Giz a hand

[Geekster]

Hi guys. I think if anyone can help, it's you lot.

My problem is, since I moved (in feb), I can't get any freeview chan's. In fact, I can't see anything other than Sky chan's, and chan's 1 and 2.

In the old place, we had MySky, so my father (an ex sky-installer!) spliced into one of the two cables heading to the sky box, and put in a two-way splitter, which worked fine, with the exception of only working on H pol, anything on V was very, very weak. The DC pass-through was given to the mysky box.

So we moved, sky installed another dish, with the same setup. Dad spliced again, but used a three-way splitter because, well, the two-way disappeared. Same setup, DC pass going to the mysky. But, now, I can only see sky chan's and 1 and 2. I know that sky boxes like to hold a death-grip on LNB's, but I'm not sure what's happening in this situation.

Also, it's worth note that I don't currently have a DVB-S box (lent it to the GF, she's got more reception issues than me). I'm planning on buying a dreambox ;)

Can anyone help?

[wiilliiss]

free2view on trademe has 2in 4 out multiswitches for 40 or 4 in 4 out for 79 should do the trick nicely.

[Rose]

Gonna b a bit tricky to proceed with much fault finding till u get yr freeview box back...

Is there somewhere in the mysky menu a quality bar that shows how hard it's error correction is working ? - it's margin to failure in other words.

How does this quality reading change when you compare connecting the mysky box direct to the dish (bypass the splitter with a barrel) vs when the splitter and the freeview box are in the mix?

[Geekster]

Right, I'll check that out when I get back home in a few days, but from memory, last time I checked the signal quality on the mysky, the first three tuners all had great quality (well into the 'green' zone), and the fourth was hovering just above 'orange'. I'm not sure why the fourth tuner would be like that, as only two tuners are connected (one and two), it must have an internal splitter, but that would defeat the purpose of having four F-connectors on the back of it...

I can verify that it works just fine (two programs recording, viewing a third live, all go perfectly).

My thoughts - the mysky is accessing the LNB through only one cable (maybe it'll fire up the second to pull stuff from C1 some time in the future, I dunno), and in the old place the 'dead' cable was spliced. The sky box seems to work fine with only one cable connected, maybe all I have to do is disconnect the right cable heading to the mysky. I dunno...

Will report back with my findings.

[Rusty]

Have you got two cables running from the back of the mysky to a quad output lnb? If so unplug one from the mysky marked lnb2 and use this for your FTA box as the other cable isnt being used at the moment. Its just a spare. That way your fta box will get Ver and Horz off the satellite regardless what the HD box is doing.

[Geekster]

I'll give that a try, looks like I can get my old sat box back on Friday, as the person who I lent it to needs a new LNB (California Amplifier, anyone?).

Will report back.

[Geekster]

Right, good news!

Got my sat box back today, wiped all channels and restored to factory settings, and did a scan as per normal, just to check everything was still the same (it was).

So, I go into the wardrobe and unplug the second line to the sky box, and moved the FTA box to the DC pass plug. No go. No channels at all! Wait, this makes no sense...

Hmm. Well, let's think about this... the sat lines go into the attic, down the wardrobe, through the floor, into the sky box... wait a sec... LOL!

It turns out that all my problems came from the fact that when dad put in the splitter, he wired the second LNB cable to the output, and the second line to the sky box to the input! I'm surprised that it worked at all!

Anyway, now the sky box only has one line heading to it (it seems to be fine on the quality meter), and the FTA box is plugged into the DC pass line on the splitter because I can't be bothered to find a barrel connector. Now... let's see if I can have some fun with 22Khz!

What's the other sat that the LNB can see again?

[Rusty]

Optus c1 is the other satellite. Nothing fta there only testcard on 12407 ver 22500.
Have a look in the thread on Optus Aurora to see what $ channels can be found.

[Geekster]

Thanks for that. Configured the box to handle both sats (although C1 is listed as D2 because I couldn't be bothered adding in C1 manually). I see what you mean. Only info 156 FTA, and a handful of $ chans (BTV, SBS WA, etc).

I need to get my hands on a QQ box or something... because this looks like fun: http://www.skygrabber.com/en/skygrabber.php

[Rusty]

have you got a Irdeto card reader in your reciever as it is well worth getting a Optus Aurora card and watching SBS and Ch7.
Just watched Monster Moves last night on SBS1 9.30pm. Awesome program on moving buildings with trucks...

[wiilliiss]

recorded most of monster moves, prime re showing huge moves sun 4.30p same series different name

[Rusty]

just checked the program guide for this sunday and cant find it on Prime?? Has it finished?:mad:

[wiilliiss]

something about oz vs ireland on then.