Sky+ freeze problem

bkearns

Folks, I have a problem with my sky+ recordings. They are continually only partially recording, locking up at random points in the playback. If I jump past the lockup ( using the viewer defined option) the recording will continue to play until the next random lockup. During some playbacks I get a message saying recording interrupted by loss of signal. In a signal test , input 1 is at about 50 % and input 2 at about 40%. I swapped the two inputs but the signal test indication did not change, i.e input 1 remained slightly stronger.

Based on these symptoms are my problems related to a signal strength problem or a failing Hard drive ?

If it is a signal problem, is there any small adjustment that can be made on the quad LNB to correct the alignment or does the whole dish have to be realigned ?

Is a digital meter the only way of correctly doing this ? Can it be successfully done by trial and error ?

What is the min signal strength required to eleminate this problem ?

DMC

To rule out a hard drive issue, try the housekeeping function (in the installers menu, thats press Services, 4, 0, 1 then and select.) and see if that helps.

I'd say it's more LNB/tuner issue than hard drive.

Grayarea

When sky+ loses a signal during a recording it continues to play back until the signal resumes. So what yuou are seeing is consistant with signal loss during recording.

I have seen this during very heavy rain, when my zone 2 dish is finally overtaken by rust I will be replacing it with a 80cm to reduce this problem.

I would check your cable runs, LNB skew and probably the most likely culprit, trees or shrubs in the line of the dish.

On the signal strenth screen you should have quality of at least 50% and that is pretty marginal for rain etc. On my system I get about 65-75% quality on both inputs.

A meter is probably the best way to check what is going on, I have looked at a couple of installations for friends etc and the lnb connections are usually taped up with standard electirical tape this leads to water problems after a couple of years.

Where are you based? There may be a member with a sat meter near you.

Later,

byte

LNB connections with standard insulation tape? That is poor installation practice. Self-amalgamating tape is what should be used.

And yes, to answer the original poster, it's most likely a signal/tuner issue.

Tony

Byte have you seen the new quad lnb's with pull down cover? much better job

byte wrote:

LNB connections with standard insulation tape? That is poor installation practice. Self-amalgamating tape is what should be used.

And yes, to answer the original poster, it's most likely a signal/tuner issue.

Mossy Monk

we had a box with similar symptoms and i brought home my other sky + box to see if it made a difference and it did. no freezing during playbacks. the housekeeping function as described by DMC- worked but if that fails i'd say its a fault somewhere on the box

the signal strength on the Sky+ box with the problems stays at about 80% - 90% on all the bars

byte

Tony wrote:

Byte have you seen the new quad lnb's with pull down cover? much better job

Yes, the Thomson LNB's have the pull-down cover (as do MTI quads for ordinary dishes) and they are very handy indeed. I still have issues with not covering the F connectors though and still tend to use a small amount of SA tape and then pull down the cover. Maybe there is no need for this practice. I did consider using grease but figured this would be hassle if ever I've to reset the dish and the grease stops voltage flow.

Tony

byte wrote:

Yes, the Thomson LNB's have the pull-down cover (as do MTI quads for ordinary dishes) and they are very handy indeed. I still have issues with not covering the F connectors though and still tend to use a small amount of SA tape and then pull down the cover. Maybe there is no need for this practice. I did consider using grease but figured this would be hassle if ever I've to reset the dish and the grease stops voltage flow.

better safe than sorry, do the same myself, its a little bit more awkward though with ports close together

Clanc

Hi,

if you can get up close to the LNB have a look at the opaque plastic cover facing the dish.
On mine, I can see the moisture/condensation very visibly inside the LNB which appears to be the source of my picture going to hell.

Sparky

bkearns wrote:

Folks, I have a problem with my sky+ recordings. They are continually only partially recording, locking up at random points in the playback. If I jump past the lockup ( using the viewer defined option) the recording will continue to play until the next random lockup. During some playbacks I get a message saying recording interrupted by loss of signal. In a signal test , input 1 is at about 50 % and input 2 at about 40%. I swapped the two inputs but the signal test indication did not change, i.e input 1 remained slightly stronger.

Based on these symptoms are my problems related to a signal strength problem or a failing Hard drive ?

If it is a signal problem, is there any small adjustment that can be made on the quad LNB to correct the alignment or does the whole dish have to be realigned ?

Is a digital meter the only way of correctly doing this ? Can it be successfully done by trial and error ?

What is the min signal strength required to eleminate this problem ?

Ive been getting this quite alot, and on occasions i seen the message recording interupted due to loss of signal, but i ruled this as a software fault at the time because when i went over that patch of the recording it was ok.

The sudden stop thing i get alot ive done house keeping and system resets and even checked the dish, which is a zone 2 and has a skyware quad lnb and all connections are ok, but that plastic thing that one of the posters was on about i had to put on myself because the installer didnt and it looked crap without it. so i self amalgamed the connection etc.
I am going to try and defrag the hdd by putting it into my computer or i may just reformat it altogether, then put it back in to the STB and do a full system reset on it and see if things improve.