I have a house in the Algarve which we are moving to in a few weeks. I am about to buy a new Sky+ HD box but are unsure of the best make for the area. Doing an internet search throws up a lot of differing opinions on the best make of box (with the best tuner) for the weak signal received in the Algarve.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Any help would be gratefully received.

Anything but AMSTRAD really. Best SAMSUNG.

To be honest, if you have a big enough satelite then you shouldn't have a problem with any box. Good luck

I am using samsung , heat is its enemy , the thomson just gave up the ghost.

MAke sure you have the auro standby feature working , helps with the hard disk.

Lastly make sure you have a dual feed or your stuffed for recording while watching.If you dont then I have a temporary fix for the hidden settings for channels disapearing as it jumps form one tuner to the next.

Service , settings , 0,1, then select only one input/tuner , it will do until you get the dual lnb and wire sorted.

Personally I found the Pace HD boxes to be a bit more sensitive than the Samsung for the weaker signals in fringe areas.

Agree tho to avoid the Amstrad and Thomson.

Heres a pdf on how to change the input mode to single in case anyone needs it.

Thank you all for your very welcome advice. It seems that no one has any stock of the Samsung but now I know those makes not to buy.

E-BAY !!!

Not always a good idea.

I have heard of this scenario too many times in the last few months...


Some people have been getting the HD boxes for free or via discount via a Sky UK installation agreement, and then putting them onto ebay to make some money.

The buyers then have trouble getting their sky card paired to the HD box, as Sky will not do it as the box is contracted to another card for 12 months - as per the free or discounted agreement.

So the buyers are left with a box that they cannot use for HHD recording or the PAY HD channels.

And the sellers say the box is fully functioning so no replacement....

But then thats a risk of buying from ebay.

Hi i've had all Sky HD Receivers working fine as long as a decent LNB is used, 0.2db or less most installers use them as standard but just check with them 1st.
Hope this helps

OK job done. Bought a Pace Sky+ HD box from an internet retailer (ludicrous price) and married it to the new sky card here in London. Should now be fine for Portugal. I'm thinking of buying a quad invercom LNB to take with me. Any comments on this?

invacom prime focus quad LNBs are good fo prime focus dishes.

there are a few other better ones for offset dishes -inverto black ultras for example...

Hi, nearly 4 times a day if not more my Sky+ box is coming up with the message unable to receive signal please unplug from wall for 1 minute (well that sort of message!) is there anything I can do to fix this? It's driving me nuts.

Worried it's on it's way out as is there any way of pairing your card with a new box if you are not in the UK?

G

the cloud cover is probably the culprit if your sub 1.4m dish and generic lnb.

Get a cheapo freesat box from lidl or aldi , test the uk channels with that ,see if you get the same thing.

Is this happening on ALL channels or some channels?
Are the times of "going off" the same each day?
What size dish do you have?

Check the cable connections from the dish to the box.
Check to see if there are any nasties inside the LNB (dont poke or prod them out you may damage the LNB!) - the usual cause of channels coming and going.
Make sure the cable, if if has an outside connection, that it has not been damaged by water.
Or then you dish may be out of alignment and so struggling to get decent reception on certain channels.