Sky + Free Sat

vanman99

Hi,

I'm probably starting a thread that's already been answered so apologies, if you can point in the direction of the correct thread that would be great.

My question, I've had a standard Sky box for 3 years (no sky+ or HD or any other add ons) so standard Sky dish. I've recently been given a free sat box so want to hook both of these up. So i went out and bought a Universal Twin LNB in Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=47171&doy=7m7 and a sky LNB adapter clip http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221062&criteria=lnb&doy=7m7 as attached in the links. I've run a second coax cable from the free sat box to the satellite. Can any one advise what the bejesus i do next. Do i simply remove the single sky LNB and using the adaptor clip and twin LNB simply replace?? Or is there a whole host of other things to do, such as realigning the dish,etc. If so does anyone know how to do that or do i need to go and buy more equipment to have these properly aligned. And if it all goes pear shaped and nothing works, will i be able to simply put the single lnb and cable back and all will be right again? Been trying to complete this for ages but petrified if i take out the single LNB and things go wrong i'll be left with nothing (living in the wildereness so can't pick up terrestrial TV and can't be doing with out TV). Thanks in advance.

Van man

emaherx

The adaptor and universal LNB is not a great job for Sky dishes. Because Sky dishes are a slightly diffrent shape from normal dishes. A sky Quad LNB would have been a better buy.
Having said that to get it to work you should be able to do a straight swap, but due to the diffrence in LNB you may need to adjust the dish up or down slightly but shouldn't have to adjust it side to side.
The only extra equipment which would be handy but not nessacery is a Sat finder. There about 15 to 20 euro in Maplin or from the Web

vanman99

Thanks for that, i'll give it a go this evening and if all goes wrong i'll blame you... only kidding of course, i'll give it a go and see what happens.

wcarey1975

keep us posted with how you get on.

vanman99

Well, took the plunge and went for it. 99% of channels worked straight away after plugging in the twin LNB, just had to adjust the satellite down a few mm to pick up BBC, now everything 100% , all hooked up and free sat box is now in search mode (for all the crappy free channels out there....really needed a new satellite to get full use out of it for picking up channels i can't get on the sky box) but quite pleased with myself all the same. Thanks for the advice.

Berberis

vanman99 wrote: »

Well, took the plunge and went for it. 99% of channels worked straight away after plugging in the twin LNB, just had to adjust the satellite down a few mm to pick up BBC, now everything 100% , all hooked up and free sat box is now in search mode (for all the crappy free channels out there....really needed a new satellite to get full use out of it for picking up channels i can't get on the sky box) but quite pleased with myself all the same. Thanks for the advice.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a freesat box.

emaherx

Berberis wrote: »

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a freesat box.

look at www.freesat.co.uk

blastman

May have been answered already, but as we're discussing it anyway:

Does Freesat HD work in Ireland i.e. if I buy the box and connect to my existing Sky dish (already have a second box with a UK Sky card in plumbed in in a bedroom) and receive BBC HD and ITV HD without having to do any more (or more importantly, pay any more!)?

emaherx

Yes, same satellite as sky. So it will work off any existing sky dish.
Buy a freesat HD box and plug it into a spare port on the LNB (Assuming you have unsed ones)

blastman

Yeah, it's a quad LNB, only two connections currently in use.

Thanks, might wait until the recordable versions appear later this year, but I think I"ll be investing.

mburke

Before purchasing a freesat box you should look at the discussions on avforums as there seems to be lip sync issue with certain models.

wcarey1975

Thinking about getting my own SKY+ box and Quad LNB. I currently have the bog standard Sky box. Once all is cabled up do I need to do anything with the Sky card. I've searched around boards and there is mention of paring needed with the new box is this correct?

emaherx

You need to contact sky to get account activated for Sky+
they will pair your card and receiver then anyway

wcarey1975

emaherx wrote: »

You need to contact sky to get account activated for Sky+
they will pair your card and receiver then anyway

thanks for your reply.

vanman99

Well, i now have another problem i didn't anticipate, after suceeding in my change to put in both boxes, I had a very bad lightning storm over my house yesterday and lightning struck the satellite dish (i think) but there was a big flash of light and then everything stopped working. Now i have "No Satellite Signal recieved" on the sky channel and "No or Bad signal" on the free sat box. I've tried replacing the coax but that did nothing, i put the original LNB back in place but that didn't help and as a last resort i rang the folks in the sky technical service who weren't any help (the guy read off a list of basics that most people would already try and when they didn't work the only solution he could recommend was to get an engineer out which they are going to charge me a minimum of €100 for or upgrade to sky+ and pay €150 + installation). Apart from taking the box to some one elses house to see if the box is the problem, does anyone know a good way to see if the sky box is buggered, all the lights, menus remote etc all work fine but no signal. I've tried all the fixes i can find (turning off LNB power etc on the engineers menu, rebooting, disconnecting but no signal). Could it be the dish itself?

The dish afterall is only a piece of metal so no components to affect so i doubt it would be that and i opened up the sky box and everything looked in order, nothing burnt out that i could see, it may not even have been the lightning so has anyone else experienced loss of signal after installing a different LNB, i've read on a few websites that some LNB's won't work in the rain or during bad weather so not sure if i should wait until the weather brightens up (around about May 2009 i think) or just bite the bullet and pay Sky for the upgrade to Sky + and let them fix it??

Also, if a sky installer comes to install the box, will he walk away if he sees that i put my own LNB on the dish or will he do what needs doing?

And , (sorry i'm on a role) is the sky box i have solely for use with my viewing card? If i bought a box on Ebay would it work with my card or is that a waste of time?

Thanks in advance.

D

emaherx

IF the dish its self it looks ok then it probably is i.e. not bent out of shape.
However the Dish may have moved especially since you loosened some of the bolts the other day to realign it. Maybe it moved downwards with the heavy rain.

The LNB may be damaged by the lightning (so not a very expensive repair if this is the case).

As suggested in your thread on this subject from yesterday, you can always try one or both of your boxes on a friends dish which you know to be working.

Installer won't care what you have done to your dish as its your dish not property of sky.

Your sky card will work in any box for everything Except Movies, Sport and them Naughty Channels. However you can buy a box off Ebay then just ring sky to get it paired with your new box

vanman99

Thanks, on hold with sky at the moment (so far for 22minutes and 40 seconds) to check out the cost options for upgrading, and i'll try adjusting the dish again tonight, i marked out the original settings before i loosened everything previously and all looks ok but it could be minimal difference affecting it i suppose. I'll have one more crack at it and then let sky take over.

vanman99

Hi, well apent the best part of three hours with Sky yesterday and spoke to about 7 reps in 3 different countries. Anyway, bought the bullet and decided to upgrade to Sky+HD, talked them down on the install cost so €150 for the box which would have been the same cost as the call out engineer and then €15 a month for HD, (they always find some way of screwing you over). Anyway, thanks everyone for your help.

Now on to another question, i'm 99.9% definite the box is the problem, i took the free sat out of the room i installed and moved it to where the sky box was, pluged in the cables etc and can recieve all the free sat channels (but they are all really crap channels and Sky won't be installing for another two weeks). Anyway, i did the whole search and set up and then i had an idea.....I put the sky box on top of the free sat box and made a small coax cable to join the sky box to the free sat box in desperate hope that i might pick up some decent channel and it was very late when i tried this but did a very quick search on Astra or Amos (not sure which) but picked up channel 4, e4, more 4, film 4 and a few others that i'm sure aren't free view. Am i clutching at straws or are they freeview channels? I didn't think they where but could be wrong. I'm probably deluding my self that this process works but does anyone know if a free sat box is linked to a sky box then can the free sat box decript channels???

John mac

ch 4 e4 are free see stickie.

emaherx

Those channels are all part of freesat.
I wouldn't be so quick to give up on your sky box, only yesterday you thought both boxes were dead. I have often seen FTA boxes recieve signal where sky boxes couldn't this may mean your dish is very slightly out of alignment.

If your dish had been hit by lightning like you originaly thought then your LNB would surely have fried. leaving you with neither box working.

vanman99

Sorry, should have also said replaced the twin LNB with the original sky LNB before i put in the fre sat, no signal at all on either box through either feed from the twin LNB's so positive it got fried. Also, i should have mentioned my sky box was linked to a phone line and the phone line via an adaptor which had the broadband linked to it, the adsl filter got fried and hasn't worked since the lightning, bought a new one yesterday so that all works but i'm thinking that the sky problem may be problem with the modem?? I've read on a few other sites that if the modem gets zapped the box just won't register or attempt to look for a signal, something i think to do with the circuitry of the board inside. As i have the sky man coming out in two weeks may as well mess about with this stuff as much as i can so going to try and take out the modem and link the circuit and see if that gets me anywhere.

Also, anyone know a good website giving details on satellite positioning for picking up different channels from different countries??

emaherx

vanman99 wrote: »

Also, anyone know a good website giving details on satellite positioning for picking up different channels from different countries??

www.lyngsat.com
there are some others listed in the stickies

vanman99

Well, now back with Sky, went for the + and HD options. Plus the installer put in an octo LNB for having all the cabling done plus left me a load of coax cable which was nice of him. Anyways, now i've got the HD box their are only about 6 HD channels and they don't always transmit in HD (the Simpsons on Sky one HD for example), what a rip off, not really too sure what i'm paying for. Have managed to set up BBC HD through the other channels but does anyone know if CH 4 HD can be set up this way, the only frequency i've found refers to using 29500 freq which we don't have, only 22000 and 27500. Also, any one know if ITV HD is up and running also?

pa990

itv is up and running.. But a sky hd box can't recieve it

stanley1

pa990 wrote: »

itv is up and running.. But a sky hd box can't recieve it

I think it's on freesat

pa990

itv hd is available on freesat hd and and any other hd-fta box.. It operates outside of the sky box parimeter's
(probably on purpose)