Setting up a new TV

[RogerS]

Woah...woah...time out, chaps.

Paul.. from what you've said there is

(a) nothing wrong with your new TV because it can see the FreeSat box perfectly

(b) that means your SCART cable/connectors are fine so stop messin' with them!

(c) your satellite dish is OK because a second system fed from it in your house works OK

so how does the cabling get from your satellite dish into both the freesat box and your sky box? How do you end up feeding both at the same time?

Can you tell us what make your freesat box is?

 

[Mailman14]

However, if you were having signal problems with normal analogue terrestrial then it won't improve with freeview.

That is not strictly true wizer, provided that the digital receiver has a got a solid baseband lock then the forward error correction (FEC) built into the DVB-T modulation scheme will help a lot in comparision to analogue reception (no FEC). However, I agree that until the analogue spectrum is turned off then the digital broadcast signals are not at their maximum strength. Furthermore, a dedicated DVB-T aerial may help further.

Hmm methinks either Chris knows what he's talking about, or has drunk a bit too much to be let out in publice - it makes absolutely no sense to me at all... :wink:

 

[RogerS]

However, if you were having signal problems with normal analogue terrestrial then it won't improve with freeview.

That is not strictly true wizer, provided that the digital receiver has a got a solid baseband lock then the forward error correction (FEC) built into the DVB-T modulation scheme will help a lot in comparision to analogue reception (no FEC). However, I agree that until the analogue spectrum is turned off then the digital broadcast signals are not at their maximum strength. Furthermore, a dedicated DVB-T aerial may help further.

And a new decent digital cable! That caught me out.

 

[chris_d]

Woah...woah...time out, chaps.

A bit OTT but granted I take the less than subtle hint.

How do you end up feeding both at the same time?

Paul, you mentioned that you tried both 'terminals' on the dish, these are called LNBs and only one receiver at a time can connect to an LNB ie your Sky+ box must be connected to a different LNB than the Freesat box is connected to.

So help us by deciding whether you want to pursue the digital satellite or digital terrestrial path.

Cheers,
C

 

[chris_d]

Hmm methinks either Chris knows what he's talking about, or has drunk a bit too much to be let out in publice - it makes absolutely no sense to me at all... :wink:

Two pints and I'm anyone's digital whore!

 

[paulm]

Thanks for all the interest and help guys, missed out on some of those posts last night as I was watching telly (not the one the subject of these posts though!), and crashed out early.

To narrow the options a bit then, I think I need to focus on digital via the dish and therefore via freesat.

The girls have freeview boxes upstairs working from the normal arial and they have never been entirely successful.

The LNB on the dish has four terminals on it of which two are in use with sky+, leaving two free, of which one free one was in use for the freesat box. I just switched the freesat cable over to the other free LNB connector on the dish and made sure the f connector was fitted properly and made a good connection.

The freesat box is an upmarket, top end Bush job from Argos :roll: :lol: Cost £50. Didn't need anything fancy with a hard drive as we use the sky+ for recording.

I think RogerS's thought process is just about where I had got to as well and by a process of elimination I think the freesat box is the issue, but before I spent another £50, on top of the price of the new telly, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going in the wrong direction altogether and had overlooked a simpler alternative.

Argos here I come ! 8)

Cheers, Paul

 

[RogerS]

Before you go to Argos, Paul, try switching off your Freesat box before you connect the cable from the LNB.

 

[OLD]

I think your at :-'managed to get the freesat intro screen up'. but not able to get any channels ,see if there is a master reset to return to factory defaults then try again this worked for me on a freeview box.
Check also any signal strength indicators via the menu.
Freeview from the old terr. ariel poor for the girls. If you have lots of connections to the ariel it pulls down the signal you can get amps that plug in (high street) a better solution is a distribution amp (ariel fitter/diy )to feed all machines.

 

[RogerS]

.....
Freeview from the old terr. ariel poor for the girls. If you have lots of connections to the ariel it pulls down the signal you can get amps that plug in (high street) a better solution is a distribution amp (ariel fitter/diy )to feed all machines.

Agred Old but and a big but, a distribution amp is only as good as the original signal.

Freeview = new digital type aerial and more importantly new digital type coax. If you don't put in a new system then you're almost certainly doomed to a duff freeview signal IME.

 

[paulm]

Tried different sequences of connecting/switching on Roger, no luck.

No sign of a master reset switch anywhere Old unfortunately.

I've got a distribution amp in the attic for the terrestial digital signal, but it's never really been satisfactory so I decided to leave for that the girls upstairs as they are at uni' now most of the time, and just complete the digital sattelite approach downstairs.

Will pop out to Argos in a minute. If the new box doesn't do the trick then I'll wrap it back up and see if I can return for a refund and then think again :lol:

Cheers, Paul

 

[OLD]

The reset could be via the menu, it may be time to read the book.
I remember on my freesat set up it asked for my post code you need to get back to that point.

 

[paulm]

Problem solved !

But it wasn't the new box I bought :evil:

The new box didn't work either, with the same lack of signal, at which point I was getting a bit frustrated to say the least !

Having tried everything I could think of I thought I might as well drop the digital satellite idea and just try the normal arial in desperation to get a picture of some kind.

Plugged the normal arial cable into the back of the tv and the freestat screen showed a signal and retuned and worked fine !

Don't understand why. The arial cable dosn't go via the freesat box, and the signal is supposed to be via the sky dish, so why would it do that :shock:

Anyway, decided at that point to swop back to the old box and that worked fine as well, so carefully repackaged the new box only to find that the receipt and the catalogue state that particular product is exempt from the Argos 30 day no quibble return :evil:

Will try and take it back anyway and see what happens, otherwise might be on offer here !

I can only think that the arial cable was plugged in on the old telly too, but my daughter unplugged it all when she took it to her room to replace her blown one, and I wouldn't have recalled as it was some time ago I set it up, but regardless of that I just don't understand why it should be necessary. Weird.

Thanks for all the help guys, at least it's sorted now at last

Cheers, Paul

 

[Tom K]

Argos always refund on defective or slightly broken items in my experience.
As in "What's the problem with it Sir?" to which you reply "I thought I could smell burning I'll have a refund thanks" you certainly won't have a problem especially if you take your chainsaw :lol:

 

[paulm]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[paulm]

It worked Tommo, thanks for the idea, didn't need to bother with the chainsaw either ! :lol:

So a happy ending after all that, thanks again to everyone for the help and ideas.

Cheers, Paul