Too much to hope for I guess - Sky Q to FreeSat "just working"

stoofa

stoofa

stoofa

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So, I cancelled Sky TV some time ago. Subscription ran out about 14 days ago, however the Q 2TB box continued to work - albeit in a crippled way, no recording, only free-to-air channels etc.
Was happy enough but then Sky started demanding their box back, so I packed it all up and that left here just over a week ago.
Fast forward - took delivery of a FreeSat box today - Arris 500GB job.

Here are the two cables that were in the Q 2TB box
3gkVsQ3.jpg


Here are the two cables plugged into the FreeSat box
iZUhZ8K.jpg


Cabled up the box, switched it on, FreeSat logo and then the box wanted to complete a signal check. It went away for a few minutes and came back with this
7JHcy7A.jpg


I completed the setup anyway and then went into Settings>Signal Strength and I'm greeted with this
EfagF16.jpg


It's really dark outside at the moment, however here is a really poor image of the dish in question - in case that makes any difference.
OjfkgWg.jpg


So, I have a dish and cables that were plugged into a Q 2TB box and were workign fine during my Sky Subscription. Untouched, the whole thing was working as a glorified "FreeSat" box for a few weeks.
So although I wasn't able to record, access the Home or any premium channels, I could watch BBC, ITV, etc.
Now, with the Sky box gone and the FreeSat box installed - absolutely nothing, anyone have any ideas?
I knew it was going to be too good to be true for it to just work. I can, and will just go back to using all the various apps on my AppleTV box if needs be - it's just like is a lot easier with all the channels through the one source and easy switching between them.
 
The Arris box should recognise the LNB type and configure itself accordingly. Your second screen shot shots this appears to be working: "LNB type Wideband"

In the same shot the strength and quality bars appear to show reception at 85% and Quality is either 100% or 0%. It's hard to tell when the bars are grey and the background is grey too, but it does look like the quality bar is the same shade of grey as the strength bar, so 100%.

That all looks good for one LNB feed. How about the other?

It may sound dumb, but try switching off - standby, then off/unplugged at the wall socket - leave it 20 seconds, then restore power.

If this fails to fix it, swap the LNB cables, but first check that the copper core wire hasn't been bent over.
 
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Quartz said:
I have freesat. It’s just one cable, not two and it just plugs straight in. So why do you have two cables?
Click to expand...
His receiver is a recorder, and it can (when working) record 4 channels simultaneously.

Your Freesat receiver is a watch/record-one-channel-only device.
 
VincentHanna said:
Don't you need to change the LNB?
Click to expand...
For an older Freesat box, or a Freesat/Astra receiver then yes.

The Arris box is a third generation Freesat device. It is compatible with the Sky Q wideband LNBs, but also backwards compatible with the LNBs we used for Sky+/Sky+HD. It can work with either type. No need to change.
 
VincentHanna said:
Thanks

Not to thread hijack, but what is the best freesat recorder that works with wideband?
Click to expand...
There's only one make. It's Arris. That's not because other companies don't make satellite receivers and recorders. They do. But only one company has the licence to make Freesat boxes, and that's Arris.

You see, Freesat isn't just another word for 'satellie TV'. It's the name for the official UK TV satellite service as set up by the joint venture between the BBC and ITV. It's part of the UK's digital TV delivery strategy, and as such it has to be consistent with the other part of it; Freeview.

It might not sound like a big deal, but when you scan for channels with a Freesat reveiver then they always get sorted into the same order with BBC1 first, BBC 2 second, ITV, Ch4, Ch5 etc. Of course you can receive these channels with a satellite receiver, but you'll spend a big chunk of time sorting them into the familiar order, or just learn a whole bunch of new channel numbers.

Incidentally, the '4K' bit refers to streamed content rather than anything broadcast that can be received without subscriptions.

Anything marketed as a Freesat 4K box is made by Arris, whether it's a receiver only or one of the recorder boxes with a 500Gb / 1TB / 2TB hard drive.
 
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Should "just work" with that LNB - I have the 1TB version of the Arris recorder - came from SkyQ and was just a case of plugging in.

Shouldn't matter which sockets they are in, but no harm swapping them around - and then factory reset the box and try again



(* The only LNB's that had issue with the Arris box were the early "unlabelled" 6 way hybrid LNBs that Sky fitted - these only autoswitched to wideband when used with Sky equipment. The hybrids with 2 specific wideband ports and 2/4 standard ports are unaffected)
 
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stoofa said:
So, I cancelled Sky TV some time ago. Subscription ran out about 14 days ago, however the Q 2TB box continued to work - albeit in a crippled way, no recording, only free-to-air channels etc.
Was happy enough but then Sky started demanding their box back, so I packed it all up and that left here just over a week ago.
Fast forward - took delivery of a FreeSat box today - Arris 500GB job.

Here are the two cables that were in the Q 2TB box
3gkVsQ3.jpg


Here are the two cables plugged into the FreeSat box
iZUhZ8K.jpg


Cabled up the box, switched it on, FreeSat logo and then the box wanted to complete a signal check. It went away for a few minutes and came back with this
7JHcy7A.jpg


I completed the setup anyway and then went into Settings>Signal Strength and I'm greeted with this
EfagF16.jpg


It's really dark outside at the moment, however here is a really poor image of the dish in question - in case that makes any difference.
OjfkgWg.jpg


So, I have a dish and cables that were plugged into a Q 2TB box and were workign fine during my Sky Subscription. Untouched, the whole thing was working as a glorified "FreeSat" box for a few weeks.
So although I wasn't able to record, access the Home or any premium channels, I could watch BBC, ITV, etc.
Now, with the Sky box gone and the FreeSat box installed - absolutely nothing, anyone have any ideas?
I knew it was going to be too good to be true for it to just work. I can, and will just go back to using all the various apps on my AppleTV box if needs be - it's just like is a lot easier with all the channels through the one source and easy switching between them.
Click to expand...
Know this is a bit late but in case anyone else has the same problem thought worth posting.

I had the same problem when switching my mum to Freesat from Sky Q, plugged in and no signal... turns out the LNB etc. was fine but the Freesat box needs an over the air update. Would have been lovely for Freesat to put a note in the box warning people.

Many folks online were saying wait a couple of hours, we left it overnight and the next morning we had a signal and tuned in fine after that.
 
Thanks for reviving this and sorry I didn't add anything myself.
That was indeed the issue - but there was absolutely nothing to indicate this was needed or was happening. After hitting AV Forums as well, I plugged everything back in and left it switched on all day whilst I was at work.
Came home to find it all working.
Now I have this box up and running for "broadcast TV" - that's it, Sky is no longer missed.
 
stoofa said:
Thanks for reviving this and sorry I didn't add anything myself.
That was indeed the issue - but there was absolutely nothing to indicate this was needed or was happening. After hitting AV Forums as well, I plugged everything back in and left it switched on all day whilst I was at work.
Came home to find it all working.
Now I have this box up and running for "broadcast TV" - that's it, Sky is no longer missed.
Click to expand...
Glad it's all working for you.

It's bloody crazy they don't warn people about this, it's not even clear on their website apart from mentioning some update back in Feb if you factory reset your box. I know my mum wouldn't have a clue what they were talking about.

I saw lots of reviews on Argos where people have said the box didn't work and they returned it... what a waste.
 
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