Freesat setup on a Sony TV
Freesat setup on a Sony TV
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Discussion

eein

Original Poster:

1,486 posts

281 months

Wednesday 21st April 2021
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Hi,

Looking for some advice on the correct settings to get freesat tuned on my Sony TV.

Background - I got a new TV ariel and a satellite dish put up a couple of years ago. Freeview works fine, however at the time my TV did not do freesat. It has since had an update and now supports freesat (Sony AF9). At the time the installer showed me the satellite feed working on his test device and my TV was able to see a signal, just not tune in to it.

Now - I had since disconnected the cable from the wall socket to the TV, so I'm not sure which connection to reconnect. I also don't know what settings to choose on the TV. I've tried various combinations, but not found one that works. So I'm keen for any advice to try before I go and get the installer back (which I'm happy to do, but if you can all help me that'd be quicker and cheaper!).

The ariel and satellite dish come in to the loft for distribution to multiple sockets around the house. Below are the connections.



The connection behind the TV has two "SAT" connections, shown below. My TV has a Main and Sub input connection, so I dont know if I connect just one of these to the Main, or connect both to Main and Sub (the tuning options appear to allow me to choose either approach).

(the right angled connection is in to the TV socket and it works fine.



The options I get asked on the TV are:
Select your satellite antenna configuration - No switching device | Single cable distribution | DiSEqC

If No switching device then:
Do you have a dedicated satellite feed to both MAIN and SUB tuners? - Yes | No

If Single cable distribution then:
Do you have 2 user bands for the MAIN and SUB tuners? - 2 bands | 1 band
Select your band for your MAIN tuner - Band 1 1284 MHz | Band 2 1400 MHz | ... etc ... | Band 8 2096 MHz
Select your band for your SUB tuner - Band 1 1284 MHz | Band 2 1400 MHz | ... etc ... | Band 8 2096 MHz



Lucid_AV

452 posts

52 months

Thursday 22nd April 2021
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If what I'm seeing in your top image is everything you have in the loft, then it looks like you have a single cable coming from the aerial, and a twin cable coming from the sat dish LNB. The aerial and one of the sat dish feeds run in to the diplexer labelled DIP2 which combines those signals. The single output from that goes the the box to the left which is a passive 4-way splitter with DC power pass. You have three outputs from that plus the one remaining direct sat LNB feed.

Does that description match up with what you have?

In your lounge you have a wall plate with outputs for TV, FM (no FM aerial feed to it) , Sat 1 and Sat 2.

The way these things are normally wired is that the combined feed from the loft on one cable supplies the signals to TV and Sat 1. A second feed direct from the LNB goes in to supply Sat 2. This means both Sat1 and Sat two should be live. You can then connect to both Sat inputs on the TV because the TV has dual Freesat satellite tuners as well as its Freeview tuner. This means you will have 3 cables connected to the TV: ANT, SAT Main, Sat Sub.

Your satellite antenna configuration would be set to 'No switching device'

That should be enough to get you up and running.

FYI - Single Cable Distribution is for people living in flats etc where they have limited cabling to each home. That's not the case for you. DiSEqC is where the sat reception either comes from a single motorised dish targeting multiple satellite group in space or a group of dishes with a switching device to select between them.



eein

Original Poster:

1,486 posts

281 months

Thursday 22nd April 2021
quotequote all
Yes, your description is right on the top pic from the loft. The dual coax from the dish only has one connected, the other is just a cut end.

I've followed what you've suggested and still get no signal on the TV, so there might be something broken or not connected. I've checked the box behind the TV, and the loft stuff is visually ok, so maybe something at the dish on the roof. I'll probably need to get the installer back to check.

Thanks for the explanation - you obviously know what you're doing! At least now I'm fairly confident I've done what I could check, so I'm happy to get someone in now.

Lucid_AV

452 posts

52 months

Thursday 22nd April 2021
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Check your fly lead from the wall box to the TV. Any stray filaments of braid touching the centre core will will the power that runs up the coax to the LNB.

Don't bother taking the wall plate off until you've checked everything else.

Have you goymtba satellite receiver plugged in anywhere else around the house?

As a test, I would be tempted to go in the loft and unhook the sat feed and the cable going to the lounge, then connect them together directly with sort extension lead. Recheck the TV sat reception. (TV must be in sat receiving mode for this).

If no reception, go to the LNB, remove the plug feed and switch over to a different output if its a Quad LNB. IF
f it's only a single LNB then get your sat and aerials guy in.

Murph7355

40,338 posts

272 months

Friday 23rd April 2021
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Out of interest, if Freeview is working, is there a reason for trying to hook up Freesat?

Mr Pointy

12,563 posts

175 months

Friday 23rd April 2021
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Murph7355 said:
Out of interest, if Freeview is working, is there a reason for trying to hook up Freesat?
There are actually more channels on Freesat, although a couple of Freeview ones are missing.

miniman

28,276 posts

278 months

Friday 23rd April 2021
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I found with my Sony that although it has Freesat decoder, it has no EPG, so it is effectively useless.

Lucid_AV

452 posts

52 months

Friday 23rd April 2021
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So it's not Freesat, it simply has a satellite tuner.

FYI: In it's most basic form, you can think of Freesat as a favourites list. It is a selection of specific channels from all those available on the Astra satellite group. It's presented in a way that makes it familiar to anyone used to Freeview. That's the role of the EPG.

eein

Original Poster:

1,486 posts

281 months

Saturday 24th April 2021
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I've checked the cables and they are ok. I can verify from the loft to the TV as I don't have another long enough cable. So I've got the person coming next week.

I don't really have any big reason to get it working other than I got the dish put up just in case and the TV has been updated to do it. I was under the impression when I looked ages ago there were a couple more HD channels. So I figured it should have just been a couple of clicks on the remote and it'd work, now it's taking more effort, but I don't want to leave it not working now I know it doesn't work!

I don't mind paying someone a couple of quid given it doesn't appear to be a quick fix for me.

eein

Original Poster:

1,486 posts

281 months

Wednesday 28th April 2021
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Just to close the loop on this for info, and in case anyone looks this up later...

Installer was able to use his tester to confirm that the cabling was all ok through to the TV. Spent a while playing around with the TV settings, including checking all the 'advanced' ones that allow you to play with frequencies, etc. Still no signal detected. Restarte the TV, etc. In the end did a factory reset on the TV (so loosing all my other apps and setting) and then it worked fine. I even checked all the advanced settings were still the same, which they were.

Bit annoyed a Sony - I've had this on a few issued before where a full factory reset has been needed to make it work again.

But at least it's working again and I know the cable signal is good. Now I can happily enjoy all the channels I already got on Freeview!