Freesat, receiving many channels, but no BBC or ITV, Channel 4/ More 4 etc

zaphodbeeb

Hi folks,

Hoping someone can help me with this. I'm presuming I'll need to call a professional out so just really looking for a heads up / test some of my theories on what the problem might be. I'm a total satellite noob so apologies in advance.

We've just moved into a house in Donegal which has a satellite dish installed with a dual lnb.

For testing purposes I have:

- 2 old Silvercrest (LIDL I think) satellite receivers (SL45 & SL65)
- 2 Sky HD boxes (without cards) that I was loaned to test

So, on connecting one of the LIDL boxes I get a load of channels, but no BBCs, no ITVs / UTVs, none of the 4s (as in Channel 4 / More 4 / E4). A lot of Indian / Pakistani / type stations.

I had thought that maybe it was picking up Astra 19.2 and not Astra 28.2 but it *is* getting channels like Drama, Dave, Really, Kerrang, Kiss on one of the LIDL boxes (I've attached some screengrabs of some channel lists)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LbVROFNwoOgezNrVKlgJF04pDiJuxCN5

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1x5N4rWJ7TZXICqMp3m9JccLS9Tgwgl-b

The other thing I'm wondering is if the dish itself needs to be moved. I've attached photos of where it is and as the old LIDL box had all the BBC / ITV channels listed on Astra 19.2 I'm wondering (and again clueless here) if years ago maybe all the channels were on Astra 19.2 but are now on 28.2?

If you look at the pictures here the way the dish is, it *may* be being blocked by the end of the house.....

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18FlNThb7fuEwsqW1ydxT7nysXxvS7DkO

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tgHCHXf1AAXs-mc25ejOA0d9rvXSGeH0


... but I'm hoping I'm wrong.

If I connect either of the two Sky HD boxes, they just show ZERO signal and say that no dish / feed is connected.

One of the LNBs (or at least when I attach one of the two feeds) to even the working Silvercrest / LIDL box seems dead, when I connect the other one the channels that I mention above re-appear.

So my questions are:

- Did the BBC / ITV / Channel 4 channels used to be on 19.2 back in the day and are now on 28.2 (which *could* explain why the dish is installed the way it is and used to be fine but now isn't)

- Is my above idea totally wrong as the dish currently pulls in Dave, Kerrang, The Box etc..... (or maybe this are also on 19.2 or other satellite)

- The dish itself looks fine / not rusty at all etc. Is there something else I'm maybe missing here?

- Finally, the Sky HD boxes have no card. I'm presuming that they should still show a signal (if they get one) and probably the free to view channels?

Thanks so much for any help / pointers in advance. Apologies for long ish post. Looking to ideally put in a freesat box for now while I consider options.

-ZB

zaphodbeeb

... I'd added a post as the images weren't showing, not letting me delete so edited to this. Ignore this post ....

:-)

ShaneOC

How many outputs are on the LNB?

If it is just two then the LNB may be specifically for Sky Q and will need to be replaced to be used with FTA and Sky HD boxes.

zaphodbeeb

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure that it's the more standard LNB as I *think* that the FTA boxes wouldn't get anything with the Sky Q LNB.....

Appreciate the reply :-)

Antenna

zaphodbeeb wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure that it's the more standard LNB as I *think* that the FTA boxes wouldn't get anything with the Sky Q LNB.....

Appreciate the reply :-)

They will get some channels , but the transponders will be on 'different frequencies' to what should be the case. (and the lower transponders are ending up on frequencies that are too low for your receiver).

Also the other LNB cable would get a completely different lot of channels to the first (if a Sky Q LNB is actually the issue), as one cable is for all the vertical polarized (V) transponders, the other is for all the horizontal polarized (H) transponders with Sky-Q. So do a complete scan/ blind scan with the second cable and I would expect a different lot of channels will appear.

zaphodbeeb

Model: EL021
Wideband LNB

Pic: https://drive.google.com/open?id=11THEyPRtAp5U0TncOVNlRfXg7mkBSR1o

zaphodbeeb

I think ShaneOC and Antenna are right, it seems wideband is for Sky Q. Surprised.....

Anyway, have a local tv shop here. Will see if they have a regular LNB for a few quid and see if I can just swap it out?

zaphodbeeb

Thanks to ShaneOC and Antenna for the help - they were spot on.

The LNB fitted was for Sky Q (wideband). Have swapped it out for a regular quad LNB and my two cheap LIDL / Silvercrest channels now get all the BBC / ITV / Channel 4 channels so - huge thanks.

My Sky+HD box on the other hand is still saying no signal even though as soon as I put the cables from the sky box into the freesat box the freesat boxes are reporting high 90% signal quality and showing channels without issue.

I can see the Sky intro but that is probably a recording on the hard disk?

Anyway, hopefully nearly there. Thanks to everyone.

zaphodbeeb

Ok, box updated. Still (annoyingly) says no satellite signal on channels that need a card / subscription, but BBC1 HD, BBC2 HD and some channels like CNBC HD, RT HD etc are working.

So all good, will look at Sky's offerings or Freesat, thanks to all for help.

zaphodbeeb

Final post on this, just in case it might be helpful to anyone.

A lot of my presumptions were wrong. It seems that now the new Sky Q box is the default box. I was looking at Sky's packages and they all feature this box so the old Sky+HD boxes aren't being installed anymore. I had thought you only got the Sky Q box if you were going with their super high def package etc.

Which explains why the LNB that was on the dish wouldn't work with freesat / Sky+HD boxes, as the new Sky Q uses wideband LNB.

Changed the LNB back to a standard quad LNB and all stations back immediately. If I go with Sky / Sky Q box I'll need to put the newer wideband LNB back.

Take all with a pinch of salt as I can't guarantee the above 100% but I think it's right.

-ZB

ShaneOC

You can ask the installer to use a hybrid LNB. Most will have this at install time. Usually a good idea to mention it when arranging installation time with the engineer.

The hybrid LNB has 6 outputs. If any of these outputs detect they are connected to a Sky Q box they will work as wideband. Otherwise they'll work as regular LNB output. The upshot is you can have Sky Q and FreeSat / FTA using the hybrid LNB.