Intermittent UK satellite tv signal

We’ve had tremendously gusty winds here in Maine et Loire all week, and I’m wondering whether that’s affecting my UK satellite reception? The picture and sound keep cutting out every few seconds, and it’s never done this before. Anyone else experiencing this?

It sound like your dish has be blown out of alignment.

It is not actually that difficult to realign.

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Like Mat said it sounds like an alignment problem.

Digital Alignment Checker

I found a alignment / signal strength checker for 15 euros quite useful.

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Could also be the windy conditions are moving trees about in the line of sight to the satellite which can be disruptive but as @Mat_Davies and @Grumpy_OldMan have suggested, more possibly your dish alignment.

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If really strong winds it may have blown the satellite off course…!

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or Jeff Bezos’ rocket ship knocked it out of orbit :wink:

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Thanks all for your helpful suggestions - there is a big tree thats partly in the line of the dish, so hopefully it’s that, and when the wind calms the signal will stabilise.

Any storms brewing overhead? Electrical activity in the atmosphere between your dish and the satellite is going to affect your reception.

There should be a Signal Strength page somewhere in the System or Network Info menu of your sat receiver that you can check.

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Thanks, I’ll check that out. Storms forecast for tomorrow, but it’s been like this all week.

There could be so many different reasons for this to happen. If it’s been working fine and then suddenly not, you possibly have to look at the dish, lnb, cabling or receiver for an answer. However, because a lot of France is at the edge of the satellite footprint, then “summer fade” can be an issue, especially if your using a smaller dish that may be OK in the UK. When I was in Deux Sevres (which is south of you) I needed an 80cm dish and still suffered from summer fade on HD channels, so I think you would need at least this to be comfortable. If you’ve used a standard $ky 60cm dish, then this will not be good enough, and you will certainly suffer reception issues especially in the summer.

The LNB (low noise block) on the dish could also be faulty, they dont last for ever, bad coax cable connection or kinked cable should be checked. The dishes are pretty well fixed and dont move easily.
You are just a bit north of us and we still run on a zone 1 45cm dish. Had to replace the LNB when wasps took up residence inside, that made the picture drop out as they moved around.

Thanks for that explanation, not sure what size the disc is but I’ll check.

Eek, wasps in my dish? I didn’t know that could be a thing! Thanks for the tip.

Neither did I until it happened :grinning:

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I have a 135cms sat dish that was never installed in Spain. I see a user report that 45cms is giving him a good signal in Manche and another getting good reception using an 80cm in Paris. So I should be OK with 135cms.

What I am not totally clear about is if I need a UK TV set. I think I read that FR TVs ‘disable’ UK Freesat input. But then, would it make a difference if the Freesat signal was arriving at a UK Humax Freesat S.T.B [HDR1100S] first?

Curry’s will ship a TV to FR but it would be more convenient, of course, to get one here. Erratum. No they won’t but some sellers of retail ‘returns’ will.

To get UK satellite TV you can get a Freesat box or Sky box (without the card) which will give you the free to air UK channels.
Either will work with a French supplied TV. The dish needs to be pointed at Astra 2.

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I can’t think of any reason that a French TV would not be able to display Freesat channels (assuming the dish is pointed at 28.2°E and it has a modern tuner - you need one which supports DVB-S2 for the HD channels) but what it won’t understand is the Freesat EPG, so the channels won’t be mapped to their normal channel numbers.

As Freesat itself is a UK only service only sets sold in the UK will be licenced for the EPG.

If you have a UK bought Freesat STB it will work just fine, as Graham suggests.

A UK bought TV with built-in Freesat decoder should also be fine although a “smart” TV might well need to be set-up on a UK internet connection as some use IP geolocation to decide which digital services to offer and, post-Brexit, importing one from the UK will be expensive.

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Most satellite tv systems in the EU should conform to the DBV-SI / EN 300 468 standards. I say most as $ky are an exception (they use thier own XSI specification based upon DVB-SI). That means that if you buy a tv in France, it should be DVB-SI compatible, and should be able to display an EPG that is transmitted using the DVB-SI standard, as Freesat do. There should be nothing to stop a French TV from displaying the Freesat EPG correctly. Of course, you may have to delve into an arcane menu system to achieve it, but it should be possible nevertheless. If it isn’t possible, then the tv manufacturer is on breach of EU regulations.

Edit: $ky are able to use a non DVB-SI system legally because they are in effect a closed system, that is only designed to work with thier own receivers and infrastructure. Generic TV’s need to be designed to work with any DBV-SI compatible system within the EU.

Post deleted as replies were misunderstanding my post.

My apologies for not being clearer…

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Instructions on factory-reset for LG TV’s here → https://www.support.com/how-to/how-to-factory-reset-an-lg-smart-tv-10155