It's driving me crazy!

[Musicmonkey1]

I had Sky+ installed a few months ago and very good it is too. However I have another box in my daughters bedroom with a sky freesat card and recently she has started to have reception problems with channel 4 pixellating and sound drop outs. OK I've heard about channel 4 moving to Astra 2d but the problem is now worse with other channels (but not all) suffering from pixellation and sound drop outs. So up onto the roof for me with a new sat meter! I've realigned the dish, replaced the LNB and tried swapping the digibox (both Panasonic TU-DSB31s.) I've also tried powering down the LNB and doing an engineers reinstall all to no avail.

The signal strength and quality in the system setup menu are sitting at about 90% which is about the best I've ever seen. I'm located on the South Coast of England so am well within the Satellite's footprint.

Oh yes I've also tried switching off my Router and Dect phones but it's made no difference. I have a sneaky feeling that renewing the cable run (cable is only 12 months old) isn't going to help either!

If anyone has a solution to this please tell me what to do. My Sky+ box running off the same dish is working like a charm.

[Saturday]

You've changed the LNB and checked alignment so if your Sky+ box is fine then all it can be is the box itself or the cable. Swap the boxes over and if your daughter's box is now OK then it's the cable (remember, cable includes the sat cable and the cable you use to connect the box to the TV). If it is still bad then it's the box.

I'm wondering if it's the cable you're using to connect box to TV.

[Proppinupthebar]

I had Sky+ installed a few months ago and very good it is too. However I have another box in my daughters bedroom with a sky freesat card and recently she has started to have reception problems with channel 4 pixellating and sound drop outs. OK I've heard about channel 4 moving to Astra 2d but the problem is now worse with other channels (but not all) suffering from pixellation and sound drop outs. So up onto the roof for me with a new sat meter! I've realigned the dish, replaced the LNB and tried swapping the digibox (both Panasonic TU-DSB31s.) I've also tried powering down the LNB and doing an engineers reinstall all to no avail.

The signal strength and quality in the system setup menu are sitting at about 90% which is about the best I've ever seen. I'm located on the South Coast of England so am well within the Satellite's footprint.

Oh yes I've also tried switching off my Router and Dect phones but it's made no difference. I have a sneaky feeling that renewing the cable run (cable is only 12 months old) isn't going to help either!

If anyone has a solution to this please tell me what to do. My Sky+ box running off the same dish is working like a charm.

This is interesting, I also have a mate who has a Panasonic which is also playing up on various channels very intermittently. It seems to be worst around 6.30pm.

[Sam Radford]

Look at the "Picture" menu and change the video setting from RGB to PAL.

[Proppinupthebar]

Look at the "Picture" menu and change the video setting from RGB to PAL.

Whats your thinking Sam?

[Musicmonkey1]

I have tried switching from RGB to PAL and it's made no difference at all to the interference/pixellation (although picture quality overall is not so good)

[Musicmonkey1]

I have now changed the cable as well and guess what? no improvement! The signal test shows 100% signal strength and 90% signal quality. I just don't know what else to do!

[Sam Radford]

Whats your thinking Sam?

Many Panasonic Digiboxes develop a tuner fault that causes picture problems ONLY when RGB is selected.

As the OP says my suggestion didn't help, I now suggest replacing the Digibox with a Pace.

[Musicmonkey1]

Well I'd already tried two different Panasonic TU-DSB31 receivers without any improvement but given the advice here, I disconnected my Amstrad sky+ box (in the lounge) and tried that. Bingo problem went away immediately so the tuner problem affects BOTH my Panasonics. I'm now busy looking for a used Pace DS430N which seems to get good reviews.

Can anyone recommend a better box than this one?

[Sam Radford]

No, the DS430N is the fastest box that Pace ever made.