FreeSat Tuning

[Condi]

Since getting a freesat dish installed about 2 years ago performance has been slowly deteriorating, with a few channels now saying "not available" or "no video/audio" or words to that effect. I've tried retuning the box, but nothing changes. Does this sound like the disk has moved slightly, and is maybe not picking up one or 2 channels? As they come from the same satellite, and most work, it seems strange to have lost Channel 4 on its own, but I'm a loss to explain why some work and others don't.

[Beati Dogu]

It might have moved with the wind if the bolts are a little loose. There should be a signal strength or signal info section in the settings. That’ll show what you’re receiving. My Humax box has this and so did the Sky box I used to use.

I had the move the dish over once as we had scaffolding up for a while. I used the signal strength meter in the receiver to check the alignment was still ok.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Sunday 23 July 01:25

[PhilboSE]

There’s an app called SatelliteFinder which really helps to get your dish aligned correctly. FreeSat uses Astra 28.2 E.

[Car bon]

There's a spectrum of broadcast frequencies and the rich moving slightly can cause you to lose some off the end of the spectrum. It usually happens in batches, so E4, More4, Film4 etc will usually come & go with C4.

As others have said, a loosen & slight move of the dish should fix it.

Another possibility (though less likely) is something new partially blocking the view - any new large buildings or trees close by ?

[Pitre]

Unpruned trees may grow and affect the direct line of sight to the satellite. Or climbing plants interfere with the dish. Worth checking.

[Evercross]

Car bon said:

There's a spectrum of broadcast frequencies and the dish moving slightly can cause you to lose some off the end of the spectrum. It usually happens in batches, so E4, More4, Film4 etc will usually come & go with C4.

Not quite. Just like with digital terrestrial TV, digital satellite channels are transmitted in bundles using something called a multiplex. The digital stream has a series of parameters including frequency, signal rate and FEC (error correction). Some of the multiplex signals are more robust than others because of the variations in these parameters, and when your reception conditions are less than optimum for a particular multiplex then all the channels on that stream will be affected equally (hence the tendency to lose channels in batches).

Also, while your dish might be pointing at a single geostationary point above your horizon, you are often collecting signals from more than one satellite at that position and again there can be variations in the footprint (the signal strength of the broadcast signal relative to your position on the ground) of each satellite meaning that if your set-up is slightly off you will still receive a clean signal from one satellite but not necessarily another.

If the dish was previously working correctly then there are 3 possibilities...

1. The dish has moved from its optimal position.
2. Something has since interfered with the dish's view of the sky (trees, hedges, a neighbour's hot-tub shed....)
3. The LNB (the little receiver on the end of the dish arm) or the cable has deteriorated or been damaged due to weathering/water ingress.

Edited by Evercross on Monday 24th July 15:39

[Panamax]

We've suffered "missing channels" and I just checked the internet. People all over the country are reporting problems with Freesat signal, typically in the form of missing channels or picture pixellation.

I think Elon needs to send up one of his guys with a spanner....

[Condi]

Panamax said:

We've suffered "missing channels" and I just checked the internet. People all over the country are reporting problems with Freesat signal, typically in the form of missing channels or picture pixellation.

I think Elon needs to send up one of his guys with a spanner....

Yes, this sounds like what is happening. I wonder why.

Evercross said:

If the dish was previously working correctly then there are 3 possibilities...

1. The dish has moved from its optimal position.
2. Something has since interfered with the dish's view of the sky (trees, hedges, a neighbour's hot-tub shed....)
3. The LNB (the little receiver on the end of the dish arm) or the cable has deteriorated or been damaged due to weathering/water ingress.

2 can be discounted I think, the dish is on the roof of the house and should have clear line of sight to the sky. 1 and 3 are possibilities!

For the cost of getting the slightly deranged Italian aerial fitter who installed it back out, will get him to check 1 and he have a look at 3 while he's there. Otherwise maybe the issue is more widespread, as per above.

[Evercross]

Panamax said:

We've suffered "missing channels" and I just checked the internet. People all over the country are reporting problems with Freesat signal, typically in the form of missing channels or picture pixellation.

Freesat is just the branding for the terrestrial channels coming off the Astra 2 satellite position. They are in fact the same terrestrial channels as received by Sky customers, so they should be reporting the same issues.

[Deranged Rover]

Pitre said:

Unpruned trees may grow and affect the direct line of sight to the satellite. Or climbing plants interfere with the dish. Worth checking.

This happened to us a couple of years back - a tree had grown and was affecting our signal when covered in leaves in the summer.

We eventually had the dish moved and all has been well since.

[48k]

The one annoyance I have with Freesat is the Food Channel being full of Irish adverts - Irish gas company, telecoms, Lidl Ireland (prices in euros) etc. No amount of re-tuning or changing TV settings seems to convince it that I'm not in Ireland. Very weird.