FreeSat enabled Panasonic but ‘No Service’

DrMosa

Hi all,

New to Boards and 1st post. Helping a friend out trying to get TV working (cheaply).

Rented house with old Sky satellite dish, previous renter said was working, twin cable with good connector coming into the house.

Got a second hand Panasonic TX-L32G20B that works great, DVD quality is really good.

The TV has Freesat and Freeview build in, I screwed one of the twin cables in (TV only has a single socket), also tried the other cable, get exactly the same result.

After auto-tuning, have a full TV guide, up to date programs, listings, HD or SD etc. Information button also shows the content of the show. Press OK to watch ANY station and TV screen goes black and ‘No service’ is displayed in a white rectangle with red writing. Same for the radio stations etc.

House has no working SOARview aerial to check analogue channels.

I reset the TV to factory settings, have retuned with either FreeSat, or ‘Other Sat’ and get same result.

So - it could be the TV FreeSat tuner has given up the ghost. TV works fine on SCART and HDMI inputs. OR, previous owner had a Sky Box - and does that only work with their dish? I thought as I am getting a populated TV guide that everything is OK - saying Astra2 sat.

I do not wish to buy another FreeSat Box, or an Amiko etc

What can I check with simple tools/angles etc. Or can it be the LNB on the dish and only works with Sky?

Any help would be great to either check the TV is good and the built in tuner is ok, or it’s the dish end. The dish is a grey perforated type and is in good/reasonable condition.

I was thinking if it was not working well/not aligned, I’d not get any TV guide populated. But if people with knowledge say you can get all of that but be 1 degree out and get no signal, resulting in ‘No Service’ I’ll work on the dish (it’s very solid in both angles).

I have looked at the signal strength, some are ok, but even ones showing 10 and 9 give same message.

Many thanks

swoofer

there is a tv button up at top right on remote and you press that to select input, a menu pops up and you then select freesat. try that.

DrMosa

Yep - done all that, can nativigate all through the different settings, shows the TV guide, select a program, then I get the ‘no service’

The J Stands for Jay

Does the TV guide come from the internet rather than the dish?

StreetLight

That TV seems to be relatively old at this stage. Over the past couple of years there have been some technical changes to the Forward Error Correction (FEC) rates transmitted on satellite, but some Panasonics were unable to cope with it, resulting in some angry customers across the UK.

But keep trying anyhow. Can you go into your TV menu settings under satellite and make sure the LNB power option is switched on?

By the way, there are no analogue services available from Saorview (not Soarview!). Hopefully if you get the satellite side sorted, you can mount an indoor aerial which will pick up Saorview and give you the Irish digital channels as well.

swoofer

your best bet would be to try out a sky box or similar to establsh dish is ok. where are you located, roughly.

sky boxes ie hd ones are very cheap now on ebay and adverts.

The Cush

I've had similar issues in the past with different Freesat receivers, the way I resolved it was to reinstall it on another dish without issue and then reconnected the original dish and all was OK. Don't know the reason why.

DrMosa

Thanks for the last messages. I’ll check the FEC setting. Friend is near Ashbourne, I hope an indoor aerial will pick up ok as I think transmitter is a ways away. Thanks for clarification - I thought the Irish channels were on analogue.

I’m going to try and get hold of an old Sky Box. Do I assume you still get the free channels without a card, you just need the card for the Sky pay ones?

I’ve no access to another dish, so will have to try the above - but I have been reading on the weekend that the older Panasonic’s threw a wobbly a few years back - I got it cheap, so if I have to get a Freesat so be it.

Are the Amiko ones any good, or will an old Sky Box do the job?

swoofer

If you buy a sky hd box from it will work ok without a card but if you buy an irish sky hd box it wont work without a uk card in it.

SOMETIMES BOXES ARE SOLD WITH A CARD.

here's one and if you use parcelmotel its good value.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SKY-HD-BOX-MULTI-ROOM-DRX595-SKY-HD-REMOTE-POWER-LEAD-HDMI-LEAD-viewingcard/302705791229?hash=item467aabd0fd:g:FNwAAOSwoddaehLa:rk:10:pf:0&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shId

Johnboy1951

swoofer wrote: »

If you buy a sky hd box from it will work ok without a card but if you buy an irish sky hd box it wont work without a uk card in it.

SOMETIMES BOXES ARE SOLD WITH A CARD.

here's one and if you use parcelmotel its good value.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SKY-HD-BOX-MULTI-ROOM-DRX595-SKY-HD-REMOTE-POWER-LEAD-HDMI-LEAD-viewingcard/302705791229?hash=item467aabd0fd:g:FNwAAOSwoddaehLa:rk:10:pf:0&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shId

I would not consider a Skybox to have any value at all when compared to other new boxes available.
I would prefer to pay ~€45 for a box that allows me to record and to arrange channels in a list in the order that I prefer, with no unwanted/encrypted channels in the list.

UrbanFret

Are you sure its scanning 28.2E. and not some of the other Sats.

swoofer

that is a very good point as that tv will be sold in europe as well and have 19east, hotbird at 13east and then sky at 28east, often shown as astra 2a etc as Astra own the satellites.

here is the manual and look at page 49.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/648897/Panasonic-Viera-Tx-L32g20ba.html?page=49#manual


cheap was the word when i linked sky box and simplicity!!