I admit it, I don't understand Satellite TV

JackFrobisher

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I have an ex-Sky dish with a quad LNB. Since I ditched Sky and went to Freesat I've been using a Humax HDR1000S (installed mid 2013). My TV is an LG with Freeview and Freesat tuners, though I generally only use Freeview TV.

The HDR1000S worked fine until in December I noticed it wasn't recording scheduled programs. I looked at the settings and it was showing NO SIGNAL. As a quick test I connected the satellite cable to my TV, which has a satellite tuner, did a scan and picked up 189 TV channels and 29 Radio stations. Signal strength 90% and signal quality 100%. Great, I thought, the Humax is broken. The Humax Ts&Cs said that the HDR1000S had a 24 months warranty so I got onto Humax. I eventually got Humax to agree to replace the HDR1000S and it arrived on Monday.

I connected the new HDR1000S and went through the setup - NO SIGNAL. I plugged the cable into my TV and I got 189 channels etc. In frustration I went out yesterday and bought the cheapest Freesat set-top box I could find locally (a Manhattan Plaza HD S2) and went through the setup - Lock Fail (i.e. NO SIGNAL). I remade the cable ends with new F-Type connectors; the result was HDR1000S - NO SIGNAL, Plaza - Lock Fail. Connected the cable to the to the TV - 189 channels etc.

Today I moved the cable at the dish end to an unused connector on the LNB, though the connector and plug showed no sign of corrosion; the result was HDR1000S - NO SIGNAL, Plaza - Lock Fail. Connected the cable to the TV - 189 channels etc. I'm beginning to lose the will to live now.

I've done some searching through problems discussed on this site (and others) but couldn't find anything that helped. Has anyone got any ideas?
 

timo_w2s

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Welcome to the forum and hopefully we can help sort this out for you.

If your TV was only getting 189 channels it sounds like your dish could be the problem, especially since you've tried a few Freesat receivers. Are you able to list any of the channels that were found by the TV? You should be getting closer to 500 or so free channels or 1000 channels including Sky's encrypted channels (which you won't be able to watch).

I suspect the dish is out of alignment and is only picking up some of the stronger channels or the LNB (the bit on the front of the dish) is faulty.
 

JackFrobisher

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A complete list:
Channel 1 - E4+1
Channel 2 - E4+1
Channel 3 - Channel 4 +1
Channel 4 - Channel 4 +1
Channel 5 - Channel 4 +1
Channel 6 - Channel 4 +1
Channel 7 - Channel 4 +1
Channel 8 - Channel 4 +1
Channel 9 - More4
Channel 10 - e4
Channel 11 - BBC One W Mid
Channel 12 - BBC One Yk&Li
Channel 13 - BBC One E Mid
Channel 14 - BBC One East E
Channel 15 - BBC Parliament
Channel 16 - BBC One Wales
Channel 17 - BBC Two Wales
Channel 18 - ETV5
Channel 19 - ITV
Channel 20 - ITV2
Channel 21 - CITV
Channel 22 - ITV4
Channel 23 - ITVBe
Channel 24 - ITVi Stream 44
Channel 25 - ITV
Channel 26 - ITV
Channel 27 - ITV
Channel 28 - ITV +1
Channel 29 - BEACHBUGGY
Channel 30 - BBC Two HD
Channel 31 - BBC One HD
Channel 32 - BBC One NI HD
Channel 33 - E4+24
Channel 34 - BBC Three HD
Channel 35 - CBBC HD
Channel 36 - BBC Three
Channel 37 - CBBC
Channel 38 - BBC One South
Channel 39 - BBC One S West
Channel 40 - BBC One Oxford
Channel 41 - BBC News
Channel 42 - BBC One NI
Channel 43 - BBC Two NI
Channel 44 - ETV6
Channel 45 - ITV
Channel 46 - STV
Channel 47 - STV
Channel 48 - STV
Channel 49 - STV
Channel 50 - UTV
Channel 51 - ITV +1
Channel 52 - ITV3
Channel 53 - ITV3+1
Channel 54 - Get Sky Products
Channel 55 - ITV HD
Channel 56 - ITV HD
Channel 57 - ITV HD
Channel 58 - ITV HD
Channel 59 - STV HD
Channel 60 - UTV HD
Channel 61 - Channel 4 HD
Channel 62 - 4seven
Channel 63 - MEDIA BRADCAST- T…
Channel 64 - MEDIA BRADCAST- T…
Channel 65 - MEDIA BRADCAST- T…
Channel 66 - MEDIA BRADCAST- T…
Channel 67 - DW Europe
Channel 68 - HB-FEED
Channel 69 - GERMAN TOTE 1
Channel 70 - Personal Organiser
Channel 71 - Vegas Casino
Channel 72 - Vegas Monty Python
Channel 73 - Astra UHD Demo
Channel 74 - The Box
Channel 75 - KISS
Channel 76 - Kerrang!
Channel 77 - Smash Hits!
Channel 78 - Channel 4
Channel 79 - Channel 4
Channel 80 - Channel 4
Channel 81 - Channel 4
Channel 82 - Channel 4
Channel 83 - Channel 4
Channel 84 - Film4
Channel 85 - Film4 +1
Channel 86 - More4 +1
Channel 87 - c4 I
Channel 88 - ETV2
Channel 89 - BBC One Scot
Channel 90 - BBC Two Scot
Channel 91 - BBC ALBA
Channel 92 - BBC ALBA
Channel 93 - BBC One N West
Channel 94 - BBC One Yorks
Channel 95 - BBC One S East
Channel 96 - BBC One NE&C
Channel 97 - BBC One NE&C
Channel 98 - BBC One Lon
Channel 99 - BBC Two Eng
Channel 100 - ETV1
Channel 101 - Cbeebies
Channel 102 - BBC One West
Channel 103 - BBC One East W
Channel 104 - BBC One CI
Channel 105 - BBC RB 1
Channel 106 - 6391
Channel 107 - 1035
Channel 108 - HD Retail Info
Channel 109 - ITV4+1
Channel 110 - ITV Wales
Channel 111 - ITV +1
Channel 112 - ITV
Channel 113 - ITV +1
Channel 114 - ITV
Channel 115 - ITV +1
Channel 116 - 1034
Channel 117 - 4020
Channel 118 - 4021
Channel 119 - 4022
Channel 120 - XXX Brits
Channel 121 - ___4109
Channel 122 - ___4110
Channel 123 - (sub b +1000)
Channel 124 - ITV
Channel 125 - ITV +1
Channel 126 - ITV
Channel 127 - ITV
Channel 128 - ITV
Channel 129 - ITV
Channel 130 - ITV +1
Channel 131 - Channel 5
Channel 132 - Channel 5
Channel 133 - Channel 5
Channel 134 - Channel 5
Channel 135 - Channel 5
Channel 136 - 5 USA
Channel 137 - 5 USA +1
Channel 138 - 5*
Channel 139 - Channel 5+24
Channel 140 - 5* +1
Channel 141 - Channel 5+1
Channel 142 - BBC One ScotHD
Channel 143 - BBC One Wal HD
Channel 144 - BBC News HD
Channel 145 - BBC Four HD
Channel 146 - Cbeebies HD
Channel 147 - SES Demo SD
Channel 148 - SES Demo HD
Channel 149 - Arquiva UKI 1557 for TBN
Channel 150 - SkyNws Arabia
Channel 151 - 4646
Channel 152 - ITV Border
Channel 153 - ITV +1
Channel 154 - ITV
Channel 155 - ITVBe+1
Channel 156 - ITV
Channel 157 - ITV +1
Channel 158 - ITV
Channel 159 - ITV +1
Channel 160 - ITV
Channel 161 - ITV2+1
Channel 162 - BLANK
Channel 163 - BLANK
Channel 164 - BLANK
Channel 165 - BLANK
Channel 166 - BLANK
Channel 167 - BLANK
Channel 168 - BLANK
Channel 169 - BLANK
Channel 170 - BLANK
Channel 171 - BLANK
Channel 172 - BLANK
Channel 173 - BLANK
Channel 174 - BLANK
Channel 175 - BLANK
Channel 176 - BLANK
Channel 177 - BLANK
Channel 178 - BLANK
Channel 179 - BLANK
Channel 180 - BLANK
Channel 181 - BLANK
Channel 182 - BLANK
Channel 183 - BLANK
Channel 184 - BLANK
Channel 185 - Sky 3D
Channel 186 - Sky 3D
Channel 187 - BLANK
Channel 188 - BLANK
Channel 189 - BLANK
Channel 190 - BLANK
Channel 191 - BLANK
Channel 192 - BLANK

...phew!
 

Analoguesat

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At a guess your dish is marginally out of alignment & you aint getting the Freesat home transponder on Eute 28A.

Therefore no signal on the Freesat boxes.


Eute 28A is marginally weaker than the new Astra craft so if the dish is misaligned they are the first signals to disappear
 

JackFrobisher

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Great news. Thank you.

Realignment of the dish ... not for the feint-hearted, I suppose. I'm quite prepared to buy a tool that will help - any suggestions/recommendations?
 

Analoguesat

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Dead easy IF you have completely safe access to it. If you do firstly mark up the dish bolts & mounts with pencil, tippex or similar. Then if you get lost or lose everything you can quickly reset. Bring the signal strength bars up on one of the receivers.

You have a signal so thats a good starting point. Just gently push the dish edges side to side and then the upper & lower edges.

One direction should increase your signal a little. When you find it slacken the bolts on the dish mount a little and gently push the dish round a bit. A couple of mm will be more than enough. Keep nudging the dish until you get maximum signal.

Once you have the Eutelsat 28A frequencies appearing maximise the signal for these, tighten all the bolts up firmly & enjoy the extra channels.
 

Analoguesat

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If you have an old portable tv take it outside & connect the receiver to it, its much easier than having someone shout instructions from inside the house :D
 

Archived-1

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If you have an old portable tv take it outside & connect the receiver to it, its much easier than having someone shout instructions from inside the house :D

I used to be able to see the tv from the dish, when i moved the dish I was thinking of a solution without the tv outside/the shouting bit,

Ok this is what I did, you need a smart phone and a laptop with a camera,

I positioned the laptop facing the tv and logged in to my ustream account and started streaming , climbed up the ladder and tuned into my stream, happy days :-bighappy
 

Analoguesat

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Ingenious - but I still think the old ways are the best

(Which is why I havent updated my forum nick to "Digitalsat") :-rofl2
 

Channel Hopper

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Take some quality pictures of the outside system (wall bracket and dish face), plus the cable run and post here. It might be you have nothing more than a faulty LNB , though there will be more faults to pick if they are apparent.

Was it a qualified (receipt to prove) company or a subbie that fitted the dish ?
 

JackFrobisher

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All sorted now. Thanks for the words of wisdom.

FWIW: I tried the shouting but got nowhere - SWMBO and then number one son both got bored and went away. I tried the camera on the iPhone thing but got nowhere - good idea but I wasn't up to getting it to work. Didn't fancy having a 23" TV and STB at the top of a ladder so I went out and bought a signal strength meter. The gain in signal was really marginal (5 went up to 6) but as I moved the dish around it was constant in the same spot so I thought it must improve the reception. Tried to tune the PVR and got a massive 37% on signal strength and 5% on quality. Better but still not getting Freesat. Then I thought perhaps the meter was attenuating the signal - it was still in circuit. I removed the meter and I got 75% strength and 100% quality, on all 4 connections on the LNB. Result!
 

PaulR

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Good to hear and thanks for letting us know the result. Well done!a
 

timo_w2s

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Good result. Shame the other family members didn't find it as exciting... ;)
 

Mickha

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Careful, that's how most of us got started, usually on 19.2E, in the early days, but once you find one satellite you just have to find more, and a 60cm dish becomes 80cm, then 1.2M, and even more, in the case of a few members, and some just start a dish farm, collecting, and repairing, any broken dish found in the tip:)
 

Channel Hopper

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...... I went out and bought a signal strength meter. The gain in signal was really marginal (5 went up to 6) but as I moved the dish around it was constant in the same spot so I thought it must improve the reception. Tried to tune the PVR and got a massive 37% on signal strength and 5% on quality. Better but still not getting Freesat. Then I thought perhaps the meter was attenuating the signal - it was still in circuit. I removed the meter and I got 75% strength and 100% quality, on all 4 connections on the LNB. Result!

It may still not be peaked fully, and poor weather will show up a loss of channels, meaning you may have to climb the ladder a second time.

Post some pictures, others here may identify some irregularities that could be part of the issue.
 
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