Gwynydd

[quote user="Ab"]  second question since a storm yesterday when electiic power lost for 10 hours in limoges area we notice we are not getting channel4 and 5 and the bbc1 states  bbc london.!!!! Are other people having problems---.before we got bbc1 and the local bbc1 south east news at the end of the program.  [/quote] Your card has either been dislodged or you have put it back in the wrong slot. Make sure it's firmly in the right slot and re-boot it if necessary.

 I didn't describe anything as a dual LNB. A Dual LNB is an LNB which has 2 outputs, one output carries all the vertical channels and the other carries all the horizontal channels. It is used in distribution systems where the vertical and horizontal components are separated. A Twin LNB also has 2 outputs but can be considered to be 2 separate LNBs and this is what you will see in the retail shops and the link that you gave correctly describes this as a Twin. The pair of LNBs in the same housing is not called a Twin  but a Monoblock and Castorama correctly shows this. You might have been confused with the Twin version of a Monoblock ... again Castorama describe it correctly as a Monoblock with a Twin output. Two  LNBs separated by 6 degrees on a bracket are not Twin LNBs, nor Dual LNBs, nor Monoblocks ... they are just 2 separate LNBs When you told Expat Paul that there were 2 types of Dual LNBs available, you were giving misleading advice which is why I corrected you. I didn't mean any offence by it.  

  An LNB is an LNB and will read both digital and analogue. There are two types of dual LNBs available in France. One has two heads which aim at the same place,often looks like a single LNB. The other had the heads offset by 6  degeres to enable the two main PPV French digital systems to be picked up with one dish. Make sure you buy the right one.   Anton, you need to understand that a dual LNB is not the same thing as a Twin LNB ... a Twin LNB  is what Expat Paul needs and he is right to say that it will feed his existing receiver plus a second one that he is about to buy. Expat Paul is also right to say that a universal LNB will read both analogue and digital signals. Combined analogue/digital satellite receivers are quite expensive ... you can achieve exactly the same result by buying a separate analogue receiver and a free to air digital receiver. Fit the twin LNB to your Astra 2 dish, take output one to your original receiver and take output two to the A input of a DiSEqC switch (mounted behind the dish). Fit a second dish and universal LNB and direct it towards Atlantic Bird. Take the cable from the LNB and connect it to the B input of the DiSEqC switch. Take a cable from the IN of the DiSEqC switch to your new digital receiver using the IN input. Then take a small loop of cable from the OUT of the digital receiver to the Input of your analogue receiver. The original receiver will work as usual. The new digital receiver will give you all digital FTA channels off Astra 2 and AtlanticBird plus the analogue channels off AtlanticBird as well ... and only using one cable. Total outlay less than 300 euros.    

[quote]The bad news is that it might well be the box. NatPans were prone to this because of power supply faults (not switching the LNB) The good news is that they are about the best of the bunch with a fast...[/quote] Sorry, but this is just rubbish. The Panasonic is famous for faulty card readers and an ability to be unable to cope with software changes. There was also a band-switching problem with certain LNBs but that was sorted a couple of years ago. If the original poster receives Sky News, then the problem lies with the installation and not with the receiver. Channel 4 is one of the first channels to disappear when there are dish problems and the link from the Big Dish site below explains. Note the screenshot particularly: http://www.bigdishsat.com/fs10.php

[quote]Hi everybody Is there anyone out there who can help me with recording programs from Sky onto a Video player. I have the boxes all connected together as per instruction manuals but all I record is a ...[/quote] Try this: http://www.bigdishsat.com/fs05_VCR.php

[quote]You can get your Sky+ box hosted by a company in the UK, for a consideration of course, but it fools Sky into thinking your telephone is always connected, if you want Sky box office or any of the Pay ...[/quote] "but it fools Sky into thinking your telephone is always connected" No, it doesn't. You are just paying for an accommodation address, that's all. The fact is that, although it's a condition of your contract, the telephone connection is not currently checked by Sky. So you can take your Sky Plus to France and it will work.

[quote]OMG, you are all talking jargon, and I don't really understand!!We don't have a digibox at home, and have an old TV with no scart socket, so not sure we can use it here. We only bought it for the ren...[/quote] Still not sure what to do, but we don't like the idea of leaving the electricity on, even to just one socket. Hate the idea of losing everything, and it is difficult to phone the helpline because in theory we should not have the digibox in France. I work for a firm in North Wales and part of our activities are satellite installations. We have a lot of customers who have holiday homes here so only visit occasionally, very much like holiday homes in France.  Here, customers turn their electricity supply off when they are away. This can be for 9 months or more. When they come back, their digibox still works on FTA channels but their viewing card has fallen asleep. So they get the BBC but not ITV. Even after 9 months away, our customers advise us that:  1.The card wakes up all by itself in a few hours. 2. The card does not self destruct  3. They do not need to call Sky. 4.They do not need to do a forced software upgrade. 5.They do not need to leave the digibox on a specific channel. 6.The digibox does not lose its regionality So, despite the well meaning advice, you should follow your instincts and shut the electricity off. Your digibox and card will come to no harm. Promise.  

[quote]Sorry, Ron Avery is correct that you will not lose ALL channels. There are a few which are not encrypted eg BBC1, BBC2 and Sky News and these will always work with or without a card but if the box wi...[/quote] I was called out only this week to a box which had been left disconnected from the electricity supply for several months and it needed a call to Sky (from a UK contact) to get it working. I'm curious to know why you would want to put a customer to the expense of a call out if the problem was a de-activated card. Couldn't you have just told them over the phone that there was no fault with the equipment and they just need to phone Sky?

[quote]Can also be caused by ingress of water into the connectioin at the dish and therefore an intermittent fault. Always use self amalgamating tape not electrician's tape. CHRIS[/quote]   This message is being received on hundreds of digiboxes at the moment as new EPG software is being downloaded. Some digiboxes cope with the changes and others do not, those that don't either freeze or display the "There is a Technical Fault with this Channel" message. All you have to do is switch off your digibox at the mains plug and switch back on again. If the digibox displays the "There is a Technical ... etc", it's usually a lock up and not a physical fault with the system  

[quote]Dear All We have a house in Sarlat in the Dordogne. We have a digital satellite dish that we bought in the UK which I think is too small for this far south since we lose reception whenever it rains. ...[/quote] This may help: http://www.bigdishsat.com/fs12_compare.php

[quote]Hi,Apologies if this has been answered before, my search facility doesn't work.We have a holiday home in France, which we have been renting out this year. At the beginning of the year we installed a ...[/quote] However, we have been told that if you leave the electricity off for too long, we may lose it altogether. No, you won't. http://www.bigdishsat.com/troubleshooting_2.php

Try http://www.bigdishsat.com/troubleshooting_1.php#R2 Bryn

[quote]In my experience. If rain makes the picture break up then you need a bigger dish. I use 80cm in The Var (83). If wind does the same is the dish near trees or bushes that are swept near the dish by th...[/quote]  If rain makes the picture break up then you need a bigger dish. Not necessarily. In fact as you live in la Manche you can be fairly sure that your problem is nothing to do with dish size.

Have you tried this? http://www.bigdishsat.com/Troubleshooting3.html Bryn

This clarifies things: http://www.bigdishsat.com/Latestnews.html