Newbie needs sky decoder help please

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Blondini

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Geek

#11310 15-Jan-2007 16:22

Hello, I am brand new to this, I have recently read some articles on your site recently & think they are great.

I have just brought a 40" Samsung LCD & since installing it sky is freezing every 20-30 minutes, it will freeze for approx 7 seconds then restarts automatically.

I have Sky coming out soon (this afternoon) to have a look at it & need any advice you can give me as to what to ask them for.

I personally feel I need a new decoder.

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers

cyril7

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#57955 15-Jan-2007 16:47

Could be a new decoder needed, but more likely its the LNB needs adjustment. Recently Sky have been running some cross polarisation test transmissions that will cause mis aligned LNBs (the little pickup at the end of the dish arm) to cause high error rates that can cause the problem you describe. Dont be surprised if you end up with the problem fixed but the same old STB.

If you should need an new STB ensure you get a motorola one or a pace DSR2000 (large silver/black one) or DS-230 (small silver one). If you want component video out then reject a Zenith one, or a Pace DSR600 one. Both of these avoided ones are the original boxs from 1998/99/2000 era and dont support component out, all other do.

Cyril

xrajux

111 posts

Master Geek

#57956 15-Jan-2007 16:51

generally the decoder is not a problem, probably just needs adjustment of the dish or the lnb (as explained by cyril) cheers

***xrajux***

Blondini

33 posts

Geek

#57961 15-Jan-2007 17:12

Thanks for your reply.

The sky guy has been and explained our phone may be interferring with satellite cos of the thing you were talking about.

I managed to get a new decoder from them too, I chose the Pace-230 cos it was smaller than the DSR2000, I wasn't 100% sure which produced the better picture.

However we have still only got it running with composite cords as the quality with S-Video or Component wasn't great.

Still not entirely happy with the picture quality & not sure what things to try.

Sky guy said that they don't recommend LCD at 40" only Plasma.

Any thoughts.

cyril7

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#57965 15-Jan-2007 17:57

Sky guy said that they don't recommend LCD at 40" only Plasma.

I have to agree, and to make it worse the Samsungs dont have particulary good deinterlacers/scaling which is critical when you feed them with low bit rate mpeg or even analog off air.

Out of all the digital displays I have dealt with lately for SD panels I think the 42PA60 Panasonic seems to work best with broadcast material (ie Sky and analog) and produces the cleanest pics. Most of the HD LCD panels seem to get upset with low bit rate mpeg and cause all sorts of awfull results not all of which are in the input signals as I dont see them in good 50Hz CRT displays.

Cyril

Blondini

33 posts

Geek

#57968 15-Jan-2007 18:23

What do you recommend doing? We only brought the TV on Saturday on special for $2800.

When doing my research prior to purchasing I was steered away from Plasma & towards LCD & was told Samsung was a good (cheaper) alternative to Sony.

Will it get better when sky bring in HD TV & what about with Freeview Digital.

Are there any settings on the TV I should change to increase picture quality.

Cheers

mailmarshall

362 posts

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#58014 16-Jan-2007 09:02

Blondini, play around with your 'custom' settings on your tv. You should find that the COMPONENT video picture is a bit more smoother than the normal RCA ones (note: I mean SCART to COMPONENT anf SCART to COMPOSITE). The out of the box settings of these LCDs can only be described as rubbish!!

You can really go to town with settings and calibration but you have to be comfortable with the pic yourself. I have BRAVIA S series and found a website with the 'ideal' custom settings but I found them a bit faded for my eyes. http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/

Monster do a 'caliberation' dvd but i don't know how good that is - http://www.monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=3971

The best advice is play around with the settings. The new Samsung LCDs are definetly good value for money.