Martin963

[quote user="tonyv"]If you're on a linux box, it's edit > preferences > update. On a 'doze box, I think the preferences sub-menu is under the file menu. [/quote] Sadly,  as I explained in my previous,   the update option you describe (you left out the advanced step between preferences and update) only seems to apply to search engine updates. That's why I find Linux so frustrating.  A quick internet search shows that I'm not the only one who can't turn off Firefox auto updates. Grrrr.

ITV is probably just for tonight - although second-guessing SES is always dangerous. But it may well be that ITV and ch 4 are gone by tomorrow morning.  Will be interesting to see whether there's an exact correlation between losing the BBC and losing the commercials...

Good try ernie!!!   But in MY tools menu there is only Web Search Downloads Add ons Set up Sync Web Developer Page Info Start Private Browsing Clear Recent History However,  in Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Updates you'd think there would be the magic key.   But there isn't,  there's only an option to turn on and off the updates for Search Engines. And that's why I want out of Linux as soon as possible,  so often the "help" doesn't correspond with MY machine.   Thanks for trying though.

In our kitchen in 24 we have one of those clocks that goes backwards,  that is to say that the hands sweep anticlockwise and the figures are appropriately placed so that it tells the time correctly in all respects other than that one has to make quite a mental effort (until one is used to it) to interpret it. I patiently explain to French friends that - as we still drive on the left hand side of the road in Britain - it is entirely logical that our existing horological arrangements should similarly have been unaffected by Napoleon. And - like with your friend - and because I appear a person of the utmost sincerity - our friends can be seen wrestling with themselves as they try to work out whether I'm teasing them.

[quote user="Jako"]2 old SD dreamboxes, one xtrend HD PVR. [/quote] I'm envious.   I nearly bought a Dreambox in about 2004 I think,  but stuck with Technomates and various CAMs,   all of which are now in the attic. In some ways I wish I had,   although I'm not that good with computers (I've struggled with Linux for two years,   and have finally now bought a Windoze machine in the last couple of weeks which I shall migrate back to fairly soon).   I'm not sure I'd have ever got my head round a Dreambox. For example,  no one is able to tell me of a non-geeky way of turning off auto updates for Firefox.   My internet this morning has just slowed right down (yet again) with "unauthorised" ADSL activity which I'm fairly sure is Firefox doing its own thing - which is ridiculous because the Linux-squad always tell us there are no viruses so - selon moi - it should not matter a jot if Firefox isn't up to date!! But I digress and will soon be free of Linux.

That sounds like a really neat idea.  Is it a Dreambox?

[quote user="PaulT"]Obviously alignment is vital and I presume even more so when the signal is weak. Would one of these be beneficial? http://tinyurl.com/l9ua222 sorry, looks like it wil need to be cut and pasted. I have a meter that is just a pointer on a scale. I had thought of sticking an Inverto Black Ultra on the 80cm dish just in case ir receives anything and having the box and a TV by the dish connected by a short piece of cable and adjusting to see if anything is received. Then when nothing is replacing it with a larger dish which will obviously require aligning.[/quote] That meter looks quite nice,  but of course one only finds out the drawbacks (if any) by using it.   But I'm seriously tempted to try one out of interest,  as at present I have to take mine back and forth between countries.   Doesn't look as though it can handle DVB-S2 though (or HD in DVB-S). Nothing wrong in the meantime with taking a TV and the box out to the dish.   It's what I did for years,  although I had a small portable for this purpose that I wasn't bothered  about sustaining superficial damage (or the heavens opening unexpectedly!)>

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="Daft Doctor"][/quote] It might have been Martin who suggested the Inverto months back for me to try and they are not that expensive[/quote] Not guilty m'lud,   simply because I'm lucky enough to not need anything fancy so my knowledge of esoteric LNBs is limited.   But I do remember someone else did - maybe Danny? But I'd agree with Danny (and with Ernie for that matter) that whilst some claims for LNBs are clearly fanciful it's worth getting at least an up to date one if signal is a problem.   I have 12 or so LNBs in service in both countries and it is rare not for one to fail every year.   When I replace it there's nearly always a slight improvement in signal quality (some of them are 10 years old) - as Danny has described.

[quote user="Daft Doctor"]Hi, Firstly must add my thanks to Martin963 and Jako for their input to this thread, absolutely invaluable.  We had heavy rain for a couple of hours yesterday evening and lost signal temporarily on one of our two feeds (input 1), the one bringing in BBC2HD, reading 0% strength and quality.  Input 2 showed strength of 80% and quality of 70%, so I was confused at such a huge difference, would that be explained by the recent changes?  When we lost signal last Saturday night during snow it was input 2 which went to 0%/0%, so don't think it is poor/loose connections on the roof. As I was writing this, the same has just happened this morning (it's snowing).  Again we lost BBC2HD but can get BBC2SD no problem.  Now it is back to decent strength and quality again! Seems we are now very weather dependant on certain channels, unless there is some other problem I'm missing?  Will have to cope until the move to new house, but will definitely get an 80cm dish and a top LNB.  On that subject, are these Inverto Black Ultra universal significantly better, and do they need any different set up to a standard quad LNB? [/quote] Thank you Daft Doctor. The signal strength figure going down to zero is interesting.   Whilst different LNBs and receivers behave differently a zero strength (as opposed to quality) can mean that the LNB has stopped working or that the connection to it has been entirely lost.   On a great many boxes (at least in my experience) as soon as you plug the LNB in the strength meter will register,   even if the dish is lying on the ground on its side!    Was it very cold when it happened?   I'm puzzled,   Jako? Certainly at the moment I would reckon that a bigger dish will solve your problems but maybe the jury is out as to whether some extra euros would be justified on a 1 m....?

[quote user="Quillan"] Where I am coming from is interestingly on my Orange decoder all the channels have been swapped round so that the TF range i.e. channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the remote are now all HD. Of course if you use a SCART lead like be it makes no difference because the decoder 'downgrades' to SD for my TV. What if this happens with UK TV i.e. they swap BBC 1 SD with HD so on a Sky box for instance channel 101 is in HD because as I understand it HD comes from 2F and SD from 2E. Don't know if you understand what I mean? [/quote] I believe that this is the eventual plan, both on freesat and Sky.   And presumably it will mean that if your HD signals are duff you won't see anything on 101 and will need to retune to XYZ to see the SD version. Can't remember where I read about it so am open to correction - as always.

[quote user="Quillan"]Interesting but where will that leave you with 2F i.e. what is its exact position. I understand that these satellites are basically in a line that can 14km long. Not much from down here I know but if one moves a tad and the other does not if you aim precisely at one won't you have problems receiving from the other? [/quote] Unfortunately I can't lay my paws on it,  but somewhere I've got the Astra/SES publicity technical film that they used to put up on ANALOGUE (remember them?) Astra 1 transponders which weren't in commercial use.   I seem to remember that each satellite was "confined" in an imaginary box in space measuring 100 kms x 100 kmx x 100 kms.   So I think they're slightly further apart than 14 kms but my memory may be faulty,  and in any case it makes precious little difference on the ground unless you have a GIGANTIC dish.   I think that probably we can discard the idea anyway,  but HAD 2E taken up a permanent position at 28.5 deg E then those people who wanted the BBC rather than Sky and who had big dishes MIGHT have benefited from optimising their azimuth on 28.5 deg E rather than 28.2 where the main cluster is. Occasionally this 28.5/28.2 separation could be noticeable on a 60 cm dish in France,  some people near us wanted Horse and Country (which their elderly mother mistakenly thought was called House and Country,  in fact she pronounced it Hice and Country!) and on their dish there was a poorer signal from 28.5 deg E.   It was possible to move it a smidge eastwards to bring H&C in whilst not in any way degrading 28.2 deg E. So yes Quillan,  on a very big dish there's a chance that one might degrade some services in an effort to bring in others as strongly as possible.    But if one didn't want the unwanted services (if you see what I mean) it might have been a thought. As I say,  I probably shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place!!

The theory behind the idea wasn't actually to tweak the UK spotbeam but (I think) to favour the Middle East beam in relation to other (possibly interfering) satellites on the Clarke belt.   Any change to the spot beam was a spin-off that might have meant that bigger dishes could be optimised on the eventual position. But as you say - an idea that may well be simply fantasy.

[quote user="AnOther"] One word for Q or anybody who has reached the limit on dish size - cable ! The right cable can halve the losses and be the equivalent of going up several dish sizes. Not necessarily cheap but what price missing Eastenders [:P] [/quote] Very good point AnO.  I suspected that the small Sky dishes would start to struggle where you are - at least chez toi the problem is very easily solved.

I'm not normally one to take rumours too seriously,  but here's an interesting possibility that is being discussed. Eutelsat will almost certainly remove their craft from 28.5 deg E following their "losing" the fight with Astra/SES over their presence there.   And it's just possible that the resulting empty space (which is effectively a co-location with 28.2 deg E on most dishes) might be used by one of the Astra craft,  possibly of course 2E. In which case it may be that it'll be possible to optimise reception of the BBC and ITV from 2E by pointing a dish slightly further east than at present.   Slightly is the operative word here,   and any advantage is unlikely to be seen by small dishes,  but by the time one gets to 1.5 m there's possibly something to be gained,  if indeed the scenario actually happens. As it is there are reports that 2E is sitting at 28.35 deg E rather than 28.2 deg E - unfortunately my eyesight isn't quite good enough to verify that,  and anyway it's cloudy here in Devon! As I say,   this is pure speculation at the moment but there are one or two pointers in SES's behaviour and public utterances that do actually lend a little credence to the idea. We will see......   What do you think Jako?

@ Quillan That's incredibly frustrating for you,  and I will readily admit to being surprised as I did think that a 1.5 m dish would do it for you.   Particularly as around Tarago a 1.9 m dish is reported as working,  and extrapolating north from there to you I'd have expected 1.5 m to be OK.   Granted that the edges of beams do tend to have unexpected lumps and bumps,  and clearly you're not favourably placed. So your warning is timely for those in the extreme south of France to think carefully before committing to anything too expensive.    Like you I think that for most people 1.5 m is about as far as it's sensible to go.   I just hope that the installers are checking chez eux that whatever they're recommending works OK before recommending it to n'importe qui..... Renewed condolences,   whilst I love to criticise the organisation I once worked for I'd still miss certain aspects of it - mainly radio,  which of course is the easy bit to receive via the internet....

[quote user="mogs"]Panic over phew! After unplugging and leaving for 20 mins it's all working now, all channels. BTW we only have a small dish, not sure of the exact size but watch free sat/freeview.[/quote] Phew indeed!   If you were having problems in Gourdon I reckon we'd all have been pretty much doomed. Glad you're back in service.

[quote user="soupagirl"]Signal strength/ quality 90% / 85% respectively, best we usually can achieve, after yesterday's tweaking. In the southern half of Landes, between Mont de Marsan and  Dax. [/quote] Well indeed,  that does sound like the 2E signal is simply too low where you are to register on a 1 m dish,  what ever efforts you make. Sit tight for a while until things settle down and we can be more certain what WOULD work at your location.   Frustrating for you and sorry I can't be more positive!   And of course you will - sadly - lost ITV and channel 4 next week by the look of things.

[quote user="soupagirl"]Lost all BBC as of Thursday night, we thought it was due to high winds. Himself was on the roof all day yesterday tweaking the satellite but to no avail. then I looked on the forum and found this thread. We are in the Landes, with a 1m dish. [/quote] After all the tweaking have you still got ITV and channel 4?   All I can suggest is that you get them back as well as possible (have a look at the signal quality indicator,  not the signal strength) then just try adjusting the skew of the LNB - assuming Himself hasn't done that already.   Loosen the collar holding the LNB and try rotating it a little to peak the quality indicator.  Then try the BBC channels again. If that doesn't work (and I'm not hopeful) it sounds as though you need a bigger dish,  are you north or south Landes?   The reason I ask is that it looks as though the fall-off as one goes south is very sharp,  and I'd half expect a 1 m dish to have worked in the northern reaches of 40. Final question - have you (had you?!) got channel Five's stable of progammes?

[quote user="mogs"]I have lost all channels this morning although it was fine first thing. I'm hoping it's just a weather issue. I'm located near Gourdon, anyone else having problems in this area?[/quote] How big is your dish mogs?   You say "all channels" - have you still got ITV and channel 4 or did you mean just the BBC channels?  I wouldn't have expected you to have any problems unless you've only got a Sky minidish or a not-too-well-adjusted 60 cm dish.

@ Quillan - yes I had a feeling you had come to some sort of agreement with your installer. @ gardian - suggest you try and do something similar,  that is to say that if the recommended 1 m dish doesn't do the business that you can upgrade to a 1.2 for just the cost-of-dish difference.   I'm not in any way casting aspersions on your installer,  he sounds as though he's got things under control,  but it would be a sensible protection against any future problems if the signal wobbles around,  as we know it does on 2F.

Chrissie - thanks for that report.   We should be able to build up quite a picture if people are kind enough to keep sending their reception reports in like you have. Judith - sounds as though you've got something lined up.   I wonder whether it would be worth negotiating some sort of "guarantee" on the lines that if a dish that's installed subsequently doesn't measure up (as Quillan has found) that you only pay say the extra to cover a further increase in size (a sort of trade-in if things don't work out).  I would have thought that any pro worth their salt would be happy enough to agree not to leave you with something that subsquently (through no-one's fault) ceases to work.   Certainly worth having the conversation.  Keep us posted please.

My sympathies Judith.   You are a long way south and to be honest I'm loathe to recommend a minimum size for you until we know a bit more.   If you've got a tame installer (French or English I wonder - without being prejudiced I doubt the French installers are going to be up to speed on all this,  although I could be wrong and apologise if I am!) then I'd follow their recommendations.   If they know what they're doing they should already have experience of reception of Astra 2F (it's been on for over a year),  which is likely to be a useful guide to what's needed for 2E. It's frustrating for you and you have my condolences!!!    But having said that I suspect there is a solution to be had in the not too distant future,  providing you don't mind investing in a considerably larger dish.  

....  and I reckon that fifteen years will probably more or less see me out,  at least as far as hankering after the French life style is concerned. Certainly I entirely agree with you Jako,  the increasing cellulisation (is that a word?) of footprints follows the historic pattern of VHF,  then UHF,  then low-SHF transmitter network planning. Ka band may well by then be the "norm" I suppose....

Whilst I wouldn't set the greatest store by anything technical coming from ITV,  someone did receive this from them: "The new satellite footprints have been designed to meet the requirements of broadcasters who distribute their channels in the UK and hold broadcasting rights for the UK but not for other countries. Viewers in the UK will not be affected by the changes." I still don't think that tightening the UK spot beam just for the broadcasters' comfort was SES's main priority;  it still seems to me it has more to do with the fact that a) they can and b) it means they can re-use frequencies,  but at the same time I concede of course that it does suit all parties. But if the rights people were THAT worried I think we'd have seen a beam that was a lot tighter. Interestingly it seems that Sky are now more interested in pan European beams than sitting on the spot beams they've been using on 1N hitherto;   some are interpreting this as a cynical way of maintaining their subscription base in Europe,  rather than trying to queer freesat's pitch (as hitherto) by hoovering up spot beams on 2D and then 1N in order to limit freesat's capacity.

Well one lives and learns. The 52 x 39 cms I gave above for a little Sky dish must have been what they issued in the "old days"  (c 1999). Because I've just measured another ordinary Sky dish (that I actually have pointing at AB3) and it is 58 x 43 cms.  I'd always assumed that the little Sky dishes were all the same size,  but they seem to have got bigger at some point!