Problem with satellite reception

[Joeylegend]

Problem with satellite reception

I have sky + digital TV,

Sometimes the reception stalls( the picture on screen freezes).

This doesn’t happen with all the channels all of the time.

Also now and again the on-screen information displays ‘there is a technical fault with this channel’. Sometimes when recording the signal is lost and the recording doesn’t finish.

I take it there is more bandwidth with some channels then others because some channels may not experience this at all.

I spoke to sky and they said, check the card, switch off and on etc. , I have tried all that.

I have spoke to other friends , neighbours etc with the same sky box as me and none of them report the same problem.

Does anyone know what other things to try or what it could be?

 

[blondini]

Is it a Thompson digibox? Their Sky+ and Sky HD boxes have very poor quality components (capacitors) in the power supply and are practically guaranteed to start failing within a couple of years. Any fault on this box and the first suspect is the power supply as the power supply wavering causes all sorts of problems.

I repaired mine with a kit of the individual components but soldering them onto the board is not a task I recommend trying if you're not skilled. A refurbished and guaranteed power supply board is available on an exchange basis from satcure and is a simple plug in, couple of retaining screws swap.

 

[^neo^]

I've gone through 4 boxes in 3 years.
They threatened not to sort it out last time until i told them to cancel the contract and i'd go to Virgin, had an engineer out next morning with a new box

 

[foxhole]

You get those faults if the sat dish has been disturbed, have you checked it , also trees can obstruct signal and may 'grow' to become a problem.
For the record my first sky+ box lasted just 4 days before going bang!

 

[Joeylegend]

Hi neo, you’re solving problems in the diy section too, you’re some fella.
Thanks neo for the emission test solution on my fiat punto weeks back, the car passed after all the recommendations.

Can’t believe you can go through so many sky boxes.

Cheers to Blondini, but can I ask you do you think a power supply is the cause, if for example, bbc1 is fine and when you go to discovery channel for example it happens. Then when you go back to bbc1 it fine.
I sort of think that sky are too blame, is it possible they can give bandwidth priority to certain channels and not others and therefore other some channels fall over and other don’t seem too.

 

[blondini]

Cheers to Blondini, but can I ask you do you think a power supply is the cause, if for example, bbc1 is fine and when you go to discovery channel for example it happens. Then when you go back to bbc1 it fine.

Yes, absolutely. When the stability of the power supply becomes marginal it will hurt the poor quality channels first and mine was doing the same thing. BBC channels were ok, but most other channels were unwatchable. I also had intermittent loss of signal on 2nd input and recordings were failing, but the symptoms you describe are classic power supply if you've eliminated feed from dish.

Is it a Thomson box? Have you looked at signal strength/quality, and have you tried swapping the dish connections?

 

[blondini]

Here's what sold it for me, it's a thread on the Satcure forums. Admin keeps his first post updated so you don't need to read through the whole lot for the latest info. http://notonyourtelly.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1390&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I'm still getting a lot of people describing symptoms and asking me "could this be caused by the power supply?"

The answer is always "yes" because a failing power supply can cause an infinite number of symptoms. After all the Digibox is simply a computer with a tuner or two. If your computer power supply starts to produce incorrect voltages and interference, what symptom do you suppose it will cause?

Anyway, if the PSU is more than a year old or if one or more capacitors are bulging, you don't need to ask. As far as we can tell, ALL Thompson PSUs made before 2008 have the poor quality "CapXon" capacitors.

 

[Joeylegend]

The sky web site seem to be good too, the box has started to get even more troublesome.

Now even with the weather being ok, if u try 2 record anything over night on the planner when u go into the planner next morning it has the word ‘clashed’ at it and it can not be view. Even although there was nothing 4 it 2 clash with.

 

[Joeylegend]

emailed sky, still no response, completely failing on certain channels, 'technical fault' messages.

Should I pay for a new box or should I get sky to sort it out since I am paying 50quit a month?

 

[mattylad]

Are you still within the 1st years warranty period?

If so get onto them, ensure its recorded on the systsem & get them round to sort it. The LNB may need some adjustment.

 

[blondini]

Is it a Thomson box? Have you looked at signal strength/quality, and have you tried swapping the dish connections?