Can't get Freesat on G10

boyse7en · 10-03-2010, 7:42 PM

Hi all,

I've read through loads of posts and have got myself mighty confused, so hopefully someone can explain this in plain english for me

I've just bought a Panasonic G10 which has built in Freesat tuner.

Previously I've been watching a CRT with an old (Pace) satellite receiver and an old dish (was on the wall when I moved in 8 years ago) with a Sky card I bought for about £20 years ago that allows you to see the free to air channels (no Sky subscription)

I put a cable from my satellite direct into the TV, no signal detected (its looking for Astra 2)
Plug it back into my old Pace box and in through a Scart lead and the channels are present. Signal strength is about 50% up the graph, quality is about 75%.

So, do I need to re-position dish, get a new dish or just a new LNB? Or how do I check?

HELP!

**logiciel** · 10-03-2010, 8:04 PM

The "cable from my satellite" is the one that actually comes from the dish and is screwed into the satellite receiver - right?
If so and you unscrew that from the receiver and screw it into the correct socket on the TV it should work.

boyse7en · 10-03-2010, 8:46 PM

Yeah, Cable from satellite dish comes into lounge and terminates in a wall socket. I took the cable from that socket (that was connected to Pace box) and connected it to the input on the back of the tv.

boyse7en · 10-03-2010, 9:46 PM

Just found this on an old thread (2008)

"The dish has to be the type used for the digital service of SKY, ie the type currently used at 28 degrees and NOT the old 19 degrees analoge service. I can see a few Freesat buyers trying to resurrect their old 'white' dish for this service but these WILL NOT work as they are pointing at the wrong satellite"

I'm guessing that mine is an old analogue service, and is therefore at 19deg. When he says they will not work, is it because of some techical limitation, or just that it needs to point at the correct satellite?

Geofbob · 10-03-2010, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

Just found this on an old thread (2008)

"The dish has to be the type used for the digital service of SKY, ie the type currently used at 28 degrees and NOT the old 19 degrees analoge service. I can see a few Freesat buyers trying to resurrect their old 'white' dish for this service but these WILL NOT work as they are pointing at the wrong satellite"

I'm guessing that mine is an old analogue service, and is therefore at 19deg. When he says they will not work, is it because of some techical limitation, or just that it needs to point at the correct satellite?

There was a thread a little while ago started by someone like you, with an old dish pointed at 19E. Some contributors thought the dish and/or LNB would need replacing - but once the dish was reoriented to point at the Astra 2/Eurobird satellites at 28+E, he was OK.

So you also might just have to adjust the direction of the dish to receive Freesat.

**logiciel** · 11-03-2010, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

JI'm guessing that mine is an old analogue service, and is therefore at 19deg.

That was my guess at the start but then you said "Previously I've been watching a CRT with an old (Pace) satellite receiver and an old dish....with a Sky card....that allows you to see the free to air channels (no Sky subscription)".
So, what channels have you been seeing on the Pace receiver?

boyse7en · 11-03-2010, 9:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by logiciel

That was my guess at the start but then you said "Previously I've been watching a CRT with an old (Pace) satellite receiver and an old dish....with a Sky card....that allows you to see the free to air channels (no Sky subscription)".
So, what channels have you been seeing on the Pace receiver?

Channels: BBC1,2,3,4; ITV1,2,3; Channel 4; Channel 5; Until last week it received Sky3, Fiver and Five USA but it now says I need to replace my card to watch these channels; Film 4; CBBC Cbeebies, News 24, plus loads of shopping channels that I never watch. Loads of Radio stations. Some film channels called something like Horror, True stories, Movies for men.

Went and had a look at the Sky dish this morning. It is a matt dark grey oval shape, perforated and the LNB has "Grundig" written on the side. So if it is oval, does that mean it is a digital dish? If it is digital, shouldn't it be pointing to the right place (28 degrees) already to work?

paulr2006 · 11-03-2010, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

Channels: BBC1,2,3,4; ITV1,2,3; Channel 4; Channel 5; Until last week it received Sky3, Fiver and Five USA but it now says I need to replace my card to watch these channels; Film 4; CBBC Cbeebies, News 24, plus loads of shopping channels that I never watch. Loads of Radio stations. Some film channels called something like Horror, True stories, Movies for men.

Went and had a look at the Sky dish this morning. It is a matt dark grey oval shape, perforated and the LNB has "Grundig" written on the side. So if it is oval, does that mean it is a digital dish? If it is digital, shouldn't it be pointing to the right place (28 degrees) already to work?

If it's an oval dish then yes it's the digital type & should be pointing at the correct satellite

Before you go any further try this; unplug the "F" plug from the TV, check the centre conductor is aligned correctly & that no screening from the lead is shorting. Then unplug the TV & reconnect the "F" plug to the TV, plug in the TV & try to retune the Satellite tuner. Unplugging the TV is important, I had a similar issue which was down to the Sat tuner software being corrupted which was cleared by the above method

boyse7en · 11-03-2010, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulr2006

If it's an oval dish then yes it's the digital type & should be pointing at the correct satellite

Darn! So that means it isn't just as simple as moving the dish

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulr2006

Before you go any further try this; unplug the "F" plug from the TV, check the centre conductor is aligned correctly & that no screening from the lead is shorting. Then unplug the TV & reconnect the "F" plug to the TV, plug in the TV & try to retune the Satellite tuner. Unplugging the TV is important, I had a similar issue which was down to the Sat tuner software being corrupted which was cleared by the above method

I'll try this when I get home.

Another question (sorry). Is there a way to find out what satellite my Pace box is seeing from the Service menu? There are loads of long numbers/codes referring to Software versions and such like to I thought maybe one is some sort of satellite ID code?

grahamlthompson · 11-03-2010, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

Darn! So that means it isn't just as simple as moving the dish

I'll try this when I get home.

Another question (sorry). Is there a way to find out what satellite my Pace box is seeing from the Service menu? There are loads of long numbers/codes referring to Software versions and such like to I thought maybe one is some sort of satellite ID code?

If you are getting UK PSB channels like BBC1 you must be aligned on Eurobird 1 at 28.5E and Astra2 at 28.2E. These are so close they look like 1 satellite to the tuner.

boyse7en · 11-03-2010, 1:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson

If you are getting UK PSB channels like BBC1 you must be aligned on Eurobird 1 at 28.5E and Astra2 at 28.2E. These are so close they look like 1 satellite to the tuner.

Right, so if that is correct (I'm not doubting you, just going through the options) then the problem must be either the dish, the LNB or the cable (or the TV needs to 'reboot' like you said in your previous post)

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a new dish installed...

grahamlthompson · 11-03-2010, 3:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

Right, so if that is correct (I'm not doubting you, just going through the options) then the problem must be either the dish, the LNB or the cable (or the TV needs to 'reboot' like you said in your previous post)

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a new dish installed...

Go into the manual tune settings for your sat tuner and look at transponder 11427 H 27500 2/3 (It might say 11426) and look what signal strength and quality you get. This is where the freesat epg and ITV 1 HD come from)

It's possible your dish is slightly offline and only receiving from 28.5E (Astra 2) so needs a tiny tiny nudge eastwards

**logiciel** · 11-03-2010, 3:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

Is there a way to find out what satellite my Pace box is seeing from the Service menu?

No need - we know from what you said in your answers about the channels, and about what sort of dish it is, that it's on 28E, and as it worked on the Pace it must work on the new TV.
It's probably what paul says about the cable, connectors, and tuner; and then you'll get everything you did on the Pace except those channels that need a card.

boyse7en · 11-03-2010, 4:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by logiciel

No need - we know from what you said in your answers about the channels, and about what sort of dish it is, that it's on 28E, and as it worked on the Pace it must work on the new TV.
It's probably what paul says about the cable, connectors, and tuner; and then you'll get everything you did on the Pace except those channels that need a card.

Fair enough.
But what I can't work out is why I'm getting a decent pic using the Pace box, but the TV sees no signal. If it was a problem with a connector or the cable then wouldn't the problem manifest itself using the Pace box too?

I think I'll try doing the unplug/switch off/plug in/switch on to see if that resets the TV. If that doesn't work then I'll try and adjust the dish a little bit to see if I can get a better signal (currently about 50%). Maybe if it is below a certain strength the TV tuner ignores it?

**logiciel** · 11-03-2010, 5:09 PM

That's right but f-plugs can be awkward and it might be worth checking it's a good fit.
The trick with the TV is the other thing to try, but I doubt if the TV tuner is less sensitive than the receiver's.

grahamlthompson · 11-03-2010, 5:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

Fair enough.
But what I can't work out is why I'm getting a decent pic using the Pace box, but the TV sees no signal. If it was a problem with a connector or the cable then wouldn't the problem manifest itself using the Pace box too?

I think I'll try doing the unplug/switch off/plug in/switch on to see if that resets the TV. If that doesn't work then I'll try and adjust the dish a little bit to see if I can get a better signal (currently about 50%). Maybe if it is below a certain strength the TV tuner ignores it?

The sky box gets it epg from a different satellite. If your dish can't get the Freesat epg transponder as posted above it won't work. This could be a cable, lnb or dish problem or even something like a wifi router blocking that frequency. If you switch from freesat mode to make the TV a free to air box you will likely find you can get some channels

You can also use add channels on the sky box to check the reception from the Freesat epg transponder

boyse7en · 11-03-2010, 10:05 PM

Got it working now - thanks to everyone for the help and advice.

In case it helps anyone else (I hate it when you find a thread on a forum which goes through a similar problem to yours which just ends with 'got it sorted' without any info on how)

I moved teh dish around a bit to see if I could improve signal. No improvement until I tilted the LNB a bit more. Signal strength stayed at 50% but quality went from about 60% to 80-90% (this was using the setup on the Pace box)

Then I tried the plug out/tv off/plug in routine and also disconected the lead at the LNB, gave it a wipe and reconnected it.

Tried TV and worked fine. Took a couple of mins to run through setup, but now I seem to have all the Freesat channels.

**logiciel** · 12-03-2010, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boyse7en

In case it helps anyone else (I hate it when you find a thread on a forum which goes through a similar problem to yours which just ends with 'got it sorted' without any info on how)

It will, and so do we.