dodgey free to air kit

paulcdub85

Hi,
My friend got one of them cheap free to air kits, Philex I think it was. He had no luck getting a signal so I said id take a look. Im no expert but have done a few. I have a basic sat meter that has l.e.d's that light up to show signal, has workd fine for the few iv done. Despite the meter showing a good signal no picture was coming in on his box. I tried my own freesat box with his dish/cable and the best I could get was 26% signal. I then went and got a sky dish to replace the free to air dish and that gave me 67% signal on the freesat box and that works fine great picture..However, the free to air box will not function it says " no signal". I got him his own freesat box and he's happy it works fine. What i'm thinking is:

The LNB on the cheap free to air dish was dodge thats's why it would only give the freesat box 26% signal.

Also, the 67% that is sufficient for the freesat box is not high enough for the free to air box which is why it will not work but the freesat one will? or is the box also a heap of dirt.

I thought it was a strange one...anyone with any ideas greatly welcome,thanks.

kbell

The fta box was probably on the wrong satellite, most are configured to 19.0 as default.

Randyleprechaun

kbell wrote: »

The fta box was probably on the wrong satellite, most are configured to 19.0 as default.

It should still show up any channels available from whatever sat your are pointed at. AFAIK you dont have to have the receiver set to the right one as these are only like folders to store channels in. I'm open to correction on this.

paulcdub85

kbell wrote: »

The fta box was probably on the wrong satellite, most are configured to 19.0 as default.

But the freesat box is connected to the sky dish and working fine...when i take the freesat box out and put the free to air box in it says "no signal"...

Macy0161

paulcdub85 wrote: »

But the freesat box is connected to the sky dish and working fine...when i take the freesat box out and put the free to air box in it says "no signal"...

I'd go with the experts that'd be on later, but the FTA receivers I have default to 19 degrees as the satellite/ transponder list, as mentioned above. I'd check that the FTA receiver is set to the right satellite first (you might have to add transponders too, but you should get something on the loaded transponders, if not the full range).

tmcw

Channel list could have been old or corrupted?

Was a scan done on the Philex, with the same dish that was verified pointing at the correct satellite and good signal quality, using the Freesat box?

Possible difference in tuner sensitivity, as I've seen one box display a picture with a marginal signal, whilst another box (Sky) gave up trying to get a signal lock connected to the same dish.

kbell

paulcdub85 wrote: »

But the freesat box is connected to the sky dish and working fine...when i take the freesat box out and put the free to air box in it says "no signal"...

Yup, if the FTA box is "looking" for a signal from 19.0, and isn't receiving it, then its going to display "no signal".

St Senan

Do a factory reset on the phillex box if that dont work then the box has a faulty tuner.

steveon

Totally agree with scaller, I have factory defaulted a load of these piles of electronic rubbish and they worked afterwards, however keep in a well ventilated location as I have 3 or 4 already with blown capacitors in the psu....

paulcdub85

thanks for the replies i will try defaulting the philex box. But has anyone any idea why the free-to-air DISH would only give the FREESAT BOX 26% signal yet the sky dish is giving it 67%...surley it could only be a faulty lnb?

St Senan

paulcdub85 wrote: »

thanks for the replies i will try defaulting the philex box. But has anyone any idea why the free-to-air DISH would only give the FREESAT BOX 26% signal yet the sky dish is giving it 67%...surley it could only be a faulty lnb?

The LNB on the phillex dish was probably not Skewed properly.