Replacement digibox

[kensington]

We have an Oyster 85cm satellite dish on our van roof. It automatically seeks Astra 2, using a C Mag SL30/12 digibox and plays through an Avtex TV in the van. The system is over 10 years old. A couple of years ago the BBC channnels dropped off and a software update was needed to rectify matters. The ITV channnels and Sky News have now disappeared. However, the box is now classed as obsolete and is no longer supported. Our dealers are recommending replacing the whole system at a cost of over £2,500. Surely there must be a cheaper way ie replacing just the box. Can anyone help, or suggest anything or give me the name of a small company or man who will be more constructive in finding an answer? We are based in Bromley but will travel. Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[Jo662]

Either get a more upto date TV. or get a firestick and loads of data on to your phone to be able to use it.

 

[rb62]

I'd speak to Oyster as your satellite system might need updating,if possible.

Support – Oyster Satellite Systems

www.oystersatellite.com

 

[Speve]

Anthony OysterTech is your man he’s a member on here and will see this message he’s very busy but will get back to you

 

[Swifter]

Hello and welcome Ditch the satellite and get a firestick .

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[Neil S]

Hello and welcome Ditch the satellite and get a firestick .

To many dead areas up in Scotland and parts of rural England where the phone signal is crap with patchy 3G/4G signal
Tried that route with the Firestick and on several occasions buffering and picture freezing and I have a roof mounted Maxview 4G
Mrs not happy no Coronation street or Emmerdale
At least with Satellite if you have reasonably clear line of site south satellite will guarantee a picture

 

[Swifter]

To many dead areas up in Scotland and parts of rural England where the phone signal is crap with patchy 3G/4G signal
Tried that route with the Firestick and on several occasions buffering and picture freezing and I have a roof mounted Maxview 4G
Mrs not happy no Coronation street or Emmerdale
At least with Satellite if you have reasonably clear line of site south satellite will guarantee a picture

Fair enough . If you travel to remote areas with no data signal then I agree a satellite system would still be of some use .

 

[philann]

Many TVs now have a built in satellite receiver you can just plug the lead into

 

[dunnah01]

£2,500 to watch Corrie and Emm - not on your Nelly!!. At worst a £20 Freesat box will get you the free to air stuff.

 

[2 Jabs]

Freesat box cheap and cheerful

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[Speve]

Freesat box cheap and cheerful

You still need a dish for Freesat

 

[Speve]

£2,500 to watch Corrie and Emm - not on your Nelly!!. At worst a £20 Freesat box will get you the free to air stuff.

So what do you connect the freesat box to?

 

[mitzimad]

i can never understand the attraction of driving somewhere wild enough to get no phone signal to watch corrie

 

[2 Jabs]

I thought the problem was with his box being obsolete. I use a satgear system and set it up manually. Takes less than 10 minutes provided its not raining.

 

[dunnah01]

So what do you connect the freesat box to?

The sat dish?

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[dunnah01]

i can never understand the attraction of driving somewhere wild enough to get no phone signal to watch corrie

France isn't that remote and with the re-introduced roaming charges data might not be a real option for many Brits now

 

[Anthony OysterTech]

We have an Oyster 85cm satellite dish on our van roof. It automatically seeks Astra 2, using a C Mag SL30/12 digibox and plays through an Avtex TV in the van. The system is over 10 years old. A couple of years ago the BBC channnels dropped off and a software update was needed to rectify matters. The ITV channnels and Sky News have now disappeared. However, the box is now classed as obsolete and is no longer supported. Our dealers are recommending replacing the whole system at a cost of over £2,500. Surely there must be a cheaper way ie replacing just the box. Can anyone help, or suggest anything or give me the name of a small company or man who will be more constructive in finding an answer? We are based in Bromley but will travel. Thanks in advance for any comments.

Wow, that's an expensive solution for a few channels going missing!
Sorry for the delay in response and thanks Speve for once again alerting me.

Unfortunately the C Mag receiver isn't one that I'm entirely familiar with so I'm a little unsure on exactly how to direct with it however that's not to say that I can't tell you what's going on and what you need to do to rectify it.

Firstly Sky news (along with some other channels) have either changed the frequencies they're broadcast from or parts of the broadcast have altered which mean in some cases the channels stop working on your receiver. ITV have been migrating a lot of their regional variations over to HD as well including changes for some of their other channels which, I assume, is related to satellite space and money saving reasons.
The reason your receiver loses the services is because you're receiver doesn't automatically update for these changes like a Freesat or Sky receiver will. Your receiver will also most probably (as a default) scan from a preset frequency list when scanning the satellite for channels and, if a new frequency has started broadcasting, it won't know to scan it for channels on a default scan.

My advice would be to delete your entire list either by resetting the receiver or going into the channel list and deleting all Astra 2 channels (fingers crossed there's a delete all button). Once done you would need to do a scan on Astra 2 but specifically it would need to be a BLIND or FULL scan to make sure the receiver scans for new frequencies before it searches for channels. Once done you should have all channels available again however they won't be in any particular order unfortunately however you can again go into the channel edit function and move them into an order that suits.

Sorry I can't be any more specific buthopefully this helps.

 

[kensington]

Thank you so much. I am also grateful for our telephone conversation this afternoon. On balance I will opt for a new Freesat box (cost £30/40) which will be up to date and will also update automatically in the future. Very grateful indeed for your time and sensible solution. Thanks again.

 

[The Coops]

£9.99 for a satellite detector, off flea bay, put it between your box and satellite, free app off phone (astra about 142 degrees) and depending where you are in Europe angle between 22 degrees ( Norway) to 29 degrees (Spain) no problem It sounds off big style when you get a satellite all you need is that and save a fortune!

 

[Manic]

I use one of these powered off the 12volt and it works really well.
<Broken link removed>

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[kensington]

Thank you all very much. I have only just joined (basically because of this problem) and have been very impressed by the speed and quality of the responses.