Old Sky +HD boxes dying or being killed?

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796863#Comment_120796863

0nly one lead is required in this set up as no recording performed.Been like that for years

Point is with this new fault on the long list of sky boxes by different manufactures, you can't get as far as tuning channels in a menu when the box's are displaying, wait for it to initialize,followed by,no sig,call sky.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796676#Comment_120796676

Think your right,but who knows what is in the sky signal to the box apart from tv frequencies. Have tried software update,soft and hard reboots,and factory

resent in the engineering menu.Whilst a sub box may be directly altered by them in terms of switching the card off or on,would doubt if a fta non sub box can be affected in any way,apart from freq changes as the CNN scenario.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796863#Comment_120796863

It won't let you go that far into a menu to tune,as the box refuses to initialise, then displaying no sig,call sky. Thanks

reboot

As your well aware a Sky+HD box may receive up to 50 extra channel's, this was the deal when it was set up agreed by the then EU.

But it's not the same as a FTA ,Freesat box,I have both.

Theses series of Sky boxes by different manufactures no longer work due to recent over the air changes.

In effect as the thread asks,are they dying,or being killed.

You decide. Thanks

reboot

Welcome back History Channel viewers to episode 1 , Season 5 of The Secret of Skywalker Ranch.

Having spent the morning talking to very nice and knowledgeable Sky man,I am now prepared to reveal The Secret of the Sky+ HD problems,sure nobody reads this stuff anyway.

greasepalm

Yes and as i love a bit of history

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120799356#Comment_120799356

OK,keep this all to yourself.

Obviously I'm not quoting an official Sky spokes person here,and some of the secrets may even be true,with one exception,I can't get my head around.

He says the days of the dish as far as Sky are concerned are coming to an end,sad that,I'll miss climbing up to the chimney in winter.

They eventually will have their own fibre network.

He gives Sky+ HD box's 6 more months, hoping folk will go for the "Free", with 18 month contract on Q.

After that he fears we may then have to buy the box again,maybe he would say that.

The peculiar "Faults" I was seeing he confirmed,accepting It Was Them.

In fact he went on to say that recently going between Dundalk and Drogheda, he was finding, one could receive BBC 1, the other couldn't.

There was no charge for his visit,he didn't suggest an upgrade to Q and gave me a quad LNB which solved the problem., Obviously not a Q LNB.

Think it's a bit of a timebomb/ minefield ahead ,as folk will only come across the No Signal being received,if they power the box down, removing it from the mains,only to find it won't come back up to normal again.

Before he gave me the new LNB,I had managed to fit a very old one,even a single output one worked,but does require a small degree of bodger mechanical engineering skills as feed arms have changed over the years and its hard to get to the prime focus position.

He insisted,wait for it,the old chestnut, that the new LNB would output a TV Free view signal into the rf socket of a TV.

What do I know,but just in case I hadn't kept up,I just tried it,it's nonsense,but I stand to be corrected.

He agreed that nothing makes much sense anymore,I agreed ,particularly on the Ranch! Travis.

greasepalm

One of the reasons i left sky was the price and can receive channels on Freesat or Sky Uk .

The amount of people removed their dish and put it back up again was amusing.

Enigma 2 boxes will give the BBC and Itv and other channels as a back up.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120800329#Comment_120800329

Several Not spots in this area,so no terrestrial signals of any kind,only options Internet,which can be as low as 2 Meg,or dish.Will look up Enigma ta.

greasepalm

There is a Zgemma H7S thread on forum for a read

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120800373#Comment_120800373

Looked at your suggestions and seems a good way to go in future and value for money.

As it turns out fibre to the premises was due at long last to the ladies premises.

Nice young lad arrived,very early morning to apologise .He would not be climbing the pole because his colleague had forgot to organise road management . In the meantime Sky broadband cancelled,switching to BT.

But not to worry, he'd be back in a month.

Have to manage with a dongle till then,but it didn't arrive.

Many forms of Enigma!

swoofer

reboot take everything he told with a big pinch of salt. The quad lnb solved the problem so how can it be sky!!! HD boxes gone in 6 months he is having a laugh,

and this one " In fact he went on to say that recently going between Dundalk and Drogheda, he was finding, one could receive BBC 1, the other couldn't." 🤣🤣🤣. This reminds me of the excuse once given " The signal is too weak too many dishes on the street!!

You met someone with a little knowledge.

You can get an LNB that allows you to connect the aerial to it and then sat signal and the DTT signal is combined down the leads but at the TV and box end you need a splitter to get back DTT and sat signal separately.

here is the lnb

https://www.freetv.ie/quad-lnb-with-terrestrial-input/.

The Irish sky HD boxes are knobbled when you cancel the sky subscription but by inserting a UK fta card the box will default to uk software and depending on the card region you will get all the FTA channels 101 bbc and so on. The card is dirt cheap.

Sky would love to get rid of the dish as they would then have a captive viewer but it will take a long time before that happens.

The alternative to SKY if you don't want sky sports/movies is a ZGEMMA H7S but if a SAORVIEW signal is not available where you are then sky is the option.

🤣

greasepalm

Assume Saorsat is not reachable where he lives?

reboot

Great and knowledgeable info thank you,makes sense you feed a dtt aerial into the lnb.

Have no knowledge of saorsat,but it's RTÉ's coverage for folk that don't receive dtt? Assume not poss to tune in on a sky dish as other channels? Or maybe so?

All dishes up here now working.As you point out a change of lnb and the right card,and these boxes could be free for years to come,but your average viewer will have to upgrade ?

Thanks for your input.

greasepalm

Depends if the viewer wants movies and sports then yes a paid sub to view.

https://www.freesat.co.uk/channels

reboot

Yes quite,there is also a free view stb ,surprisingly maybe ,only used for RTE Gold,as they quite rightly some say,packed it in on Dab.

Not wishing to cross threads,the Skyman accepted that at this location from the standpoint of the sound setup, Sky Q was a retrograde step in that it ,like most new TV, has no analogue audio out. This would require an expesive amp and or DAC.

There is an RF,( forget that dumb dumb Bluetooth nonsense) wireless speaker with a range of about 100 feet..

reboot

Another Ripping yarn Skyman told us was that RTE planned to transmit from Isle of Mann.

I don't think so!

But then BBC radio Ulster Evening extra recently told us Alan Turin Invented the Inigma Machine.

Hard to know who to believe these days,apart of course Boards .ie.

icdg

Sky really cannot “kill” boxes in the manner you are suggesting.

Yes there are old Sky boxes out there that are SD only and can’t receive HD channels. Sky will upgrade their own subscribers who are in that situation. They don’t owe anything to ex-subscribers in that regard. Technology marches on. That doesn’t mean Sky are doing anything positive to “kill” the boxes concerned. Certainly not a Sky+HD. Sky Q is a current technology that is still being installed.

Yes they probably will eventually move to streaming only. But Sky Stream hasn’t even been released in this market as a stand-alone product yet and Sky Glass by all accounts is hardly flying off the shelf. Satellite is going to be around for years. It certainly won’t be gone in six months.

I have warned you about derailing the other thread. I’ll leave this one open for the moment. I am strongly minded to close it. A lot of what you are posting is total hearsay.

reboot

Fair points,on hearsay,only time will tell.

Sticking to facts as I know them from personal experience, only trying to help people who May find that the non sub box they depend on,due to lack of any terrestrial services in their area , may not work as before,if they power the box Down,finding upon powering back up again they find the display indicating No signal. When in fact a signal actually is present, this also applies,to some freesat box's I've found.

At that point,upon calling Sky,an "engineer", may be sent out perhaps free,perhaps not.

In the case I witnessed, he did say they knew this had happened,and replaced the lnb with a new quad, free of charge.

I also witnessed various reception problems with a sky+ hd subscription box, accounts not being capable of access any more,and some channel drop outs. A "free" offer of a replacement box, Sky Q, comes with an 18 month contract.

The Free offer may become limited.

I agree satellite will be around for years, I've had it since before Sky came along,and my posts are trying to help by suggesting a way around the dying,perhaps kill is a little strong, by a change of lnb, all boxes fixed in the above examples.

People are very kind in suggesting a solution to the loss of signal,from "Check the F plug to dish alignment etc, when it fact a Change has occurred, I for one don't read the tabloids or study Digispy,and was late to the story.

I'm shocked at the suggestion of Derailment, I was hoping greater minds might see a coming together of the problem, but am happy to leave it there in good hands,if there's an interest in what has become a real problem for many of us particularly in rural areas.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120801066#Comment_120801066

Thankfully, Saorsat is available and in constant use,mostly for RTE Gold.

Freesat is not and She pays the BBC a licence fee for no terrestrial services.

Interestingly she pays Sky £10 a month for years just for HD!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120799578#Comment_120799578

"He gives Sky+ HD box's 6 more months"

Sky have renewed a carriage deal with Astra till the end of 2028, so Sky+ HD boxes will be fine until at least then. The only thing happening of note in the immediate future is the BBC ending non HD broadcasts sometime next Spring, so a box change will be needed if people still have non HD kit.

https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/sky-commits-to-uk-ireland-satellite-broadcasting-until-2028/

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120828773#Comment_120828773

Thanks good to know,but between ourselves,I admitted "Killed may have been a little harse,but not so sure,here is my perhaps flauded logic,by way of a thought experiment.

Say I sell you a receiving device,maybe a radio.

One morning you switch the radio on,and no sound comes out.The receiver diagnostic,its a thought experiment says,No signal is being received.

You contact me and say the radio has no sound coming out,it's effectively Died.

I say sure don't concern yourself,I just altered the signal I was sending you. If you want to spend a bit more I can fix it.

Do you even consider for a brief moment did the receiver Die,or did I Killed it?

greasepalm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120830186#Comment_120830186

Or you got buried in a lead casket?

icdg

Reboot, the thread is getting silly now, and I am going to give one more chance; no more talking about killings please.

To use your own analogy, and at the risk of bringing in a whole different argument, it’s like saying RTE killed AM radios when they closed LW 252. They did no such thing, the radios still work fine. It’s just they can’t pick up a signal that’s no longer broadcast.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120830630#Comment_120830630

OK,just to wrap up,when a national broadcaster encouraged the take up of Dab radio,I bought a tuner,doesn't receive FM. When that broadcaster decided to stop transmissions because to that point only 5% bough the radios,did my tuner Die,or? Finished.

reboot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120830608#Comment_120830608

Think he's just done that,pray for me.

greasepalm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120830663#Comment_120830663

Unit still works but not in this country , I have Dab but use Fm.

And we are getting off topic.

reboot

Sure thing,forget it. Noticed an on screen download at 6.30 this evening from Sky on the non sub box.

whizbang

Sorry to drag back to an old post in case anyone is interested,

The signal strength and quality indication on the sky HD+ box does NOT indicate which which physical input is used.

its internal switched depending on the channel selected, and actually shows the signal of the transponder thats currently tuned. The transponder ID shown changes for each group of channels selected. 0002 is the satellite ID for Astra2.

The second indicator is apparently the standby recording input, may not show a real input at all.

Its possible to get a valid signal on one transponder and nothing on another, by a poorly aligned dish.

Irish Steve

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120853278#Comment_120853278

Experience here this week is relevant, and probably not unusual, although our install would be non standard.

We've 2 sky+ HD boxes, and the TV's have sat tuners, and we've an old Ariva box that is helpful for some channels that are not in the Sky EPG, and in recent weeks, we've been plauged by issues with an increasing number of channels pixellating, and recordings failing, and it reached the point where this week, something had to be done.

The install was done over 10 years ago, and it was an 80Cm dish, with a quattro LNB working into a multiswitch, and until relatively recently, it's been trouble free, it took a while to get right, but since then, it's behaved, and even with the high winds that have hammered us on occasions, it's not moved as such.

In the end, rather than risk repeat visits to the supplier for more parts, it was simpler to replace the dish, which was starting to become encrusted with Lichen and the like, the LNB, and the cables feeding the Signal into the roof void, based on discovering that the cable was an older style cable, and not copper, it turned out to be a steel cored cable, with a copper coating, and despite the LNB having a cover over the F connectors, on close inspection, there were issues with dissimilar metal corrosion on the cable ends, and the size of the F connectors meant that the connection to the screen was not good, and there were doubts about the LNB, given the channels that were giving problems.

Getting the new dish aligned was "Interesting", in that if I got one channel showing a good signal on the meter, as well as on the box, that didn't mean that the other channels were good, and it took several refinements of the exact dish position before I'd got all the channels back working, with the meter having to be set to the specific transponder to find the sweet spot for the channels that were still struggling, talking to the supplier, the issues with the cable and LNB is not uncommon, some of the supposed CT100 cable that was around 10 + years ago was not very good dimensionally or quality wise.

The new cable has been fitted with waterproof F connectors, and self amalgamating tape to help keep moisture out, so hopefully that will help the long term reliability, but having now sorted out the scenario, both Sky boxes are showing much better signal strengths, but what was interesting in among all the testing was that before replacing the feed in, the Sky boxes were both showing a total fail on the signal for certain transponders, but using the TV in satellite mode, the TV was showing a signal, albeit poor, and not stable, but there was a signal on the TV, but nothing at all on the Sky boxes, so clearly, the tuners on the Sky boxes are not as sensitive as the tuners on the TV, the signal strength is identical on each device, as they're on separate feeds off the multiswitch. That may explain why the Sky boxes that were mentioned earlier in the thread are appearing to have failed, there is a signal on the cable, which shows up on a signal tester, but the box is not seeing it with enough strength to trigger the strength indications.

That may explain a number of supposed dead boxes, the issue may well be the age of the total installation, dish, LNB and cable.

It's very evident that Sky are no longer the premium system in a number of areas, their quality control on things like series link, and timings is dire, I'm starting to look at possible alternatives, I'm not convinced that the Q upgrade option will give us any real advantage, as there will be costs involved due to the multiswitch, and the dish being on the roof, so not plug and play, but there are some channels in the Sky mix that are not simple to replace, so depending on what I find, a move to using more streaming options may be a viable alternative, and even if we have to look at several streaming services, it's likely to be cheaper than the total cost of Sky, but that's a discussion for another time and thread.