All posts by Simon
Below are all of Simon's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Hello jamie
Thankyou. Hmm, I felt that the whole sky box thing wasn't right. Wasn't very impressed with that. So am I right in thinking then that the two blokes possibly do not know as much as they need to? On the second visit they were adamant it was installed correctly and said with satellites it was either aligned properly or not aligned...and therefore it worked or didn't. ..which clearly isn't the case.
I suppose then I'd need to get another aerial installer in to fix it? Not happy at all.
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Hello again,
Could you tell me/explain to me why the Skybox was able to pick up the missing channels when connected to one side of the shotgun cable, and yet the TV wasn't able to? I have somehow be able to speak to these aerial installers but if I don't know why they can keep telling me their box works so it is my TV. I've decided not to let them get away with it as I've just paid £140 for it to be installed (price included two freeview runs to bedrooms from existing aerial....cable is very thin white stuff coming in through loft).
These are local installers, not far from me, and I'm finding it difficult to get them to acknowledge that it's their problem. So if anyone could give me enough info so I can call and lay the problem back at their door?
Thanks.
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That's the thing, they plugged their sky box in to my tv they didn't scan anything. It was ready to go with a load of channels already. But all the channel numbers were completely different to freesat and a lot of the channels weren't on freesat at all I noticed...but amazingly this chap knew where to find the ones missing on my tv...and they worked. He didn't actually check the signal strength at all.. on either the skybox or my tv...nothing. Just said, "there, done". When I said it was something to do with the flats they wouldn't have it and said that 'if it was the flats our box wouldn't work now would it'. Of course I don't know anything but my gut was telling me that it wasn't right.
I checked the website and it displays a graphic containing the freeview log and freesat logo on the right side, but there's nothing about being an approved installer. Flip.
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Thanks, jamie
I eventually got through to them again on their mobile number. They were having none of it though. Told me it was fitted correctly, and one said he was 98 percent certain that moving the dish to the chimney stack wouldn't make any difference. But if I wanted it moved it would be another £45 to £50. But they made it clear that they didn't want to do it and kept telling me the problem was down to my TV's freesat tuner. I've got a Samsung 46UEF8000 tv with both freeview and freesat: one freeview and two freesat inputs to use as a PVR. I get all the freesat channels except the 18 missing channels which show as weak signal. If it was my TV is would be missing the other channels I would have thought? The HD channels show 100% signal and about 50% quality and the others vary from 12 to 15 to 60 percent signal and 45 to 60 percent quality. That seems wrong. Anyway, it's got the point now where I don't believe a word they say, and really don't trust them to come back and do a proper job; the chap who drilled the whole through the living room wall pulled a book off of my shelf and used it to catch the brick dust! I kid you not. I also looked in the loft and they've run BSkyB shotgun cable from one side of the loft to the other and haven't used any clips and so it is just suspended almost in mid air and hangs down. Not enough slack to clip it around the joists either....too short. The aerial splitter is hanging in mid air not attached to anything and the cables were barely attached to the splitter. I'm surprised there was a signal quite honestly. I tightened them up. A rubbish job. Spoke to a chap from the CAI and he said that the bloke wasn't a member but he knew of him and had been in the trade for years so was surprised and I should get him to sort it out or ask for a refund. Not much chance of that as he didn't give me any paperwork and insists the job is okay...in his world it may be but not up to my standards. He lives streets away from me so he's got some front!
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Thanks again, jamie.
Good idea re freesat box. I'll see if I can get someone to test it for free, but if not, I'll look for a cheap freesat box and test it if it works out cheaper. Then I guess I'll have to get it sorted....but this time round I'll want guarantees on paper and a promise of a standard of workmanship. I don't understand people like them. I just couldn't leave a job (any job) in an equivalent state. It would nag away at me until I put it right if I ever did. But it's my money down the drain as well.
Anyhow, thanks for responses. This has been very frustrating and stressful and it's good to get some help. Cheers.
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Hi Bill
Not sure, sorry. But looking about I don't think that you can actually watch BT Sport via anything other than a browser unless you get BT YouView or BT Vision or have Sky with BT broadband. The ethernet socket wouldn't help unless the freeview box included the bt sport service/player app to begin with, if you see what I mean.
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Thursday 28 November 2013 9:41AM
Hi
I had a dish installed yesterday for freesat, for my new Samsung TV. I live between two blocks of flats and I tought the dish would have had to have been on the chimney to get line of sight, but the two blokes that installed it said all was okay to install on the back of the house. But after they left I discovered that I could not get 18 channels. They showed me the main HD channels and some others before leaving, so not the main ones, but nonetheless. The TV displays weak signal / check settings on certain channel numbers and no picture. So called the people back. First they said it isn't normal to be able to pick all the channels up. But I said my mate gets them all. So then they got a battered sky box out of their van and plugged it into my new TV using an adaptor and found some of the channels I could not get...different numbers though. They said it was therefore my Samsung TV that was the problem. I am confused. I found where to check the signal strength and on some of the channels I'm getting it varies between 48 to 60 % but some are 12%. The signal quality of the main channels (like BBC1HD) is 100%, but signal strength is 50%ish. They said there was nothing I could do. This doesn't feel right. The chap doing the tuning in said he couldn't work out why the tv was showing eutelsat 28.5E when it was tuning, but I found both Astra and eutelsat on the channel list afterwards. So it tuned to both. He said that was the problem. He didn't know what eutelsat was. I am confused. I cannot get channels 142, 302, 303 500, 501, 502, 503, 505,506, 603,604, 605, 606, 690, 810, 811, 812, 813.
Can anyone perhaps shed any light?