LIDL dish setup

sylver72

I purchased one of those lidl dishes a while ago and recently tried to set it up.i pointed it in the same general direction of my neighbours sky dish and the meter supplied with it read a good signal (approx 85% if i remember).No picture.if i point the dish in nearly any direction it gets the same signal strength.any ideas/hints/tips on the setup.im near giving up point!!!!

Ger Roe

Don't give up yet.

It's tricky to do for the first time, but once you find a signal you will be able to repeat the process - it's all about knowing how exact the alignment has to be (very).

Just a couple of hints :

Bring the whole setup, including tv in to the garden and try to line up the dish while looking at the TV and while tuned to an active channel on a receivable satellite (suggest one of the BBC stations on Astra 28.2)

The dish should be just slightly off vertical and pointed in the direction of any nearby Sky dish. I got my first picture while resting the dish on the grass and tilting and rotating it slowly until the signal came in. Remember that there is an approx two second time lag before dish movements are effective on the TV.

It's a bit of a black art, but take your time and treat it as an adventure - when it works it will all become clear to you, but it's a bit like water divining - you don't quite believe it works...... until it does.

Zaphod

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=How+to+align+a+satellite+dish

Antenna

Try out the receiver on somone else's (working) dish (SKy Digital or FTA for Astra 28.2) and make sure it is OK. Delete any non-working channels on Astra 28.2 ("Astra 2") and do a rescan (you may have had it set on a non-working channel whilst trying to set up the dish)

PauloMN

sylver72 wrote:

I purchased one of those lidl dishes a while ago and recently tried to set it up.i pointed it in the same general direction of my neighbours sky dish and the meter supplied with it read a good signal (approx 85% if i remember).No picture.if i point the dish in nearly any direction it gets the same signal strength.any ideas/hints/tips on the setup.im near giving up point!!!!

I got the same system. Make sure you have a clear view from where the dish is to where it's pointing, especially if doing trials from a low point in the garden etc..

One thing I bought which is a life saver is a satellite finder meter. Got it in Maplin, I think it was around €40 (rip off I know, just couldn't be bothered doing the eBay thing or waiting until LiDL sold them again!). These will help you align the dish perfectly.

Without the finder I was able to get Astra 1&2, also got Hotbird now with the finder. Haven't tried any others.

The fact that you are getting an 85% signal reading no matter where the dish is pointed would worry me though. Make sure you have properly connected the F-plugs to each end of the supplied coax, otherwise you'll get zilch. If you have a multimeter you can verify the connections.

PauloMN

Zaphod wrote:

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=How+to+align+a+satellite+dish

Excellent link.

sylver72

Thanks very much for all the info.Very good link by the way.I will spend this weekend setting it up.Heres hoping it works ;-)

TheCeltictiger

I too purchased a lidl sat dish a few weeks back and after several attempts over a period of hours I still have not managed to tune it (even after purchasing a Sat finder on ebay). I acquired a sky dish and with the lnb still attached from the side of a house that was being demolished.My question is will the decoder box that came with the lidl package work with this sky dish and lnb, also have I a better chance picking up a reception with this dish rather then the one that it was shipped with.

JohnDigital

Sky dish and LNB should work just fine. Setting up the dish will be the very same affair. You are trying to aim a dish accurately at an item a few thousand miles away so the tiniest movement can send you way off course.

TheCeltictiger

Thanks for the input ...looks like I will give it another go this weekend.....suppose it is a case of if a first you don`t succeed...trya nd try again....

Zaphod

TheCeltictiger wrote:

I acquired a sky dish and with the lnb still attached from the side of a house that was being demolished.

If the house was being demolished, how old was the dish?? If the dish was the black mesh type, then the LNBF should be 'digital ready' or Universal. If the dish is solid, then the LNBF might be an older type used in analogue days and should be replaced.

TheCeltictiger

The dish is a mesh type....i am not sure how old it is but it looks in pretty good nick.....and written on the lnb is "universal".