freesat: all parts work but not together?

dexion7

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I'm having no success setting up freesat using an Amstrad sky+ HD box + card and dish left by previous tenants.

there's a twin core coax cable from the LNB and swapping them over in the connectors on the sky box makes no difference. message on TV is 'there is no satellite signal'.

the voltage (about 13v) is present on both of the connectors on the sky box and in any case the box and card work fine on a friend's sky dish.

I then purchased a freesat box on ebay @ £37 which works with either cable from the LNB though it doesn't get most mainstream e.g. BBC channels and seems to duplicate most of the other channels 3 or 4 times when a scan is done to collect available channels.

so, the dish is pointing at a satellite, the LNB works, the cables are ok, the box and card work on another dish, what's up??
 
Did the previous tenants have SkyQ? If so, the LNB is not compatible with Sky+ or Freesat boxes and is likely to give you the symptoms that you have.

If you can see the LNB, a Q LNB only has two connectors and a 'standard' Sky LNB will gave 4 or more. I'm talking about actual sockets on the LNB, not the number of cables connected to it.
 
Did the previous tenants have SkyQ? If so, the LNB is not compatible with Sky+ or Freesat boxes and is likely to give you the symptoms that you have.

don't know, they left the box and the dish + cables. do you mean that they may have upgraded from the sky+ HD to skyQ and the sky+hd box was just left lying around from their upgrade and I mistakenly assumed that the box was used up until their departure?
 
the current dish / LNB combo works with my £37 ebay freesat box but NOT with the sky+HD box.
 
Does your eBay box work fully? i.e. get all the Freesat channels? If so, then you don't have a Q LNB.
As to why the Sky+ box doesn't work: Pass.
 
But in post #4 you said
the current dish / LNB combo works with my £37 ebay freesat box
when obviously it doesn't.:facepalm:
they left the box and the dish + cables. do you mean that they may have upgraded from the sky+ HD to skyQ and the sky+hd box was just left lying around from their upgrade and I mistakenly assumed that the box was used up until their departure?
That's exactly the angle I was coming from.

I am led to believe that with the Q LNB you can still get some of the channels, which is why I suggested having a look at it and count the sockets.

What is your 'freesat' box. Is it Freesat branded or just a FTA sat box.
 
it doesn't get ALL freesat channels as I said in first post

What do you mean by Freesat channels ? Freesat is just a electronic programme guide. It uses the same channels as a Sky box but allocates different local channel numbers by way of the Freesat setup and the epg.

Simple question how many output connections does the lnb have ? Only two you need to swap it for one of these.

4 WAY SKY QUAD LNB LMB MK4 ADAPTOR SKY + PLUS FREESAT UNIVERSAL SATELLITE 3D HDM 5060472375292 | eBay

If it has 4 or 6 outputs it should work.

The twin output Sky-Q lnb's are totally different, they have no band switching and send all horizontally polarised transponders down one cable and the vertically polarised transponders down the other.

The Intermediate Frequency is much lower on Sky-Q so surprised you get anything, perhaps just a few high band transponders that happen to match the polarisation of the cable you have connected to the tuner you are using.

As others have said a non genuine Freesat box (generic FTA DVB-S2 ) will get all the channels but without any preset local channel numbers. They get added purely in the order you add the channels.
 
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.....a non genuine Freesat box (generic FTA DVB-S2 ) will get all the channels ......
(and for completeness) But only with a 'standard' LNB. Not with a Sky Q LNB.
 
it doesn't get ALL freesat channels as I said in first post
Could be failing LNB.
Need much more details of the channels (inc. region) that you get and don't get.
Look then up here and post details including polarisation (H or V in column 1).
 
update:

firstly, apologies for the poor usage of terminology earlier.

i have replaced the sky 2 port lnb with a normal 4 port lnb and the sky+ hd box now recieves all channels (though can't view the subscription channels obviously) and the only remaining problem is that the HD channels have a picture but no sound?. haven't yet tried the ebay box (which is not a freesat box) with the new lnb.
 
update:

firstly, apologies for the poor usage of terminology earlier.

i have replaced the sky 2 port lnb with a normal 4 port lnb and the sky+ hd box now recieves all channels (though can't view the subscription channels obviously) and the only remaining problem is that the HD channels have a picture but no sound?. haven't yet tried the ebay box (which is not a freesat box) with the new lnb.

What are you using to decode the audio, HD channels use Dolby Digital audio rather than Mpeg 1 Layer 2 -MP2) ? Freesat boxes have the option to re-code Dolby Digital to MP2 when the destination lacks Dolby Digital audio decoding. You would need a Sky-HD box owner with a TV not capable of Dolby Digital decoding to advise how to do this.
 
What are you using to decode the audio, HD channels use Dolby Digital audio rather than Mpeg 1 Layer 2 -MP2) ? Freesat boxes have the option to re-code Dolby Digital to MP2 when the destination lacks Dolby Digital audio decoding. You would need a Sky-HD box owner with a TV not capable of Dolby Digital decoding to advise how to do this.

oh, i didn't know of this complication and just thought it was plug and go to get al free channels..

are you saying its not possible or too complex to explain without a knowledgebale person to hand?
 
oh, i didn't know of this complication and just thought it was plug and go to get al free channels..

are you saying its not possible or too complex to explain without a knowledgebale person to hand?

No it's not complicated, most modern TV's will be able to handle Dolby Digital audio encoding. Pretty well all seperate AV systems will also be fine. If you are using a old TV it's possible it cannot, hence no sound. Lack of audio is nearly certain to be the device (TV ?) that does not have the required audio decoder for audio codec used.

Not very familiar with Sky-HD kit but I guess somewhere in the set up menus you can force the box to recode the audio to MP2 which the TV will understand.

All audio on digital TV is compressed. Dolby Digital can offer up to 6 channels of audio (the 6th channel is designed to seperate low frequency speaker - sub woofer) - aka DD 5.1. MP2 only two channels - Stereo).

Depending on the TV you may be able to use a analogue audio output to solve this, Without any knowledge of the TV make and model not a clue if this is possible.
 
On Sky HD+ box go to "Settings" then "Sound" change "Digital Audio Output - HDMI" to "Normal" and press "Green" to save settings
 
Or press the service button on the remote, select settings then sound. There you will see digital audio output - HDMI. Set to normal.
 

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