# Best Brand of SKY box? HELP!



## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

I'm currently having a complete nightmare with SKY decoders. I'm now on my 5th box in the last 2 months and this one is the worst of the lot!

- Started with a THOMSON box and it worked fine for almost a year and then started constantly "blocking" the picture.
- Sky replaced the box with a PACE one and it was no better, so they replaced the satellite core (which improved things a lot) but the box kept crashing...
- A second PACE box was then installed and blew up completely after only one day!
- They replaced this with an AMSTRAD box which worked fine for about a month - only occasional "blocking"in the picture which they put down to overhead airplanes..
- last week the Amstrad started "blocking" really bad and the picture started freezing and hanging about every day (requiring a Channel-Up, Channel-Down to fix).
- Then during the SKY technicians visit the Amstrad box completely died!  
- So he replaced it with another PACE box (which I complained about but it was all he had)
- This one is truly woeful! It doesn't last more than about 6 hours before it freezes and requires a power-off reboot.

So... I am getting a "Senior Technical Specialist" out from SKY this weekend...

Can anybody recommend what brand of SKY box is the most *reliable*?

I have heard that the PANASONIC boxes are very good....

Any thoughts?


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## hamradio (Aug 27, 2002)

Well I have been using the Panasonic Sky box for about 3 years with no problems, it seems to be the most sensitive ,Model is TU-dsb30, also the panasonic dsb31, the latter model is not quite as sensitive, but is a fraction smaller. these can be found in boot sales about £8 to 10 each or of course on E Bay, at these prices it's worth getting one as a spare, you may find your existing card will work,I have swapped my card on both above models without problems.
hope this helps


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

I have two digiboxes - both Pace and never had any problems. One is still running fine and was installed the day Sky Digital launched.

Looking at your diary of events, I would say the problem is more likely bad mains or over-heating which is causing you problems.

Freezing is often a sign of over-heating - are you putting these in an enclosed area?


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

ozsat said:


> Freezing is often a sign of over-heating - are you putting these in an enclosed area?


Good points - thanks for the ideas.

Although, it's not enclosed at all really. I have Panasonic 32" CRT TV with an "open air" cabinet. This has the Tivo on the bottom, DVD/Amp in the middle and the SKY decoder on the top (with at least 2 inches of open air above it) so it shouldn't be getting too hot. Maybe I'll try propping it up to get some airflow under it....

As for bad mains, all the components are running off an 8-way Belkin surge protector, so this should be OK......


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## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

The Obo said:


> As for bad mains, all the components are running off an 8-way Belkin surge protector, so this should be OK......


The chocolate teapot of surge protection.....

What you actually need is the Sky PSU improvement kits from CPC (eg pg 624 of 2005) one (of many) for Pace is SE00147 at £9 (Try www.cpc.co.uk). A friend fitted (actually I did) one of these in his crappy Grundig box, that was years ago and its been working 100% ever since.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

The Obo said:


> ... DVD/Amp in the middle and the SKY decoder on the top (with at least 2 inches of open air above it) so it shouldn't be getting too hot.


Some Amps can output quite a lot of heat. Not good for something sitting on top of it.

If you swapped the TiVo with the digibox, the TiVo would tell you how much the temperature goes up. Probably not very good for the TiVo though.


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

Ian_m said:


> What you actually need is the Sky PSU improvement kits from CPC (eg pg 624 of 2005) one (of many) for Pace is SE00147 at £9 (Try www.cpc.co.uk). A friend fitted (actually I did) one of these in his crappy Grundig box, that was years ago and its been working 100% ever since.


Looks like a lot of soldering required there!
What does this actually fix? (Their Description of "SATELLITE REPAIR KIT" is pretty broad... and the "Technical Description" page is blank)

Is it not better just to buy a new box? (or will this have the same problem?)

As SKY are sending out one of their "Senior Technical Specialists" in the weekend (which they assure me is quite a "priviledge" - yeah right!) I'm assuming I'll be getting yet another new box - hence the thread to try and find out which brand to insist on.....


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

iankb said:


> Some Amps can output quite a lot of heat. Not good for something sitting on top of it.


Good point - I'll put the SKY box "up on blocks".
- I can't really swap the boxes around, smallest on the bottom and largest on the top wouldn't really work too well....

If it is overheating, would this cause 2 of the SKY boxes to completely die?
(they both gave the green screen of death and would never power up again)


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

If it is overheating - it depends which component overheats first to what the sympton is - but overheating seems to be a big problem with Sky Digiboxes.

They are find on an open shelf on their own - but most set-top-boxes (not just Sky) suffer if they do not get adequate ventilation.


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## hamradio (Aug 27, 2002)

hamradio said:


> Well I have been using the Panasonic Sky box for about 3 years with no problems, it seems to be the most sensitive ,Model is TU-dsb30, also the panasonic dsb31, the latter model is not quite as sensitive, but is a fraction smaller. these can be found in boot sales about £8 to 10 each or of course on E Bay, at these prices it's worth getting one as a spare, you may find your existing card will work,I have swapped my card on both above models without problems.
> hope this helps


After my suggestion to find a secondhand Sky box to cure your problems, I went to the local boot sale at Boreham on Sunday and found a Pace digibox with all the leads Etc for £2.00, it has now been on test for nearly 24 hours and is working perfectly,so as I said find a secondhand one as a spare it may cure your problem.

Hamradio


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

I don't think it's the box...

*Latest update:*

I moved the SKY box under all other components and put it "on blocks" on it's own shelf to ensure it's running as cool as possible (my Tivo runs at a pretty constant 37 degrees on the shelf above it, which is well under any overheating limits)
So I'm now pretty sure it's not a heat issue.

SKY didn't send out their "senior technical specialist" as they promised - it was just another sub-contractor pleb.

He gave the same dazed and confused look that the rest of them had.
He tested the signal strength again - and the 4 readings he took were 93%, 98%, 85% and 99% which he assured me were the highest he has ever seen!

But... while he was there the picture was constantly blocking (and crashing on channel 163 for some reason (was E4 but is now Hollywood TV)).

So he replaced the PACE box for another AMSTRAD (a referb - they never carry brand new boxes apparently). This one is a different model from the last Amstrad they tried, he loaded the software updates, etc... but still no luck!

So he ran a brand new cable from the dish through the window to the box to ensure it wasn't the cable... and sure enough it made no difference. All the readings were the same and the picture still had blocking and crashing problems.

So he gave up and left.

So I'm about to call SKY AGAIN and give them a right bollocking - This is driving me nuts!


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

Could there be something dodgy with your viewing card, especially if it causes problems with encrypted channels?


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

Any video senders around - or mains cables running alongside satellite co-ax?


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

iankb said:


> Could there be something dodgy with your viewing card, especially if it causes problems with encrypted channels?


Thanks Ian, you could be right!

I never get problems on the 5 basic channels - or any of the FreeView channels that I can think of... whereas SKY Sports and SKY One/Two/Three are constantly crashing.

SKY have now promised a senior technician on Thursday - I'll keep an eye on it until then and suggest this to him.

So it looks like either the Power from the wall (how can I test this?) or the SKY Viewing card.....

I'll let you know what happens on Thursday.....


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

ozsat said:


> Any video senders around - or mains cables running alongside satellite co-ax?


Yes - I have a Philips V1400 video sender...
and there are cables _everywhere_ behind the TV cabinet...

BUT... when the techinican ran a brand new cable from the dish to the box, it was going nowhere near any of this and still had the same problems.

How could the video sender affect things do you think?


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

Try switching it off - some RF transmitters can interfere with some channels.


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## aerialplug (Oct 20, 2000)

With regard to reliablility, everyone wanted Sony ones when they were available but Sky stopped them making boxes as their boxes were over specified as they had digital audio out and others didn't (so the rumour went anyway). 

Panasonic are quite sought after and can cost more than others on eBay as they're generally regarded as being more sensetive and this is especially of use if you're an ex-pat living in Europe wanting to pick up signals that are only being focused on the UK.

I'm afraid I can't help too much with regard to the rest. I'm still using the first Pace box I got when I first bought into Sky Digital. It's a first generation pace and seems largely reliable despite me managing to twist off the aerial connector on the back (some very tricky soldering to fix that!). The only problem I get is that very occasionally I get the "technical fault with this channel" message for about 2 minutes after a channel change on channels that have interactive content such as BBC or Channel 4. This appears to be a Pace issue as a friend with a different model Pace box experiences it and I've seen it mentioned elsewhere on this forum.


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

*UPDATE:*

The SKY Senior Engineer came this morning and did the following:
- replaced the entire satelitte dish with a newer slightly larger one with a 4-way receiver (that is used for SKY Plus I think)
- replaced the SKY box (AGAIN) with BRAND NEW (not a referbished unit this time) AMSTRAD box - this is the 3rd different model of Amstrad I have had, this one looks like a small space ship!

So far the picture has been solid as a rock and all the dodgy channels (eg. 163) that didn't work before now work sweet...

He didn't replace the card, because that means 5 days with no SKY!
- although that is the next thing to try if things start failing again......


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

*UPDATE:*

It's now been 5 days since the dish and box were replaced and I'm happy to say there hasn't been a single problem!!! 

So looks like I'll be sticking with SKY after all.... :up:


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## deesee (Nov 4, 2002)

The Obo said:


> *UPDATE:*
> 
> It's now been 5 days since the dish and box were replaced and I'm happy to say there hasn't been a single problem!!!
> 
> So looks like I'll be sticking with SKY after all.... :up:


So which of the new parts solved the problem, i am very pleased that you have got it fixed at last, what a nightmare, but it would be nice to know what caused the problem


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## deesee (Nov 4, 2002)

deesee said:


> So which of the new parts solved the problem, i am very pleased that you have got it fixed at last, what a nightmare, but it would be nice to know what caused the problem


It`s me again Jack K----- sorry been seeing to many adverts, no its deesee on second thoughts i suspect it was the new lnb that cured it.


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

deesee said:


> So which of the new parts solved the problem, i am very pleased that you have got it fixed at last, what a nightmare, but it would be nice to know what caused the problem


Good question!!
Because he replaced almost everything at once, I guess I'll never know where the problem was...


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