Alan22
Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2022
- Messages
- 21
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 3
- Location
- UK
- My Satellite Setup
-
Upgraded Sky Dish (60cm IIRC), with Quad LNB;
Sky+ HD (DRX890-C) Box (just the free channels now);
FreeSat UHD-4X 2TB;
Humax HDR-1100S 1TB (FreeSat);
Humax HDR - 1000S-GB-500G (FreeSat Old, only to clear the drive not record now);
- My Location
- GUILDFORD
Hi all, hope I get this right for you, messed with stuff all my life nearly (not hardcore just complex), so I will start with the main query I am after some help with, but more will follow as I get each bit set up, so here goes.
I have an upgraded Sky dish (60cm IIRC) and a quad LNB feeding a Sky+ HD box (DRX890-C), as well as a FreeSat UHD-4X 2TB box, I moved away from Sky because they refused to help saying they couldn't find my contract, the fact I was with them from the day of launch meant nothing to them, I say this to explain that I am only using it for the free service (noted in the small print here I think I saw), I have 2 leads connecting to this box (well I did), and I had another 2 leads going to the 4K box, Sky is\was 2 single lines, the 4K box is\was a shotgun affair giving a twin feed, I won't complicate things further with other devices here as they won't be of any use currently.
Now the 4K box decided to spit the dummy one day, there was\are known issues with this box, as initially we wondered if the box had died, as 1 feed would not record, it kept skipping and reporting errors almost constantly, and there was a few channels that had vanished, as in absolutely no service or even recognition of the channel, e.g. the SD BBC 1 disappeared, and would only display on another channel, and it would be the HD version of it, I can't recall them all, but there were a few doing this, further we got the stutter, where it repeats the first 3 or 4 seconds of the program once you hit play, it took quite some time and waiting experimenting and eventually found out these are known bugs to the makers, and as best I can see all issues have been addressed just leaving the stutter to be sorted, they are doing these via auto updates.
That's the hardware and beginning of the issue to get you up to speed, now the Sky box was working fine, good signal on both leads, but 1 lead on the 4K box showed no signal at all, so I took 1 lead from the Sky box, and fed it to the 4K box, this gave it the 2 feeds again, But, true to fashion that didn't last long before it went again, and then the other half of the shotgun cable also stopped getting a signal, so what I did was rewire the connectors, thinking they may be suffering from too much interference, and initially this gave a result, but again the result was short lived, repeated 4 or 5 times but that was futile, it was at this time I found out the box had bugs, but I don't know if there were any other issues.
So in desperation of my sanity (not that I have much of that) I took the only working lead, it was 1 of the 2 original Sky leads, with the 2nd lead having died as well, now some time back I got a splitter, as I have a lot of kit, but it didn't work as I was hoping back then, by chance I found it while trying to find other bits, and took a gamble on using the only working lead to that, then feed the 2 leads out into the 4K box, and it worked, the 4K box is now fully functional again, from a single source through a splitter to get the 2 feeds it needs to utilise the mutli recording etc, but this has left me with a non working Sky box, because I have no working feed to it, total of 4 lines coming in but only 1 is getting a signal.
That is a pretty comprehensive breakdown of what and how things happened, in the hope it shows a possible cause or anything that may offer any clues, so ultimately I'd like to get 4 working live feeds again, so I can become fully functional again, the question is How?
I've been retired disabled for longer than some of you have probably been alive, so my ability is limited, and energy is an extremely valuable commodity to me these days, so the question is where do I start, my guess is the more advanced users will suggest putting a meter on the dish and see if the feeds are working, I agree a very sensible 1st call, but I don't know where my meter is and will struggle up a ladder, so wondering if there is an easier check I can do first.
0ne thing that has made me wonder is about the F Connectors, I can't give an exact type (I think there is more than 1 of the same design), but the simplest description if it's enough, is the old Sky type silver with a knurled shank and screw thread type fixing that screws down onto the actual cable after it has been pared back (I'm aware of earthing etc), and because it is so hard for me to do, and I have to wonder if this is causing the cable to fail X distance down from it due to the twisting required to connect it, to that end I am wondering if cutting it some way back and using the newer style plugs may be a solution?
I have checked visually down the whole lines for sabotage and they are intact, then there is the LNB, things don't last forever, unfortunately, so I also wonder about the chances that this is failing, but whatever way I go will mean expense and energy, and I have very little of either lol, so I'm hoping someone notices something I have not tried or similar?
I have an upgraded Sky dish (60cm IIRC) and a quad LNB feeding a Sky+ HD box (DRX890-C), as well as a FreeSat UHD-4X 2TB box, I moved away from Sky because they refused to help saying they couldn't find my contract, the fact I was with them from the day of launch meant nothing to them, I say this to explain that I am only using it for the free service (noted in the small print here I think I saw), I have 2 leads connecting to this box (well I did), and I had another 2 leads going to the 4K box, Sky is\was 2 single lines, the 4K box is\was a shotgun affair giving a twin feed, I won't complicate things further with other devices here as they won't be of any use currently.
Now the 4K box decided to spit the dummy one day, there was\are known issues with this box, as initially we wondered if the box had died, as 1 feed would not record, it kept skipping and reporting errors almost constantly, and there was a few channels that had vanished, as in absolutely no service or even recognition of the channel, e.g. the SD BBC 1 disappeared, and would only display on another channel, and it would be the HD version of it, I can't recall them all, but there were a few doing this, further we got the stutter, where it repeats the first 3 or 4 seconds of the program once you hit play, it took quite some time and waiting experimenting and eventually found out these are known bugs to the makers, and as best I can see all issues have been addressed just leaving the stutter to be sorted, they are doing these via auto updates.
That's the hardware and beginning of the issue to get you up to speed, now the Sky box was working fine, good signal on both leads, but 1 lead on the 4K box showed no signal at all, so I took 1 lead from the Sky box, and fed it to the 4K box, this gave it the 2 feeds again, But, true to fashion that didn't last long before it went again, and then the other half of the shotgun cable also stopped getting a signal, so what I did was rewire the connectors, thinking they may be suffering from too much interference, and initially this gave a result, but again the result was short lived, repeated 4 or 5 times but that was futile, it was at this time I found out the box had bugs, but I don't know if there were any other issues.
So in desperation of my sanity (not that I have much of that) I took the only working lead, it was 1 of the 2 original Sky leads, with the 2nd lead having died as well, now some time back I got a splitter, as I have a lot of kit, but it didn't work as I was hoping back then, by chance I found it while trying to find other bits, and took a gamble on using the only working lead to that, then feed the 2 leads out into the 4K box, and it worked, the 4K box is now fully functional again, from a single source through a splitter to get the 2 feeds it needs to utilise the mutli recording etc, but this has left me with a non working Sky box, because I have no working feed to it, total of 4 lines coming in but only 1 is getting a signal.
That is a pretty comprehensive breakdown of what and how things happened, in the hope it shows a possible cause or anything that may offer any clues, so ultimately I'd like to get 4 working live feeds again, so I can become fully functional again, the question is How?
I've been retired disabled for longer than some of you have probably been alive, so my ability is limited, and energy is an extremely valuable commodity to me these days, so the question is where do I start, my guess is the more advanced users will suggest putting a meter on the dish and see if the feeds are working, I agree a very sensible 1st call, but I don't know where my meter is and will struggle up a ladder, so wondering if there is an easier check I can do first.
0ne thing that has made me wonder is about the F Connectors, I can't give an exact type (I think there is more than 1 of the same design), but the simplest description if it's enough, is the old Sky type silver with a knurled shank and screw thread type fixing that screws down onto the actual cable after it has been pared back (I'm aware of earthing etc), and because it is so hard for me to do, and I have to wonder if this is causing the cable to fail X distance down from it due to the twisting required to connect it, to that end I am wondering if cutting it some way back and using the newer style plugs may be a solution?
I have checked visually down the whole lines for sabotage and they are intact, then there is the LNB, things don't last forever, unfortunately, so I also wonder about the chances that this is failing, but whatever way I go will mean expense and energy, and I have very little of either lol, so I'm hoping someone notices something I have not tried or similar?