Randomly Losing Freesat channels TV & dish both checked out OK

[confused21]

Over the past 12 months, I have been losing blocks of channels from my freesat tv a Panasonic Vierra TX-L32V10B
I particular I lose 3 CBS channels ch 135 /6 /7 but oddly never channel 134 CBS Drama. When CBS drama is lost,
the others are still there. During the times of these losses, programs are scheduled to be broadcast as I checked
with the online guide. These are not the only channels I lose but I haven't recorded which others I lose.

I have sent the TV back under warranty it was soak tested for over a week with no faults found. During this time
I had an engineer out to check the sat dish, and he checked up to my socket, then tested all my leads too and says they
are all okay and he used a spectrum analyzer to test everything and said it was all fine. I asked why I should lose these
channels at random times he had no idea.

What do I investigate now? It's still happening and I am so frustrated that I lose channels halfway through a program
I can't watch Freesat anymore as II have no confidence that the channel will be available for the whole program.

It's driving me crazy...

 

[Mickha]

Hi confused21,
welcome to the forum.
First do not rule out that the problem is with your TV, the Panasonic engineers might claim to have put it through a soak test but I doubt they would have fully checked it for intermittent faults.
Can you borrow a satellite receiver, even an old Sky box? If so try using this, if you do not lose any channels then you know the problem lies with your television.

Are you losing picture, on these channels, while viewing or only when viewing recorded programmes?
How are you recording these programmes?

Reading your profile you state that you have a 4 way distribution set up, can you please expand on this, have you got a quad LNB, with 4 separate feeds, one to each flat, or some other set up?

 

[confused21]

Thanks for your reply,
I did borrow a satellite receiver box and there were several channels missing but I was unable to compare due to the extensive number of channels and the different numbering. However the same CBS channels were intermittently missing too. My antenna set up is a single dish with a single FM ariel and terrestrial ariel distributer through four flats. It requires at least one of the users to supply power to the distribution box. Since one of the flats has a sky box which already supplies the power I do not need to plug in my PSU although plugging it in makes no difference. My Upstairs neighbour has also started to experience the same loss of channels but not at the same times I do. STRANGE!
I do not record at all, I refer only to broadcast schedules. The antenna guy did not work for the same company that installed the system so has nothing to gain by fobbing me off. He even checked the distribution box to be sure. He seemed genuinely interested to get to the bottom of the problem but of course found no fault.

 

[confused21]

I am not sure if the system has 4 LNBs but I suspect not. It splits and amplifies the signals I believe as it requires at least one power source from one of the flats.

 

[Mickha]

Since you have tried a satellite receiver, and your neighbours are experiencing similar problems, then you have narrowed the problem to the dish, and cable distribution, for which you'll probably need a fully qualified installer/engineer, experienced with your type of distribution system, to check it out and locate the problem.
You can check a few things:
1 Check the signal strength/quality readings, throughout the day, of the faulty channels.
2 Check if the faulty channels share the same polarity, Horizontal, or Vertical.
3 Check if all the faulty channels are broadcast from the same beam, or satellite, specifically 28.5E, see the link below:

http://www.lyngsat.com/Eutelsat-28A.html