Satellite noob - missing channels

A relative got the Saorview & Free to Air setup done recently and has a Fergusion Ariva box. We've noticed though there's 17 channels not showing. Just a black screen with some saying "scrambled" or "no signal" or just blackness!

The channels are:

S4C HD
True Crime
True Crime + 1
PBS America
Quest HD
France 24 HD
Abu Dhabi TV

Chart Show TV
The Box
Chart Show Hits
Box Upfront
Box Hits
Kiss
Magic
Kerrang
The Vault

Not too bothered about the first lot but I liked the music channels. Are they gone or can they be retuned or something like that?

Also the LCN option seems to somehow get re-enabled occassionaly and I have no idea why.

Thanks for any help.

saabsaab

I have the same problem recently. Lost Quest HD and some others. Tried re tuning a few times but to no avail. Will keep an eye to your replies.

Clitheroekid

No problem on my satellite system with reception of Quest HD,S4C HD France 24 HD AND freesports HD Parameters of these channels is 11426 V SR 29500

What does that mean? Do I have to tune them in manually? Tried asking the guy who installed it but he couldn't get away fast enough. Guess I better have a look at the Ferguson manual. Worried though that in my inexperience I'll lost the rest of them.

The high horse brigade

FTA boxes need constant retuning. Satellite channels change frequency regularly. It's an ongoing thing.

https://en.kingofsat.net/news28.2E.php

This is the reason Freesat and Linux boxes are a much better option, they rescan and update any changes

Boxcar_Willie

Much better to use an Enigma2 box with AutoBouquets installed , this will run daily updates and put them in the correct channel for order for you .

The high horse brigade

Boxcar_Willie wrote: »

Much better to use an Enigma2 box with AutoBouquets installed , this will run daily updates and put them in the correct channel for order for you .

Yes, this is what I have but these days this doesn't add the music channels as they are nearly all gone from Freesat so I use this list and add them manually to a favourites bouquet every few weeks

https://www.tvchannellists.com/List_of_channels_on_Freesat_(UK)#Non-Freesat_Mode

I thought of myself as fairly tech savvy but all these terms are foreign to me. So it seems the Ferguson Ariva box we got is pretty rubbish.

The high horse brigade

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I thought of myself as fairly tech savvy but all these terms are foreign to me. So it seems the Ferguson Ariva box we got is pretty rubbish.

It's a generic free to air box, there are better.

Freesat is a branded product, a joint venture between BBC and ITV. Their business is selling Freesat branded boxes and TVs. These come with recording functionality and 7 day epg.

Linux boxes can be configured to also do all of this with added plugins, but it's not plug and play. https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057827739/11/#post106783394

lol never heard the term "bouquets" used in a tech context before! Guess I got to do some studying. Thanks.

MenloPete

Deleted User wrote: »

I thought of myself as fairly tech savvy but all these terms are foreign to me. So it seems the Ferguson Ariva box we got is pretty rubbish.

The Ariva is a perfectly good box, but you must be prepared to re-tune it yourself manually.

Here's a beginner's guide:

If you look at https://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2E-2F-2G.html you'll see the tuning details for all the free-to-air channels.
In the attached image the frequency of this transponder is 10714, the polarization is H (horizontal) and the symbol rate (in the 6th column) is 22000.

Now, the Ariva came with a pre-programmed list of transponders which was fine in the beginning, but as time goes on, new transponders are added or parameters are changed or channels are swapped - hence the need to re-tune.

In the Ariva menu under Installation, you'll see TP list - the list of pre-programmed transponders. You can scroll through the list and find the transponder you need and press the blue button to search on that transponder. (Remember to set FTA Only to Yes).

Sometimes the transponder you want does not exist in the list (for instance S4C HD, Freesports etc) so you have to Add it by pressing the Green button and entering the required parameters (In the case of S4C is Freq:11426; Symbol Rate:29500; Polarity:V)

Once the transponder is added, you can Search it like any other transonder.

Then, of course you'll want to re-order the channels the way you'd like, but that's another day's lesson

Hope that helps...

The Cush

MenloPete wrote: »

In the Ariva menu under Installation, you'll see TP list - the list of pre-programmed transponders. You can scroll through the list and find the transponder you need and press the blue button to search on that transponder. (Remember to set FTA Only to Yes)

Not sure if this applies to the Ariva, but does to other FTA receivers, some FTA channels such as CNN HD, Channel 4HD, Channel 5HD and others are flagged as encrypted even though they are FTA - a FTA search might not find/store them.

If this is the case with the Ariva, instead of searching FTA for a particular transponder select all channel search and delete any unwanted/encrypted channels later.

The Ariva will be a good receiver to get familiar messing around with satellite reception, adding/updating/deleting/searching transponders/channels, before moving to a Linux box later.

Great posts guys, thanks very much. Out of curiosity what are the extra bells and whistles that a linux box would have? Daily auto tuning of channels for one I see....anything exciting?

The high horse brigade

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Great posts guys, thanks very much. Out of curiosity what are the extra bells and whistles that a linux box would have? Daily auto tuning of channels for one I see....anything exciting?

The ability to combine Freesat and Saorview together on the one box, recording and recording timers, record one channel while watching or streaming another, the autotimer plugin is similar to series link, crossepg pulls down 7 day epg for all satellite channels and saves it locally, autobouquetsmaker scans for Freesat satellite and Saorview frequency changes and updates the channel list, openwebif gives a web interface for web streaming, Kodi and IPTV plugins are available for more powerful boxes

Thanks guys I got all the channels back except for True Crime and True Crime +1 which I think have shut down. Might get me one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tiviar-Alpha-Plus-Triple-Tuner-Combo/251666030428

Boxcar_Willie

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks guys I got all the channels back except for True Crime and True Crime +1 which I think have shut down. Might get me one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tiviar-Alpha-Plus-Triple-Tuner-Combo/251666030428

Good box , you'd need to add a hard drive to store your recordings and EPG .

Is it straightforward to put Enigma2 on it?

NewClareman

Deleted User wrote: »

Is it straightforward to put Enigma2 on it?

Yes, very - see instructions here.
Note: for these instructions you must use one of the older images - e.g. "generic _image_with_auto_update_Jan_01_2019".

You can then update to the latest version, see here.

Once you have updated the software, setting up is no more difficult than setting up a Freesat or Saorview box, see here.

NewClareman

Deleted User wrote: »

Great posts guys, thanks very much. Out of curiosity what are the extra bells and whistles that a linux box would have? Daily auto tuning of channels for one I see....anything exciting?

If you look at the first few posts of this thread, it shows what you can do.
We use it for all music, web radio, IPTV and films.

I probably should have mentioned the rather critical fact that my relative doesn't have internet although he's thinking about it. I mean I could set it all up fine but on a day to day basis there would be no internet. Probably negates 90% of the box's advantages.

NewClareman

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Yes, this is what I have but these days this doesn't add the music channels as they are nearly all gone from Freesat so I use this list and add them manually to a favourites bouquet every few weeks

https://www.tvchannellists.com/List_of_channels_on_Freesat_(UK)#Non-Freesat_Mode

If he uses the Tiviar Alpha+ with my image, all the FTA music channels are available as a group/Bouquet on the EPG and automatically updated.

Gerry Wicklow

Deleted User wrote: »

I probably should have mentioned the rather critical fact that my relative doesn't have internet although he's thinking about it. I mean I could set it all up fine but on a day to day basis there would be no internet. Probably negates 90% of the box's advantages.

After the initial setup there is no real need for the internet for day to day running. The EPG data is taken directly from the satellite.

sligojoek

Heading to the mother in law's tomorrow to do a channel update on her Edision box. All the channels in the OP are also missing for her. She specifically asked me about True Crime &
True Crime + 1 I had a look on my own box and Kingof sat and can't find them.

Are they gone altogether of have tthey a new name?

greasepalm

The channel abruptly closed on 15 November 2018, along with sister channel Scuzz. True Crime was relaunched on 12 February 2019, replacing TruTV, but then abruptly shut down again on 1 July 2019.

SmartinMartin

Ah come on, what the hell is wrong with you people? Sligojoek is going to look at his mother in law's box tomorrow and nobody even fnarred, never mind making a wise crack about it?

greasepalm

Family members can suddenly put you down with a good hefty belt,so i stay safe and smile and not look.

sligojoek

SmartinMartin wrote: »

Ah come on, what the hell is wrong with you people? Sligojoek is going to look at his mother in law's box tomorrow and nobody even fnarred, never mind making a wise crack about it?

I "fnarred" here the other day afer the phonecall and got a slap.

"Your mother wants me to look at her box .. Fnarr Fnarr."

Won't be doing it again.

Johnboy1951

sligojoek wrote: »

I "fnarred" here the other day afer the phonecall and got a slap.

"Your mother wants me to look at her box .. Fnarr Fnarr."

Won't be doing it again.

I guess one look was sufficient?

Gerry Wicklow

sligojoek wrote: »

Heading to the mother in law's tomorrow to do a channel update on her Edision box. All the channels in the OP are also missing for her. She specifically asked me about True Crime &
True Crime + 1 I had a look on my own box and Kingof sat and can't find them.

Are they gone altogether of have tthey a new name?

A lot of channels have been rebranded by Sony.

'True Entertainment' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Channel'.

'True Entertainment+1' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Channel+1'.

'Sony Movie Channel' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Movies'.

'Sony Movie Channel+1' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Movies+1'.

'Movies4Men' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Movies Action'.

'Movies4Men+1' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Movies Action+1'.

'True Movies' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Movies Classics'.

'True Movies+1' has now been relabelled as 'Sony Movies Classics+1'.

Info courtesy of Digiman on DS

From KoS channel cemetery:-
Astra 2F (28.2°E), 2019-07-06
Sky Digital: True Crime has left 11307.00MHz, pol.V (DVB-S SID:53305 PID:2346/2347 English), it is no longer transmitted by satellite in Europe.

Johnboy1951

sligojoek wrote: »

Heading to the mother in law's tomorrow to do a channel update on her Edision box. All the channels in the OP are also missing for her. She specifically asked me about True Crime &
True Crime + 1 I had a look on my own box and Kingof sat and can't find them.

Are they gone altogether of have tthey a new name?

Read from there on - should give you the info you need.

This is what I have FTA here (click to see full pic)



https://i.ibb.co/BG3WByk/Sony-Channels1.png