My Sky box has a "no signal message" - what do I do?
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV If you are getting the message "no signal" this would indicate that there is a problem with the signal from your dish into your box. Even without a card inserted into a Sky Digibox, if there is a signal, you will always get Sky Guide and the free channels.
Try powering off your box, remove the card, check carefully the cables, especially the connection to the dish, reapply the power and then when asked to insert your card you should then be able to see (for example) Sky News on 501 and the BBC News channel on 503.
Once you can see any channel, reinsert your card. This should, after about one minute, give you the channels you expect, such as 103, 104 and 105.
There are three ways you can attempt to reset your box. Please see
What can my do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' ?.
If you continue to get "No signal", you dish may have been misaligned, or there may be a fault with the cables and connectors, or a problem with the Digibox. You can see the signal strength by pressing SERVICES, then 4-SYSTEM SETUP and 6-SIGNAL STRENGTH.
All questions
In this section
Thursday, 4 December 2014
MikeP
9:51 PM
9:51 PM
MikeB
Still discovering how to use it as no User Manual/Guide is supplied! You have to do a bit of 'FOFO'. It seems to pick up all the Freeview services via the aerial quite well and shows the BT Sport chanels plus the other BT services. The catch-up services are via the internet and although they count towards the monthly usage limits they seem pretty reasonable on my FTTC connection (running at 39 Mbps currently) and we haven't seen any buffering but we have not used it much yet. The remote control is a bit big (long but narrow and thin) and works fine but doesn't seem to have the facility to control my LG 32" Full HD TV, a bit of experimenting needed after some searching on the web. Picture quality is fine on SD services but as there are so few HD programmes we haven't had chance to compare them yet (too busy unpacking boxes still and trying to get the house ready for guests at Christmas!). I'm not displeased - especially as I got it free for six months as part of a compensation package for dreadful Customer Service when we moved (the Indian Call Centre messed everything up completely). But we benefitted from getting Infinity at the 'new customer' rates rather than the higher costs for existing customers.
The active splitter works fine for me as I can now select which inputs I want to use as the TV has Freeview HD (a DVB-T2 is built-in), satellite (it can get 798 TV services as well as 82 radio channels!), the Sky+HD box (via SCART as the HDMI does not autoselect in the same way as pin 8 of a SCART does) or the YouView box via HDMI. So we have a huge selection of programming to chose from but I doubt we will ever look at all of them!
But we can opt for whatever programme content we want irrespective of how we get it and at whatever definition suits us at the time.
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M
MikeB10:37 PM
MikeP: Sounds interesting, and I know what you mean about BT's Indian Call Centre's (which is why I'm with Virgin, I never managed to actually get BT to connect up Infinity).
I like LG's (the 5 series is great for the money), and the sat tuner is something they should make more of (or actually just mention). Certainly try the Sky box on HDMI, your'll get far more HD channels, and it should just go to the first live HDMI feed if you press source.
Its interesting that BT is giving away something for free, previously they basically rented out their Humax box - different business model?
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J
jb3811:59 PM
MikeP: Thanks for the info, those BT starter versions of their standard Humax based YouView box certainly being quite a departure from the norm, although I suppose this type of YouView box could be looked at as being the easiest way of turning a standard Freeview TV into a form of Smart TV, something that cannot normally be done.
I also feel your version of YouView box as being the type Patricia was referring to, (Dec 2nd @ 5.15PM) the lack of it having an aerial out socket being her reason for asking the question in the first place, albeit it didn't cross my mind at the time, most YouView devices whether BT or TalkTalk being enhanced PVR's, although in the case of TalkTalk the box being of a Huawei brand device.
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Saturday, 6 December 2014
MikeP
10:12 AM
10:12 AM
MikeB
To get HD on the Sky+HD box means an extra subscription charge which we are not prepared to pay for something that makes so little difference to our viewing, especially as there are still few programmes transmitted as HD - most being in SD even though they may be on an HD multiplex. Then as we have access to the HD services on Freeview that we can watch for no additional cost there is no incentive to pay more to Sky. Plus the YouView box provides HD services as well and as we are not paying the £3 extra at present (part of the compensation) then there is even less incentive to pay Sky. So taking all that into account there is no benefit from the HDMI connection for the Sky box, especially as that makes it more confusing for a non-technical family member (the wife) to get what programmes she wants to watch. (The LG does not automatically switch over to the HDMI input when the Sky box is turned on but it does when we use the SCART input, so that is easier for her).
jb38
I understand that these smaller boxes are what BT supply unless someone wants the + version for recording/playback features. I looked for information about this box on the web but have only found stuff about the PVR versions (or an Icecrypt device that is totally different!). The supplied 'User Guide' is, as usual, pretty poor for any technical information but does give basic details of how to connect it up. I'm fairly sure this box is what Patricia has as it's the norm for those taking the BT TV Starter option, the PVR boxes cost extra. It would have been nice and helpful if we heard back from Patricia, but as we haven't we can't be sure.
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MikeP
10:22 AM
10:22 AM
MikeB
BTW, the TV is an LG 32LB585V-ZM that has Freeview HD, satellite HD, 'Smart' features, etc. On the satellite section we get all the non-encrypted services including the HD ones and not just the Sky provision. Despite what the 'technical support' at LG said, it gets the programmes from all the satellites at orbital positions 28.2 and 28.5 East (as that's where the 60 cm dish is aimed) so includes some non-UK channels as well.
We're quite pleased with the TV set, good picture, easy to use once set up suitably for our needs, but waiting for the sound bar to be delivered so we can better judge the sound quality (the tiny built-in speakers are rather 'tinny', especially for music).
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MikeB8:02 PM
MikeP: Yours is the Currys version of the 580, which I really like. Great motion processing for a 100hz screen, and good value for money. Yes, its a 32in screen, so no great shakes in the audio dept, but like you say, a decent soundbar could sort that out. Its got ARC, so an HDMI soundbar would be great, but I think that LG's 320w and wified sub N3540 is great value, and not too long to fit with a 32in.
Its an interesting point about Sky - I'd heard that you still got the BBC HD channels,etc, no matter what - can anyone confirm that?
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Sunday, 7 December 2014
J
jb388:56 AM
MikeB: Although your BBC HD channels query might be in connection to MikeP's satellite scan on his LG, but purely for information purposes one of the boxes I use is a Sky+HD box on a non-subscription basis, but with its hard drive having been disconnected as it serves no purpose when the box is being used in this way. My other reason for having done this being for purposes of acoustic noise level reduction as well as an element of electrical economy.
When the box is being used in this fashion, the only HD channels I have found possible to view are all with a BBC tag attached to them, e.g: BBC1-2-3-4 HD including CBeebies HD / CBBC HD / BBC News HD, other channels being: ITV1HD inc+1 / Ch4 HD / RT HD / NHK World HD, no others being possible that I am aware of.
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MikeP
9:22 PM
9:22 PM
MikeB & jb38
I can confirm that the only HD channels I can watch on the Sky+HD box are the PSB ones, none of the commercial services are available for viewing. They are shown in the 'Guide' but in a different colour and selecting one brings up a warning that to watch this channel you need an HD subscription.
As I can get all the channels I want on HD via Freeview or Freesat I personally see no value in the expense of an additional subscription fee to Sky.
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M
MikeB9:39 PM
MikeP: & JB38: Thanks guys, you answered my question! I'd read some time back of former Sky customers with HD boxes complaining that Sky blocked the HD channels, even the PSB ones, and Sky changing their policy (after the media got involved), so the PSB ones could be viewed. I just wondered if that had actually happened. Seems it had.
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J
jb3811:33 PM
MikeB: I have never at any time found PSB related HD channels to have been blocked, although considering that HD channels received on my Sky+HD box are exactly the same as obtainable on my Humax HD Freesat PVR, I may decide to reconnect the hard drive on the Sky+HD box and just reinstall my standard Sky box, as many of the channels viewed by my family on the Sky+HD box are only broadcast in SD anyway.
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