Sky Signal Strength / Quality

scargill

I have Sky multiroom installed. One TV is working fine, the other one is having trouble picking up some stations.

I've attached two pictures showing the Signal Strength / Quality on each of them.

On the box that is working the Strength is about 60% and the Quality is 75%

On the box that isn't working properly Strength is about 60% and the Quality is 50%.

There is one Sky dish. Does anyone here understand how the multiroom installation works ? Are there 2 LNB devices ? Could it be that one of these is not positioned properly ?

I had this problem a few months ago and an engineer came out and fiddled with a few wires behind the sky box and said it was fixed. To be honest I don't think he did anything (my wife was at home to let him in and just fobbed her off). I think myself that it is weather related - its very overcast / thundery at the moment. Could it be that one of the LNB's is out of line ?

They charged me €100 the last time to come out - I want to make sure they fix it properly this time.

Thanks

byte

50% Quality is marginal, depending on box. I'd say that perhaps your dish isn't fully aligned.

Both boxes use the same LNB, it's a Quad, which allows up to 4 outputs. Theoretically, if 1 works, both should.

There are other factors too though that can affect just one box - the cabling or the box itself. Is there any joints in the cable run for the notworking box? It's also possible that the cable run for the not-working box used inferior cable to the other one, kinks in the cable, or the run is much longer.

kbell

I'd guess the cable as Byte suggested, or if you upgraded to multiroom it could be your older boxes tuner is on the way out.
Examine the cable runs from dish back to boxes, checking for joins, breaks ect..
even up at the lnb making sure cable is sealed and no water has gotten in.
If this proves ok then try your box in someone elses house, if the same problem presents itself then your box is at fault.

wil

Are both digiboxes the exact same model/age. Try swapping them around and see if you have the same problem on second tele.
If so then cable is likely problem.
If problem moves to first TV then digibox is the problem.
Even without faults, some digiboxes are more sensitive and can use a weaker signal but if cable is ok it shouldnt make that big a difference unless dish is poorly alligned.

scargill

both of the boxes are the same age. I'll try swapping them round to see if it is a box problem or a cable problem.

There is a join in the cable going to the "not working" box - I'll try to make sure the join is OK too.

Thanks for the suggestions.

scargill

OK - I swapped the boxes but still had the same problem. Fiddling around with the cables seemed to make it work again, so I replaced the face plate on the wall and the cable going from the face place into the decoder box and it seemed to work for a while. Unfortunately it seems to come and go.

I think fiddling around with the cable is just coincidental !

The signal strength / quality don't seem to change all that much.

Would it help if I bought one of these signal amplifiers ?

byte

What sort of faceplate are you using? Is it screened?

scargill

It's one I bought in B&Q for a fiver ?

Originally the there was just a wire coming from the the wall with a metal plate covering it - the wire was just sticking out from under it with another wire joined onto it going into the back of the decoder. It was messy looking and I wasn't sure if the connector was on properly, so I just got the face plate to make it tidier and hopefully work properly.

The signal didn't change at all after I put the plate on.

byte

A cheap, probably unscreened faceplate wouldn't help things.

I would presume that you replaced what was 2 F connectors and a barrel back-to-back connector joining them. The F and barrel combo would be bettre than faceplate IMO.

scargill

Ok - it hasn't made any difference at all, and I thought it might be a dodgy cable end that was the problem so I thought I'd replace it and tidy it up at the same time!

How about that signal booster thing - would that help ?

byte

Is the cable run longer for the not-working box than for the other? What sort of cable is being used?

I really don't think a booster is going to help, unless the fault is caused by a very long 40m+ cable run.

scargill

The house is new (less than 2yrs old). The coax cable was already there, run from the attic to two boxes in the wall - one in an upstairs bedroom (working - less than 10m ) and one to the living room (not working - less than 15m).

wil

It is possible they used inferior quality or incorrect cable or the cable run to living room is damaged somewhere. They are not very long runs but one of the guys here might be able to give pointers on checking the suitability of the cable and whether it is possible to do some sort of integrity test before deciding if replacement is the only option.
Edit
Sorry, just realised I pretty much repeated what Byte said at the start of this thread, well suppose it was worth repeating