbc1, bbc2 itv, ch4 and ch5 etc 24/7 but plug my dreambox 500 or my old starsat receiver in and can get most of the channels but at certain times of the day i don't get a signal or its very borderline and the picture breaks up. They have a noticable difference in reception, added to this the a good lnb and the accuracy of the skew (1mm either side makes all the difference) and of course the alignment of the dish, check all these and with a good receiver i think you would have reasonable reception
Also, i had to 'tweak' lnb and dish over 3 days, as i tweaked it for best reception about 2 in the afternoon but found that the reception was not all that good at night but managed now to have good reception 24/7

 

[acidliam]

Yeah I'm starting to think the dish/LNB needs aligning. I did have it down to the box but by a process of elimination, its not that. There seems to be no correlation between the time of day either box works, or indeed which box will or won't work, so its not a receiver issue, and the fact theres no pattern to it being on/off makes me think its not a satellite issue.

Theres nothing that could interfere that I can see. Basically my dish points at the sea, theres not even a house in the line of site really.

Right, question 2. How do I realign everything...?!

 

[rewdan]

my box is a manhatten, I think I got it from Argos about a year ago and it's really cheap but my LNB is a Black ultra and my dish is 1.5 m so this all helps I guess. When I aligned mine I found the easiest way was to take the TV and box out to the dish and use the reception signal on the Tv as I moved the dish and LNB about! Did it over a year ago and it's been fine. Probably not too helpful cos of the big dish I have but it's worth trying. A mate of mine in San Carles lost his signal and was told horror stories by a local installer, he would need to spend loads on new stuff etc. I think he is going to try realigning his dish himself when he gets back to the Island.

 

[RichardinSpain]

Right, question 2. How do I realign everything...?!

For me realigning the dish is easy, the dish is on the patio so i don't have to climb anywhere, my box is a linux enigma 2 box (gigablue quad) so it is connected to the router therefore has wifi, i have a android phone and there is a app 'enigma signal meter' which shows all the signals for the channels. All i have to do is go to the dish with the phone and twiddle with the lnb/dish and can see the signals rise or drop on the phone, i did have to buy a cheap wifi extender though to extend the wifi signal to the phone
I also have a amiko alien which is linux which does the same job when checking signals

Next best thing would be what rewdan said and take a receiver and portable tv to the dish with a short bit of sat cable and check the signals that way, you need a receiver that has a reasonable sat signal meter (sky box doesn't have a very good sat meter)

If you can't do this then the only other thing would be to have someone in the house, choose a transponder on the signal meter that you wish to receive i.e 10818 and get them to shout out the figures when you twiddle with the lnb etc. Try pressing up down left right on the dish to see if this affects the signal. Then once you have the best signal on that transponder check a couple of more transponders to make sure you have the best signal possible on all
Also check the cable, if it's old it may be cracked and need replacing
How old is the lnb and what is it? if it's old then it might need replacing too and you do get better ones than other.



Mod. Note: Quote fixed!

 

[acidliam]

Right sound, thanks for all the advice men. I've done new installs in France and the UK many moons ago, always using the old nudge, shout, nudge, shout method, didn't realise that was the norm. Will give it a whirl, see if we can get something sorted. Appreciate all the help.

 

[Deso]

I'm no expert but from what has been said, I would start by checking the security of your dish, then, without loosening anything, just try easing it from side to side/up and down and see if it makes any difference. Check the cable joint at the lnb and the back of the receiver, then a new LNB and if possible, cable.
Unless your dish is loose, the fact that you have been able to get your signals from time to time would suggest that the dish is in the right area. If you start moving that around too much and it is not the dish, you will have to mess about with it again once you have traced the fault.
Sky news is normally a very strong signal which you can pick up with a suitably placed baked bean tin, must be Heinz of course, and a piece of soggy string.

 

[terryashbyash]

Right sound, thanks for all the advice men. I've done new installs in France and the UK many moons ago, always using the old nudge, shout, nudge, shout method, didn't realise that was the norm. Will give it a whirl, see if we can get something sorted. Appreciate all the help.

If location of your dish makes it practical I would use a short lead from the lnb to a spare receiver and tv then bring up the weaker working transponder and make minute adjustments to direction/elevation see the changes in real time. Cuts the time and frustration out of dish especially for minute adjustments. For me as well as LNB skew being critical mine has a long neck(not sure of technical term) and sliding this towards /away from the dish also helps improve things. When you reconnect to you installation any problems left will either be the cable, connectors or the main receiver. Spotted another members post on this and saved me hours using this method.

 

[N1501]

...EPG is fantastic, they will mimic the channel numbering of Freesat or Sky. With ABM they automatically update the channel list. ...And now with the OnDemand players from OpenViX you can watch iPlayer and other on demand services without a VPN or Proxy.

Just come across your post.
I live just north of London. I have a Vu+ Duo but have only ever seen on it EPG current program and Next program.
I have the stock Vu+ image installed. How do I get a "fantastic EPG" ?

I'd never heard of ABM. I have manually put in a lot of channels and French, German & Swiss. Is there an ABM for stock image
and if I install one will it mess up my Foreign channels ? Will I be able to get regional programmes ( Scottish, Welsh etc ) ? My main channels are Freesat. Are there OnDemand players for the stock Vu+ image ?

 

[sonnetpete]

Not sure if there are any EPG plugins for the stock VU+ image. I think the one referred to is a plugin with the VIX image. Certainly using the VIX image I get a full EPG from Freesat. It shouldn't affect your other channels and the regional variations are all broadcast via Astra @ 28E, it's just a matter of locating them.

Personally, I'd try a different image (either VIX or Black Hole) which should give you the functionality you are looking for. You may get more informative answers if you start a thread about this in the VU+ section of the forum.

 

[Huevos]

Just come across your post.
I live just north of London. I have a Vu+ Duo but have only ever seen on it EPG current program and Next program.
I have the stock Vu+ image installed. How do I get a "fantastic EPG" ?

I'd never heard of ABM. I have manually put in a lot of channels and French, German & Swiss. Is there an ABM for stock image
and if I install one will it mess up my Foreign channels ? Will I be able to get regional programmes ( Scottish, Welsh etc ) ? My main channels are Freesat. Are there OnDemand players for the stock Vu+ image ?

Just load it with OpenViX and you will have ABM and a proper 7+ day EPG.

 

[Huevos]

TBH, I'm stunned that anyone would consider using the "stock" image.

 

[Hughes]

Returning to reception of free to air signals from Astra 2, I've had quite a miserable year with a 150cm dish in north west Spain feeding a Sky HD receiver and a Humax Foxsat HDR via an Inverto Black Ultra twin LNB. Reception was patchy even on sunny days. In desperation I reverted to a Black Ultra single LNB recently, and what a difference that little bit of extra signal has made! As an added bonus I now receive Film 4. I intend to try other LNBs, but wonder if any will beat the Black Ultra single on my particular dish...
Although I'm a really long way from Ibiza, I hope my observations will be of help.

 

[N1501]

TBH, I'm stunned that anyone would consider using the "stock" image.

The stock image seemed to do all I needed.

However I've juat loaded up OpenVIX Apollo Build 106. Seems to be working ok. Got all my U.K. channels ok.

Just trying to get my German, Swiss and French ones back. Thanks Huevos for suggesting OpenVIX.

 

[N1501]

... I reverted to a Black Ultra single LNB recently, and what a difference that little bit of extra signal has made! ...

I often wondered whether a single LNB would give me the best picture quality/ lowest BER and you seemed to have proved it.

I know I can only record/watch fewer channels at once but always wanted the best reception I could get ( for a given price point )