Sky Box?!

TheDean · 5 Jul 2007 at 14:24

Hi all,

Bit of advice needed really. My Mrs has just moved into a new flat and the Tv reception is dire. When checking through the settings menu on the box itself, it shows signal strength to be 15%-25%. This is hoocked up to an external areil on top of the flats.

Two ideas:

i) Would changing the frieview box itself make any differnce?

ii) Next to the ariel there is an imput for 'sattelite'. I'm thinking this will be a large sattelite hooked up on the top of the tower. Would we be able to buy a 2nd hand Sky+ box and card and hook it up just to watch all the free to air channels?

TheDean · 5 Jul 2007 at 15:43

Shmo · 5 Jul 2007 at 16:27

Is it a decent aerial cable plugged into the TV? I saw a pretty major difference changing from an old cable that I picked up somewhere to a gold plated belkin one. Went from not being able to get a lot of channels and intermittent on the rest to all channels being perfect.

TheDean · 5 Jul 2007 at 19:02

Shmo said:
Is it a decent aerial cable plugged into the TV? I saw a pretty major difference changing from an old cable that I picked up somewhere to a gold plated belkin one. Went from not being able to get a lot of channels and intermittent on the rest to all channels being perfect.

The cable is Ok. I could get a gold plated one i suppose....What about the Sky box? Is that a viable option?

carpmaster · 5 Jul 2007 at 21:31

TheDean said:
Hi all,

Bit of advice needed really. My Mrs has just moved into a new flat and the Tv reception is dire. When checking through the settings menu on the box itself, it shows signal strength to be 15%-25%. This is hoocked up to an external areil on top of the flats.

Two ideas:

i) Would changing the frieview box itself make any differnce?

ii) Next to the ariel there is an imput for 'sattelite'. I'm thinking this will be a large sattelite hooked up on the top of the tower. Would we be able to buy a 2nd hand Sky+ box and card and hook it up just to watch all the free to air channels?

You can ignore the signal reading on the Freeview box. These are normally totally useless. When you say the reception is "dire" I assume you mean lots of channels missing & lots of freezing / pixellation.

The satellite wallplate (if original) would be there because there is a communal satellite installed. Whether or not this still works or not is anybodys guess. I would imagine that if the TV system in the building has been neglected (as your post would indicate) then there's a good chance the satellite feed won't be working either.

You should really look at the details of the rental agreement / lease agreement or the maintenance paperwork if you pay a maintenance fee. Usually these contain information about the communal TV system and more importantly who is responsible for its upkeep.

Hassle the landlord or if she's bought it then hassle the management company that look after the building.

A magic gold plated lead is not going to solve your problems I'm afraid. These leads are normally pretty badly made anyway from poor quality components. Much better to make a new lead from WF100 / CT100 or just buy one someone else has made.

unknowndomain · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:52

TBH how is a gold plated cable going to make any difference if every thing else is copper?

TheDean · 5 Jul 2007 at 22:59

carpmaster said:
You can ignore the signal reading on the Freeview box. These are normally totally useless. When you say the reception is "dire" I assume you mean lots of channels missing & lots of freezing / pixellation.

The satellite wallplate (if original) would be there because there is a communal satellite installed. Whether or not this still works or not is anybodys guess. I would imagine that if the TV system in the building has been neglected (as your post would indicate) then there's a good chance the satellite feed won't be working either.

You should really look at the details of the rental agreement / lease agreement or the maintenance paperwork if you pay a maintenance fee. Usually these contain information about the communal TV system and more importantly who is responsible for its upkeep.

Hassle the landlord or if she's bought it then hassle the management company that look after the building.

A magic gold plated lead is not going to solve your problems I'm afraid. These leads are normally pretty badly made anyway from poor quality components. Much better to make a new lead from WF100 / CT100 or just buy one someone else has made.

Most sensible thing said ever...almost. I'll get on it. Cheers buddy