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Openbox V8S Freezing / Scrambled Problem

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djspenna

Newbie
Good morning. Hope someone can help me !!! I recently purchased an Openbox V8S with a 24 month subscription. All set up and working fine until about a week ago. A couple of the channels started freezing for approx 5-6 seconds then they would work again. Also some would come up “scrambled” but would come on if i went up 1 channel and then back down to that same channel. I messaged the guy i got the box from and he asked me to send him a pic of my Antenna Setup screen which i did. He replied and told me that because my signal strength was only at 53% I would need to fit an 80cm dish with a quad LNB. I then spoke to a couple of fitters who said they would charge up to £60 to fit the dish for me. Add to this £30.00 approx for the dish and its £90 plus. If you add cost of the box itself it starts to become a bit costly. I asked if i actually needed a new dish and would this definitely solve the freezing/scrambled channels problem and he said i could try mowing the dish to see if this helped at all. They were freezing and coming up scrambled again last night and my signal strength had actually improved to 60%

My main question is, would i be able to move the dish myself or am i best getting someone in ?? I don’t have one of those sat finder meter things neither. To move the dish is it as simple as go up the ladder and gently move the dish up and down or side to side or is it more technical ??

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
no need to do that sky dish is good enough can you try it on another dish alot of issues with signal on V8's some boxes are faulty alot of threads on here about it where are you ?
 
Hello bazza8952. I'm in Walsall, West Mids. Haven't got another dish to try it on. Is there any other way I can test the box ??
 
whats your signal rate on fta channels? that should give you a guide to the dish being the issue, you should have 100 % on fta or pretty much near to it
 
djspenna said:
garyth, checked ITV4 this morning...was getting 70% plus if i remember correctly....
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Id be looking towards dish re alignment, no need for a new dish as above, any aerial eng could come out and re align that dish in 5 mins. You should see a vast improvement when that's done and your fta should show pretty much 100% all the time.
 
Thanks for advice garyth.....I thought i didn't need a new dish.......what do you reckon they would charge for doing that ?? Its not something I could do then ?? Don't suppose you know of anyone in the West Midlands area who could come and sort it for me do you ?? Called one bloke over weekend and explained problem and said would be £40 which i though was a bit steep

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bazza, should i be emailing bloke i bought it off and ask him to exchange it for me ?? All he probably tell me is to get a new dish or realign the one i've got now ?? If you are close to Walsall, West Mids I could bring it you or would you be able to come and look at it for me please ??
 
If you can access it yourself, it would take you two mins. It probably needs a little nudge, could just have been bad weather that's shifted it. The fact you state is was working fine, says to me your signal was fine and the fact itv 4 shows 70 odd % is a pointer to the dish. I'd give it a bash yourself and remember it only needs a little movement to be corrected.
 
Thanks for info/advice garyth. Maybe being a bit thick but do i simply move it left or right, then check signal on Antenna Setup screen ?? And keep doing that till it gets to 100% or very close ?? Do i need to turn box off first ??
 
try a test line off some one else before messing about with your dish,i only get about 70% signal on my dish on free view and i fit dishes ,
 
Maybe there are issues with these boxes as Ive never had a signal rate of 70% with fta or fta hd. My dreambox have always shown 100 and always been a good pointer to the dish being the issue
 
Hi 1554leslie. Thanks for your advice, apologies for being a bit thick but whats a "test line" ?? I'm sure that when I bought this box the bloke i had it off sent me a print out saying about installing 3rd party firmware and similar. If i did that it would knacker the box/settings/etc and would not be covered for any support
 
Test line is a server that gives you access to sly channels which your box will have,you can keep the details of your server and re install it,I had 4 people on the weekend with the same problem that had bought a box off flea bay and their channels were freezing and scrambling nothing to do with the dish at all,you delete your existing server off your box and try one off some one else to see if its a bad server off your buyer which is causing the problem,A testline/server will rule out the dish or not,drop me a pm and will be happy to give you one to rule out dish or not and mine wont scrabble if dish is in the right place,you will need a bit of knowledge to do this so you might want to read up a little bit on your box how to do it,or use youtube videos
 
1554leslie said:
Test line is a server that gives you access to sly channels which your box will have,you can keep the details of your server and re install it,I had 4 people on the weekend with the same problem that had bought a box off flea bay and their channels were freezing and scrambling nothing to do with the dish at all,you delete your existing server off your box and try one off some one else to see if its a bad server off your buyer which is causing the problem,A testline/server will rule out the dish or not,drop me a pm and will be happy to give you one to rule out dish or not and mine wont scrabble if dish is in the right place,you will need a bit of knowledge to do this so you might want to read up a little bit on your box how to do it,or use youtube videos
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Do you have any ideas as to their signal rates, is there a bad batch of boxes on fleabay do you think? Just before he starts being bombarded with crap test lines. Sorry hopefully not the case as I've just seen your invite to try one of yours!
 
My advice if you are still having issues, its worth investing in a Satellite finder -( £6.00 aprox: on line) eve if you have to use it only once. The dish is fairly easy to adjust/move if you can get to it. All you will need is adjustable spanner or a pair of pliers. The LNB comes with a small level, ensure the level show the LNB is positioned correctly.
 
Always best to buy your own box and try out a few test lines 1st,if happy with test line just have a month to see if line is good before committing to longer term deal

---------- Post Merged at 01:10 PM ----------

Cheap sat finder is ok but still wont be 100%,use the box reading as well
 
Hi. Thanks for info. Will pm now

1554leslie said:
Test line is a server that gives you access to sly channels which your box will have,you can keep the details of your server and re install it,I had 4 people on the weekend with the same problem that had bought a box off flea bay and their channels were freezing and scrambling nothing to do with the dish at all,you delete your existing server off your box and try one off some one else to see if its a bad server off your buyer which is causing the problem,A testline/server will rule out the dish or not,drop me a pm and will be happy to give you one to rule out dish or not and mine wont scrabble if dish is in the right place,you will need a bit of knowledge to do this so you might want to read up a little bit on your box how to do it,or use youtube videos
Click to expand...
 
Morning all, quick update. Was watching ITV4 this morning and signal strength was 80%. Also tried pay channels and they were 80% BUT ITV4 froze twice while watching an hour long programme. Any thoughts ??
 
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