digibox death

[Feuillant]

can any-one help?

For the last 3 weeks we have been having trouble with our satellite system.

It normally works fine, using a sky card for all the available free channels from sky.

Now I can only get BBC1, and then only if I try 3 or 4 times, switching off the box and all. It just goes back to French TV if I try to change channels.

The system is fine, the signal is good, and I am stumped. We have tried with another card, another box, no zapper, another TV, and all combinations of the above, so does this mean it's the head? If not, what else could it be?

I hope it isn't as the dish is on the roof, 80 feet up...

The only other possibility is that our resident ghost (that's a very long story) has taken against the other channels - but we think this is unlikely as he would probably have kept BBC2, being a Knights Templar sort of a chap.

Any advice welcome, please, as we are not really tennis fans.

[Anton Redman]

More questions than answers to start

 

Have you tried your box and card at a friends house ? 

 

What do you use to receive French TV? ,  (Outside aerial or  French TNT box or French digital receiver  and fixed dish or FDR and moveable dish )

 

Do you have one big dish with offset brackets for two LNBs ?  If so are there two separate co axial cables up to the dish or has a splitter and despliter been used ?

 

What happens when you total remove the box or aerial connections that you use to receive French TV.

 

Does you SAT dish need to be 80 feet up.  Are you in a town or hamlet where you can only have clear line of sight at that height ? 

 

Roughly what percentage does the signal strength and quality show up on the SKY menu ?

 

What do you get on 501 and 333 ?

 

Which of the Radio Station from 851 to 856 do you receive?

 

[Feuillant]

okay. I will try to answer as best as I can...

I haven't yet tried the box/cared elsewhere - it's the next step. I think.

I use an external aerial for French TV.

It's one big dish with 2 heads, only one of which I have ever used. I don't know about cables and splitters but can ask. More later on that, then.

The dish is 80 feet up because that's the height of our "house", and it wouldn't work from the ground.

On 333 I get "No satellite signal" and on 501 I get just a blank silent screen.

The signal strength is 70 -80%, and the quality 70%. I have just checked this and on trying to return using back-up to the sky welcome screen I have once again lost the picture and the box has gone back to red slow flash...

I can't get anything but BBC1 now, and even then it's tricky as I have to re-set the box at least 4 times in order to get it - I have to go to phone line/sky programme/sometimes list of channels/bbc1, or just programmes/plus 2 on the channel change sometimes works. I can't get ANY other channel.

That was before I took out the French TV aerial from the back of the set - for the first time, after switching back on, I could get all channels and radio absolutely fine, but after only switching the TV off using the standby switch, I can once again only get BBC1.

When I switch on the box it gives a very long red light and then goes blank for a couple of seconds before red again for about 7 seconds. It seems to be trying to tune in, but fails.

Rather than conduct the details of all this publicly. would you like to reply to my e-mail address - unless lots of people are interested in the outcome, of course!

Thanks for your time and efforts - this IS a good forum!

[Anton Redman]

Think I replied as a PM rather than an email but have put down a couple of ideas. 

[Anton Redman]

I have now also replied to your Email.

[Gyn_Paul]

When you say 'red slow flashing.' do you mean on the screen?

Anton almost certainly spotted this but red slow flashing is a short circuit between the core and the braid sheath of the coaxial cable. Either you have a nail or staple misfired through the cable (which I have seen by a 'professional' installer) or the cable is trapped/squashed somewhere, or the short is in one of the 'F' plugs, or somewhere there is a sharp bend where the core has broken and is shorting to the outer braid or foil.

paul