Sky TV problems help required.

I've just had the day off rearranging our lounge in preparation for the arrival of baby two


As a result I've had to move the TV from one side of the room to the other.


Because the coaxial cable isn't long enough to do this I've had to extend it using a standard connection and have now run the cable under the skirting board (laminate flooring prevents a more direct route)


I now have no sky signal.



I've not plugged the Sky box in to the phoneline as it never has been in the first place (and the new location is away from the phone connection anyway).



Any suggestions?


cheers

 

Hmm, we had that problem with NTL but we rang them up and the engineer just boosted the signal from the local connection box.

Not sure how that works with Sky.

 

If it's only across the room then you really shouldn't get any signal loss. Remember, some people have boxes in different rooms with no issues - I believe you can run 4 standard boxes, or 2 HD boxes from a single mini-dish

The above poster's "boost the signal from source" idea won't work as you've got satelite, not cable. However, you could buy a simple electronic booster box (from currys etc etc) to test this hypothesis. If it makes no difference then get your money back.

 

And DON'T TELL THEM it is not plugged into the phone line.
They go potty about that.
They even tried charging my mate for NOT having it plugged into the phone line.
They wante dto hit him with an extra £10 a month!!!!

 

It's not a case of signal loss, it's more a case of no signal full stop.


I think I may not have the coaxial cables done up properly but I can't play with that until later now.

 

Yeah, it sounds like a cable problem. Extending one like that probably isn't good. If you need a longer cable you might have to get a new one run from the dish LNB to the Sky box.

 

Thats what I thought it may be.


It took me two hours to relay this cable and I don't fancy doing it again



I'll play about a bit more but if all else fails I'll run a new sodding cable.

 

What's a standard connection? If you are using standard TV co-axial cable then I think that it will not work. You need to use Satellite co-ax with a proper connection piece to join the two.

If you have had your Sky connection for over a year then there is no need to connect the phone line.

On a seperate "Sky Problems" issue, I have noticed that I am being requested for my PIN for some movies/programmes that may contain adultish themes when shown earlier in the evening. As I can't remember my PIN this could get a bit annoying. Anyone else suffer from this?

 

Standard connection - a coaxial to coaxial connector (female-female). An easy way to extend the cable length.



I didn'y know there was sky quality coaxial


Trip to B&Q needed?

 

I think so, I had to extend my cable ( oh-er! ) myself, bought some Satelitte cable and a special connecter as well. Works fine so I would suggest that you start there.

 

I was thinking this, as I am pretty sure the cable isn't standard Co-ax

 

Yeah, definitely not normal co-ax. I moved my Sky+ box as well, so had to extend both cables. You need digital co-ax, sometimes called satellite co-ax, and special F-type connectors to extend it.

Just check something with me, the cable from you LNB should have this fancy screw adaptor on the end that connects to your Sky box, yes? This is separate to the aerial adapator that also plugs into the box.

If you try to extend the Sky cable with ordinary co-ax and connector, it just won't work, the signal degradation will be so high that you just won't get a signal.

To extend your Sky cable, you'll need some satellite cable CT100 (I think Maplins call it FT100), about £1.29 per metre, then the way I did it was to buy 2 f-type plugs for each end of the new cable, and an f-type female to female connector to join the two cables. Once I'd tested that the signal was good, I wrapped the entire connection in electrical tape to seal it. Works a treat. Doubled the length of my cable with no signal strength loss and no signal quality loss.

 

On a seperate "Sky Problems" issue, I have noticed that I am being requested for my PIN for some movies/programmes that may contain adultish themes when shown earlier in the evening. As I can't remember my PIN this could get a bit annoying. Anyone else suffer from this?

I had the same problem trying to view a film on Sky Movies 9 before the watershed. I hunted through all my Sky documentation and found a folder on the PIN. It is the last 4 digits of your viewing card number (unless you changed it). Now, I have had Sky long enough to have had a few viewing cards and it was the last 4 digits of the original one. (Luckily I had written it down!) You only get a few shots at trying it so if you fail you might have to give Sky a call. If you still have your Sky paperwork look for a pamphlet that tells about your installation and using your PIN. It has a place to note the number and that's where I found I had it written.

Note - if you are getting the 'Enter PIN' message just by channel-hopping and you don't want to watch the film, just channel up or down to get past it.

 

Oh dear! I have had a few cards over the years and I really have no idea where my original paperwork is. I suppose that I could always get Sky to reset my PIN but that might mean connecting my phone line, something I don't want to do. I'll give Sky a ring tomorrow and see what they say.

 

very useful thread, honestly. Ive been thinking about moving my TV set up across the room and this has highlighted a host of problems I never knew I may have !

 

I have decided to take the Looooooong walk to Maplins in Manchester on my lunch and get about 3miles* of Satelite suitable cable.


I expect to be duly ripped off but as I want to watch sky so I can see what "A Town Like Eureka" is like I think I need to do this sooenr rather than later.



I will post an update tonight so that when it fails due to me having broken some major component you can all laugh at me.







*15 sodding meters of the stuff.

 

@ Mr Big Lounge.

 

Hope it works out for you.

My PIN is 0000 easy to remember I don't have kids, and would prefer to not require a PIN, but it's maybe for the best as it stops me accidentally buy a PPV when I come home drunk, and am simply trying to find SkySports1