Fergusoon 250 Combo Box - Help Required!!!

farmer_dave

Hi,

our local installer got us a saorsat installtion with a Ferguson 250 receiver box.
I tried unsuccessfully to get the box to add in the UK freeview stations via the RF input (we're in the north). However, it all screwed up and I deleted the installed stations in order to try again.

however, I can't get the damn box to pick up the Saorsat stations now. I tihnk I've got incorrect LNB frequency or transponder details.

Can anyone please help me?

farmer_dave

It looks like I done a factory reset. Do I have to add a transponder setting to the TP list? Also, what should I have selected in the antenna setup page?

currently, I've got:

Satellite: (1/1) Eurobird 9A
LNB Freq: Universal (9750-10550)
Transponder: (1/35) 11727 V 27500
(2/35) 11727 H 27500
(3/35) 11766 V 27500
(4/35) 11766 H 27500
(5/35) 11804 V 27500
(6/35) 11823 H 27500
(7/35) 11843 V 27500
(8/35) 11862 H 27500
(9/35) 11881 V 27500
(10/35) 11900 H 27500
(11/35) 11919 V 27500
(12/35) 11938 H 27500
(13/35) 11958 V 27500
(14/35) 11977 H 27500
(15/35) 11996 V 27500
(16/35) 12015 H 27500
(17/35) 12034 V 27500
(18/35) 12054 H 27500
(19/35) 12073 V 27500
(20/35) 12092 H 27500
(21/35) 12111 V 27500
(22/35) 12130 H 27500
(23/35) 12149 V 27500
(24/35) 12168 H 27500
(25/35) 12188 V 27500
(26/35) 12207 H 27500
(27/35) 12226 V 27500
(28/35) 12245 H 27500
(29/35) 12284 H 27500
(30/35) 12303 V 26400
(31/35) 12322 H 27500
(32/35) 12360 H 27500
(33/35) 12380 V 26400
(34/35) 12399 H 27500
(35/35) 12437 H 27500
diseqc1.0: Disabled
diseqc1.1: Disabled
22k: auto
Polarity: Auto


In the satellite list, number 3 is Eurobird 9A which has E9.0 in the column beside it - along with a yellow heart. No other satellites have a heart. I've not added any either. Nor have I added any transponders.

The dish we have is a triax dish. I've looked at the LNB and there is no manufacturers mark on it - although it does look like the inverto model.


Any quick help would be greatly appreciated as I've got to go away tomorrow and need to get this fixed!

farmer_dave

Sorted!!!

I found the following really useful video and got the transponder details from it:

http://www.tvtrade.ie/blog/tag/ka-band-lnb/

It meant adding a transponder with the following:
Frequency: 10765
Symbol: 25000
Polarity: V

And it picked it up. Phew!!!!!!!!

Is it recommended to put the RF aerial feed into these boxes too? I was going to make use of the PVR feature of them. Or should I get a separate Freeview PVR box for the UK freeview?

Ronnie Raygun

The whole point of these combi boxes is that you can avail of satellite & terrestrial channels in 1 receiver.

What was "all screwed up" the 1st time you tried terrestrial install?

zg3409

Can you take a few photos of the installation for interest sake?

Thanks in advance

farmer_dave

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

The whole point of these combi boxes is that you can avail of satellite & terrestrial channels in 1 receiver.

What was "all screwed up" the 1st time you tried terrestrial install?

No, the box had only the 6 Saorsat TV stations and 10 Saorsat Radio stations installed prior to my attempt to install the terrestial Freeview stations.

Not sure why. I ended up downloading the Astra 2D stations by mistake (even though there was no signal for them). I believe that it was an antenna automatic search that I selected - as opposed the the automatic satellite(?) search.

Didn't have time to fiddle about with it though:(

farmer_dave

zg3409 wrote: »

Can you take a few photos of the installation for interest sake?

Thanks in advance

When you say installation do you mean the connections on back of box etc or menu screen grabs?

zg3409

farmer_dave wrote: »

When you say installation do you mean the connections on back of box etc or menu screen grabs?

Well ideally a photo of the dish and comments on how well it works in practice.

farmer_dave

zg3409 wrote: »

Well ideally a photo of the dish and comments on how well it works in practice.

I'm away with work at the minute, but the dish is a 110cm Triax dish with the recommended Inverto dual LNB. It was installed by our local Satellite Installer. The dish and LNB can be seen on this link: http://www.saortv.info/satellite-saorsat/saorsat-reception/

The box itself seems okay. I'm not 100% happy with the picture quality, but I think that might just need tweaking on the TV rather than anything inheritantly wrong with the box itself. It has already frozen once which required cycling the mains in order to clear. I believe that freezing can be an issue with these boxes, but i'm unsure as to how frequently it occurs. At the minute, it has just been the once in over a week now which is not an intolerable amount.

I've had to reinstall the stations due to the above muck up. The box currently does not list the Saorsat transponder details so I haad to manually add them. Once I got these details online (again, see link above) it was quite straightforward to navigate through. Although, I must admit I'm still a bit miffed as why the tune in of the terrestrial stations screwed up so badly.

The overall system seems to be quite good and am pleased with it. My only issue at the minute is getting a suitable Combo PVR for the UK Freeview and Saorsat as my needs go slightly beyond the capability of this box in that it does not have the ability to record two terrestrial stations simulataneously. So, I actually need a Combo box which has twin terrestrial tuners and a single satellite tuner.

My understanding is that the setup of the dish requires a very fine level of adjustment so, I'm not sure how easy it would be to set up without the correct alignment tools. Might just depend on your location.

farmer_dave

I've been looking at the stations we've got on this. I've noticed that the signal indicator at the bottom varies wildly between 10% and 90%.

RTE 1 looks reasonably good. RTE 2 is HD and looks really good. However, RTE News looks sh1te. It is like viewing on an old computer. The text is not sharp and there is no depth of colour.

I've seen RTE News signal vary between 20% to 37%.

Does everyone have this problem and is it due to the receiver quality in the box or due to my location/setup?
Do other people see the signal indications vary?

I've got the UK Freeview stations installed. Again, some of these are similar to RTE News in quality. BBC 2 has a signal of 20%. BBC 4 is 25% and BBC 1 is 99%. BBC 3 and BBC News are 53%. These are all on the same channel (mux?). UTV comes in on a different channel and is 17%.

The box is not 100% what I need. If I record on BBC 1, then only the BBC stations are visible so ITV, C4, etc are not visible. This is not what I need. Therefore, I can either get an enthusiasts box which has a satellite tuner and dual terrestrial tuners; or get a separate box for the UK Freeview...

zg3409

farmer_dave wrote: »

....I've noticed that the signal indicator at the bottom varies wildly between 10% and 90%.

RTE 1 looks reasonably good. RTE 2 is HD and looks really good. However, RTE News looks sh1te. It is like viewing on an old computer. The text is not sharp and there is no depth of colour. .....I've seen RTE News signal vary between 20% to 37%.

Does everyone have this problem and is it due to the receiver quality in the box or due to my location/setup?
Do other people see the signal indications vary?

I've got the UK Freeview stations installed. Again, some of these are similar to RTE News in quality. BBC 2 has a signal of 20%. BBC 4 is 25% and BBC 1 is 99%. BBC 3 and BBC News are 53%. These are all on the same channel (mux?). UTV comes in on a different channel and is 17%

Most stations are not HD so you won't get a HD quality picture. If your TV is 32" or more and you sit close to it, then the quality of the picture will never be much good. This is the same for every TV and receiver. There is not much difference in quality between one box and another. All the ROI stations are on the one MUX. This means the signal quality percentage on all the Saorview channels should be the exact same as they are all in fact the same transmission and all the channels arrive as one group and afterwards each channel is picked out.

Some of your signal levels seem a little low. However if you are not noticing any freezing or pixelation then improving the signal percentage will not improve the received image.

The box is not 100% what I need. If I record on BBC 1, then only the BBC stations are visible so ITV, C4, etc are not visible. This is not what I need. Therefore, I can either get an enthusiasts box which has a satellite tuner and dual terrestrial tuners; or get a separate box for the UK Freeview...

If you have a 250 combo you should be getting the UK stations via a satellite dish. For a satellite dish you need free to air satellite or FreeSAT equipment NOT FREEVIEW which is the UK stations via an aerial.

For ideal recording you would want a plus (+) box. FreeSAT+boxes (which work via a dish) and Freeview+ boxes which work via an aerial in border areas are available.

If you have Saorview via an aerial and the UK stations via a dish, then you should be able to watch one half (ROI or UK) depending on what you are recording.

farmer_dave

zg3409 wrote: »

If you have a 250 combo you should be getting the UK stations via a satellite dish. For a satellite dish you need free to air satellite or FreeSAT equipment NOT FREEVIEW which is the UK stations via an aerial.

I'm well up into the north, so I'm getting Saorsat and UK Freeview. I guess what I should have done was to get the installer to put two LNB's onto the dish and get Freesay and Saorsat. That way I could get a twin tuner box easily - instead of the two box setup I seem to have to opt for.

iba

farmer_dave wrote: »

I'm well up into the north, so I'm getting Saorsat and UK Freeview. I guess what I should have done was to get the installer to put two LNB's onto the dish and get Freesay and Saorsat. That way I could get a twin tuner box easily - instead of the two box setup I seem to have to opt for.

Dont know if this will help because Im finding it a bit hard to follow your set up but as a previous poster mentioned, a photo would really help.

But if I understand right, you are using a KA LNB to pick up the Irish Terrestrial Stations from Eutelsat 9 (or is that 10) and then also you want to pick up the British/Norrthern Irish stations on Astra 28.

If Im reading right, the problem seems to me that you only have 1 LNB - the one pointing at Eutelasat 9/10 - you need a second LNB to hit the Astra Sat.

Then with your 2 LNBs, Id get a Diseqc switch, feed the two cables from the two LNBs into said Diseqc switch and then feed the one cable oming out of the Dieqc switch into your STB.

Regards
Regards

Ronnie Raygun

It's perfectly clear from Dave's posts, that he is based in Northern Ireland, out of Saorview terrestrial range & has had a dish installed for Saorsat reception. He is attempting to receive the UK channels via Freeview terrestrial, but doesn't mention if he also has a new aerial installation, or is using an already existing one.

He'll only need a 2nd lnb for UK channels if he can't get decent terrestrial reception, or, as he mentions himself, if he wants an all-satellite channel lineup, giving him the option of using a Freesat PVR. I think he mentions elsewhere that the dish is a Triax TD110, so should be no problems with getting a decent signal from an offset lnb for 28 east.

iba

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

It's perfectly clear from Dave's posts, that he is based in Northern Ireland, out of Saorview terrestrial range & has had a dish installed for Saorsat reception. He is attempting to receive the UK channels via Freeview terrestrial, but doesn't mention if he also has a new aerial installation, or is using an already existing one.

He'll only need a 2nd lnb for UK channels if he can't get decent terrestrial reception, or, as he mentions himself, if he wants an all-satellite channel lineup, giving him the option of using a Freesat PVR. I think he mentions elsewhere that the dish is a Triax TD110, so should be no problems with getting a decent signal from an offset lnb for 28 east.

Sorry, I didnt know that the Saorview Terrestrial did not cover all of N. Ireland.

I take it though that it must cover some, especially around the border areas. Is there a map/diagram showing its footprint anywhere?

farmer_dave

Hi guys. I've just this afternoon bought a TVonics dual tuner HD Freeview box. I'll use this to record Freeview etc. The Saorsat can be received via the 250 Combo unit.

The aerial is an existing installation, so when it expires I'll get everything transferred over to a satellite setup. (Not worried about the Freeview box here as plenty of fmaily could use it and there is not really a satellite receiver on th emarket which I'd like to buy.

The TV has only one HDMI input. The TVonic box also has an internal HDMI switch so I can switch between the Ariva 250 and the TVonics box easily without having to choose which one I view in HD.

Further done the line I'll consider purchasing a universal remote control.

MickH503

Hi Dave, I just got one of these boxes today. Can you tell me which satellites to select to search for the UK channels? Did you find a list of satellite names and frequencies somewhere online?

iba

MickH503 wrote: »

Hi Dave, I just got one of these boxes today. Can you tell me which satellites to select to search for the UK channels? Did you find a list of satellite names and frequencies somewhere online?

Astra 28

farmer_dave

UK stations are on Astra 28. I'm in the north, so I was only installing Saorsat on it.

The Saorsat Transponder information was not installed, but the Astra stuff for UK Freeview was on there. The box already comes pre-programmed with a list of satellites, frequencies, etc.

MickH503

Cheers folks, I think I got it figured out!

farmer_dave

Okay, a cousin has mucked this up again... Grrrr!!!!

He has added the Astra satellite for which there are no channels to pick up. Is there a quick way to remove this from the channel listing without doing a factory reset and then re-installing Eurobird 9A?

iba

farmer_dave wrote: »

Okay, a cousin has mucked this up again... Grrrr!!!!

He has added the Astra satellite for which there are no channels to pick up. Is there a quick way to remove this from the channel listing without doing a factory reset and then re-installing Eurobird 9A?

Are you sure you dont want Astra 28?

Are you in Ireland?

you just go into the sat list and take away the love heart

But what deo you watch on 9A?

farmer_dave

Sorted by deleting all channel and re-installing. Saorsat is on 9A.

The heard was removed so I'm not sure why the stations were listed.