Harry Flatters Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Before I spend a bucket-load on calling a Sky engineer out, does anyone recognise these symptoms? On most, but not all channels I am getting periodic pixelated breakup of the picture which freezes the sound and picture for a second or so then corrects itself. On the setup screen my signal strength is just below half (but occasionally gets to about half then drops back), the signal quality is just over half and signal lock says "OK". I've checked all the connections which seem OK. Has my dish moved? or are we looking serious problems here. Help..................... *arrowright*Harry Flatters *arrowright* AKA Steve Mell of Su77on Se7ens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgrigsby Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Hmmm sounds like fairly normal weather related problems, the same thing happens here when it rains heavily or snows. If the weathers ok then it does sound like the dish maybe a little out of line, the symptons you describe seem to suggest the set-top box is not getting enough information from the dish to build the picture with for one reason or another. If you've checked all the cables then I'd guess it's a dish problem. We tend to get it intermitently here in bad weather and then it goes away once the weather improves. Cheers Rob G www.SpeedySeven.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F355GTS Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Harry had exactly the same last year and it was caused by the dish moving a bit. Engineer realigned it and it's been perfect ever since, get your missus up the ladder to move it around until it's sorted signal quality etc was as you say and is not much different now it's sorted although it is stable Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Durrant Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Harry I can just see Her Majesty up a ladder fiddling with your dish 😬. If you need a hand give me a call, but only when it has stopped raining Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tight fart Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 If you need a new dish and LNB, we sell them for £25 inc vat (plus £5 p&p), so don't pay anymore than that. Not touting for business but wouldn't want to see you ripped off. T.F@O.F. www.griptv.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-B Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 even after that, you might need to download new SW onto your receiver if you're in a marginal signal area. we had to do that and it works now no matter what. 1) unplug mains 2) remove card 3) wait min 1 minute 4) press and HOLD Backup key on Sky box, apply mains, keep holding Backup button until all lights on box light up, and a message about "don't touch the screen for 10 minutes" appears, then release button 5) when it's done, it'll reboot the box, and you'll have just a red light. 6) insert card and turn box on. 7) go to settings -> find new channels, select them and save This will refresh the image on the box, and make it a fair bit more weather stable, or so I'm informed from their technical stupport folks... Steve 210Bhp SV-VHPD click here to see our pictures.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter R Shaw Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Is the dish mounted on a standard roll bar or an FIA one ? Road7runner S7S.1.7 X flo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F355GTS Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 W1scb Yes the Sky engineer who came to realign our dish said we needed a s/w upgrade which he started to do, on the screen it said in big FO capitals do not remove dish connection or mains, this may take up to 10 minutes, after 3 minutes he said " they never take this long" and pulled the mains out, it took them a week to replace the now knackered box...what a to$$er having originally fought to get a Silver one to match all the other kit, the replacement came in black! R Phillips whats the best box to have? and if so do they do it in Silver? Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevSull Too Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Mark, I've got a Panasonic and I'm very pleased with it. After using the one that my mother has (Amstrad) mine's rock solid and very fast, never had a minutes problem. It's also silver! (rest of my kit is black) but worth putting up with for the reliability. 😬You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same. 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StewartG Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 The best box to have is the Panasonic one, it has the fastest navigation of the on screen menus and the best picture albeit by only a small margin. In my experience the sky engineers always say the dish needs realigning this is because they can fill in their service sheet with a report of some remedial action, they're nearly all freelance and if they don't do anything I suspect they don't get paid. It's absolutely astounding how all these dishes move of their own free will or maybe they never were aligned correctly when installed. The next diagnisis is a faulty digi-box, this probably is the real problem as all boxes are made down to a price and run quite hot leading to early failure typically about 2 days after the 1 year sky warranty expires. Sky will happily replace your digibox, the only problem is you don't get a new one. In theory you get a reconditioned one but I've never seen any evidence that they've been near a testers bench and it's more likely that you get the one he's just removed from the last call. You also get whatever he's got on the van so if you want a specific colour or make you're out of luck. The only solution is to buy a new box from somewhere like loot or e-bay they're cheap, you get a new unused one and you can connect it up yourself but remember to ring sky to have it matched to your smartcard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F355GTS Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Kev so you don't want to swap your nice fast silver Panasonic for my cr*p slow black Grundig then No problem I can pop round now for it 😬 Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian B Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 Would the dish be up near the eaves by any chance? Spring is coming, birds are nesting......... and they like sitting on feedarms (or sometimes cr@pping on the LNB feedhorn ) causing intermitant signals. Ian - MI 5EVN - Slightly Vider 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tight fart Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 "The best box to have is the Panasonic one" I'd go along with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris W Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 There's a great satellite "techtalk" site at http://www.satcure.co.uk from which you can get a monthly newsletter for free by email. It has TONS of technical stuff and you can ask any questions you may have. 1.8K SV 140hp see it here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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