Setanta Sports Channels

[towny]

Further to my last posting Setanta have responded to my refund request with a resounding no, pointing to clause 5 e "Liability" of their terms and conditions. "Not liable due to any failure to provide the service caused by events outside their resonable control".
This means that despite not indicating in any of their advertising literature, you do need to have a signal strength and quality above 80% to ensure adequate reception. My system is currently showing 50% strength and 45% quality, but despite this all other Sky channels are giving a perfect picture. I can also receive 4 of Setanta's channels (Liverpool FC, Aresenal Fc, Setanta Ireland and NASN) as well, but all this does, according to Setanta, is prove that their signal is adequate and that it's my fault because my system is inadequate.
To anybody out there thinking about signing up to Setanta via their Sky system I would suggest they forget it, but at the very least they should press their services button and check their signal strength and quality.
They will then save themselves the set up fee and minimum 3 months rental charge, you have been warned

 

[trigger]

Has any of you tried a new LNB as per my earlier post?

Look at Ben TV on 12523 H EPG 184
or Live roulette on 12643 H EPG 866

Most of the other channels this high up in the frequency range are shopping channels etc so I would not be surprised if you think all the other channels are ok.
Liverpool, Arsenal etc are down at 11585 H.

Change the LNB

 

[trigger]

Stewartbp - I would guess your LNB is a Quattro not a quad be careful to check before you try and change it. I´ll guess your local Sky man charges a fortune to call out to you - LOL

 

[satelliteman]

If you have a quattro then your have a switch. Don't discount poor sat/sat isolation on the multi-switch it'self, that is assuming you have a multi point 'IF' system being feed from your dish.

 

[towny]

Has any of you tried a new LNB as per my earlier post?

Look at Ben TV on 12523 H EPG 184
or Live roulette on 12643 H EPG 866

Most of the other channels this high up in the frequency range are shopping channels etc so I would not be surprised if you think all the other channels are ok.
Liverpool, Arsenal etc are down at 11585 H.

Change the LNB

Can you be more specific, ie how do I change the LNB? All Sky channels are on 11585 H not just LFC & Arsenal.

 

[trigger]

go to ch 184 or 866. Does either break up?

 

[towny]

go to ch 184 or 866. Does either break up?

184 says Tech fault 866 is OK. I have arranged for an aerial company to check out the alignment and the LNB, hopefully they will be able to improve the signal strength and quality. If they can I then need to decide whether to keep Setanta, but I also want it improved just in case I decide to switch to Sky HD.
I am still annoyed with Setanta that they don't make the signal strength requirements known in their advertising, I can't be the only person with a weaker than desired signal.
Anyway thanks for the input.

 

[Analoguesat]

The alleged lack of signal strength as mentioned is a complete red herring - theres plenty of downlink power no matter what sky or setanta customer services might say.

I can even prove it - thats the same figures I get on the BBC channels

 

[towny]

The alleged lack of signal strength as mentioned is a complete red herring - theres plenty of downlink power no matter what sky or setanta customer services might say.

I can even prove it - thats the same figures I get on the BBC channels

Might that be because your alignment is much better than mine, the aerial engineer's first comment about my poor picture quality was "That's because Setanta is one of the weaker signals from the satellite, and you need perfect alignment to pick it up well".
Yours appears to be above 80% on both strength & quality, hence the reason you don't have a problem.
If you doubt my word why not ring Setanta customer service and ask them about signal strength.
I'm also not sure why your picture displays frequency 12559, Setanta gave me 11585 as their frequency!

 

[trigger]

Please be aware that depending on what meter the engineer uses then he may say "nothing wrong with that mate". But I can assure you it is probably related to your LNB, especially as you confirm you are having a problem with a transponder on a close frequency (Ch 184 showing tech fault). Get him to put on a new LNB anyway and I´ll bet you get Ch 184 without a problem. If it doesn´t then it could still be your box or cabling but I really believe it is the LNB.

Please update us with the outcome

Cheers

Triggs

 

[Analoguesat]

Setanta have 2 frequencies.

11585H
Racing UK
Racing World
Setanta Sports Ireland
Setanta Sports 1 in Pubs
NASN UK & Ireland
Liverpool FC TV
Arsenal TV
Setanta Commentary

12559H
Rangers TV
Celtic TV
Setanta Golf
Setanta Sports UK (Sat-Sun)
Setanta Sports 2 (Sat-Sun)
UFC TV
Arsenal Replay
Setanta Sports 1 Ireland
Setanta News

If you are having problems with 11585 - do you have a dect phone or bt homehub??

 

[trigger]

Just a note concerning CSR´s (customer services representatives) or monkeys as they have been named.
I worked for a big national company for many years and have seen and heard all sorts of rubbish told by the CSR´s to the customer. Bear in mind that training is limited and pay is not high. They also have to deal with complaints 95% of the time and combine this with high call volumes and tough targets it makes the job pretty crap.
They will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you off the phone so they can move to the next call. I would not do their job for twice their pay.
So remember, don´t abuse them personally as it´s not their fault and 20% of what they tell you has probably been made up in the car park whilst on their fag break.

 

[tomthebomb1968]

I tried a little experiment earlier, drove the motor to 26East, put the Setanta settings in for a manual tranponder scan and got the lot no problem. Granted I have a 90cm dish but I think it proves there is enough juice in Setantas signal if you have a well aligned mini dish and a decent lnb. I think the Sky Sabotage rumour is just that, a rumour. The more I experiment and learn about this hobby the more I find that problems are solved by the most obvious of solutions. The easiest way for a good signal is to be bang on the Satellite. I suppose that even a mm or two out on earth is a heck of a long way out by the time the signal travels in a straight line from space. Im thinking out loud here and if thats incorrect someone in the know please put me right. Still thinking aloud "boy do I like my new DM 800" lol

 

[stewartbp]

I suppose I must have a quattro, not being an expert on these things. There are four feeds going up to the dome coming from an electronic switch. I have now transferred the subscription to the Pace DS430N to keep the bears off my back. You would not believe how much it costs to get a TV expert out here, which is why it does not happen and it all gets left to me.

 

[towny]

Re my earlier posts.
The aeriel engineer duly arrived but after looking at the age of our digibox he felt that this may be our problem and rather than waste money trying to repair an old system we may be better off, ie cheaper cost, to upgrade. Since we are wondering whether to get Sky HD this is what we will do.
However as we have our son's old digibox here, much newer than ours, I thought I would swap them to see if that made an improvement. It made no difference at all to the input signal to the box, still 50% strength and 45% quality, and the picture quality on Setanta and Ben were just the same.
So from my limited knowledge, culled mainly from here, I suspect that we either have a failing LNB or an alignment issue, but probably the former.
We could go back and get the engineer to fit a new LNB and check the alignment to see if that gives us a good Setanta picture, but it seems a bit like putting good wine in old bottles so we will now look for the best offer we can get to upgrade to Sky HD, we could consider Sky+ since I don't know whether HD is worth the higher rental, but my wife won't consider having a silver box, it has to be black!2
Analoguesat, still wondering why you won't accept that Setanta's signal is a lower strength, surely the info you provided from your system only indicates the quality of the signal to your box, not to your dish, which if correctly aligned and with a fully functioning LNB should give you a better signal than I am getting.
As far as Setanta is concerned we have cancelled the subscription and it should end on Oct 10th, it will be interesting to see if the payments cease.O-zzz

 

[jimbo]

Of course you can get a Setanta sub on a Digital TV with a cam slot in it. In fact I think it's about £2 per month cheaper.

I'll be getting one ........just after hell freezes over.

 

[Analoguesat]

As far as Setanta is concerned we have cancelled the subscription and it should end on Oct 10th, it will be interesting to see if the payments cease.O-zzz

According to numerous posts on the DS forum you have to give 60 days notice in writing to cancel Setanta

Which by the time they have actioned it means it will be almost Christmas by the time you are free of the shackles.

 

[towny]

According to numerous posts on the DS forum you have to give 60 days notice in writing to cancel Setanta

Which by the time they have actioned it means it will be almost Christmas by the time you are free of the shackles.

Thanks for the advice however I was hoping you would have answered my specific question.

 

[Analoguesat]

Analoguesat, still wondering why you won't accept that Setanta's signal is a lower strength, surely the info you provided from your system only indicates the quality of the signal to your box, not to your dish, which if correctly aligned and with a fully functioning LNB should give you a better signal than I am getting.

As far as Im concerned the Setanta signal ISNT lower strength!! As Im using the same lnb and cable for all channels the signal being delivered to the dish HAS to be effectively the same as the signal arriving at the box. Ok Im using a 1m dish but having the 28E lnb offset 12 degrees off the prime focus will knock a lot off.

How amny subscribers has Setanta got now? Half a million? Dont you think that if Setanta was transmitted at appreciably lower power there would be thousands upon thousands of complaints of poor pictures - theres a lot of substandard installations out there..

 

[towny]

As far as Im concerned the Setanta signal ISNT lower strength!! As Im using the same lnb and cable for all channels the signal being delivered to the dish HAS to be effectively the same as the signal arriving at the box. Ok Im using a 1m dish but having the 28E lnb offset 12 degrees off the prime focus will knock a lot off.

How amny subscribers has Setanta got now? Half a million? Dont you think that if Setanta was transmitted at appreciably lower power there would be thousands upon thousands of complaints of poor pictures - theres a lot of substandard installations out there..

But your box can only measure the signal received at the box which has to be the same for all channels, surely you need to measure the signal at the dish to see if there are any differences.
As far as complaints about picture quality I am seeing quite a few on these forums and only a small percentage of satellite viewers use these forums, ergo there could be quite a large number having picture problems