Digibox help needed Please

[Jacqui Too]

Hi

I have a Skydigibox: Pace Model no.2600C1 which is about 5 years old, I also have a sky viewing card.

Last September we took the digibox with us to our house in the Dordogne to have it installed by a professional installer eg. new dish, new wiring and aligned to receive free British channels including channels 4 & 5.

We hoped that the digibox would work as we had not used it for 12 months.

The installer came, put up the dish and we had to wait while the digibox updated itself, I have to say at this point that I am not a technical person so please bear with me if I sound a bit of a wally when it comes to technical jargon. After a little while we could get some channels BBC1 being one of them but no ITV1 (my favourite channel), we waited and waited , then the installer said he thought that we may need a new box, so he connected a new box with our viewing card in and voila all the channels we wanted. But I did not want to to shill out for a new box at this point, so I got him to reconnect our box again and there was ITV1 [:)] so I said that that was good enough and that we would stick with our own box. (It had already cost us €250 for the dish set up)

Our installer told us that it could take up to 24 hours before all the programs would come through and showed us how to reset and find new channels using the back up button, we felt OK and he left.

Now to try and cut a long story shorter( I know I am waffling on abit now) We have all the channels we want including Channels 4 & 5 but no BBC1,

If I do a reset, by this I mean press backup then unplug the aerial/dish and wait while it reestablishes the channels, I can get BBC1 but I lose ITV1 [:-))]

I have done this many many times now, some times I can get BBC1 sometimes I can get ITV1 but never both at the same time.

Now do you think it is a problem that can be easily solved or should I just buy a new box and be done with it !!!

Thank you in advance

[Anton Redman]

Which ITV region do you receive when you have ITV1 (103 when you get it) ?

 

When you press the green oval button at the top right hand corner of the remote.

Then ‘4’ System Set Up

Then ‘6’ System Test

 

How far do

Signal strength (Top Grey Bay) and

Signal Quality (Next Bar)

 

Go across the screen ?

 

The best way to check what is causing the problem is to take your digibox to a friend’s house who has sky working fully and see what channels your box receives there. You then borrow their box and see what channels you receive at your house. You may need up to 30 hours to wake up Channels Four and Five but for ITV and BBC it is now pretty quick. Make sure you unplug the boxes before unscrewing the cable to the dish If you box has the same problem at their house the cheapest solution is probably a new or second hand box. If their box does not work at your house then there is something wrong with the LNB, Dish Alignment or cables.

As a fall back please try the following :

 

Which ITV region do you receive when you have ITV1 (103 when you get it) ?

Do you receive BBC1 London on 974

Do you receive BBC1 West Midlands on 979

Do you receive ITV London on 993 ?

 

If you get 979 and 993 but not 974 either your box or the LNB has a problem switching from vertical to horizontal polarisation. Easiest way to check at a friends as above but if you swop the LNB and there is no change it is probably the box.

[Jacqui Too]

Thank you for your fast responce

I forgot to say in my OP that I and the box are at home now in Shropshire!

[quote user="Anton Redman"]

Which ITV region do you receive when you have ITV1 (103 when you get it) ?

ITV1 Central

 

When you press the green oval button at the top right hand corner of the remote.

Then ‘4’ System Set Up

Then ‘6’ System Test

 

How far do

Signal strength (Top Grey Bay) and

Signal Quality (Next Bar)

 

Go across the screen ? Yes pretty good

 

The best way to check what is causing the problem is to take your digibox to a friend’s house who has sky working fully and see what channels your box receives there. You then borrow their box and see what channels you receive at your house. You may need up to 30 hours to wake up Channels Four and Five but for ITV and BBC it is now pretty quick. Make sure you unplug the boxes before unscrewing the cable to the dish If you box has the same problem at their house the cheapest solution is probably a new or second hand box. If their box does not work at your house then there is something wrong with the LNB, Dish Alignment or cables.

As a fall back please try the following :

 

Which ITV region do you receive when you have ITV1 (103 when you get it) ?

Do you receive BBC1 London on 974

Do you receive BBC1 West Midlands on 979

Do you receive ITV London on 993 ?

 

If you get 979 and 993 but not 974 either your box or the LNB has a problem switching from vertical to horizontal polarisation. Easiest way to check at a friends as above but if you swop the LNB and there is no change it is probably the box.

[/quote]

Is it worth setting it up here in Shropshire? aahhhhhhhggggrrrrr can't do that I don't have a dish here. I will have to wait until I go back in May to answer your queries, and then I don't have access to Internet.[:(]

Thank you anyway.

[Anton Redman]

As you have the box in the UK it is well worth finding a friend who will admit to having SKY and checking the box at their house. If it turns out to be the box they are cheaper to source in the UK than France.

If you cannot find a friend somebody offering a second hand digibox for sale and saying you can see it working could probably be persuaded to let you check yours at their place

If you can receive ITV London 993 and BBC West Midlands on 979 but cannot receive 974 then the LNB is not switching between Vertical and and Horizontal Polarisation. Or if you can receive 974 but not the other two it has the same problem. Trouble is you cannot tell if it is the LNB, the Digibox or the Co Ax between them (unlikely) without swoping components till you find what works.

IMHO you should be able to get signal strength at least 90% of the way across the screen with an 80 cm dish and signal quality to 80%. but I do not think it is likely to be the problem.

[Anton Redman]

Having had a quick look at Ebay prices. Buy a second digibox in the UK anyway.

[Anna]

Hi Anton

Can you tell me how many digiboxes can be used from one dish, please? We have a connection for two at the moment but wondered if there is any way we could take another lead from the same dish?

Thanks

Anna

[Anton Redman]

There are up LNBs (thing on the end of the arm) with up to eight heads available in the UK. 4 outputs from one head are easy to source in the UK. Satcure - for instance have them.

[Bilbo]

You can get an LNB with four connections so you can use all four if you wish. I have 2 for Sky+ and then two spares in other rooms with  old digiboxes.

[Martin963]

Very hard to say Jacqui without seeing it.    However,  when we're all back in 24 we'll do a box swap around and see what that indicates (as we have two working boxes and a working dish!).   

As Anton says it's a lot cheaper to get  another box (if necessary) in the UK.

I'm wondering whether the LNB needs the anglo-saxon twist (seriously) that not all installers are aware of.   This can have odd effects on the BBC's and ITV's but let ch 4 and 5 through no probs.    Some boxes would be better able to cope with this than others,  depending on how sensitive their tuners are.  But I'm only speculating.