Sky HD reception

[tvmog]

Anybody else been having reception issues this weekend. A lot of picture breakups and although my signal strength is its usual 60-70% the signal quality is down at about 25%. Tried a couple of reboots but it hasn't made any difference. (South East England area).

 

[daveh75]

The signal strength isn't that important (though, in the S.E i'd expect it to be higher than 60-70%) it's the quality that's important.

And if it's as low as 25% you've clearly got a problem somewhere! Most common causes would be dish mis-alignment,LNB fault,cable damage/fault,poor/loose connections.

 

[tvmog]

Seems to have sorted itself out. A couple of other forums had posts regarding similar problems at the same time that I was experiencing them - guess it must have been local atmospherics or something.

 

[Clare Newsome]

I was worried my Sky+ HD box might get befuddled by a big power-outage we had here yesterday, but when the power came back on it seamlessly picked up a couple of recordings and we didn't lose a thing

 

[The_Lhc]

tvmog:Seems to have sorted itself out. A couple of other forums had posts regarding similar problems at the same time that I was experiencing them - guess it must have been local atmospherics or something.

Were you experiencing heavy rain at the time?

 

[tvmog]

the_lhc:

tvmog:Seems to have sorted itself out. A couple of other forums had posts regarding similar problems at the same time that I was experiencing them - guess it must have been local atmospherics or something.

Were you experiencing heavy rain at the time?

It was raining for some of the time but it's been heavier before and not affected reception. I'd been watching the live tennis on Eurosport HD earlier, and they had been apologising for picture issues due to atmospheric conditions so I guess something was going on. On the plus side it rendered most of the Eurovision Song Contest unwatchable.

 

[tvmog]

Clare Newsome:I was worried my Sky+ HD box might get befuddled by a big power-outage we had here yesterday, but when the power came back on it seamlessly picked up a couple of recordings and we didn't lose a thing

What type of box do you have. Although my Tompson is very good at restarting recordings after a power cut, it always loses what it was recording before the power went off.

 

[Clare Newsome]

It's a Samsung. I've had both Thomson and Pace boxes before, but this is the most reliable yet - as you'd expect, it being a newer design etc.

 

[chudleighpaul]

If it was raining possibly water permeated the connection at the LNB. This would certainly cause a signal quality problem.

 

[tvmog]

Unfortunately it doesn't now appear to have sorted itself out. The picture quality is getting weaker and sometimes dissapears completely. There appear to be two possible explanations, or a combination of the two. The first is a tree that has been growing ever closer to the dish over the years. As it is now rapidly coming into leaf it may well be starting to block the signal. However it could also be the Thompson refurb box finally giving up the ghost as the tree problem doesn't account for the breakup I am also experiencing on pre recorded programmes from weeks ago ( unless the erratic signal reception is somehow effecting the overall performance of the box). Whatever the reason its going to be a fairly costly operation as a tree surgeon is a least as expensive as a Sky callout charge.

The freeview signal is non existant in my local area, and for some reason there is no analogue transmission today - at this rate by the end of the day I'm going to have to read a book!!!

 

[daveh75]

If you have friends/family with Sky/Freesat try your Sky box on their dish. If the problem persists, it's fairly safe to assume it's the box that's at fault.

 

[tvmog]

Looks like it was the tree. I managed to borrow a set of extendable cutters and trim back the ends of the branches closest to the dish. Signal quality has now returned to 60/70%.

However, the picture quality on both SD and HD seems softer than it was when the the signal was reduced. Is it possible to have too strong a signal?

 

[daveh75]

tvmog:

However, the picture quality on both SD and HD seems softer than it was when the the signal was reducedYou dont get varying degrees of PQ with digital sat. You either get a picture or you dont. Is it possible to have too strong a signal?Not with satellite no...Satellite signals are actually very weak(compared to UHF/DTT signals) and have to be amplified and down converted by the LNB to be able to be sent along coax cable without attenuation being an issue.