Signal Quality Help/Advice Required

[The..pieman]

Hi...I have a problem with the signal strength on my Panasonic sky digibox. The signal strength is at 100% but the signal quality is only on 50%. I have used a meter to align the dish to the best angle and the signal quality did bump up from around 40% to what it is now:50%..
system details are as follows:
Panasonic model: 2.1.Z
Version: 0029421911
Operating System Version: 1.2S4FM
EPG software: 3.8.8

Obviously that all means nothing to me so some advice would be helpful.

The main problem is every 2-3 minutes the pictures get pixelated in the middle and I get an annoying noise as it does this.
Bit of a pain whilst watching a programme..

I must add that the system was ready here in the house when I brought it 7 years ago.

Any help would be appreciated...

 

[Topper]

Hello

Welcome to the forum The..pieman

Well what you describe could be a number of things however, assuming you have successfully eliminated dish misalignment is the problem confined to any specific channels or is it all of them?

 

[The..pieman]

Hi and thankyou for your time & effort for a complete newbie..

It seems to be specific to ITV1 mainly..I use a 'freeview card' from sky just for the record.

 

[Ghostleader]

Are you using a Sky dish?

 

[The..pieman]

Yes I'm using a dish and not a rooftop ariel but as to wot make the dish is I'm unaware off.. I can check Sunday daytime and try and find a brand name on it somewhere but it looks very similar to many of the other dishes down my street if that helps.

 

[Analoguesat]

Hi and thankyou for your time & effort for a complete newbie..

It seems to be specific to ITV1 mainly..I use a 'freeview card' from sky just for the record.

No you arent - you are using an ftv card. Freeview is the dtt service delivered via the aerial. A subtle difference but important.

Have you set the skew on the lnb (twist it round to the middle notch so the cable connection is at about "7oclock")

 

[Ghostleader]

From what your describing its sounds like the dish is slightly misaligned or the skew of the LNB is really off, but with Sky dish you cant really go that wrong with the skew & even if you set it to the wrong number for your area it wouldnt effect the signal quality as bad as you describe if your in the U.K.

 

[The..pieman]

Never touched the LNB apart from unscrewing the cable... I just looked out at it and the cable appears to be more at 6 o'clock rather than 7..
How do I go about skewing the LNB so the cable is 7 o'clock... And secondly why should it be skewed?

 

[The..pieman]

Ghostleader may I ask you wot you mean about the 'wrong number'?
Sorry to ask but I did say I was a novice.
And yes I am in the UK. Bedfordshire to be precise..

 

[Ghostleader]

Never touched the LNB apart from unscrewing the cable... I just looked out at it and the cable appears to be more at 6 o'clock rather than 7..
How do I go about skewing the LNB so the cable is 7 o'clock... And secondly why should it be skewed?

This wouldnt make a great deal of difference to your received signal levels, and not enough to give you the problems you describe, I really think your dish is slightly out mate, you should be getting alot more then 50% quality if your dish has a clear line of sight & is correctly aligned.

 

[The..pieman]

I'll have to get back out there tomorrow and try and re-align it again and see if it helps..
Lastly, would changing the cable to a new one make a difference?

 

[Ghostleader]

Depends on the cable you used, did you re-use old cable that was out there or did you run new stuff?

 

[Ghostleader]

The only new cable you could use that would lose alot of signal over short distances would be RG59/U type stuff.

 

[The..pieman]

I've never changed the cable so I guess it's the original one that has been there since it was installed.

 

[Ghostleader]

Any obstructions in the way of the dish, i.e. bloody great tree or the side of a building pokeing out at one side of the dish's "view"?

 

[The..pieman]

No trees or buildings..

Why does it only affect my itv1 though?

Boy I'm confused but I am going to attempt to re-align the dish tomorrow..

My bruv has 60% signal strength and 80% signal quality and he lives in a built up area...man these things are meant to try us eh..

 

[Lazarus]

Yes, but don't get hung up on trying to compare readings with someone else's system. Not only are the "measurements" very crude indeed, but every box/LNB/cable combo has differnt charateristics.

The only value in those meters is for peaking your own signal.

 

[workshoppete]

This could be a problem with the LNB (the block at the front of the dish) or the Digibox itself.
Best thing to do in my view would be to borrow a known working Digibox off a friend and try it on your dish to see if fault remains.(or take your box to their house to try) If it does then you have eliminated ther Digibox from the problem.

All the best

pete