Sky Digibox in Spain

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happyjackseven

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Hi everyone,

I have had a Pace 2200 digibox installed in Alicante Spain (1 Metre dish 0.6 Cambridge LNB).
It works fine as I get what I expected all BBC channels and C5,No itv or c4.
But I am curious to know why their is no signal quality on the signal test indicater and no lock unlike my system at home in Birmingham.

Also the default transponder has been changed to 11.719 and polarity
to H.

Can anyone tell me

Thanks
 
If you have a weak digibox,the pace 2200 is one,normally to load the blue banner channel infomation on first installing the digibox you change the default transponder to 11719H from the original setting of 11778V,but this always reverts back to 11778V once searching is complete.Even this pace box will lock and show a quality reading of a quarter or more during the day if the dish and lnb is at optimum position.The 1 metre dish should be ok in alicante,but as ever ,bigger is better,especialy with the pace box.The pace 2200 works here in Malaga,on a 1.3 dish,locks and shows quality,but still breaks up on ITV 4 and 5 afternoons...........Brian
 
There are two different Pace 2200 digiboxes (at least)the front logo's are different,i have found the best one has a white circle with sky in and digibox underneath,the other style of logo i can not recall at this time...................Brian
 
Just found the other logo on ebay!!,it is SkyDigital all printed with a crescent at the end.Have'nt i got anything better to do,what with all these bombs going off here in Fuengirola.........Brian
 
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 22-Jun-02 AT 06:21 PM (GMT)]In Alicante you will be lucky to get ITV etc (2D) with anything less than a 1.8m dish, even if you had a better receiver.

Bit of a bummer for you, as here in the south it is there 24/7 on a 1.3 and less...
 
Mind you we in Alicante can get Sky One , C4 and most of the movies after 8pm with a decent 120 so things aren't too bad .
Paul
 
That's very interesting as my new Thompson 4212 box also shows no lock. I have just updated from a Panasonic to the Thomson 4212 to get rid of the frequent locking of the Panasonic on weak signals. My card was supposed to be be updated but so far I can not get the premium channels. The old Panasonic shows signal lock and signal strength data but the Thomson shows no lock or signal data despite working ok on everything except the premium channels. I wonder if the lack of lock is interfering with the card update. Both boxes have EPG 3.5.3 and Software 1.2S4FH. Just what does the signal lock information mean - if there is no lock why does the box still work on the non premium channels ?

A new observation - the presence of the lock indication does not seem to be dependent on having the Sky card in the box. If the manual tuning menu is selected and the default transponder entered (12.129) then after a short delay the Thomson box shows that its locked and the signal strength and quality bars show.
 
In view of your location, you are probably missing the frequency that the card update is being sent out on- in which case there is nothing you can do except bring the box back to the UK to activate it at a Sky installation there. Lack of signal lock indicates that this is the case.
I imagine your old Panasonic was showing the signal readout from an alternative default frequency. Panasonics always show very high readings even on weak signals.
 
Thanks for the suggestion - but if the Box software and EPG update worked why should there be a problem with the card update? Which satellite and transponder is used for card updating - does anyone know? I have good signal strength from 2B North and South and 2A South - but nil from anything else.
Geoffrey
 
There is another oddity I have noticed regarding the signal lock issue. If a power off reset is done the signal test screen shows that LOCK is present while the Box is searching for listings. As soon as the listings appear the Box shows NO LOCK.
 
Just a note about the outcome of my card update problem.
The card was eventually updated by Sky after many calls by my UK dealer. Sky told him that they had been having problems with their update system.
Sky also said that some Digiboxes (like my Thomson 4212) show NO LOCK even when things are working properly. My box is now fine but, as before, as soon as it has finished its channel search the LOCK changes to NO LOCK and signal strength and quality bar go.
 
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