No Satellite signal on New TV

[dsayers]

LOL, do people there really install dishes on chimneys?

I had installer out last year because trees in the next garden was interfering with the signal. He put the dish on my chimney.

No chance of me trying to re align it if I have issues in the future

 

[cactikid]

Wow i had brown cable and was thick with copper braiding around it and was tv coaxial.

How old might be the lnb i wonder if cable is that old it might be seized onto lnb.

 

[dubrov]

I don't think the LNB is that old.
In the 70/s/80s, it was common in Dublin to have massive Aerials on the roof to pick up the UK terrestrial channels.
I'd say the cables were installed as part of that aerial installation around 1981.

Cablelink (which became NTL then UPC then Virgin) then took over in the estate with the offering of many more channels.
Most of the aerials were taken down at that stage (mainly as they were a bit ugly).

I'd think they only moved to FTA satellite around 12 years ago at which point the sat/lnb would have been installed.
I am guessing the Cablelink installer did the bare minimum with cabling to the attic and then connected to the existing cabling from there.
The Sat installer did the same.

 

[cactikid]

The life of lnbs is usually 10 years and yes gone through those 3 companies over the decades.

We did have a massive aerial and never thought about the UK channels we received.

I might be inclined to replace all cabling rather than having joins in different types of very different cables.

See what others say as thinking lifetime of cable and how newer cable is.

 

[Joe_90]

LOL, do people there really install dishes on chimneys?

Not sure what you mean by that comment @Huevos!

Dishes are quite small - Sky zone 2 and chimneys are fairly substantial. In housing estates, depending on how houses are oriented, it may be the only place to permit signal reception. Some local bye-laws won't permit installation of dishes on front curtilage of premises, so no dishes on poles allowed to permit view over the roof. In more recent times, though, fewer installers will even consider going on the roof due to H&S rules and insurance issues.

 

[adm]

I had installer out last year because trees in the next garden was interfering with the signal. He put the dish on my chimney.

No chance of me trying to re align it if I have issues in the future

Depending on the alignment of your house a dish can also be installed on the "wrong" side looking over the roof.

http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/reference/dish-screened-by-roof.pdf

With a lot of old properties the only thing keeping the chimneys standing is the aerial wires lashed around them

 

[dubrov]

So I had the SAT installer out and he measured the satellite signal using his equipment and it registered no signal at all.
I still don't understand how the old TV was able to get a signal.

He installed new terrestrial and satellite cables as well as a new LNB and all working perfectly now.

I was interested to test if the Sony W800 could potentially replace the SAT box altogether and simplify the setup.
I was able to confirm it does indeed have a SAT tuner despite the specs saying otherwise.

The functionality is mostly there but the big downside is that it takes about 6 button presses to switch between SAT and Terrestrial channels. If anyone knows a quick way, please let me know.
In addition to the above, channel changing is much slower and only now/next is available on the TV guide for satellite. I'd say the recording is unreliable as well but didn't try it.

I setup HDMI-CEC so at least only one remote now. All working well except the channel up/down buttons still control the TV and flick back to the TV's own Tuner rather than the sat box's HDMI feed.
Undoing it just requires clicking the input button back to the SAT box.

 

[cactikid]

Maybe wind moved something and it made and broke it again.

Combo box is easier on the brain for me. Always keep the sat box.

 

[Joe_90]

You're wasting your time expecting the TV to have a full programme guide (EPG) for the satellite channels unless it is branded with Freesat logo. I have an old (2008) Sony TV with a sat tuner and Freesat branded, so I do get a 7 day EPG, but it's a pain to use the built-in features and it's slow to switch between terrestrial and satellite (as you have found with the newer model).

Keep your combo box as @cactikid suggests and you will be better off for EPG and stable recording. Glad you (and the sat installer) finally resolved the issues!

 

[Huevos]

they only moved to FTA satellite around 12 years ago

In 2003

 

[Joe_90]

For context - @dubrov's parents may well have moved to satellite only 12 years ago. Most of Dublin and some suburban areas outside Dublin (including where I live) were cabled by various companies in the '80s and '90s and taken over by NTL eventually. This was an analogue service and re-distributed Irish and the main British channels. With the rise in Sky Digiboxes around 1999/2000, some cable subscribers would have moved, but when Sky+ and HD arrived in 2006, more and more people moved to satellite. My own Sky dish and cabling are in place since May 2006 when HD was launched. I dropped the Sky sub in 2012 or thereabouts when my last child who had interest in Premier League football left the nest. Virgin Media took over most of the cabled network in the 2010's and upgraded the coax and now offer broadband and a full range of digital TV services, so it sits alongside telecom providers VDSL broadband/TV, pure fibre and satellite options in many suburban areas.

 

[Huevos]

2003 was the year that BBC and ITV were no longer encrypted on 28ºE. Before that you needed a Sky sub to receive them.

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/bbc-leaves-bskyb-fuming-after-satellite-swap/en-gb/13316

 

[dubrov]

Yes, they first had a huge aerial on roof which brought in free Irish (RTE1 and RTE2) and UK channels (BBC1, BBC3 , UTV and Channel4).
Cablelink with pay TV then moved in offering a better signal and wider range of channels (Sky, MTV etc.). The big aerials were generally taken down at that stage.
After that Sky became popular and I think they eventually moved to it but only kept it for 1/2 years before going FTA.

I think pay TV is far more popular in Ireland than the UK as most people want the free Irish channels (via Aerial) and UK channels (via satellite) on a single list with reliable recording.
Combo boxes seem to be the only way to get it without paying a monthly sub and there is a bit of setup and maintenance required.

 

[Joe_90]

2003 was the year that BBC and ITV were no longer encrypted on 28ºE. Before that you needed a Sky sub to receive them.

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/bbc-leaves-bskyb-fuming-after-satellite-swap/en-gb/13316

The reference to the move to FTA wasn't when British domestic channels stopped encrypting - @dubrov's folks were on cable TV in 2003. Only later they moved to FTA satellite. My own setup was on a mix of FTA (Freesat receiver) and Sky until about 2014.