Newbie question on receiving free channels

popey21 · 12-09-2005 12:11pm #1

My parents have a sky satellite decoder box that they are no longer using. The house I just moved into has a satellite dish ( I think they used NTL) with cable running from it to my living room. Is it possible for me to connect this up and receive any extra channels. If so where could I find out more information. thanks

Tony · 12-09-2005 12:38pm

popey21 wrote:

My parents have a sky satellite decoder box that they are no longer using. The house I just moved into has a satellite dish ( I think they used NTL) with cable running from it to my living room. Is it possible for me to connect this up and receive any extra channels. If so where could I find out more information. thanks

try www.lyngsat.com, dish is most likely pointed at astra 2

popey21 · 12-09-2005 2:45pm

What would i need to do to tune in these channels

Tony · 12-09-2005 3:20pm

popey21 wrote:

What would i need to do to tune in these channels

Connect a satellite receiver to the dish

popey21 · 13-09-2005 8:37am

Ok . I hooked up the digibox. I checked the signal strength and quality all seems fine. I have no channels tuned in . So I Presume I should now follow the "How to tune in extra BBC Channels" Thread

SPAWKER · 13-09-2005 9:35am

If it is a sky digibox you will not need to tune in any channels as they will all be there in the form of the english EPG.

popey21 · 13-09-2005 9:56am

Theres no channels . it just remains on searching for channels please wait. so what am i doing wrong.?

ei9go · 13-09-2005 10:09am

Have a look at the sat tv section in www.go.to/watcomm

popey21 · 13-09-2005 10:19am

So it not possible to just get some free channels by tuning them in you have to get a Free to view card or some extra equipment. So the answer to my first questions is no you cant receive any extra channels.

thanks for the info boys and girls

dmeehan · 13-09-2005 10:43am

shouldnt there be some kind of an epg present??
is it a SKY digibox?

popey21 · 13-09-2005 10:54am

dmeehan wrote:

shouldnt there be some kind of an epg present??
is it a SKY digibox?

yes it is a sky digibox, my parents had the full sky package about 6 months ago.The manufacture of the box is grundig. I had all the details written down but forgot to bring them into work with me. Is it possible the box is broke.My parents canceled there sky Subl because the could no longer recive channels. we thought it was a fault with the dish and sky wanted €120 to send out an engineer.

Gargantuan · 13-09-2005 12:27pm

So you are not sure if the box works then?If you lost the channels all of a sudden your dish might be mis-alinged.

Do you konw anybody with a working sky box or even a Free to air box?
Get them to connect up to your satellite and see if they are recieving anything.

I had a problem last winter during hig winds where i lost the signal as the dish was mis-aligned , I rang Sky and they said it would be two weeks before they could get anybody out to me , but never mentioned a charge.

In the end i rang up somebody from the goldenpages and they were out the same day to fix it , but it did cost €70.

watty · 13-09-2005 2:30pm

If the dish is larger than 65cm then it might be pointing at 19.2E, mostly German. The Sky Digiibox won't "find" any channels. You can confirm by triying lyngsat settings in "add channels" for 19.2E.

The EPG only works if it receiving 28.2E Astra

god's toy · 13-09-2005 5:45pm

Gargantuan wrote:

In the end i rang up somebody from the goldenpages and they were out the same day to fix it , but it did cost €70.

umm thats alot, got mine sorted for €30, (just saying)

popey21 · 14-09-2005 8:39am

The same thing is happening in my house that happened in my parents.

I’m receiving a signal and have good signal quality would that not mean it’s pointed in the correct direction in both houses?

I think it must be the digibox it self. Are there any troubleshooting steps I can take . e.g. Master reset, Software update, Firmware update etc.

What channels should some receive if they have sky package and take out there viewing card?

RangeR · 14-09-2005 2:47pm

You would have a least

Sky News : 501
BBC 1 : 169
BBC 2 : 170

You will have more, but they are the only ones I can remember. Should be enough for you to test.

L1011 · 14-09-2005 2:53pm

IrishTLR wrote:

You would have a least

Sky News : 501
BBC 1 : 169
BBC 2 : 170

You will have more, but they are the only ones I can remember. Should be enough for you to test.

If the box is booted from cold with no Irish subs or ex-subs card in it, it reverts to London, IIRC, so BBC1 and 2 will be 101/102. He should also get ITV1 on 103 "Shortly".

Kaitaki · 15-09-2005 3:53am

Go into the installers menu,press services then No.4 then 0 1 select then No.6 this will give you the signal strenght & quality also whether it is locked onto the sat also the network id & transport stream.The network id should say 0002 & the transport stream should say 07d4 also the lock indicator should say ok.If you have all these you are pointing at the right satellite.Signal strenght & quality should be aprox 50% each.

popey21 · 15-09-2005 10:06am

Kaitaki wrote:

Go into the installers menu,press services then No.4 then 0 1 select then No.6 this will give you the signal strenght & quality also whether it is locked onto the sat also the network id & transport stream.The network id should say 0002 & the transport stream should say 07d4 also the lock indicator should say ok.If you have all these you are pointing at the right satellite.Signal strenght & quality should be aprox 50% each.

as far as i can remember
The network id was FFFF & the transport stream was 0000 or vice versa. i will check it again. strenght & quality were 75%

Newbie question on receiving free channels

Comments