Sky problems?
 

Anyone else having issues with their Sky reception tonight?
Mine isn't working at all although the power light is on and all cables are in right places....could it be the weather? it's a new Skyplus box, well 6 months old so I can't imagine it's goosed already.:eek:

Re: Sky problems?
 

My Sky reception is affected too
it is 'stuttering' and patchy screen freezes

Re: Sky problems?
 

speaking of sky....i see thier subcriptions are going up.....again:angry:

Re: Sky problems?
 

it will be the heavy rain Lindsay. Sky do insist on fitting the smaller zone 1 dish around here, its ok 'til you get bad weather then you wish you had a zone 2 dish instead.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Just checked mine out and its perfect, I have Sky HD which is more temperamenal than ordinary Sky +

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Glad it's not just me ! It was fine last night and was happily recording "Supersizers" on Tues so I didn't think it was the box ! :confused:

Re: Sky problems?
 

Yes , the cheeky so and so`s , i immediately phoned up and cancelled a few channels so i`ll still be paying the same.......credit crunch and all that. robbing barstewards.........:cursing:

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i havent been told about an increase!!!!

mines working tonight :D

Re: Sky problems?
 

Our's is working fine. Have you tried pulling the plug out, leaving it for 20 seconds then plug it back in.

That ususally works for us.

Re: Sky problems?
 

lol... are you an IT tech?

"have you tried turning it off then back on again??"

Re: Sky problems?
 

I'm not an IT Tech, that Ians job:)

But yes we have had to pull the plug a few times over the past 12mths.

Thats what Sky told us to do the first time it played up.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Can someone give more info on the price increase? i cant remember seeing anything

Re: Sky problems?
 

It's in the letter you get with your Sky magazine. It's going up by £2 per month, but it's still cracking value in my opinion.

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Didnt even open my magazine, I get a monthly bill, they should have sent it with that

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There's no need to thank me. :D

Re: Sky problems?
 

you do have to question why its going up. its not like they have new satellites to send up or anything :D

still with Freesat now online maybe they are trying to screw as much as they can before people defect to that.

Re: Sky problems?
 

It'll be a long time before Freesat challenge Sky, especially with HD content. The only ones they're going to entice away from Sky are the ones on the most basic package.

Sky have just settled a pay increase action with their employees, so that's what the £2 per month will be going towards ;)

Re: Sky problems?
 

I'm glad they didn't hold out for more then!!!


:D

As for freesat, I reckon as people get closer and closer to income < expenditure their 'need' for Sky One might become less important in teh scheme of things.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Have tried unplugging and re plugging several times, nowt happening, if it's not back on tomorrow they will be getting the sharp end of my boot !:eek:

Re: Sky problems?
 

That may well be true. :)

I still find Sky to be good value for money and the £2 increase is still only the price of inflation on a full package (approx 3%). For the package I now have (I removed Sport until the new football season starts), it works out at about 60p per day, but even for a full package and HD it's still only around £1.70 per day. If you work out how much it costs per hour of entertainment, it's much cheaper than many other kinds of entertainment. It certainly costs me more than that for a couple of hours on The Stanley. ;)

Re: Sky problems?
 

If its an Amstrad box then they are far less reliable than teh ferguison and Pace ones. If they replace it demand anything other than Amstrad or threaten to cancel. We went through 3 amstrad boxes at first, ferguson box has been in for 2 1/2 years now with no probs.(occasional plug out and back in but thats all)

Re: Sky problems?
 

Good advice entwisi. I have a Pace v3 Sky+ box and it's been faultless for the last 3 years. I can't even remember having to reset it. If only the HD boxes were as reliable ;)

Re: Sky problems?
 

you want to be at bleeding edge you get unreliable stuff :D

Me, I'm a geek its normal for me :D

Re: Sky problems?
 

I put my own satellite dish up last September, took 1/2 day to find the bloody satellite, since then its worked a treat, don't subscribe to any thing. Every night every electrical appliance is uplugged, the only thing still on are the fridge and the alarm clock, you'd be surprised if you did a test with a wattmeter, how much juice things onn standy are consuming. unplug the lot, its safer an cheaper.
Retlaw.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Re: Sky problems?
 

Sky don't own any satellites. In fact Sky and Freesat share not only the 28.2 degrees east of south location but they even share transponders on the same satellites.

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see that thing on teh end :D

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Yes I did.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Why didn't you buy a cheap satellite finder? Saved you hours of time and could be used again if your dish blew out of position. :D

As for unplugging, then it kind of defeats the object of PVRs doesn't it? Of course if you have a normal Sky box then it makes sense, but for Sky+ or SkyHD it undermines their purpose.

Re: Sky problems?
 

A sky box takes a long time to be usable when you plug it back in though.

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about 2 or 3 minutes is all Neil, it just seems like an age.... :D

Re: Sky problems?
 

I've had an HD box for 18 months and I've hadvery few problems with it TM, just once actually, it kept coming up failed recording, so I just inpluged it and cleaned the viewing card and it was fine

Re: Sky problems?
 

About two minutes after switching on, whats to hurry for.

Retlaw.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Well it's still not working, so not the weather to blame.
The on /off button is red all the time, it is still recognising the remote but nothing happens, I have checked that no one has nicked me dish too !:rolleyes:
Not sure what make it is, it's a white Skyplus, am just about to phone them and give them what for..... could it have been the lightning yesterday?

Re: Sky problems?
 

When I get this.

I just unplug it from the back and wait 10 seconds and whack it back in, that usually sorts it.

There is a way of resetting you sky box.

(Taken from Another Website)

There's one 'public' fix that Sky will tell you - try switching the box off at the mains, holding down the 'backup' button and turning the power back on (as you continue to hold the backup button down). This is *supposed* to force the Sky box to do a reset and download a software update. However, I've never seen this work with this problem.

The solution I've used is one which will WIPE YOUR SKY BOX - but if you get the box sent off to Sky or get an engineer to visit you'll lose all your programmes anyway, so you've not much choice...

What annoys me is that Sky won't tell you this fix - they'd rather you pay for an engineer to come out who may just try this anyway...

To perform a full reset and format the disk:
1) Switch off the box at the mains
2) Whilst holding down the left and right arrows on the front of the box (either side of the Select switch), power on the box. After a second or two, the Sky 'ring' will light.
3) hit the 'Select' button on the front panel - this will reformat the drive and reset the box. This can take a few minutes and the ring will 'whirl' backwards to show it's working.

Re: Sky problems?
 

I have a spare box you can borrow if you want to pick it up, It has a free to air card in it( you can't use yours as they are paired to teh box).

Re: Sky problems?
 

Thanks Mr D, just tried the first fix and no joy, I am gonna ring them before trying the second option as I have loads of stuff I don't want to lose, and I would imagine it's still under warranty as its only 7 months old.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Glad your box has been ok, but just do a search on Google. You'll see the amount of problems people have been having with the SkyHD boxes.

I'll still be getting one next month when Sky reduce the prices. :)

Re: Sky problems?
 

First phone call took 27 mins to get thru, gave me the fix that Mr D mentioned and said to wait 15 mins after it..... no difference, just rang back and the box is goosed, engineer coming on monday, to give them their credit they did offer an engineer for sunday but I have plans so Monday it is.
They did say he maybe able to transfer the saved stuff if he couldn't repair the original box.
Oh, it's an Amstrad.

Re: Sky problems?
 

She could use her card in your box but would only get the same as your free to air card. You will not get the so called premium channels if the card is not paried to the box. I can't remember if SKy One is classed as premium, movies and sports are.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Just seen this Ian, cheers mate!
That's a top gesture, it's ok though as we are out most of the weekend but many thanks anyway !
This is what makes me proud to be part of Accyweb,genuine,nice people who will help each other ! ( goes all warm and mushy inside !)
Thanks guys !:)

Re: Sky problems?
 

I must have been lucky TM as I said I've only had that one little problem, even so the pictur is brill, and the hard drive is bigger as well I can record about 160 hr, have about 6 pages full and its still showing 50% free

Re: Sky problems?
 

Just a little aside. Went to my friend's house the other week who lives just outside Hebden Bridge. She was having terrible problems with her Sky reception breaking up. After trying all the usual methods, had to send for an Engineer. He could not sort it at all and said he would have to go back to his base and consult with his other engineers on her problem.

Just as he was leaving the house, he noticed the cable which runs down the wall .. the cable was damaged. Who was the culprit ? The overlarge dog next door had chewed through the cable .. :eek::D. 'Course she presented them with the bill.

Never know .. you may have an over zealous animal nearby which has developed a new taste for aerial cables LOL.

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First thing I did was have a look at the cable, just to check it and the dish were still there, given that manhole covers are fair game round here I wouldn't have been suprised to see it gone !:eek:

Re: Sky problems?
 

At first thought's it sounds like a poor original installation that.

Re: Sky problems?
 

Some of the installers Sky use are a waste of space.
When I first got Sky at my last address, I couldn't get some of the channels I was paying for. When I complained they sent out a second ariel installer who put it on the chimney stack instead of the wall.

Re: Sky problems?
 

I had problems with sky once!, the picture kept going off, then it never came on at all....put on the welcome channel (the one that comes on saying go red be green)and that wasnt on either. Apparently if that channel dont come on, it s ya thingy (dont know the name:rolleyes: on your dish,the bit that sticks out and your ariel goes in it). it means its knackered!!.....luckily a neighbour had a spare one, so me fella went up his ladders and replaced it.....guess what?....it worked!!!:D

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I know its terrible isn't it the way they drill holes in your chimney :rolleyes:

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Was the second fitter a contractor? Sky employed fitters will only fit dishes up to a certain height. They certainly wouldn't go on the roof.

Re: Sky problems?
 

That will be the LNB (Low Noise Block-downconverter). You can actually reset this if you go into the engineer's menu on your Sky box.

The channel you speak of doesn't come on if there's no signal, so it won't work whatever the issue if something is wrong with your reception. It doesn't mean that the LNB is shot at. That is only one of the possible problems.

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I understood that both were contractors

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well in my case it was, has soon has a new one was put on the channels came on:p..............;)