Starview satellite reciever

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reservenz

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#128582 15-Aug-2013 13:32

Hi all - Im new here so hope Im on the right track. In October 2011 I purchased 5 Starview S1812 Micro Satellite Receivers. The were sold to us and installed by the guy who installed our Sky in our new home. They were used in guest bedrooms, a guest lounge (we have just opened our 3br Bed & Breakfast), the last on our small TV in the kitchen.
About 3 months ago the one in the kitchen stopped working (pixelating I think the tech called it) we took the one from the guest lounge and put it in the kitchen so know it was the 'box' that was at fault. About 3-4 weeks later it started the same thing, not bad but annoying when watching something! So we checked the other 3 - 2 were doing the same thing and the message on the TV screen was "weak signal".
I called the local tech who came and checked the signals - all good, he made some enquires about these boxes as he hadnt had much to do with them (just replaced a couple when they had failed). He then came back and took them away to the local supplier who "checked them out" and found nothing wrong - hey presto!!! when they were reconnected they all worked! My yech said not to pay him yet, he had doubts.... told me to turn all sets on atlest daily and he would call back in a week to see if they were all still go - 2 days and 2 had stopped working 3 days another failed so I phoned him. He contacted Starview who told him the cables would be loose,so he came back and checked everything and we got patchy signals as he wriggled the cables. Away he went again and called Starview again, they have asked him to send back the 2 worst ones so they could sort the problem. We put the good one that hadnt failed yet in the kitchen and over the last few days it has gone from the odd patch of pixulating? to frequent , almost unusable.
Does anyone have any experience or advice with these - we have opened our B&B but now cant accept any guests as we can not offer TV. Do I bite the bullet and just buy 5 new ones (not the same type) ? They had no written warrenty so do I have any comeback? (the kitchen one got about 5-6hrs use a week. The other maybe a total of 10 hours each at tops).
If Im going to have to replace them - any recomendations? The reason we went for these small ones was they could easyly be hidden behind the Tvs. 4 of the TVs are wall mounted and we didnt really want to put shleves up.
Lacking tech knowledge we purchased TVs with built in free-view but dahh - it is not available here! (Gore)
Thanks in advance for any help or advice - it is appreciated!

hdinsider

552 posts

Ultimate Geek

#879179 15-Aug-2013 22:43

It sounds like the satellite dish LNB is going off frequency. If it's an old sky dish with the oval shaped LNB pickup it is likely to be failing. When your sat guy checked the dish, the signal could still be a good level, but be off frequency, which is harder to detect.

Get them back to replace the LNB. Your sat decoders are probably all OK.

don't mess with me.... i'm the hd insider....

Nerdherder

27 posts

Geek

#879265 16-Aug-2013 08:47

Yeah I would have said get your tech to bring in another brand of box to try out and see if that does the same thing, thereby eliminating whether it is signal or it is the boxes.

Not fan of dishtv, but I did see a small sat box on their site you could look at. S7030..

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#879310 16-Aug-2013 09:50

hdinsider: It sounds like the satellite dish LNB is going off frequency. If it's an old sky dish with the oval shaped LNB pickup it is likely to be failing. When your sat guy checked the dish, the signal could still be a good level, but be off frequency, which is harder to detect.

Get them back to replace the LNB. Your sat decoders are probably all OK.

+1
Sounds like LNB failure.
Does it get worse when it rains or the dish heats up in the sun? Heat and cold affect the frequency of the oscillator in the LNB when it ages.
Edit
P.S.
Any Tech worth his salt should have checked the LNB anyway.

reservenz

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#879369 16-Aug-2013 10:57

Thanks guys - What is a LNB?
Before we got the tech up we tried our old transonic box that was out in the shed - it worked ok.
The whole set up was new Oct 2011
We dont have any probs with the TV in the lounge that is SKY.

robjg63

4098 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#879373 16-Aug-2013 11:01

The LNB (Low Noise Block) is the bit on the end of the satellite dish - it picks the signals up from the dish.

I would think if you are having to turn people away its definitely worth sourcing at least one replacement tuner - the Dishtv model http://www.dishtv.co.nz/vmchk/Satellite-Receivers-satBox/96-satBox-mini-S7030/flypage_web2_lite.tpl.htm looks different enough to hopefully not be the same product.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

reservenz

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#879424 16-Aug-2013 11:50

Thanks - the only reason we havnt rushed out and got new ones is we really had no idea what is good and what isnt and dont want to make the same mistake again! When we got these wee ones we were told they were fantastic. They seemed perfect for what we wanted. The mini one you have shown me has loads more features and a different brand. Might just get one and try it out on my kitchen TV and wait and see what Starview come back with next week. Thanks so much for your help - really appreciate it.