Problems with C4 Recordings on sky plus

Emmmooo

Has anyone else been having any problems recently with recordings on sky plus mainly on Channel 4 and E4?
Have been with sky since 2005,had sky plus box installed in feb 2007 & never had a problem until just before Christmas when my box started to freeze and the sound started skipping until xmas eve when it froze,I unplugged it but my sky planner didn't come back up so had to lose all my recordings and was advised to get a new box.

So decided to pay the €100 for new box organised 1st engineer. He came to my house was extremely rude and unhelpful felt there was nothing wrong and said he could do nothing as he needed to look at the aerial but it was too high up for his ladder so he organised someone to come back the following Saturday(this was Wednesday 13th)

So 2nd engineer came on the saturday 16th(nice guy btw) said engineer 1 was wrong switched the box,happy days.........not so! the new box was extremely noisy and worse than that the same problem still persisted! So ordered engineer number 3 to come out & see if he can fix it. All this time ringing sky and not getting really anywhere doing stupid system resets etc etc

Engineer number 3 comes on thursday 28th should have been there day b4 but got some bs story off sky when i ring to see where he was. At this stage i had done some research on sky boxes & only then realised there were alot of different brands so engineer 3 gave us a AMSTRAD box replacing a THOMSON 1 which he couldnt understand why eng 2 had given us as they dont use them anymore! btw 1st box was a PACE box and in hindsight was a great box!

So guess what im watching celebrity big brother friday night and it keeps freezing,skipping and the sound going well the language that came out of me is unrepeatable!!! But seriously im tearing the little bit of hair i have left out has anyone else had this problem or even better anyone have a solution?????????
Sky engineer numero 4 coming friday ive threatened to cancel sky(which ill never do)if he cant fix it!!!!!

greendom

I used to experience exactly the same problem with the C4 family (not film4).
Like you I posted on here about my problem.

The problem was being caused by my cordless phone - apparently they transmit at the same frequency as C4 etc and this causes the interference.

Problem is usually solved by putting the phone back in its cradle or occasionally turning the phone off altogether.

As soon as its back in place C4, E4 and More 4 get their picture and sound back, perfectly. Give it a try...

Emmmooo

greendom wrote: »

I used to experience exactly the same problem with the C4 family (not film4).
Like you I posted on here about my problem.

The problem was being caused by my cordless phone - apparently they transmit at the same frequency as C4 etc and this causes the interference.

Problem is usually solved by putting the phone back in its cradle or occasionally turning the phone off altogether.

As soon as its back in place C4, E4 and More 4 get their picture and sound back, perfectly. Give it a try...

Are you serious???? I do have a cordless phone so i will definitely give it a try. The most annoying thing is the picture is superb has never been better so i was thinking it shouldn't be a problem with the dish. Right phone gets knocked off tonight for Shameless and if it works i will be indebited to u greendom forever!!!

Speak Now

Emmmooo wrote: »

Are you serious???? I do have a cordless phone so i will definitely give it a try. The most annoying thing is the picture is superb has never been better so i was thinking it shouldn't be a problem with the dish. Right phone gets knocked off tonight for Shameless and if it works i will be indebited to u greendom forever!!!

Did it work??

St Senan

Emmmooo wrote: »

Are you serious???? I do have a cordless phone so i will definitely give it a try. The most annoying thing is the picture is superb has never been better so i was thinking it shouldn't be a problem with the dish. Right phone gets knocked off tonight for Shameless and if it works i will be indebited to u greendom forever!!!

Out of the 3 boxes pace would be the best also check these channels when your dect phone is plugged in Pop, Tiny pop, Bliss,Scuzz,Truemovies1and 2, If these channels freeze and break up it's definitely your phone.

Emmmooo

No didn't seem to work although I have Sky coming out today to look at it & mentioned about the phone and he said that could be the problem. So hopin its lucky 4th time with Sky engineer number 4!!!

Cos if this doesn't work my patience will have ran out!!!

Gavin W

I've had the same problem recently with C4/E4 when recording the Celeb BB shows. No freezing but I would get frequent sound skips usually accompanied by a brief flicker of a horizontal white line on the screen. Sometimes the sound would go completely but I found that if you rewound back to just a second or two before it happened then the sound would be okay. Rewind back too far and the sound would go at the same point again.

I'm intrigued by the idea the phone could be causing it. This problem only started recently and I've only had a dect phone less than a year. I don't record much on C4 so possibly that's why I hadn't noticed any problem until now. Plus the Sky+ box is downstairs while the dect phone is upstairs so maybe that's why it hasn't been as extreme as your problem. I must try switching it off the next time I record C4 and see if there's any difference.

Emmmooo

So Sky engineer no.4 comes out to have a look. He doesn't think its the phone he said the phone would have to be sitting on the box to cause interference with it? He was going to change the box until my wife explained it was the 3rd box so couldn't be that so he went up on the roof for a look.
He said it was because the dish was on the side of the house that we were picking up any interference and that would happen especially on recordings so he said he could come back after hours(for an extra few €€€)and put it on the roof because no sky engineers will go on the roof because of health and safety(2 engineers died in Britain last year).
So with every other avenue or reason exhausted put the hand in the pocket(again!)and went ahead with it. So sat down nervously to watch a programme on Channel 4,40 mins in everything excellent no skips,jumps or loss of sound. Just when I said i dont think im speaking too soon the sound went 3 times in the last 10 minutes of the programme! But strangely this time when i rewound the programme it didn't happen which it had done in the past!

The most frustrating thing is my reception has never been better the sky engineer thought I had a HD box - which im now thinkin of getting if i thought it would fix this problem or is this all a cunning ploy by SKY to get people to switch to SKY+HD????? Or maybe im just an extremely finicky person(thats what the wife thinks!) but hey you pay enough for a service you should get it!!!

Have 1 last hope though,when the sky man was re-arranging my cables he cut the one to the phoneline(said it doesn't matter since im with sky 4+ years) so have disconnected that now as my phone wasnt working until i did so praying that I go home tonight,watch my recording of Shameless without any sound loss! Its a long shot but fingers crossed!!!

St Senan

Emmmooo wrote: »

So Sky engineer no.4 comes out to have a look. He doesn't think its the phone he said the phone would have to be sitting on the box to cause interference with it? He was going to change the box until my wife explained it was the 3rd box so couldn't be that so he went up on the roof for a look.
He said it was because the dish was on the side of the house that we were picking up any interference and that would happen especially on recordings so he said he could come back after hours(for an extra few €€€)and put it on the roof because no sky engineers will go on the roof because of health and safety(2 engineers died in Britain last year).
So with every other avenue or reason exhausted put the hand in the pocket(again!)and went ahead with it. So sat down nervously to watch a programme on Channel 4,40 mins in everything excellent no skips,jumps or loss of sound. Just when I said i dont think im speaking too soon the sound went 3 times in the last 10 minutes of the programme! But strangely this time when i rewound the programme it didn't happen which it had done in the past!

The most frustrating thing is my reception has never been better the sky engineer thought I had a HD box - which im now thinkin of getting if i thought it would fix this problem or is this all a cunning ploy by SKY to get people to switch to SKY+HD????? Or maybe im just an extremely finicky person(thats what the wife thinks!) but hey you pay enough for a service you should get it!!!

Have 1 last hope though,when the sky man was re-arranging my cables he cut the one to the phoneline(said it doesn't matter since im with sky 4+ years) so have disconnected that now as my phone wasnt working until i did so praying that I go home tonight,watch my recording of Shameless without any sound loss! Its a long shot but fingers crossed!!!

A Dect phone would only need to be in the same room to cause a problem.
Sky dont use engineers they use sub contractors/installers. Did this installer tell you what was causing the interferance when the dish was on the side of the house after he made quick €€€ by putting your dish in the most likely place where the dish is going to be hit by strong wind's your chimney. If you already paid sky for this service call you should have not paid anything extra to this Installer to move your dish onto the chimney. Unfortunatey he sang you the old song about health and saftey and the guy's who died in the Britian.
Any half decant installer has the right insurance to do height install.

Did you try the advice you got from myself and other poster's regarding disconnecting your dect phone when you are watching/recording ch4,Pop, Tiny pop, Bliss,Scuzz,Truemovies1and 2,

If your problem has not been solved you should get an Indepandent installer to have a look instead of Sky sending out these contractors who cant simply diagnose a problem.

kbell

Did said "engineer" simply move your dish, or did he install a new one??
Did he change your lnb?
Did he examine your cables for defects/wear and tear/water ingress??

I'd bet its your cabling and it's the first thing i'd have guessed was causing your problem.
Have a visual inspection yourself if you can.

Emmmooo

It could well by the cables or my phone line that was causing the interference as last night we unplugged the phone line the engineer had cut and certainly it seemed to work ok. The engineer did also replace some of our cables that had been damaged(by sky)when they put it around our door.
Amazingly though the picture quality was not as good so it looks like phone line may have been the culprit all along. I know shouldn't have had to pay extra but when it was the 4th " Engineer " to look at so was willing to try anything at stage!
Was thinking after when im not recording ill try plugging back in the phoneline to see if it affects the reception its all been very strange and frustrating but hopefully problem is sorted

Emmmooo

No problem not sorted still happening! But its definitely only on Channel 4(& family)so it has to be something to do with the frequency or the strength the reception comes through on those channels thats all i can think of.

Why would it only happen on c4,e4,more 4 etc ???

Have also found out it also happens on my brothers TV also so this must be a common problem so why can't SKY explain it ???????????????????

darth_maul

definately sounds like interference is causing your problem,
This can be caused by a dect phone, or a wireless modem,Make sure any wireless device like a phone, modem and ps3 are switched off completely while watching the program live, or while its recording,
the cable should be replaced and a good quality CT100 cable with no joins in it would help, I have seen this when installers have just twisted cables together instead of joining them with f connectors.
Also get the installer to check the signal quality on the particualr TP affected.

I had one last week where the customer had breakup on certain channels, tried everything, but when I connected the meter up outside it went crazy, turned out that the Computer shop next door had a high powered wifi link, with a large external omni-directional antenna near the dish, moving the dish to a sheltered location, solved it.

Emmmooo

Whilst googling this problem ive come across a page on Digital Spy where there seems to have been a huge problem in the UK with Amstrad boxes(mine is an Amstrad)just wondering is this actually me problem???? Have SKY pawned off they dodgy boxes on us??????? Thing is my initial problem was with a PACE box but in fairness it was 2 & 1/2 years old so that is understandable the new(well re-furbished)box is only weeks old? So should I do what DS suggests to do and email James Murdoch(yes that Murdoch)to get a new box or does that only apply to the UK? I don't have my settings of my box yet to compare it to the ones that had trouble over there.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=20631684#post20631684

Skerries

i have a Pace box and very occasionally i have to do that rewind for a second trick to get my sound back but it has only happened a handful of times