Poor sound quality on Freesat- will dish adjustment help?

jack of all

Hi
I recently moved into a rental property which had an old Sky dish fitted. I connected my own Freesat box and after a bit of fiddling around I managed to get the all the channels, happy days. However I noticed a huge deterioration in sound quality after a number of weeks, with sudden drop outs and loss of volume, but picture quality remains perfect. I checked the installation menu, which showed signal strength at over 90% but signal quality was only at 74% max, which I guess accounts for the poor sound. If the disc is realigned is it reasonable to assume that the problems with sound will be rectified? Can anyone recommend an installer in the Bray area who could do this for me for a reasonable charge- I'd try it myself but I've no ladder to access the dish, located on the front of the house. Any help much appreciated as the TV is unwatchable at the moment...

Peter Rhea

What make & model receiver do you have & how is it connected to the tv?

jack of all

It's a relatively new receiver, Ferguson FK1000. There are two cables from the dish (a double LNB I presume?), both terminated in F connectors. I've just connected this directly into the receiver and I've tried both to see if the cable was at fault, but both connections give the same trouble. I tried remaking the connectors but without any signal improvement.

Peter Rhea

How is the box connected to the tv (it's not a Freesat receiver btw, just generic FTA)? Scart lead?

MBSnr

You can basically ignore the signal strength in this instance. That's only the level of voltage (signal) the receiver is getting down the cable. I've seen boxes work with a signal strength of 20%. As long as the receiver can differentiate between the incoming voltages it doesn't matter. Obviously higher is better - 90% is very good.

Signal quality is the important one. Anything over an approx threshold of 40% should give a picture and sound. 74% is more than enough. Sounds more like an issue with your box and/or tv than the incoming signal. Is it 74% a constant or does it dip and rise? Normally varying low quality signal will result in picture pauses and shuttering (EDIT: most times the audio drops as well - but I have heard/seen it continue with no picture). Depends on the receiver, channel and signal levels.

dodzy

I take it that you have ruled out the obvious ??

1. Tried different scart socket on TV / change cable ( assuming that this is the connection method used )
2. Tried a DVD player ( to verify if the TV is / is not the issue )

You say that picture remains perfect ? Any chance you could borrow a receiver to swap out ?

My moneys on a receiver fault; that said, my gambling returns this month are nothing to be shouting about

jack of all

Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated, in answer to your queries:
1. Connection from the box to the TV is via a scart lead.
2. I've tried a different scart lead and remade the F type connectors on incoming cables, all to no avail.
3. There are no problems with the TV when using a DVD.
4. The Box was working perfectly when I had it installed at my previous address.
5. The problems with audio are intermittent and vary, sometimes the problem is almost negligible other times there is significant loss of sound quality and watching the TV is impossible.

I've tried to rule out the obvious, switching cables, re-installing etc. Do you still think the receiver may be at fault?

Thanks for your help thus far.

Peter Rhea

Seems like a receiver fault, you could try the RCA audio L/R (red & white) & composite video (yellow) connectors and see if that makes any difference, or use the audio connections seperately with a suitable amplifier.

This box also has an RF out connection.

jack of all

Yeah, sounds like it 's worth a shot. I'll try this and report back. Thanks very much.

jack of all

Hi guys, I've tried the RCA leads and I can't say there's been any improvement. What I am finding puzzling is that sound could be perfect for an hour or two of viewing and then could deteriorate quite badly. Should I contact the supplier of the receiver and see what happens?