DVB-S LNB setup problems

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ageorge

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#115312 21-Mar-2013 12:09

If you dont do many satellite installations its very easy to forget that not only do you have to set the aerial position, and LNB skew position (7 to 8 oclock approx, looking at dish with the coax leadout from LNB as hour hand), but often you have to also set the receiver end.

Yesterday I spent ages on a roof tweaking an aerial to Optus D1 and could not believe the receiver was getting no signal. My meter was telling me it was aligned but the receiver was getting nothing.

LNB have different LNB frequency and these need to be set in receiver. The previous LNB had LNB low: 9750 LNB high:10600. New LNB is low:11300 high:11300. These figures differ depending on LNB.
Tip - if you have the box for the LNB it usually has the specification on it, and/or its printed on the LNB.

Step 1 - check the receiver aerial setting matches the LNB that you are installing.
Step 2 - align the dish
Step 3 - fine tune the dish with receiver meter if no other available.

Hope this helps someone!
Cheers,
Alistair.

Jaxson

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#784910 21-Mar-2013 12:19

That's where you need to be sensible about the satellite meter. It will tell you that you've locked onto something, but it may not be the satellite you really want.

If possible, for new players, it really is worth tuning the box in with another pre aligned satellite dish first. That's actually pretty easy given the number of houses with a sky dish now. That way you know you're a long way towards the end game right from the start. Do check the LNB's are the same though first...

What makes this process difficult in my opinion is the mass of cheap Chinese receivers with terrible menu structures and key commands etc. You can often spend an age just trying to set the box up with the correct TP info etc. The satellite name is not actually important, but the TP's you're going to need to scan are. Personally that's why I recommend the official freeview NZ boxes in most basic installs. They search both common LNB types and do have the correct TP info built in. I don't know that the grief is worth the $30 saving myself.

ageorge

626 posts

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+1 received by user: 53

#784916 21-Mar-2013 12:34

Jaxson: That's where you need to be sensible about the satellite meter. It will tell you that you've locked onto something, but it may not be the satellite you really want.

If possible, for new players, it really is worth tuning the box in with another pre aligned satellite dish first. That's actually pretty easy given the number of houses with a sky dish now. That way you know you're a long way towards the end game right from the start. Do check the LNB's are the same though first...

What makes this process difficult in my opinion is the mass of cheap Chinese receivers with terrible menu structures and key commands etc. You can often spend an age just trying to set the box up with the correct TP info etc. The satellite name is not actually important, but the TP's you're going to need to scan are. Personally that's why I recommend the official freeview NZ boxes in most basic installs. They search both common LNB types and do have the correct TP info built in. I don't know that the grief is worth the $30 saving myself.

Using anothers pre-aligned is perhaps making things more complicated - how do you know what LNB is up top without checking and if you are checking why not just do it at home as I suggested.

Re the STB I have worked on installations with 'Freeview' ticked boxes and found some of them to be inferior to the imports in performance, but agreed; some imports had poor firmware, although most are fine.

A friend up the road had a genuine Freeview ticked box which clapped out quite quickly and was replaced under warranty, but the new one he had to call me in to help set up and that was not impressive either.

My preference is for non-ticked boxes. Different strokes for different folks.
Regards,
Al.

Jaxson

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#784922 21-Mar-2013 12:51

Reason why it's easier if the box is pretuned is you can select a channel and move the dish until you start getting parts of the picture. That way you know you've got the right satellite and you can start dialling it in more precisely from there.

The official boxes auto scan both lnb types, so if you get it to work on an existing dish it should store the channels. Take that back to your you new location and you should be one step ahead already. Granted you won't necessarily know what LNB type you're dealing with but honestly there are typically only two commonly in use in NZ, either 11300 on the rounded single sky installs or the dual wide oval style 10750 on more modern sky installs.

Customer wise I think simpler is better, unless you're keen on repeat support revisits.

There are multiple ways to achieve tuning in a satellite box. The above comments are just an approach I think could help some also. That's all.

EDIT: The above refers to single tuner set top boxes with no ability to record etc.
eg http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/product/Digital-Satellite-TV-Freeview-Receiver-TWH-S1?SKU=1400533
I'm still not convinced of the stability of any freeview approved satellite PVR...

ageorge

626 posts

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#784962 21-Mar-2013 13:52

As an aside, freeview STB:
Ive found that imported Vesta boxes to be high claimed spec, but worst quality picture.
Picture quality varies from box to box depends on decoder used etc but the best I have seen for low cost were Triones. Digistar are also OK. If composite output only this tends to indicate cheaper decoder. I go for the models with component or scart/component out.
Local installers here use brandname Strong boxes; some have composite, some component as well.
Some sets have HD out and/or HDMI but due to limits of our DVB-S none show anywhere near as good a picture as DVB-T(errestrial)

I have as new (in boxes) 91EL Yagi and Digistar DVB-T box if anyone interested $100 for both PM me.

Cheers,
Alistair