Question about communal satellite systems

What reasons why a Sky box connected to a communal system would not work as
well as when connected to an individual dish?

By working not as well, I mean;
Taking longer to change channels / decode the signal
Premier channels not working, like movie premier
More pixelation / freezes
I ask this because these are all symptoms being reported by some residents
after communal systems were recently installed, comprising of a communal
dish, head-end of amplifiers and splitters, and the new Sky+ sockets in each
home...
TIA

Well, someone needs to first find out how many get the problem, ie is it
general, in which case a a stern word to the company responsible should sort
it, if its OK for some and not for others, then that might be something
else entirely. I'd say the company ought to sort it myself.

The obvious thing is to check what is actually happening at every stage
until one finds where its going wrong.

Myself, I'd keep clear of these things. Sounds like a quick way to the
madhouse!

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"GTS" wrote in message
...
What reasons why a Sky box connected to a communal system would not work
as well as when connected to an individual dish?

By working not as well, I mean;
Taking longer to change channels / decode the signal
Premier channels not working, like movie premier
More pixelation / freezes
I ask this because these are all symptoms being reported by some residents
after communal systems were recently installed, comprising of a communal
dish, head-end of amplifiers and splitters, and the new Sky+ sockets in
each home...
TIA

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
m...
Well, someone needs to first find out how many get the problem, ie is it
general, in which case a a stern word to the company responsible should
sort it, if its OK for some and not for others, then that might be
something else entirely. I'd say the company ought to sort it myself.

The obvious thing is to check what is actually happening at every stage
until one finds where its going wrong.

Myself, I'd keep clear of these things. Sounds like a quick way to the
madhouse!

Brian

Hard to say how general the problem is, complaints about these issues have
come from only a handfull of people, out of thousands - but it is not known
what percentage are using satellite. It has been suggested that some
particular Sky box models are known to not work well on communal systems -
sound plausible? Even if this is the case, Sky will not replace a box
without charge, even if it is under warranty they can argue that it does
work fine on an individual dish...

On Dec 7, 4:23*pm, "GTS" wrote:
What reasons why a Sky box connected to a communal system would not work as
well as when connected to an individual dish?

By working not as well, I mean;
* * Taking longer to change channels / decode the signal
* * Premier channels not working, like movie premier
* * More pixelation / freezes
I ask this because these are all symptoms being reported by some residents
after communal systems were recently installed, comprising of a communal
dish, head-end of amplifiers and splitters, and the new Sky+ sockets in each
home...
TIA

Although the characteristics of the signal delivered from a system can
be different to those of the signals delivered from a minidish, any
receiver should be able to work properly on either. The other side of
the coin is that the signals from either a system or a minidish should
be within certain parameters. If you are finding that a significant
number of receivers are not working properly from the new system it
suggests strongly that the systems is providing signals outside the
accepted parameters. You could then have a situation in which Receiver
A will work from Outlet Z but Receiver B won't. If you also find that
Receiver C will work from Outlet Y but Receiver D won't, and so on,
then you have a faulty system, not a lot of faulty receivers.
Demonstrating good reception with Receivers A and C proves absolutely
nothing. An occasional problem with a receiver, say one in fifty, is
one thing, but there shouldn't be complaints from a much bigger
proportion than that.

A good system will provide signal levels that are roughly at the
optimum level for the receiver. Minidishes with short cables will
provide levels that are a bit too high. A good system will provide
signals that have a far better BER (data error rate) than a minidish.
A good system will be far less prone to rainfade than a minidish.

Bill

" wrote in message
...
On Dec 7, 4:23 pm, "GTS" wrote:
What reasons why a Sky box connected to a communal system would not work as
well as when connected to an individual dish?

By working not as well, I mean;
Taking longer to change channels / decode the signal
Premier channels not working, like movie premier
More pixelation / freezes
I ask this because these are all symptoms being reported by some residents
after communal systems were recently installed, comprising of a communal
dish, head-end of amplifiers and splitters, and the new Sky+ sockets in each
home...
TIA

Although the characteristics of the signal delivered from a system can
be different to those of the signals delivered from a minidish, any
receiver should be able to work properly on either. The other side of
the coin is that the signals from either a system or a minidish should
be within certain parameters. If you are finding that a significant
number of receivers are not working properly from the new system it
suggests strongly that the systems is providing signals outside the
accepted parameters. You could then have a situation in which Receiver
A will work from Outlet Z but Receiver B won't. If you also find that
Receiver C will work from Outlet Y but Receiver D won't, and so on,
then you have a faulty system, not a lot of faulty receivers.
Demonstrating good reception with Receivers A and C proves absolutely
nothing. An occasional problem with a receiver, say one in fifty, is
one thing, but there shouldn't be complaints from a much bigger
proportion than that.

A good system will provide signal levels that are roughly at the
optimum level for the receiver. Minidishes with short cables will
provide levels that are a bit too high. A good system will provide
signals that have a far better BER (data error rate) than a minidish.
A good system will be far less prone to rainfade than a minidish.

Bill



I found that a slight off frequency LNB LO can affect some makes of
box but not others. Amstrad DRX400 and Grundig GDS3000 were
particularly affected and I came the conclusion that these had a more
limited AFC characteristic.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Thank you for the input all - I will check the make and model of the problem
boxes to see if there is a trend, and at least I now have some leads to
follow up.

On Dec 7, 10:41*pm, "Graham." wrote:
" wrote in message

...
On Dec 7, 4:23 pm, "GTS" wrote:

What reasons why a Sky box connected to a communal system would not work as
well as when connected to an individual dish?

By working not as well, I mean;
Taking longer to change channels / decode the signal
Premier channels not working, like movie premier
More pixelation / freezes
I ask this because these are all symptoms being reported by some residents
after communal systems were recently installed, comprising of a communal
dish, head-end of amplifiers and splitters, and the new Sky+ sockets in each
home...
TIA

Although the characteristics of the signal delivered from a system can
be different to those of the signals delivered from a minidish, any
receiver should be able to work properly on either. The other side of
the coin is that the signals from either a system or a minidish should
be within certain parameters. If you are finding that a significant
number of receivers are not working properly from the new system it
suggests strongly that the systems is providing signals outside the
accepted parameters. You could then have a situation in which Receiver
A will work from Outlet Z but Receiver B won't. If you also find that
Receiver C will work from Outlet Y but Receiver D won't, and so on,
then you have a faulty system, not a lot of faulty receivers.
Demonstrating good reception with Receivers A and C proves absolutely
nothing. An occasional problem with a receiver, say one in fifty, is
one thing, but there shouldn't be complaints from a much bigger
proportion than that.

A good system will provide signal levels that are roughly at the
optimum level for the receiver. Minidishes with short cables will
provide levels that are a bit too high. A good system will provide
signals that have a far better BER (data error rate) than a minidish.
A good system will be far less prone to rainfade than a minidish.

Bill



I found that a slight off frequency LNB LO can affect some makes of
box but not others. Amstrad DRX400 and Grundig GDS3000 were
particularly affected and I came the conclusion that these had a more
limited AFC characteristic.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

That's interesting. I've never quite managed to link specific
receivers with this fault, but I have noticed that some residents
complain and some don't! In a way I'm surprised that receiver AFC has
this effect. Are Sky boxes programed with a specific channel set?

BTW, we had a complaint from one resident only in a block of 66 the
other day, and HH was 20dB down from the LNB!

Bill

"GTS" wrote in message
...
What reasons why a Sky box connected to a communal system would not work
as well as when connected to an individual dish?

By working not as well, I mean;
Taking longer to change channels / decode the signal
Premier channels not working, like movie premier
More pixelation / freezes
I ask this because these are all symptoms being reported by some residents
after communal systems were recently installed, comprising of a communal
dish, head-end of amplifiers and splitters, and the new Sky+ sockets in
each home...
TIA



Possible reasons: -

Insertion loss.

Poor amplifier.

Damaged cable (breaks; shorts etc.)

The most likely reason is that the installers have not fitted a bigger dish
(with higher [noise free] gain) and that with the reduction in S/N ratio
going through the distribution system your signal is now marginal at the
plate.

On Dec 9, 12:42*am, "R. Mark Clayton"
wrote:
The most likely reason is that the installers have not fitted a bigger dish
(with higher [noise free] gain) and that with the reduction in S/N ratio
going through the distribution system your signal is now marginal at the
plate.

Or as we in the trade would say, 'someone did a crap job'.

Bill