Two distinct issues after replacing my dish

[pooksahib]

No, I'm pretty much out in the open. Once the weather clears I'll do some more adjustments.

 

[pooksahib]

Think I'll have to call time on this for now. Going up/down, left/right, I can see my existing channels coming and going but never a whiff of Bloomberg or Daystar, not even a flicker of a picture or a signal strength bar. Which suggests to me it must be something other than a positional issue. Yet the weird thing is, I DID see Bloomberg when doing my first alignment albeit it was blocky (my first alignment was just a rough and ready attempt as I hadn't much time).

Perhaps I'll get a cheap LNB in the sales and see if that's the problem. More likely, I'll just do nothing as I can live without those 2 channels but it would still be nice to know why I'm not getting them...

Meantime, many thanks for all the hints and tips I've been given here.

 

[Gladstones]

Best is to buy another lnb and borrow a receiver from someone to try

 

[Gladstones]

Just checked both are working fine on my LG TV internal
Sat tuner @ zone 2 mini dish @ inverto ultra black

 

[pooksahib]

Thanks for checking. 170 and 172 - are those channel numbers? My receiver groups similar channels together so that all the 'news' ones are in the 200's and religion in the 600's.

 

[Gladstones]

Yes channel numbers but I think numbers are assigned different by different tuners
When I scanned LG tv internal tuner it’s assign channels numbers to the bunch of channels available on each TP
say one tp have few itv channels they get assigned 9,10,11,12 so on
LG smart tv tuner has no software to separate news , religious or music etc
The channels can be rearranged latter on but numbers remain the same

 

[ozumo]

Thanks for checking. 170 and 172 - are those channel numbers? My receiver groups similar channels together so that all the 'news' ones are in the 200's and religion in the 600's.

As your receiver is an official Freesat box it places the channels in the order Freesat desires. I believe there is a non-Freesat mode where you can order the channels as you wish but you lose the 7 day EPG. Most people's receivers on this site are not tied to Freesat so the channels are in whatever order the user wants them to be in.

PS if you buy a new LNB look for one that has 4G protection

 

[pooksahib]

Thanks for the '4G' tip, ozumo. Yes, I know about the non-Freesat mode but rarely use it as the EPG is more important to me. Only time I do use it is if I want to record something without encryption.

 

[pooksahib]

Just a thought (and I hope I can make myself clear here):
I said above that, with all bar 2 channels well tuned in, I went left/right up/down and got no sign of Bloomberg/Daystar. All that happened was the gradual disappearance of the existing channels.
But isn't Astra a group of satellites... So could there be more than one 'sweet spot'? Or am I talking nonsense...

 

[ozumo]

Astra 2E is at 28.5 east, 2F & 2G are at 28.2 east, so there could be 2 'sweet spots'. However with small dishes the 0.3 degree difference is so small that it should not be noticeable.

 

[Mickha]

The satellites are co-located, sharing the space, and are mostly listed at 28.5E.
I doubt your problem is an alignment issue, especially as you get a very good signal on all other channels, although I can't see any signal quality readings posted.
Personally I think someone has posted a possible answer DECT interference, or another source, of interference.
You could test this, and other possible problems, by checking your receiver closer to the dish, outside, by running a new, shorter cable, from your LNB, to the ground, and hook it up to your receiver, and a small TV, or computer monitor, which has a HDMI input. Of course you need some decent weather, to test this.
An easier test is to check your receiver, on another dish, friends, or family members, check the two missing channels and note all the signal quality readings.

 

[a33]

FlySat Astra 2E/2F/2G @ 28.2° East

www.flysat.com

It's a pain in the behind to manually add transponders on these old Humax receivers. On most modern receivers you just input frequency, polarisation & symbol rate - everything else is worked out automatically. Or blind scan where it'll find everything with no other user input.

Just checking: Do you have good reception of channels in the four "quadrants", and with the right frequency number? See the flysat list for that, pick a channel in the range, and see if you receive it:
10700-11700 Vert
11700-12750 Vert
10700-11700 Hor
11700-12750 Hor
I'm just wondering if you really just miss the Bloomberg frequency, or maybe a frequency range.

Or has this already been checked? (didn't read everything back).

Greetz,
A33

 

[pooksahib]

Evening guys and, as ever, thanks for your interest. The 'quadrant' test was successful. My receiver is already close to the dish as there's literally just a wall between them so I have a short cable run. As previously mentioned, I've replaced my minidish with a Triax dish/Inverto LNB. If we're ruling out alignment as the issue then I think that just leaves the LNB being interfered with by 'something' or a compatibility issue between the LNB and my 11 year old Foxsat. The lack of Bloomberg and Daystar isn't a problem so I'm not going to inconvenience anyone by asking for a loan of their box.

Someday soon, though, I may get myself a new box. The new Freesat ones have some poor reviews on Amazon, though. What HDD box(es) are popular with you guys? And do any of them have an EPG facility?

 

[Gladstones]

I think the days are gone for boxes and HDDs
Smart tele all you need. Netflix, you tube , itv/ stv player and bbc player
Got almost everything you want to record without any disk error , lagging issues , programming recording errors etc. All in one remote.
In my experience LG smart TV internal satellite tuner can not be beaten by any box in picture quality.

 

[pooksahib]

So you only watch 'live' or 'catchup' then? I much prefer to record programmes, especially those with interminable ad breaks. You can't beat the 'skip forward 2m' button...

 

[Lazarus]

So you only watch 'live' or 'catchup' then? I much prefer to record programmes, especially those with interminable ad breaks. You can't beat the 'skip forward 2m' button...

Spot on!

 

[Gladstones]

So you only watch 'live' or 'catchup' then? I much prefer to record programmes, especially those with interminable ad breaks. You can't beat the 'skip forward 2m' button...

Yes I only like live and catch up no recording

 

[pooksahib]

The saga continues... While idly channel surfing, I noticed a blocky channel that I must have missed previously - Son Life. It's a religion channel and not listed on FlySat for some reason. Out I went and did some tiny adjustments until Son Life was OK (didn't take long). Then called up Bloomberg out of curiosity and there it was (albeit very blocky)! Fiddled with the LNB, fiddled with the elevation but couldn't get a proper picture. Fingers were cold so called it a day - I'll try changing the azimuth next time I get the chance.

If only the satellite powers that be had all the transponders on the same strength....

For those of you who like to record, what boxes are you using these days?

 

[rodscha]

Hello Pook sahib
I use a comag Twin HD CI+ to record stuff .
the CI+function is for German commercial channels'HD ,nothing for me!
but the hard drive works fine.
Only snag is,it often "remembers" the title of the previous program,
so "North by Northwest " becomes "weather" because the 2min long weather prog before the film lasted only 1 min and the epg lagged behind while the film had begun.A frequent problem.
And it takes about 15 letters,so you often get "Hitchcock gretas/No" because the rest is cut off
But the result is exactly as the live transmission,and good sound reproduction too

 

[ozumo]

I believe Son Life = SBN International, so is on 11597v, not too far from the Bloomberg transponder 11686v and in the 4G/DECT zone.

One thing to try would be turning the LNB 90 degrees, then in non-Freesat mode manually scanning the Bloomberg transponder with the polarisation set to horizontal. If you can scan in and watch Bloomberg then the LNB is at fault. If it still causes trouble then that more likely points to an interference issue.

As for recording I have a Sky HD subscription & use an Openbox V7S for FTA recordings as it has the least clunky playback of all my non Sky receivers. It has no EPG for UK channels, only now & next.