Help required with old Oyster Digital system in Northern Spain

[froli's]

Hello, does anyone know how to set up an old Oyster satellite system?

We’ve got an old automatic large dish (skew) Oyster system on the motorhome. It’s probably the same age as the motorhome which is 2005.

A couple of years back the dish started to just spin and wouldn’t lock onto a satellite. I found out (via Motorhome Fun) that the satellites had changed settings...I sent the box off to Oyster and they reprogrammed it. They said at the time that if this happened again that the box couldn’t be reprogrammed again as it was too old!?

The system worked fine in the uk and France but when we went to the eastern side of Germany last year it stopped finding the satellites. So, not having a clue what I was doing I started having a look in the settings!
The system eventually started to work again when we got nearer to France BUT somehow I’d lost the audio it just gave out a loud hash sound when the volume was on. It wasn’t too much of a problem though because we got a perfect TV signal with audio though the Humax digi box via the Oyster system.

So all was ok until today. We‘ve just got off the ferry at Santander, parked up, and we can’t get a signal through the Humax Freesat box. With just the Oyster system we could get Sky News (no audio) and with a bit of fiddling I found Spanish TV via Astra1 but without audio, just the hash sound.

So after a half hour looking through the settings and scanning for satellites etc I’m no further forward. I’m thinking I’ve probably f’d this up!! Then I found a setting saying “restore factory settings” I thought great that will undo anything I’ve done!! but now the system doesn’t seem to want to find any satellites at all with or without audio. And it doesn’t seem like I can manual tune it either.

Any ideas? I’m thinking I might have deleted the upgrade that was done a couple of years back.

thanks in advance for any help

 

[Satandpcguy]

Well, you may find that your dish is a bit too small to receive most of the main channels on Freesat, hence your no signals...... but large enough to receive Sky News on the same satellite, as Sky News is on a much more "generous" beam than most of the main channels on Freesat.
But none of that helps if you have rest the system to factory settings so it cannot locate a satellite...or is looking for old / unused frequencies on the satellites

 

[froli's]

Thanks for the info Sat and PC Guy.
Guess you’ve hit the nail on the head! The dish is about 20” diameter from what I’ve heard in the past I thought we must be able to receive U.K. TV down here, doh!
Is there anything I can do to reset it or does it need to go to Oyster or is it even junk given what they said last time?

 

[Satandpcguy]

Guess you’ve hit the nail on the head! The dish is about 20” diameter from what I’ve heard in the past I thought we must be able to receive U.K. TV down here, doh!

You can.
Just depends where you are, what sized dish you have and what channels you want.
Those on the "euro" beam, eg Sky News and the majority of the Sky pay channels, can be easily received across most of mainland Spain.
Non Sky channels , like BBC ITV C4 Five UKTV, Quests, CBS, and a few Sky pay channels, are on a "uk" beam, and much harder to receive, and requires anything from a 85cm dish to 6m dish depending where you are in Spain.

Is there anything I can do to reset it or does it need to go to Oyster or is it even junk given what they said last time?

No idea, but getting it reset to its last working state should not be an issue...

 

[froli's]

You can.
Just depends where you are, what sized dish you have and what channels you want.
Those on the "euro" beam, eg Sky News and the majority of the Sky pay channels, can be easily received across most of mainland Spain.
Non Sky channels , like BBC ITV C4 Five UKTV, Quests, CBS, and a few Sky pay channels, are on a "uk" beam, and much harder to receive, and requires anything from a 85cm dish to 6m dish depending where you are in Spain.


Well just Sky news would do us for now. The dish is about 68 - 70cm. We’re planning on going down through Portugal to the south of Spain then back up along the Med coast.

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[Speve]

Give Anthony OysterTech a shout he may be able to advise if you can tell him the model you have??

 

[Anthony OysterTech]

Morning Froli's,

The system you have sounds like an older, digital receiver variant. As you were informed, the last software update you had was the last released for that particular system however even though we cannot update software any more there are still settings we can change to allow the system to keep working.
Unfortunately, as Satandpcguy states, you're in an area now where the freesat signal isn't really going to be obtainable on the 85cm dish you have on your system so on Astra 2 it will just be European beam signals that you can receive until you travel further north.
With regards to the sound I would assume that you either have a cable fault or if you're using a normal aerial connection from the Oyster to the TV then it could be that you have inadvertently changed the sound IF mode on either the TV or the Oyster which, if not set correctly on both, will result in no sound.
The best course of action would be to give me a call on 01858575928 when you are with the system and I can go through the settings with you over the phone to make sure that all is set up correctly and hopefully at least improve things to the point where you have sound again.

 

[Speve]

As always Anthony OysterTech there to assist well done and thanks???

 

[Augusta08]

I'm parked up near Valencia, using a 2007 35cm (I think) dish in a Camos dome. I'm getting Sky News ok, locked on to Astra 2 north beam.
HTH
Gerry

 

[Satandpcguy]

I'm parked up near Valencia, using a 2007 35cm (I think) dish in a Camos dome. I'm getting Sky News ok, locked on to Astra 2 north beam.
HTH
Gerry

There is no "North Beam" on the current UK TV satellites.
Only UK, European, and Africa beams on the three current uk tv satellites.
Sky News is on the European beam.

2 of the previous UK TV satellites, Astra 2a and 2b, replaced like 5+ years ago, had north and south beams, but even then Sky News was on the south beam...

But surprised a 35cm dish is getting Astra 2 beams, a 60cm dish just about gets them just south of Valencia...are you sure you are not on Astra 1 getting Sky news International which is easily available on a 35cm dish?)

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[froli's]

Morning Froli's,

The system you have sounds like an older, digital receiver variant. As you were informed, the last software update you had was the last released for that particular system however even though we cannot update software any more there are still settings we can change to allow the system to keep working.
Unfortunately, as Satandpcguy states, you're in an area now where the freesat signal isn't really going to be obtainable on the 85cm dish you have on your system so on Astra 2 it will just be European beam signals that you can receive until you travel further north.
With regards to the sound I would assume that you either have a cable fault or if you're using a normal aerial connection from the Oyster to the TV then it could be that you have inadvertently changed the sound IF mode on either the TV or the Oyster which, if not set correctly on both, will result in no sound.
The best course of action would be to give me a call on 01858575928 when you are with the system and I can go through the settings with you over the phone to make sure that all is set up correctly and hopefully at least improve things to the point where you have sound again.

Hello Anthony

Thank you for your help. I'll give you a call tomorrow morning if thats ok.

Cheers
Paul

 

[Anthony OysterTech]

Hello Anthony

Thank you for your help. I'll give you a call tomorrow morning if thats ok.

Cheers
Paul

No Problem Paul. I'm here all day and if by chance you can't get hold of me my colleague Pat will also be able to assist.

 

[angusboy]

Very good service with oyster tech

 

[froli's]

No Problem Paul. I'm here all day and if by chance you can't get hold of me my colleague Pat will also be able to assist.

Thank you Anthony, please pass on my gratitude to Pat. What a hero.....he spent over an hour talking me through all of the settings on my 15 year old system. It’s now working as it should given the limitations of the system and the fact I’m in Spain! I now know what I need to do to upgrade as well.
It’s always reassuring when you talk to someone that knows what they’re talking about. Thanks again, brilliant service guys.