Sky blipping & pixelation

[Graham M]

Hi there, I just restarted my Sky subscription after a number of months on Freesat, quite a number of channels (especially paid for ones) are "blipping" (sound) and pixellating) though the signal strength and quality is pretty good (see attached screencap). What can I do about this? Are Sky likely to charge for a callout? I have just refurbished my room which entailed adding a Screw-on faceplate to replace the loose cable hanging through the wall, but I seem to recall this problem being there before I did that. And all the connections are tight.

Cheers!

Graham

The Signal Test only looks at one transponder.
Its usually a dish alignment problem but could be an LNB issue. Have you noticed which channels are affected? If you can see they are all on a particular band and pole then it points to the LNB.

[Graham M]

Ill go through them in a minute and make a list of the glitchy ones (I've had a new LNB before)

---------- Post added at 10:13 ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 ----------

OK here it is, I haven't gone through every single channel as that would have taken forever

Glitching/Pixellating
Sky 2 & 3 (But NOT 1)
Paramount Comedy + 1
Sci Fi + 1
Sumo TV + 1 (No Picture and Glitchy Sound)
Zone Reality + 1
Hollywood TV
Film 24
Passion TV
Five Life
Legal TV
Most Discovery Channels
All Music Channels (In one way or another unwatchable)

No Sattelite Signal Being Received
BEN
Current TV
MKTV
Fame TV
Raj TV
Information TV
Zone Romantica
Zone Reality
S4C
CH4 + 1

Temperamental
E4
E4+1
More 4

Any verdicts?

---------- Post added at 10:56 ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 ----------

OK I gave in and phoned Sky, what a waste of time, got put straight through to Bombay and she tried blaming it on my Scart lead first of all (how would a dodgy Scart cause pixellation?!?! I argued with this but she insisted that she was right, hmpf, so I switched output to my TV tuner using a different cable, and guess what!? It was exactly the same) £65 for a callout!? Bugger that.

Originally Posted by Zeph

Ill go through them in a minute and make a list of the glitchy ones (I've had a new LNB before)

---------- Post added at 10:13 ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 ----------

OK here it is, I haven't gone through every single channel as that would have taken forever

Glitching/Pixellating
Sky 2 & 3 (But NOT 1)
Paramount Comedy + 1
Sci Fi + 1
Sumo TV + 1 (No Picture and Glitchy Sound)
Zone Reality + 1
Hollywood TV
Film 24
Passion TV
Five Life
Legal TV
Most Discovery Channels
All Music Channels (In one way or another unwatchable)

No Sattelite Signal Being Received
BEN
Current TV
MKTV
Fame TV
Raj TV
Information TV
Zone Romantica
Zone Reality
S4C
CH4 + 1

Temperamental
E4
E4+1
More 4

Any verdicts?

---------- Post added at 10:56 ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 ----------

OK I gave in and phoned Sky, what a waste of time, got put straight through to Bombay and she tried blaming it on my Scart lead first of all (how would a dodgy Scart cause pixellation?!?! I argued with this but she insisted that she was right, hmpf, so I switched output to my TV tuner using a different cable, and guess what!? It was exactly the same) £65 for a callout!? Bugger that.

Seems to be across the board, so I'd blame dish alignment, though its strange your Signal Test shows a reasonable reading.
Might be worth refreshing the box software (from memory I think you remove power then whilst holding down backup on the box front re-apply the power).

[Graham M]

Running the software update now

---------- Post added at 13:13 ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 ----------

nope still the same, so what's the consensus? Is there anything else I can do or do I suck it up and pay Sky the £65 callout?

Thing is if its outside of the 1 year warranty then you will have to pay for repairs anyway. I would take your box to someone elses house you know with Sky and test it there to prove the box, and borrow someone elses box to prove your dish, cabling and LNB. Then see where the fault lies and go from there.

[Graham M]

Yeah you have a good point, my mate has Sky so maybe I'll put it to him.

[Graham M]

Well I decided to risk it and I've ordered a replacement LNB off eBay, £11.50 all in It's worth a try eh?

[piggy]

my guess is its the wall plate conx but i would have followed the earlier advise from lost and tried a different stb first,also as far as i know the 65 pound charge covers parts so its not bad really.

[Graham M]

Well I've just walked into Currys Digital and gotten a Sky+ installation booked for 22nd December price including the box and installation, for £59 So this will mean a new Box, new LNB and new cabling (worst comes to the worst ill get 2 new cable runs done) I'll get him to check the alignment of the dish whilst he's here, job's a goodun

[Graham M]

Job's a goodun (he came a day early)

[RealDiamond]

Hello Zeph
Have all currys got that deal on, the one in poole is in a crap location for me.
was it for only Non subscribers. the Sky web site still has it at £99 if you have a current sub.

[Graham M]

No I had a subscription already, i went by Currys in Bournemouth just down from the Triangle the other day and didn't see a sign for it? Best bet might be to either get a train to Poole (as the Currys Digital is literally next door) or drive and park in the train station car park.

This is how my Sky Bill looks

12/12/2007 Install Visit: 21 £120.00
12/12/2007 Subscriber Installation Discount £60.00 CR
12/12/2007 Promotional Installation Discount £30.00 CR
12/12/2007 Payment Received £30.00 CR
12/12/2007 Sky+ £169.00
12/12/2007 Sky+ Box Discounted £119.00 CR
12/12/2007 Sky+ Box Discount £50.00 CR

so all good (attached is how my signal strength(s) look now, not so different, the installer reckons the problems were down to the box