Humax HDCI 2000 with Communal Dish (non-motorized)

[divert]

Hello,

I am a complete newcomer to satellite, having used freeview terrestrial in the past. I have bought a high-def projector so have been looking for HD sources.

I live in an apartment and cannot get permission to put up my own dish. I therefore *only* have access to a communal dish on the building's roof. According to the very limited information I could find about the dish (a photocopied leaflet from the installer), it was supposed to be pointing at Astra 1F. On the other hand, as we are in central London and there are apparently Sky HD subscribers in the building, it must be pointing at Astra 2.

I took a gamble and ordered the HDCI 2000 receiver, figuring that I could get various german HD channels if it is indeed pointing at Astra 1, or at least BBC HD if pointing at Astra 2.

I connected the HDCI 2000 to the F-type plug on my living room wall (it is in a small case containing 1 f-type plug marked SAT, 1 TV terrestrial ariel plug, and one FM radio antenna plug).

When I switched on the HDCI 2000 and set it up, I went through each of the listed satellites and checked the signal Strength and Quality. For both Astra 1 and Astra 2, strength and quality were 70%-100%. The other satellites showed 0-12% on strength and 0% on quality.

I guessed from this that the cable was supplying me with signals from both Astra 1 and Astra 2, somehow. I therefore chose both satellites for automatic channel searching.

The box *seemed* to find about 500 TV channels under "Astra 1" and about 200 under "Astra 2". On closer inspection however, all the channels it listed under "Astra 1" are actually channels broadcast from "Astra 2". There were thus about 200 duplicates with the same frequencies etc, but simply labelled as being on "Astra 1" in one case and "Astra 2" in the other.

I started again. I reset the box and told it only to search "Astra 1". This time, it again found the 500 or so TV channels, but once again these all seem to be "Astra 2" channels (e.g. I receive BBC HD perfectly, see a load of scrambled and thus unviewable S*y channels, but no sign of any german HD channels for instance).

I have tried going into "Advanced Search" and changing the DiSEqC input to the various options (DiSEqC A/B/C/D Tone 1/2) just in case the dish might somehow be sending down two signals (without a motor, of course), but this gives the same results. At the moment it looks to me like the dish is only sending signals from one satellite, Astra 2, but that the HDCI 2000 is getting confused and thinks that it can get signals from both Astra 1 and Astra 2.

I would be overjoyed if I could get signals from Astra 1 in this configuration. Am I missing something simple, or am I indeed limited to Astra 2 do you think (and hence channels which are mislabeled as being on Astra 1, which makes no difference to whether I can see them or not of course, so is not a real inconvenience).

Please bear in mind that I know nothing about LNBs/frequencies/DiSEqC/Transponders. I have been trying to read as much as I can but I am somewhat swamped, as much of it seems to have no relevance to my apparently rather rare setup.

Sorry for the long post - but I thought I should try to make this as clear as possible in case any other people are having the same problem. I have searched in vain for discussions of this type of setup, and I am sure there will be others doing the same! Thank you for any help or suggestions you might offer.

regards,
divert.

[wod]

just setup on astra 2 and scan for the channels as it should be on astra 2 unless there is some foregin people living in the building

theres only bbc hd that will work on that reciever as the rest will be encrypted

[divert]

Thanks, though I already have the Astra 2 channels.

How can I get the Astra 1 channels? The receiver claims to see both Astra 1 and Astra 2 at 100% quality through the single F-type cable connection from the wall.

I'm trying to determine whether the cable is actually supplying signals from both Astra 1 and 2, or whether it's only suppling Astra 2 signals (in which case the receiver is somehow confusing these Astra 2 signals for Astra 1 signals - the receiver claims to see both satellites at 100% quality).

What sort of tests could I do with the Humax HDCI 2000 to determine whether Astra 1 channels are actually there? All the automatic scans failed (they picked up Astra 2 channels only, once under the Astra 1 scan and again on the Astra 2 scane), and the manual attempts I tried again gave Astra 2 channels when allegedly scanning Astra 1, but I'm stumbling in the dark. So essentially I have two questions:

1) Can you recommend some HDCI 2000 specific settings which should pick up Astra 1 channels from at least one transponder say? (i.e a test which can accurately determine what's going on with the receiver)

2) If it turns out the signals are indeed only Astra 2, is it normal for receivers like this to mis-identify these satellites in this way, and to claim to see Astra 1 (with 100% quality) when in reality they can only see Astra 2 (which they also claim to see with 100% quality)?

[remlap]

Scan one transponder and see what you come up with.

You are probably just tuning in a transponder that has the same settings on Astra 1 which is also beeing used on Astra 2.

[Inactive]

Originally Posted by remlap

Scan one transponder and see what you come up with.

You are probably just tuning in a transponder that has the same settings on Astra 1 which is also beeing used on Astra 2.

Spot on, I bet that is exactly what is happening.. the dish is on Astra 1 only by the look of things.

[SamRadford]

No, the dish is aimed at Astra 2 only.