No Signal 1 strength or quality and it is not locked.

[LasTortugas]

Hi,

I have recently been getting some pixelation, but today, my picture kept freezing after a few seconds on any channel that I chose.

I have done a reboot service. Hoovered out the card slot, swapped the signal cables around (which had no effect at all)

Checked the signal quality.

Input 1 is showing no signal, no quality and not locked.

Input 2 is showing 1/2 bar (sometimes this shows 3/4 bar) signal, No quality at times, but has just improved to 1/2 bar and lock says OK.

The listings on the EPG did start to re-appear but we are missing BBC2 (even though we can never receive the picture, we normally get the listing), Channel 4, Sky1 and many others

Any ideas?

I am using Sky+ HD (Thomson) 1.9 metre dish and live in Gran Alacant

Cheers

Paul Throp

[satandpcguy]

Hi,

It would be useful if you could confirm if this pixelation is occuring on EVERY channel or just a few - like Sky News, BBC News, BBC1, ITV2, Sky 1, Sky 3.

One of the bars on the signal test screen on HD boxes normally shows the default transponder frequency 11778 strength. The other shows the strength of the channel you are watching and which appears in the miniscreen. As 11778 is not available all day (its weakest at 5pm!) that bar can say no signal is being receive and not locked, but you can still be watching channel on other more receiveable frequencies, hence why you get something on the second test bars. (For example if you record both Sky news and BBC News then you will have very strong strength and uality as these channels are on strong frequencies!)

11778 is the frequency for the main EPG data. So if you are missing EPG data (like you say you are not getting data for BBC2) then you are not receiving 11778.

It will eventually return as that frequency becomes stronger again during the evening.

Reception of 11778 also depends on LNB skew - whch if not correct can cause pixelation then loss of some channels as they get weaker.
It is crucial for good LNB skew for reception of north beam channels like Sky Sports 4 and Sky Sports News and Eurosport 2 and some of the Sky Movie channels Sky 1 (Irish version) Sky 2 and Sky3.

Check the LNB for spiders inside.
Check the cable for cable joins that may have water ingress...not good for signals.

If the EPG is missing channels from the list then a reboot should reload the EPG and all the channels in the EPG.
If the EPG i just missing programme data from the channels then this will reappear once 11778 becomes available.

Hope this helps

[LasTortugas]

Thanks for that excellent reply, we will keep your info on file.

Things have come back to normal and we will keep our eye on it around 5pm every night to see if the quality remains.

On another issue, we heard talk of Spain losing signals from Sky at some point soon! Is this still true?

Cheers

Paul

[satandpcguy]

I presume by "Sky" you mean UK TV. BBC and ITV are nothing to do with Sky. And Sky do not own satellites, they, like all the other boradcasters rent spance on the satellites.

Unless all 4 satellites that provide UK TV are hit by an asteroid or other catastrophe at the same time, then you will always have some UK TV channels available. Only if / when the exisitng satellite are replaced will reception change - for the better or worse who knows...they said that Astra 2d would noy be available in Spain, but you can still get it!

[LasTortugas]

Phew!!!!

Thanks