Installing satellite tv

Darby OGill

Hello. I'm new, so forgive me my sins....

I hope to install my own system- dish, receiver, cables the lot. My plan is to buy dish and receiver (poss. 2nd hand) and use an FTV card (I'm really only interested in BBC/ITV).

How difficult is it to do? Any tips/danger areas? Will I need lots of meters/gadgets (hopefully not!)? If there's another thread on this, please advise. Thanks in advance.

seano

Go to www.satcure.co.uk

If half of the gobsh#tes that do it for sky can set it up anyone can.
The only danger you have is falling off the ladder.

ps A meter is cheap ,handy and simple to use

Originally posted by seano

If half of the gobsh#tes that do it for sky can set it up anyone can.
The only danger you have is falling off the ladder.

ps A meter is cheap ,handy and simple to use

I agree with this statement...
Time to repeat what one local Sky installer guy round here said to a bemused neighbour of mine .
"if you lose your signal...this is caused by the sheer number of Sky systems going in now...they are taking all the signal...":rolleyes:

The dish he put up still works a year later-so when someone with an iq like that can do it, no offence meant,installing Sky is easy.
mm

chernobyl

Installing a Satellite system when you have zero knowledge of what you are doing is not easy, infact its scary.

Even aligning a nice big dish for a meaty Satellite like 19.2 took me nearly 12 straight hours on my first go.

I have only recently (digital new age boy) gotten interested in this but even after all the messing about i have done, i would still not be confident enough to whip out a drill, turn it to "hammer" and start grinding down a hole into our house, infact i am forbidden from doing so.

/maybe im just slow and stoopid?

Originally posted by madman

"if you lose your signal...this is caused by the sheer number of Sky systems going in now...they are taking all the signal..."

Classic!
Hall of Fame.

seano

fair enough, you cannot go out there with a dish ,close you eyes ,move it a bit and wallaa.
I live in Holland and about 10 years ago i started with a 40cm dish for Radio 1 on astra.I have gone a long way since then,that is the beauty with satellite tv,once you get one sat you always want more.I had a moter ,it took me 6 months to set it up so that it saw every sat visable to me.After i had it set up I sat up the whole night and scanned every sat ,next day i sold the moter.Now i have a dish for astra 1 ,2 and one from110 which i move around with my hand.
So Garby the morel of the whole story is,Look up info on it,look at your neighbours dish,Take your time,and if your family tell you after two days trying to get an expert in tell them to sweep to be f##ked,the greatest satisfaction is finally getting a picture and doing it yourself

Darby OGill

Thanks for the info. Drilling into the wall of the house/garage is not an issue, as I am forever doing DIY, working from a very long list Her Royal Highness prepares to keep me out of the pub. So I might as well do something that I will benefit from..:D

How difficult it is to align the dish/LNB? I mean, assuming I've got it pointing in the general direction, will I get a signal that I can then improve by adjusting dish/LNB. Or will it have to be pretty much spot-on to receive any signal in the first place?

Also, can anyone recommend a particular dish/LNB/receiver from their own experiences, or stuff to avoid.:eek:

By the way, the info. on the various threads re: FTV etc. has been very useful.

swoofer

if u say where u are can help in giving more presise info. I dont mean house no etc but UK North or south east or west and so. Then one can be more helpful.

Rememeber a digital signal is "spot on" it is either there or it isn't"

gbcullen

sergeant121

Try this as a starter for 10:

http://www.davesull.dabsol.co.uk

(if it can be done for an overnight stop in a caravan, it can be done by a DIY-er easily)

Darby OGill

Thanks for the link- that guy makes it sound like no big deal. Now all I have to do is get a dish, receiver..........

Seriously, I hope to get started on this very soon, and will let you know my progress a.s.a.p., if anyone is interested.

Darby O'Gill.

dogdig

And if it is not too late take your cable in one complete run from your dish to your receiver (no sharp bends either) like the Sky installers do - any joints/outlet boxes on the wall will add to system losses - and use a silicone filler if the leadthrough holes are a bit too big and you cant get the plastic thingies designed for this purpose!
The onscreen signal strength and quality indicators should keep the boss amused whilst you do the adjusting outside...:cool:
And you can use an old analogue dish if you want to save a bit on costs - but do use a universal lnb though!:cool:

Darby OGill

Some progress to report, but questions for you techno buffs out there. I've purchased a dish, lnb and cable, and am presently looking around for a second-hand digibox (and also trying to figure out how to convince Her Majesty that a cable appearing out of a hole in the living room ceiling is A Good Thing). Two questions:

1. Second-hand boxes, with matched FTV cards, seem to be in the €300 price range. Does anyone know if this is good value or would a better (cheaper) option be to simply buy an ex- Irish subscription box and obtain an FTV card for it. (Without trawling through the FTV card thread again, and apologies for bringing it up here, but can anyone briefly confirm that this will be O.K.? I have a U. K. address with TV licence holder etc).

2. The cable I have is RG6, but this appears to be a lower quality than CT100, which apparently is the SKY recommended cable. Is this likely to be the source of any reception problems?

Thanks in advance.

swoofer

1. buy a box in the uk if u can, look at yellow ads, loot, etc. U should get a second hand box in UK for 70 - 100stg. Local papers ads can be even cheaper. I got a pana 31 in uk for 70stg.

2. Then get FTV to your UK address.

3. use CT100 cable for best results.

gb--

dogdig

Sound advice...
And if your local paper allows free ads you could always put something in the wanted section and see what that brings. My mate got a panasonic, card, remote, dish, lnb and cable for £60 - and it all works! No handbook though but these are fairly standard - main thing is to check it if you can before you part with your hard earned - or get an agreement to a refund if it doesnt work if you cant check it there and then. Sky are usually happy to set up a second user - as long as the box isn't hot!
Use best cable you can get - proper decent double screened stuff - with the good cigarette packet foil as well as a good copper mesh braiding over it..and use screw on f plugs to terminate - dont fall for crimp on - they are useless!
You could try bringing the cable in as far down the wall as you can get and come in about 6 inches from the floor.
Tell the boss it's all for her benefit and she'll love all the new progs!:rolleyes:

Tony

I think CT100 cable is what you are referring to. Crimp connectors are not useless, perhaps you did not have the right tools. For DIy jobs though screw on are much easier. Remember to seal the f connector at the lnb using self amalgamating tape.

Tony

Originally posted by dogdig
Sound advice...
And if your local paper allows free ads you could always put something in the wanted section and see what that brings. My mate got a panasonic, card, remote, dish, lnb and cable for £60 - and it all works! No handbook though but these are fairly standard - main thing is to check it if you can before you part with your hard earned - or get an agreement to a refund if it doesnt work if you cant check it there and then. Sky are usually happy to set up a second user - as long as the box isn't hot!
Use best cable you can get - proper decent double screened stuff - with the good cigarette packet foil as well as a good copper mesh braiding over it..and use screw on f plugs to terminate - dont fall for crimp on - they are useless!
You could try bringing the cable in as far down the wall as you can get and come in about 6 inches from the floor.
Tell the boss it's all for her benefit and she'll love all the new progs!:rolleyes:

dogdig

If you are lucky you might get the fairly decent cable thrown in with a second user box - and I bet it comes with screw on connectors - LOL!
Crimps are fine if you have the proper crimping tool as Tony says - but I made an expensive mistake some years ago in getting some and as an amateur simply could not get those darned crimp things to even hang on let alone do a decent job. They were nothing but trouble. So it's screw for me!
Self amalgamating tape is essential if you have to redo the lnb joint - it is expensive by the roll but you dont need a lot - and from the right place you can buy it by the inch if you havent got a mate who will give you a little.
You are gonna enjoy it!
Great!:cool:

Darby OGill

Total success!:) (Well, not quite.........:( )

Bought a second-hand Pace box yesterday, complete with working remote and instruction booklet. €120- not too bad I think.
Stopped in Atlantic on the way home, bought Scart lead and four nasty-looking bolts and rawlplugs. Got home, found drill, extension lead, spanners etc. and climbed up on very tall scaffolding (the house is being painted, very handy!) to install wall bracket for lovely new Triax dish. 20 minutes, dish in place, wife looking unimpressed, kids still alive and excited (God bless them).

Connected up cable, sorted all connections out and switched on. Nothing.:( Checked connections, looked at manual again, put new batteries in remote, pressed SKY button 4,780 times, not a sausage. Got TV manual, no help.

Eventually (kids in bed, wife gone out, laughing), pressed AV button on remote and BINGO, digibox menu appears on TV. It's now dark, and "no satellite signal is being received", so naturally I start going up and down the scaffolding to try and get the signal. I'm on my own, so this is hard work. :mad: About 9.30, my father appears to see how I'm doing. He kindly offers to watch the TV while I adjust the dish. After about ten minutes, SUCCESS!
Screen appears exactly as per advice from link mentioned above, and I have all those lovely free-to-air shopping channels I always wanted.:rolleyes:

PROBLEM- I'm not sure about the AV connections/set-up. When I press SKY, I get the digibox signal on the TV, but once digibox signal is being received, I can't get the TV (aerial) channels back. The digibox seems to override all other signals. My TV has two SCART sockets, but it doesn't seem to matter which one is connected. If I turn SCART off using the digibox picture settings, I immediately get my TV aerial signal again, and any remote will change the TV channels, but once I press SKY again, I'm back to square one. Obviously, I want the digibox remote to work both satellite and aerial signals, as it is designed to do.

What am I doing wrong? My AV options are-
AV2 output can be TV OR AV1
AV2 input can be S-Video OR normal video

Can anyone help, please? And I hope the above was of use to any new people in this area- it really is easy- now for my FTV card!!

Tony

press the tv button on the sky remote, this should release the scart control

Tony

Darby OGill

Tony, I'm fairly sure I tried this, but I'll check again when I get home. Do you have any idea how I should set up the SCART/AV menu- my telly manual confuses me totally.:(

Really, if it's as simple as that, my pride will be hurt , as I thought I was a great lad to get the dish to work in the first place:rolleyes:

Darby

Tony

Originally posted by Darby O'Gill
Tony, I'm fairly sure I tried this, but I'll check again when I get home. Do you have any idea how I should set up the SCART/AV menu- my telly manual confuses me totally.:(

Really, if it's as simple as that, my pride will be hurt , as I thought I was a great lad to get the dish to work in the first place:rolleyes:

Darby

If this does not work then disable the scart control in the digibox menu and use your tv remote to select av1 or 2 etc to get sky back on.Is it a mitsubishi by any chance?

Tony

swoofer

Darby

Wel done, I for one am impressed. Once u got the SKY picture through the scart then u are up and running. All u have to do is match your SKY remote to your TV. U did not say what the TV make is. To get SKY through the coax lead or on an RF channel u have to tune in the TV to that RF frequency. The PACE usually comes preset to channel 68, so say u go to channel 9 and do a search it will go through all the channels and when u get to the SKY channel just store it. I don't know where u are located but channel 68 can cause interference so the trick is to change the RF out channel in the DIGIBOX, how? by accessing the services menu as follows:

1. Press services button on Digibox, near interactive.

2. Menu apears, select no 4, system set up.

3. At new menu press 0, 1, and then select.

4. Bingo = services menu.

5 Select 5 = RF outlet, change it to say 51 and then use arrows on remote to scroll down and on save settings presss select.

If u do this while watching sky through the coax then screen will go blank and u will have to re-tune channel 9 to RF 51.

I am assuming that u have put aerial into SKY box and rf out to either TV or video.

Good luck.

GBC---

dogdig

Very well done - a nice result!

If you want to stop your skybox claiming the tv and hanging on it might be worth (temporarily) disabling pin 8 - you can usually open the SCART plug on the lead with care and ease out pin 8 - insulate it - reassemble lead and try it out.
There is a load of useful gen on the Satcure website about all things satellite and I think the SCART page is at:-

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/scarts2.htm

Enjoy your read!:cool:

sceptre

Originally posted by madman

Time to repeat what one local Sky installer guy round here said to a bemused neighbour of mine .
"if you lose your signal...this is caused by the sheer number of Sky systems going in now...they are taking all the signal...":rolleyes:

Classic when you wrote it the first time and still a classic. Just brilliant.

Tony

Surely its easier to disable it in the sky picture menu.

Tony

Originally posted by dogdig
Very well done - a nice result!

If you want to stop your skybox claiming the tv and hanging on it might be worth (temporarily) disabling pin 8 - you can usually open the SCART plug on the lead with care and ease out pin 8 - insulate it - reassemble lead and try it out.
There is a load of useful gen on the Satcure website about all things satellite and I think the SCART page is at:-

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/scarts2.htm

Enjoy your read!:cool:

Darby OGill

Thanks for all the replies, people.

Tony, pressing the TV button on the digibox remote will definitely not work. The remote itself appears to be fine, all functions work for TV and digibox, except switching back to TV.......... (My TV is a Mitsubishi. What's the story here??!! Do you have the Lotto numbers for Saturday by any chance?)

At the moment, I can get back to my TV aerial signal in either of two ways-

1. By switching off the digibox- not ideal I think.
2. By switching the Scart function to off in the digibox menu. If I do this, I get TV aerial signal immediately but once I go back to satellite, I have to repeat the procedure to get out. (Tony, I think you're suggesting that if I do this and then use the AV button on TV remote to access digibox, I should be sorted. But I'm pretty sure that AV button on TV remote will not bring me back to TV- I'll check tonight).

If I disable the Scart pin as suggested, will it affect any other functions? Sorry, but Scart/Av has me lost.....:(

I have all connections as per digibox instructions. (RF out is channel 68- I'm near Newbridge, Co. Kildare).

Hopefully the above helps- thanks again.

Darby.

PadraigL

I had a similar or same problem

I have a Mitsubishi tv and video and a digi box all connected as shown in the digi manual.
I had to switch off the scart opinions in the digi menu as the sky channels would come on straight away when I switched on the tv.

The sky remote is programmed to work the telly. In other words I have button 5 on my tv remote programmed for the sky box. I then had to tell the sky remote that I use button 5 on my tv remote. This is all in the sky manual. Everything working fine so far. I could switch on the tv and using the sky remote select the terrestrial channels by pressing the tv button or the sky channels by pressing the sky button.

The problem I then found was that when I wanted to watch a video I would have to press the av button. It would not come on automatically.

The way around this was, I have button 1 on the video programmed for the sky box. Button 0 on the tv remote is for the video. So when I want to watch a video it comes on automatically when I press play. All I need on the couch is the sky remote and the video remote. The only disadvantage to this is that the video needs to be on channel 1 all the time.

Sorry it’s a bit long winded by I hope you get the idea……..

Tony

Mitsubishi's are notorious for this problem, they dont use standard pin 8 protocol which is why it wont release back to normal rf.

Tony

Darby OGill

Some progress. I am now able to access the digibox using TV remote AV button, as per your suggestion Tony. This only happened after I unplugged all Scart leads and then reconnected. Scart option is OFF- if I put it ON I'm back to square one. As my (Mitsubishi) TV and video are both 10 years old, I can live with this set-up.

One more question- How do I tune in my video? I can playback videos, and the VCR menu appears when I select the video channel. But I can't tune in my TV aerial signal- it is very poor quality and only TV3 and TG4 can be tuned, and very badly at that. According to my video manual, the video channel is 38. (The RF channel on the digibox is currently 68). If I switch on the digibox, it causes massive interference on the video channel while it's trying to tune. What do I need to do to sort it all out please?

Darby OGill

More progress! The digibox remote now operates perfectly (except see below). As per Padraig's setup, I have TV channel 5 tuned to the digibox also, and all is well.

My question about tuning the video recorder remains- I can only seem to tune in the digibox signal- no TV channels will come in clearly. Also, when the video is on (but not playing), the digibox "hangs" on the TV, as per previous posts. It all seems connected, but I can't seem to sort it out. Video plays fine, and comes on via scart connection with no problems.

I note from other posts that people seem to know the channel number that the various TV signals are on (e.g. TV3 is good on channel 46 etc.). How do you tell which channel is which? It appears to me (from tuning bar graph on TV screen) that the digibox signal is coming in on top of video channel. Is this possible and how do I fix it?

All help appreciated, thanks.

Tony

Try altering the output RF channel under "rf outlets" in the secret menu

Tony

Originally posted by Darby O'Gill
More progress! The digibox remote now operates perfectly (except see below). As per Padraig's setup, I have TV channel 5 tuned to the digibox also, and all is well.

My question about tuning the video recorder remains- I can only seem to tune in the digibox signal- no TV channels will come in clearly. Also, when the video is on (but not playing), the digibox "hangs" on the TV, as per previous posts. It all seems connected, but I can't seem to sort it out. Video plays fine, and comes on via scart connection with no problems.

I note from other posts that people seem to know the channel number that the various TV signals are on (e.g. TV3 is good on channel 46 etc.). How do you tell which channel is which? It appears to me (from tuning bar graph on TV screen) that the digibox signal is coming in on top of video channel. Is this possible and how do I fix it?

All help appreciated, thanks.

Darby OGill

The video no longer takes over! Almost there...............:)

Re: tuning in the video- I've tried altering the RF outlet to various channels, but tuning the video remains impossible. Is it possible that the tuner in the video itself is banjaxed? It seems to be "finding" the incoming signal, but is unable to "hold" it. The only picture that I can watch through the video is the satellite signal, which the video says is an "external" input (presumably referring to scart connnection). I get bad TV3 and TG4 on UHF, nothing on VHF. Any comments? Or should I just get a new video or DVD? :rolleyes: