Reception problems

[DCG2007]

Hi
I'm new here, so apologies if this question is stupid or been asked before - I did try to find similar threads but with no luck.
I have a fairly standard sky digital set-up in Kent and most of the time receive good reception. However, some channels are always poor. The type of interference is that the picture freezes for a second, sections of the picture will drop out and be replaced by other colours & the sound is also affected.
I've noticed that this also happens on the main channels during the adverts & sometimes if there is additional information on the screen.
We have some fairly big trees nearby, but the dish installer was fairly certain that they were not in line with the signal. I'm not so sure. I don't mind spending some money to fix this, but I'm not sure whether I need a new receiver (it's 6 years old), a new dish, realigning the existing dish or to cut down the trees(I really don't want to have to do this). Any help would be appreciated.

 

[PaulR]

Breaking up of the picture into large chunks (known as pixellation) is a sign of low signal strength so it could certainly be caused by trees growing into the signal path.

It can also be caused by the dish moving (strong winds or careless window cleaners!), water getting into the cable downlead, LNB failure or even the receiver beginning to fail.

The latter is the easiest to check. On your Digibox remote press the "services" button, then 4 (system setup), then 6 (signal test). Ignore the signal strength but see that the quality is at least showing half across.

If you can, borrow a known working digibox and try it in your location. You could also try your digibox in a known working setup. Check the picture quality and signal strength in both cases.

This should give you a working start.

 

[Robbo]

Hi
I'm new here, so apologies if this question is stupid or been asked before - I did try to find similar threads but with no luck.
I have a fairly standard sky digital set-up in Kent and most of the time receive good reception. However, some channels are always poor. The type of interference is that the picture freezes for a second, sections of the picture will drop out and be replaced by other colours & the sound is also affected.
I've noticed that this also happens on the main channels during the adverts & sometimes if there is additional information on the screen.
We have some fairly big trees nearby, but the dish installer was fairly certain that they were not in line with the signal. I'm not so sure. I don't mind spending some money to fix this, but I'm not sure whether I need a new receiver (it's 6 years old), a new dish, realigning the existing dish or to cut down the trees(I really don't want to have to do this). Any help would be appreciated.

Hi, I had the same problem when I had _Sky. Maybe mine was a one off, because they had used ordinary TV aerial cable to connect from the box to the LNB. I replaced the cable with some high quality copper braid/copper foil satellite cable, and the problem went away.

In my case, the colour of it gave it away, it was brown, and it was s**t for satellite use.

 

[DCG2007]

PaulR
Thanks. Will certainly try the signal quality bit. The other suggestions might take time. Any clues as to why one channel might be ok and another not? Do different channels transmit at different power levels? Does the signal quality measure change from channel to channel or is the reading you get the same across all channels?

 

[Robbo]

Hi, the channels you are picking up are actually coming from a number of satellites co-located at 28.2E. Also 28.5E.
Each Satellite also has a number of transpnders, one for each frequency. Also some are horizontally polarised, some are vertical.
Put all these things together, and there's bound to be some variation.

Have a look on _www.lyngsat.com. to gain further insight. It lists all the beams etc, and gives footprints.

 

[DCG2007]

PaulR
Signal strength is just less than half. Quality is about 3/4 full, sometimes more.

 

[DCG2007]

Robbo71
Thanks. Will look at that site.

 

[rolfw]

To aid our diagnosis, find the frequencies, symbol rates and FECs of the channels you are having problems with, then go into Services/System Setup/ press 0, 1, Select, then choose manual tuning.

One at a time type in the frequencies and press Find channels, this will give you a strength and quality reading on those frequencies.

 

[PaulR]

In my case, the colour of it gave it away,

Unfortunately you can't rely upon colour! Traditionally TV co-ax cable was brown and satellite co-ax black but you can certainly get both types in black, brown and white!

The only sure way to determine what cable you have is to look at its construction. TV cable has the outer conductor as a thin braid only. Satellite cable has a double shield as the outside conductor; originally a copper braid with aluminium foil for analogue it's now best to fit the copper braid with copper foil type for digital reception.

 

[Robbo]

Unfortunately you can't rely upon colour! Traditionally TV co-ax cable was brown and satellite co-ax black but you can certainly get both types in black, brown and white!

The only sure way to determine what cable you have is to look at its construction. TV cable has the outer conductor as a thin braid only. Satellite cable has a double shield as the outside conductor; originally a copper braid with aluminium foil for analogue it's now best to fit the copper braid with copper foil type for digital reception.

Yes I know, but since the most common colour is black, brown cable was cause for suspicion. Even more suspicious though, they didn't even bother using connectors, just stuffed the wire in, and wrapped some normal insulation tape round it.