Confusion over recording from different channels at the same time

PokerP

New Member
Hello Freesatters

We elected to join your ranks after finding out how much Sky had increased our bill to without alerting us to the price hike.
We were paying almost £500 a year, when Sky content only accounted for about 25% of our viewing.

We got a Foxsat-HDR from ebay, which seems to work just fine apart from some recording issues.

We soon worked out we needed to input our postcode and to do a full channel rescan.

As we were learning the nuances of the Foxsat box we encountered some recording issues, e.g. being told there was a recording clash when were clearly only recording 2 things.
However the real surprise was finding out how limited we were as to which channels were available during recordings;
Whilst only recording ITV (SD) there were over 50 channels that we could not view.
Whilst only recording Dave (SD) there were only 2 other channels that we COULD watch (Drama & Yesterday)

Are we doing something wrong?
If we're not, is there a freesat beginners guide that someone could recommend to help us understand the limitations of our box?

Thanks in advance

PokerP
 
Hi I am not a Freesatter, but I think your problem may be due to the different modes that the Low Noise Block (LNB) in your dish is able to operate in at any one time, here is a table of the modes :-

2020-04-11_08.24.24.jpg

I think the restriction you see maybe due to only one of these modes being available at any one time but I'm sure someone with more knowledge of satellite reception will be along soon to put you straight
 
Ditto (not a sat user), so please excuse any inaccuracies but this might help.

It is certainly a basic condition of satellite reception that (for a single LNB with a single downlink cable) you can only access one quarter of the channels at one time. A signal is sent to the LNB (up the same cable, by pulsing the power feed) to select which particular quarter. See Glossary (click) item "LNB" for more description.

However, the Foxsat has two antenna inputs, for a dual LNB. It should be the case that if one input is dedicated to a particular service in a particular quadrant, all the other services in that same quadrant are also available, and any services in one different quadrant are available through the other tuner.

Could it be that you don't have the second antenna input connected, or your dual LNB is only half working, or only one tuner in the Foxsat is working?

There is also a conflict between operating in Freesat and non-Freesat modes (making services available that are not on the Freesat list).

I'm sure a forum search (restricted to this section of the forum) will yield information.

Basic forum user guide here: Newbies' Guide to the Forum (click)
 
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Please find attached a table which shows the frequency block and polarity for most of the Freesat channels.

Two of my Foxsat HDRs have only one LNB input and a short link cable from 'LNB1 OUT' to 'LNB2 IN'. This allows me to record two channels providing they are both in the same frequency block and polarity.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Correction to table
 

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a short link cable from 'LNB1 OUT' to 'LNB2 IN'
As we were learning the nuances of the Foxsat box we encountered some recording issues, e.g. being told there was a recording clash when were clearly only recording 2 things.
Yes, the lack of a second tuner by not having the daisy-chain link above would explain this. With the link, you will be able to record two services simultaneously (but only from services in the same quadrant). IIRC you have to use the menus to tell the Foxsat how many tuners you are using (don't quote me on that!).

However, to gain maximum flexibility you need two separate feeds, one to each tuner input. By pure coincidence I picked up a SKY+HD box yesterday, it was being dumped. The Sky box has two antenna inputs, for exactly that reason. What I need somebody with more domain knowledge to tell us is whether the Sky broadcasting system uses all four quadrants or only half of them - if it only uses half, it is entirely possible a Sky-supplied dish+LNB cannot access services in the other half at all.

Then there's a question of which way the dish is pointing. Does Sky broadcast from the same satellite, or a satellite in near enough the same direction, as Freesat?
 
Then there's a question of which way the dish is pointing. Does Sky broadcast from the same satellite, or a satellite in near enough the same direction, as Freesat?

I believe the all the channels available on Freesat are the same as the Sky ones just a different EPG. In fact, when I chucked Sky out I just plugged in my Foxsat HDRs with no change to the dish at all.
 
Presumably you have both the ex-Sky cables connected to the two outer F Type sockets on the box.
For full recording flexibility, you need two cables from the LNB AND the box to realise it's got two and switch to two cable mode. If you only have/had one cable connected when you initially set it up, it will set up in single cable mode and severely restrict your recording options and just adding the second cable won't switch it to two cable mode.
The short link mentioned above is a fudge to make the best of a bad job for those users with only one LNB cable available.
 
Then there's a question of which way the dish is pointing. Does Sky broadcast from the same satellite, or a satellite in near enough the same direction, as Freesat?
Yes. It's exactly the same transmitted data (just the one stream per channel. Not duplicated fro Sky/Freesat) from the Astra sat group at 28.2E. It's just that Freesat and Sky have different EPGS listing some different programmes. And of course the Sky boxes can decrypt the exclusive to Sky programmes.
 
For full recording flexibility, you need two cables from the LNB AND the box to realise it's got two and switch to two cable mode. If you only have/had one cable connected when you initially set it up, it will set up in single cable mode and severely restrict your recording options and just adding the second cable won't switch it to two cable mode.
That's what I was alluding to:
IIRC you have to use the menus to tell the Foxsat how many tuners you are using


I think it's time we heard from the OP again!
 
Wow, so many responses so quickly.
Ty to you all.

Ok, firstly we do have 2 cables from the old sky dish.
We also have 2 tuners. According to the diagnostics section of our HDR they are both Strength 100% and Quality 100%, however they both have identical info next to them "12129, V, 27500, 5/6"
We can definitely record 2 things at once and watch a 3rd channel because we have tested this, although the same situation occurs where we seem to have a reduced channel availability once we start the 1st recording.
For full recording flexibility, you need two cables from the LNB AND the box to realise it's got two and switch to two cable mode.
This feels close to what we are experiencing. How do you get the box to 'realise'/switch to 2 cable mode?
 
BINGO !!!

A factory reset seems to have done the trick.
We can now record a channel and appear to have unlimited viewing of all the other channels.
Recording a second channel then restricts which other channels we can view but that sounds completely normal, and still better than Sky.

Thank you to all who took the time to post some advice

PokerP
 
Recording a second channel then restricts which other channels we can view but that sounds completely normal
Yes, ditto with a dual-tuner Freeview PVR. When you record from two different quadrants you can only view a third from the same two quadrants - ie you are denied about half the services. But on Freeview, the band is divided into something like 9 multiplexes (depending where you are), so HDR-FOX users are restricted (for a third service) to something like 22% of the services.
 
What are these 'quadrants' that you mentioned above BH? Never heard that term before WRT Freeview or any Humax box I have owned.

@PokerP
It seems that someone (you?) factory reset it with only one cable connected so it went into the single cable mode.
 
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