Lost some free to air channels

gypseaking

Problem No.1:
I am getting SuperCasino now instead of EWTN.

Problem No.2:
I have lost BBC News, Euronews, CNN, and Sky News.
They are showing "No Signal".
(but I still have other news channels such as France 24, RT, CNBC, Bloomberg, AlJazeera, Press TV, CCTC and NHK).
Some other channels that I notice missing are OMusic and Record TV Brazil.

Sat receiver is Northstar.

Are these problems due to channel changes, or did my dish move?
Would a dish movement have caused a loss of just a few channels,
or would I have lost everything.
I still have the BBC ITV C4 and other UK stations and many other channels.




EDIT: Forgot to say that it's Astra 28.2E

Bodhisopha

Yes, a dish move can knock off some channels and not others. Someone who knows better than me will no doubt tell you more.

Have you tried rescanning your channels?

emanresu

I did try rescanning a few times, and I seemed to lose more channels each time.
By the way, CBS Action is another of the missing channels, but I still have CBS Drama and CBS Reality.

For example, I did a scan and there were 86 transponders showing for Astra 28.2E, and got about 286 channels (scanning for FREE only).
The news channels and other channels mentioned above were still missing.

Shortly afterwards, I tried again and it showed 103 transponders, and received about the same number of channels, but less in reality as there were many duplicates of rubbish channels.

Later, it was back down to 87 transponders, and no improvement with the channels.

GerardKeating

gypseaking wrote: »

Problem No.1:
I am getting SuperCasino now instead of EWTN.

Problem No.2:
I have lost BBC News, Euronews, CNN, and Sky News.
They are showing "No Signal".
(but I still have other news channels such as France 24, RT, CNBC, Bloomberg, AlJazeera, Press TV, CCTC and NHK).
Some other channels that I notice missing are OMusic and Record TV Brazil.

Sat receiver is Northstar.

Are these problems due to channel changes, or did my dish move?
Would a dish movement have caused a loss of just a few channels,
or would I have lost everything.
I still have the BBC ITV C4 and other UK stations and many other channels.




EDIT: Forgot to say that it's Astra 28.2E

Are all the missing channels on Eurobird ?

snaps

I would say your dish has moved slightly and your not receiving Eurobird at 28.5 east. The main Satellite that most of the UK FTA channels are on is Astra 2 at 28.2east. There has been reports that Eurobird has drifted even futher east lately to around 28.7east, which may well cause problems with a dish that has drifted west a little.

tmcw

GerardKeating wrote: »

Are all the missing channels on Eurobird ?

Opposite to what you're thinking, I think, given the channels that are missing, and what's present. I think the dish is pointing to a position favouring the channels at 28.5 (Eurobird) rather than 28.2 (Astra). Some of the channels still visible from 28.2 may be on stronger or more focussed TPs than the ones missing (like BBC News). A lot of the more popular ones would be on 2D, which wouldn't be affected much by poor alignment (reduced quality perhaps, but still above threshold).

OP, dish is slightly out of alignment. If you imagine standing behind the dish, it needs to be steered slightly to the right. Try it without unloosening bolts first, with a partner at the TV to see if the channels reappear, watching signal quality if your box allows. This will give you an idea of how much you need to move the dish to get them all back again.

Before that though, maybe check the lnb isn't loose, and hasn't moved closer to or farther from the dish in it's holder.

EDIT: Omusic left on the 1st Sept, had that tuned myself, but it was replaced with a better channel (IMO), - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMusic_TV

emanresu

Thanks for the above posts.

Missing channels (*) don't seem to be all on one satellite.
According to this list, there are some on Astra and some on Eurobird.

* CBS Action - Eurobird1
CBS Drama - Eurobird1
CBS Reality - Eurobird1
* EWTN - Eurobird1

* BBC News - Astra2A
* Sky News - Astra2B
* EuroNews - Eurobird1
* CNN - Astra2A
France 24 - Eurobird1
Russia Today - Eurobird1
Al Jazeera - Eurobird1
Press TV - Eurobird1
CCTV News - Eurobird1
NHK World TV - Eurobird1
Bloomberg - Eurobird1

* Record TV Brazil - Eurobird1

It happens that I had the news channels organised in the order shown above and EWTN just before BBC News, and those missing channels are all grouped together. Could that mean something or is it just a co-incidence?

emanresu

I connected up someone else's receiver to my dish, and I did a scan and got all the normal channels.

I then tried again with my own receiver, and had the same missing channels and many duplicates of others.

tmcw

Same type of receiver?

If not, it could be that your alignment is just marginal, and difference in tuner sensitivities allows one receiver to get everything (just) and the other to "give up" trying to put a picture together (too many errors). I've seen this before with a Digibox v's a FTA receiver.

Difficult to troubleshoot without actually getting "hands-on".

Do you have any way of checking the signal QUALITY on the receiver that is showing the channels you're missing on the other receiver? Often accessed through the menus, something like Settings>Maintenance>Info.

EDIT: BTW, you can see what channels you're supposed to be getting on a few websites, like this one: http://www.flysat.com/28east.php

I note you're not missing any Astra 2D channels (Main BBCs/ITVs/etc) - strongest transponders here. The "Footprint" column in the link above will show you what beam the channels are on. Different beams have different strengths at any particular location.

My guess is that the alignment is marginal, and that moving the dish ever so slightly will improve the signal quality on the receiver that is losing channels.

emanresu

My receiver is Northstar and the other one is Philex. The external cases are different but the on-screen menus are identical.

Quality for some selected channels on the Philex receiver are as follows,
with the channels missing from my own Northstar receiver marked (*).

BBC1 NI – Astra2D – 91%
BBC2 NI – Astra2D – 91%
UTV – Astra2D – 87%
Channel 4 – Astra2D – 90%
Five – Astra2D – 91%
* CBS Action - Eurobird1 – 65%
CBS Drama - Eurobird1 – 76%
CBS Reality - Eurobird1 – 70%
* EWTN - Eurobird1 – 55%
* BBC News - Astra2A – 78%
* Sky News - Astra2B – 76%
* EuroNews - Eurobird1 – 65%
* CNN - Astra2A – 73%
France 24 - Eurobird1 – 70%
Russia Today - Eurobird1 – 75%
Al Jazeera - Eurobird1 – 80%
Press TV - Eurobird1 – 58%
CCTV News – Eurobird1 – 70%
NHK World TV - Eurobird1 – 79%
Bloomberg - Eurobird1 – 68%
* Record TV Brazil - Eurobird1 – 71%



So it looks like I'll have to align the dish better.
Thanks for all the help.

tmcw

I dunno, the lowest percentage there looks like it should be high enough, just; marginal in my mind would be below 50% (I've seen channels solid at about 40%, but they may have been low bitrate channels, which could make a difference). Certainly with a few of them above 70%, you should be getting them, I should think.

What sort of quality levels do you get with the Northstar?

Could be a weird software issue with your receiver. You could try deleting the channels you've lost, and rescanning them again. Could be an issue with some receivers if ID numbers had changed recently, but BBC News hasn't changed in a long time.

You have a mix of transponders, polarity and orbital positions missing and available, which makes it a puzzle.

St Senan

It's quite possible that there is a tuner fault with your Northstar. I have come across some of these Northstars with tuner problems on my travels. Have you tried connecting your receiver to someone else's dish to see can you receive these missing channels that way you will eliminate it been a problem with your dish. There is no point messing with your dish till you connect your receiver to someone else's dish. If you have this receiver Less than a year and it is a Tuner Fault then get onto the Guy who supplied and installed it.

emanresu

tmcw wrote: »

What sort of quality levels do you get with the Northstar?

Very close to the figures for Philex. +/-1 or 2%
(for the available channels).

scaller wrote: »

Have you tried connecting your receiver to someone else's dish to see can you receive these missing channels that way you will eliminate it been a problem with your dish.

I have now, and it still doesn't pick up those channels, so the receiver seems to be faulty after all. It's well out of warranty, about 2½ years.

I am glad to know what the problem is, and I'll get another receiver.
Also I am very glad that I asked here first, instead of interfering with the dish. Thanks again for all the help.

By the way, the other thread about BBC changes next week is interesting.

St Senan

emanresu wrote: »

I have now, and it still doesn't pick up those channels, so the receiver seems to be faulty after all. It's well out of warranty, about 2½ years.

I am glad to know what the problem is, and I'll get another receiver.
Also I am very glad that I asked here first, instead of interfering with the dish. Thanks again for all the help.

No Problem it's a Tuner fault with the Northstar. You should think about a Freesat Receiver like 1 of these http://satellite.ie/acatalog/Freesat_and_Free_to_Air_receivers.html instead of a Free To Air box.