sky box and diseq switch

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Putting it simply, will a Sky box pick up a signal via a Diseq switch?

I've pointed the dish to the right place but I don't get a signal. There is another dish higher up the pole that I could also point in the right direction and this one has a direct output, i.e. no diseq switch. It's just a little more difficult to get to

 

thanks

[Martin963]

I don't keep up with the current state of (deliberate) crippling of Sky boxes, but AFAIK they have never and still don't support Disecq.

However, if the dish pointing at Astra 2 is connected to the first port (ie no 1) on the switch then it should pass through to the receiver in the absence of any Disecq signalling, which is the situaiton that you have when the Sky box is being used.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Thanks Martin. I will see which input the "straight" LNB is connected to. I was going to bypass the switch completely by plugging the "out" cable from the switch directly into the LNB, but I can't figure out how to open up the LNB at the moment.

I will have another go tonight

 

ta

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Martin

Finally got round to it, i.e. it's stopped raining enough to get outside. I bipassed the diseqc switch completely as I couldn't get my satellite finder gizmo to pick anything up. After a bit of jiggling things about it all works fine. Not the strongest of signals, but it's better than nowt

ta

 

[Martin963]

Maybe the old switch had "gone west".

When they were first introduced I had terrible trouble with the two I'd bought,  to the extent that I assumed they were unusable and gave up on Disecq for ten years!

Glad you're (more or less) sorted.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

more or less!!!

An interesting problem surfaced last night.

I connected the Sky Box to the spanking new 42" LED LG TV my flat mate bought. All fine. However, I then connected it to a smaller Lenco TV in the bedroom , where it will reside eventually, and the TV would not display anything.  I know the TV will work with an HDMI cable from a set top receiver as that is what it was plugged into downstairs, but the Sky box via a SCART is not working.

Is this more to do with the cheap nasty TV? As it's not an HD signal will the TV just ignore it. I have my suspicions that the Lenco is duff but I was wondering if there could be a technical problem that I could sort out.

[Martin963]

Well it should work - things to check might include:

Try another Scart cable.   Try the Scart cable the other way round. 

Go into the Sky box menus and deselect RGB in favour of composite or whatever they call it now.

Borrow another small TV and try that.

Double check that you've got the right input selected on the little TV (if there's a choice,   some now differentiate between AV on Scart and Ext on RCA plugs for example,   although you'd expect the Scart switching signal to take care of that side of things).

Apologies if you've already done all that!

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Thanks for the tips.

I will give it a go. Come to think of it, it might be the RGB output from the Sky box that needs checking as I had to chose the correct AV input for the LG TV.

I was thinking of picking up an Ebay Humax HD anyway so the HDMI input may be the better option in the long run. Money is always an issue and If I can get away with the Sky box for the moment it would be a winner.

 

[HoneySuckleDreams]

No luck. Ho Hum. I can't get it to accept the SCART at all. I tried changing the Sky box output from RGB to PAL, but still no luck.

The Lenco user guide only shows setting up a Video via SCART, so I'm wondering if it's the TV. It looks like I will have to try and pick up a cheap HD receiver

Are there any receivers I can buy in France/Lux that can pick up the Sky/Freesat signal. I can get a Humax box for £100 on t'interweb but is there anything cheaper that could work?

 

Edit: I've just looked on EBAY and there are Sky+ HD systems going for less than £50. I know I need a subscription to use the record functionality, but would that be a cheap option to just get the Free channels in HD?

Edit: (again) ... I've just thought...what would happen if I took out the useless HDD? would the Sky box still work? It seems like a good way to get a couple of external hard drives I could use elsewhere

[HoneySuckleDreams]

got my sky+ box up and running, wish I had gone and paid the extre for the the Humax in the end. Lots of faff I don't need, lots of rubbishy channels I will never watch.

But as I don't have a viewing card I can't get ITV1 HD (FA cup on sunday!!). I thought this was FTA not FTV? I've tried manually adding the channel with all the frequency information I can find on t'interweb but no luck. Is it because my signal is not strong enough? 

[pachapapa]

I presuma a Humax is a FTA HD Sat Receiver. Last year I decided to upgrade my old Nokia MPEG2 Sat FTA Receiver in conjunction with the change to TNT and the end of analogue in november 2010.

I found HD Sat Receivers rather expensive at around €200, possibly cheaper now, it became quickly obvious that buying a separate receiver was not the best option for me. Instead I purchased a TV with the 3 common Digital HD Tuners integrated in the TV.

There are a lot of TVs with onboard FTA Sat HD tuners included at maybe € 50 more expensive than the bog standard TV with TNT HD.

[Martin963]

Is it a Sky + or Sky HD + box?    If it's just Sky + then it doesn't have either the hardware or software to accept HD broadcasts.

Having said that,  isn't there something funny about Sky HD boxes anyway that prevents one scanning for additional HD channels (although it will allow SD scans of course).

I may have imagined that but something is ringing alarm bells....

But as you say,  ITV 1 HD is indeed free to air on 10832 MHz.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

It's a Sky+ HD

I can get BBC HD and BBC1 HD ok

I'm wondering if the ITV1 HD signal is coming from a different transponder/satellite, which may mean that I haven't got the dish/skew set up properly yet. Each time I try and enter the frequency I get nothing. Are you sure it's on 10832 (mind you Lyngsat HD astra2d says 10832 as well)?

Somone said to try:

Frequency......10.834
Polarity..........H
Symbol rate....22.0
FEC...............5/6

I will give it another fiddle tonight

[Martin963]

A 2 MHz won't make any difference   (only exception to that is if there's a strong signal close by (and by close I mean close)).   Otherwise the H/V discrimination is more important than a 2 MHz discrepancy.

But what about 10936 MHz V (same s/r and FEC)?     If one doesn't work maybe the other will....?

But as I say,  I'm just thinking there's a problem with scanning HD channels on a Sly box.

Later - or 11053 MHz H 22000  5/6.

I don't have any Sly boxes to hand but if none of those options work then either it's not doable or something isn't set right.

Having said that,   my freesat box sees the signals and adds other channels on those frequencies but NOT ITV 1 HD,  although I suspect that's because it's already on the EPG so the software says that a channel of that name already exists...

[HoneySuckleDreams]

well blow me! Just turned it on, I got the "no telephone connection" message which was odd, and I went to ch178 and it's there....the satellite fairies must have been in when I didn't notice. I'll check back later to see if it's still there.

as far as I can tell Sky and ITV never got to an agreement where ITV could be broadcast FTA on the sky network. Freeview obviously came up with the goods, or the deal was done to p**s murdoch of.

So to be on the EPG it must be FTV??...and i've no viewing card so work that one out!  .