[jezbenbow]

Hello people.

I dont post on here much but I could do with some advice.

I've recently moved into the Staffordshire Moorlands (No Freeview and no Cable services). The flat I have moved into has a communal satellite dish so I went out and bought the Grundig GUFSAT02SD Freesat box on Monday.

As soon as I plugged it in it said that I had a 100% percent signal strength and it picked up 97 channels. However, some of the channels listed on the TV Guide dont actually work and all I get on the screen in either "Please wait....New Service" or "No Signal Found". Of the channels that did work, the picture quality is quite good and the only one I have problems with is BBC1. The picture skips constantly and the sound is just a constant stutter. Also for example, there are 5 or 6 music channels listed but only one of them actually displays anything.

Im new to freesat and in my old property I used Freeview which I was happy with but I have to admit that Im starting to have my doubts about the whole freesat thing.

I did two new channel searches last night. The first search found 174 services but lost certain channels like CBeebies (which my toddler loves), so I did another new search and at the moment I have 200 services listed. Unfortunately, Only so many of them actually seem to work.

Is freesat always this bad or does anybody think I have a dodgy set top box?

I was also wondering if I'd get a better service if I bought a SKY Freesat box? Are the services different to standard Freesat and if so how?

If you need more info then let me know.

Thanks in advance for any advice given. Im really pulling out my hair at the moment.

JEZ

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by jezbenbow

Hello people.

I dont post on here much but I could do with some advice.

I've recently moved into the Staffordshire Moorlands (No Freeview and no Cable services). The flat I have moved into has a communal satellite dish so I went out and bought the Grundig GUFSAT02SD Freesat box on Monday.

As soon as I plugged it in it said that I had a 100% percent signal strength and it picked up 97 channels. However, some of the channels listed on the TV Guide dont actually work and all I get on the screen in either "Please wait....New Service" or "No Signal Found". Of the channels that did work, the picture quality is quite good and the only one I have problems with is BBC1. The picture skips constantly and the sound is just a constant stutter. Also for example, there are 5 or 6 music channels listed but only one of them actually displays anything.

Im new to freesat and in my old property I used Freeview which I was happy with but I have to admit that Im starting to have my doubts about the whole freesat thing.

I did two new channel searches last night. The first search found 174 services but lost certain channels like CBeebies (which my toddler loves), so I did another new search and at the moment I have 200 services listed. Unfortunately, Only so many of them actually seem to work.

Is freesat always this bad or does anybody think I have a dodgy set top box?

I was also wondering if I'd get a better service if I bought a SKY Freesat box? Are the services different to standard Freesat and if so how?

If you need more info then let me know.

Thanks in advance for any advice given. Im really pulling out my hair at the moment.

JEZ

It sounds as if you have either a faulty box or a faulty lnb feed. Not familiar with the harvard boxes but they should have some sort of diagnostic display. Tune to one of the channels you can't get bring up the diagnostics and check signal strength and the more important signal quality. A sky box uses the same channels so if your signal is poor it will be just the same. My advice is swap the harvard for a foxsat-hd. If you can do without the epg there's loads of generic fta boxes that you can use.

[jezbenbow]

Thanks for the reply Graham.

Do you think it might be possible that the fault may lie with the dish somehow?

One thing I did notice last night was that the machine took a while to pick up the signal but then showed it at 100% when it did find it.
Could the wet weather perhaps have some sort of adverse effect on the dish or the line?

I think Im going to have a word with the landlord and ask if he can have the dish alignment checked over just to be sure.

Regards

JEZ