Replacement Digibox

[Suandpete]

    We currently have a Grundig Sky Digibox which has a failing PSU and we can no longer recive BBC radio - we are considering buying a replacemnt and will obviously steer clear of Grundig (even though newer different models are probably fine - once bitten etc).  Does anyone have any advice on what model we should be looking at?  I appreciate that a standard Free to Air Box would give us most channels but we have a viewing card and would like to keep Channel 4 and the Sky system of planning what you want to watch is quite useful, so we are thinking of a Sky digibox of some description.

[trumpet]

I have three different boxes. A sky one (pace) bought 2nd hand. Two boxes made by Strong one of which seems to be a bit temperamental. Do you know we came here in 2001 and it wasn't until 2003 that we new we could get TV via Satellite!

[trumpet]

Sorry what I want to know is what is a PSU? As maybe that would explain why one of the strongs is not so good.

[Suandpete]

    Power Supply Unit - apparently it is a common problem with some Grundigs.

[Ron Avery]

Su

Are you sure its the PSU?  Surely if that was failing you wouldn't receive anything much at all.  You do of course know that all the BBC radio stations have been moved and you have to retune or do a satellite scan on some non Sky boxes to find them again don't you?

 On the SKY boxes this should not be necessary, but is it only the BBC radio that you cannot get?  When my Panasonic started to play up,  I lost BBC radio 2 and 4 but could still get BBC radio 1 and 3.

[Martin963]

I would refer the hon gent to the following thread,  where the diagnosis of the Grundig problem can be followed in detail

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/937754/ShowPost.aspx

[Martin963]

In answer to the OP question,  Panasonics often seem to be mentioned favourably - although the model that was particularly highly rated was current a few years ago (it had a very sensitive tuner which worked well in S Spain).

To be honest I'm not sure there's much difference,  apart from the finish on some.

[ChezShells]

Ditto to Martins last post, don't think there is much between them, the old black Pace boxes always seemed reliable.
Same as anything, buy 2 identical new cars one will need something before the other.

They don't cost the earth, buy a pace and a panasonic.

[Chancer]

You are not alone, I have a Grundig box which has been very temperamental for several months now, often losing all channels or "no sattellite reception" requiring a reboot and channel search periodically.

Its favorite trick at the moment is to refuse to find channel 5 or Sky3 (I think, its channel 108) unless I wait for up to 3 minutes, once found they are lost again after switching to another channel for more than a few minutes, sometimes after waiting for CH5 which doesnt come it has then lost all the other channels "no satellite signal" requiring yet another reboot.

All good challenging fun! I will look to see if CPC sell a repair kit for the PSU;

[Clair]

Avoid the Panasonic DSB30: overheating causes crashes.

[Martin963]

Interesting Clair,  just shows that it's a bit of a lottery.

Mind you when you see the abuse that some boxes are subjected to (in terms of being part of a pile of electrical items,  all left on,  and stuffed into an unventilated slot in a piece of furniture under the TV) it's not surprising their lives are shortened.   Whilst less tidy,  it's always best not to stack items of this sort,  and let the air get all round them.

May be why our two eight year old Pace boxes are still going strong (famous last words)

[Clair]

We had one of those (Sky supplied back in the UK) and it worked very well for many years until it started freezing when we were changing channels, then would refuse to restart for hours.

I went looking on various internet sites and fora for solutions (Digital Spy was a good source of info), but it's now been replaced and was last seen in bits in the garage... [Www]