Sky Movies 1 reception problem

PauloMN

Hope someone can help me here - apologies if this has been posted about before.

I'm having problems with Sky Movies 1 from my satellite decoder. Both the sound and video is breaking up - it's been doing this for about 2 weeks now. It's bad to the point of being unwatchable. My wife says that Movies 2 and 3 were acting up a little, not as bad as Movies 1 though. Just checked it again - Movies 1 is still awful, 2 and 3 seem ok.

No other channels seem to be affected which is the weird thing, so I don't think the dish is out of alignment or that the coax is damaged. I've switched off and on, removed and replaced the card etc. but none of this has helped.

If it's of any help, the decoder is a Panasonic and the system was installed probably about 3 years ago now. I've checked the signal strength through the setup menu and it is as it was on day one - about 75% of the way up the meter so I don't think that's the problem either.

Any help would be great, thanks!

chorus techy

Sky Movies 1 goes out at a very high bitrate, higher than 2 or 3 so obviously, it would suffer most loss in a bad signal situation. What is National Geographic (558) or National Geographic +1 (559) like? Its worth checking to see what those channels are like, as they come in on the same frequency.

Also, whats the signal quality reading like? Signal strength generally does not matter as much as quality...

PauloMN

I'll check those channels now. If they are messed up as well, is there anything I can do with the decoder or is it bin time?

Booms

If your video output is set to RGB, try changing it to PAL. I found that this stopped the breakup I was getting on CH4 and CH5 on my Panny 35. Some Panasonic boxes seem to have a problem with RGB out. Don't know if there is a fix, though.

PauloMN

CT, I checked both of those channels, and indeed they are also breaking up, again both sound and video - exactly the same as Sky Movies 1. Shows how much I watch National Geographic compared to Sky Movies...

Anyway I also checked the signal strength again and also the signal quality as suggested. Signal strength is still about 75% of the way up the bar, and signal quality is almost the full way up, nearly 100%.

Booms - I actually reset the picture settings see if it would help, but no luck. I had changed it to RGB and now it's back on PAL - no effect on the break-up problem.

denis1501

The transponder frequency you describe is 11836, H, which is on the Astra 2A North beam. This beam is weak in certain areas of Europe but if you are in Ireland then you should not be having this problem.
You need to adjust the 'skew' of your LNB in my opinion. Turn it slightly and your pictures will come back to normal.
regards
D.

chorus techy

Well, before you start fiddling with your LNB, you should check the signal strength / quality of that individual transponder...

Do the following:
1. Press Services.
2. Press 4 to go to System Setup.
3. Then, in sequence, press 0, 1 and then select quickly.
4. Installer Setup will appear - press 5 for Manual Tuning.
5. Enter the frequency details given by denis above
Frequency: 11836
Polarisation: H
Symbol Rate: 27500
FEC: 2/3
5. Press Select and then a signal strength and quality reading will appear - what are the readings like for this?

PauloMN

Cheers for the info lads, I'll try that later on today.