Sky HD Box issues..... Am I being thick?

[Taff015]

Hi all, I have a freesat box in my MH and it works just fine. However, I have a spare Sky HD box from when I went to Sky Q a few years ago.

I've just plugged the sky box in and no signal. it showed a bar for a minute then nothing. I just plugged the freesat back in and got an instant signal. Am I being a biff here? im locked on to Astra 2.

Many thanks

Paul

 

[M-J]

Your skyQ viewing card won’t work in a standard HD box unless you pair it every time you swap boxes.

 

[Taff015]

The box wont do anything as its showing that it cant find a signal. but the freesat box can

 

[MisterB]

You shouldn't need a card for it to work on FTA channels

 

[kevenh]

Hi all, I have a freesat box in my MH and it works just fine. However, I have a spare Sky HD box from when I went to Sky Q a few years ago.

I've just plugged the sky box in and no signal. it showed a bar for a minute then nothing. I just plugged the freesat back in and got an instant signal. Am I being a biff here? im locked on to Astra 2.

Many thanks

Paul

:? It should be easy.
Are you fitting just one LNB feed?
Maybe the STB is expecting two & does nothing - not likely imo
Or have you one LNB source, set the STB to only expect one input, and fitted the cable to the wrong input?

I think this should be easy - oh! I said that already.

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[kevenh]

You shouldn't need a card for it to work on FTA channels

You need an FTA card afaik but would the absence of a card = black pictrue?

 

[Taff015]

:? It should be easy.
Are you fitting just one LNB feed?
Maybe the STB is expecting two & does nothing - not likely imo
Or have you one LNB source, set the STB to only expect one input, and fitted the cable to the wrong input?

I think this should be easy - oh! I said that already.

i put one feed in initially and it showed a signal on lnb 1 then nothing. i then put the other one in and still nothing.

as soon as i put the cables in the back of the freesat it worked.

im wondering if the hd box is cuffed?

 

[MisterB]

You need an FTA card afaik but would the absence of a card = black pictrue?

i dont have a card in my sky box in france, purely used for FTA channels

 

[TheBig1]

Has the sky box been used in the last year? of not it is looking at the wrong frequency as sky changed them a while back, The box looks for a specific channel on a set frequency to lock on

 

[Geo]

is voltage to lnb turned on in sky box ?

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[kevenh]

i dont have a card in my sky box in france, purely used for FTA channels

Interesting. Is that a sky hb or sky q?
There used to be a fta subscription free card that was available. Wonder why that was a thing if they’re not needed?!

 

[Taff015]

Has the sky box been used in the last year? of not it is looking at the wrong frequency as sky changed them a while back, The box looks for a specific channel on a set frequency to lock on

Ahh..... how do I get round that?

 

[kevenh]

i dont have a card in my sky box in france, purely used for FTA channels

Interesting. Is that a sky hb or sky q?
There used to be a fta subscription free card that was available. Wonder why that was a thing if they’re not needed?!

OK. Not all free channels are equal. Some are encrypted and need the card. The unencrypted free ones don’t need a card.
Nowadays there are less of those and for me no one will miss fiver, fiveUS, sky 3 and Setanta sports news.

 

[Satandpcguy]

Has the sky box been used in the last year? of not it is looking at the wrong frequency as sky changed them a while back, The box looks for a specific channel on a set frequency to lock on

The Default Transponder frequency used by the boxes to get data during boot up has not changed since SKy Digital started... so that should not be the issue.

There used to be a fta subscription free card that was available. Wonder why that was a thing if they’re not needed?!

Never been a "fta subscription free card" available.
As FTA - free to to air - mean s free of encryption and free of subscription
Think you mean a FTV card - free to view - ie channels that are encrypted but do not need a subscription. Think there are only three channels that need this now, Local TV, Yesterday+1 and 4music.
But in years gone by, they were needed for BBC Channels (the old "solus cards"), ITV, C4, Fives....

For the OP, if the cabling works fine for one box, but not another box (when using the input 1 if a Sky+HD box, since a SkyHD box only has one input), then it sounds like the box may be gone, unless someone has changed all the settings on the sky box - check them in the "installer" menu services 0 0 1 select and default everything. OR try a software update (power out, press and hold back up on the box, reapply power, wait until update message appears on screen, then release back up button, and wait) , which refreshes the box .

 

[Phil 748]

Hi If I remember right you may need to change the default transponder, which used to have to when we set our old sky box up in Spain, you access this by a hidden menu on the remote but not sure what code is now to access this but you may be able to find it via google

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[Satandpcguy]

Hi If I remember right you may need to change the default transponder, which used to have to when we set our old sky box up in Spain, you access this by a hidden menu on the remote but not sure what code is now to access this but you may be able to find it via google

No need to do this any more as the frequency the main EPG data is on is nice and easy to receive these days on the current satellites.

On the old batch of UK TV satellites the main EPG data was on the north beam of astra 2a (or b cannot rememeber which), which at certain times of the day even 2.4m dishes could struggle to receive, and if you tried to boot up a sky box during this time it would fail as it could not get the required EPG data. But as each frequency on the uk satellites carries a limited amount of EPG data, you could change the Default Transponder to any other frequency you could receive, and receive the data that the Sky box needed to boot up from that frequency instead.

So since the current batch of UK TV satellites have been up (approx 7 years now), the main EPG data is on the "european beam" and nice and easy to receive, so you no longer have to change the DT to any other.

 

[Realist]

If you have single feed put it in input 1 twin uses both 1 and 2.

Plug it in and go to services then press 0001 and reset the box to default.

Then once it’s settled down give it a go.

Let me know if it’s single or twin feed.

 

[Taff015]

If you have single feed put it in input 1 twin uses both 1 and 2.

Plug it in and go to services then press 0001 and reset the box to default.

Then once it’s settled down give it a go.

Let me know if it’s single or twin feed.

Hi Brian it’s a twin feed. Many thanks

 

[PeteH]

Used to have an old sky box, which connected to a Dish/LNB. rescued from a skip!. Mounted on an old Camera Tripod!. Once you got it aligned it worked OK. but some channels would give the "Insert Viewing Card" Message.

 

[Realist]

On the signal page do both feeds show up?

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[Taff015]

Both feeds are showing but 0 strength. when i first plugged it in, i had a full signal bar for about 30 seconds

 

[Realist]

Follow the below and hard reset box.

 

[Realist]

If the above doesn’t work I would check realignment and/or change the LNB.

 

[Taff015]

i cant see what was in the box..... im clearly having an IT day!!!

 

[Taff015]

If the above doesn’t work I would check realignment and/or change the LNB.

Is it easy enough to whip out the LNB on an Oyster?

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[Realist]

Didn’t know it was a Oyster lol.

 

[Realist]

Blank box supposed to show the below.
Go to Services
Type 0001 select
System reset to factory.

Try that.

 

[Taff015]

Didn’t know it was a Oyster lol.

Oops sorry! thought I had said....

 

[Taff015]

Plugged it all in again this morning and it all worked!! Just waiting on channels sorting themselves out!

 

[Realist]

Good.

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