Tuning Manhattan Plaza Free sat box to tv

bangen

I have the LNB Sat cable plugged into the free sat box and the box connected to the tv with a scart. The Manhattan plaza XT instructions are hopeless. I see the channels on the tv screen with the message 'no signal'. When I turn on the set top box the orange signal light flickers when it is loading but goes off once I lose the load signal. The box has worked in the past. I don't know if I don't receive a signal because I have hooked it up incorrectly or if there is something wrong with the dish. Any ideas please?? In addition to the LNB cable input, there is another socket 'Antenna in' which states that the tv antenna should be connected. The TV antenna goes straight into the tv with the RTE channels.

Secondly, I don't receive TV3. Do I need a separate aerial for this?

fat-tony

Assuming you're seeing the Manhattan menu on the TV screen, then that side is ok. If you are getting a "no signal" message, then either the dish has been moved or knocked off alignment with the satellite signal or the cable connection between the LNB and the receiver has been damaged or has water in it or the LNB has gone faulty. Is this a connection to a fixed dish (a SKY dish)? Has snow fallen on the dish and damaged the arm holding the LNB?
The aerial connection is just a loop through for the TV. If you have a direct connect to the TV, then that is fine. Depending on where you are you might need a separate aerial for TV3 and TG4. What channels are you receiving at the moment on the aerial and whereabouts are you located?

bangen

Many thanks for the tip about the LNB and dish. Will get on to the roof to check both out. With my current aerial I receive RTE1, RTE2 and TG4 but no tv3. I am in Bandon, Co Cork. Will I need another aerial?

One other question. I have a triax TMC 69 sat stp terrestrial and satellite combiner sending the signal to the box. If I want to send the sat signal to other tvs in the house, could I use combiners or do I have to run sat cable to the rooms? I figure that I at least need separate free sat boxes for each tv.

bangen

It transpired that my satellite signal failed because water got into the lead that goes into the satellite dish - So if anybody else has a signal failure, it's worth checking the leads as well as the LNB, the dish and the receiver. (I didn't so conceded defeat and called an expert)

The chap who helped me didn't realize that you can send the satellite signal via a splitter down your regular tv aerial - This might help those who like me live in a house with more than one floor and need the signal sent to the ground floor without having to drill through walls to bring an additional aerial to the room.

It's also possible to hook up more than one tv to the dish without having to purchase a receiver for each separate room.

Lastly, in some areas TV3 is beamed from a separate mast to RTE so you need a separate aerial to receive the programmes

fat-tony

bangen wrote: »

It transpired that my satellite signal failed because water got into the lead that goes into the satellite dish - So if anybody else has a signal failure, it's worth checking the leads as well as the LNB, the dish and the receiver. (I didn't so conceded defeat and called an expert)

The chap who helped me didn't realize that you can send the satellite signal via a splitter down your regular tv aerial - This might help those who like me live in a house with more than one floor and need the signal sent to the ground floor without having to drill through walls to bring an additional aerial to the room.

It's also possible to hook up more than one tv to the dish without having to purchase a receiver for each separate room.

Lastly, in some areas TV3 is beamed from a separate mast to RTE so you need a separate aerial to receive the programmes

I did suggest that your LNB cable might have had water in it;)

As regards using a splitter... you can use a special device called a diplexer at the point where the satellite and aerial signals are combined and another one at the point where your satellite receiver and TV are located. You need to be able to isolate the voltages used by the satellite receiver from the TV and aerial setup and the diplexer allows this. Lastly you wouldn't use regular brown aerial cable to carry the combined satellite and TV signals - it won't carry the high frequencies used by the satellite dish LNB - you need proper satellite cable - CT100 or similar or you may get away with good quality RG6 cable depending on the length of the run.
I'm not sure what you mean by hooking up more than one TV to the dish without buying a separate receiver for each. You can certainly watch the same satellite channel on multiple TVs from one box if you feed the RF signal from it or use an AV sender or similar.

bangen

You are right - You did suggest that my cable might have had water in it so I should have changed the lead before conceding defeat- I actually thought that my dish was positioned incorrectly and that without a meter I was not able to get it exactly right hence the lack of signal.

Given what you say about the diplexer, I must have a RG6 cable as I certainly haven't satellite cable. I understand now what you say about the receivers so I will need a separate one for each TV as I don't want to watch the same channel. Would it be possible to use a diplexer for each room rather than running separate cables? Would I be able to install this myself ? The diplexer that I have was installed some years ago by somebody else.

last question - I still need to install an aerial for TV3. Is this a relatively simple process? Is there just one type of aerial?

Many thanks for all your help!

fat-tony

You can't split a single LNB cable to feed several receivers. Each receiver needs control of the LNB (uses a different voltage and switches on and off a tone depending on which channel you want to tune in). The only solution to this is to use a quad LNB, which has four connections and you run a separate cable to each receiver.
The reason the diplexer works is that it is simply combining and then separating the satellite and aerial signals to one set of outlets. RG6 is ok cable if its good quality.
As regards TV3, I'm not familiar with the Bandon area and don't know where you might be receiving TV3 from - Mullaghanish possibly? In which case you would need a UHF aerial for that. If it is Mulla that you are receiving signal from, then the digital service Saorview would be available on UHF from there - RTE 1, 2, TV3, TG4, 3E, News channel and ten radio channels available if you have a suitable digital receiver - check over on the Terrestrial forum for details or try this link - http://www.saortv.info/news/