KEY POINTS:
There's been a pile of set-top boxes and wires in my lounge these past few weeks as I try out the various satellite receivers that allow you to pick up the Freeview TV service.
I reviewed the Freeview-approved boxes for the Herald a few weeks back.
As that review points out, the Zinwell box ($299) would not display channels 3 and 4 for me. This was despite the rival Hills set-top box picking up all of the available free-to-air channels with no problems and my Sky decoder functioning normally - all off the same satellite dish.
After getting some advice from the helpdesk at Next Electronics, the service agent for the set-top boxes, I manually tuned the Zinwell box in the hope that the channels would appear. They didn't. So this morning, I had a visit from Brett, the Wellington Freeview installer, who after adjusting various settings on the box with no positive results, tested the strength of the signal being picked up by the Sky TV dish on my roof. While the signal strength was strong, the signal quality was around 50 per cent - very low.
My Sky dish is most likely a couple of degrees off course, something that's not unusual with dishes that have experienced a few years of weather, Normally a minor misalignment doesn't matter too much. But the Zinwell receiver is much more of a sensitive petal than its rivals. If the dish is even the tiniest bit out of whack, you can lose some of the channels, which is what has happened in my case and that of Brett the installer, who had the same problem when he plugged in his Zinwell box at home. Installers in general have noticed how particular the Zinwell is when it comes to alignment.
The upshot is, my dish needs realignment to work with the Zinwell receiver and there's a lesson there for anyone thinking about getting into Freeview. Don't assume that the Sky TV dish on the roof of your house will pick up Freeview just because you've recently been getting a good Sky signal. It seems that different boxes have different sensitivities when it comes to receiving a signal from the satellite dish. As we all recover from some pretty freaky weather, that's something to keep in mind when you're in an electronics store and considering picking up a Freeview receiver. Chances are, you'll need to hire an installer to tweak your dish. I've had a few emails from people with Zinwell boxes who have had trouble undertaking their own installations.
"Before I go up on to my roof again I need to have confidence in my set top box. I could probably spend the rest of my life playing around with the alignment especially if the box isn't working," writes Tony, a retired electronics technician who wasn't able to pick up the signal despite using a compass to get the alignment right.
My advice is to leave satellite installation to experts like Brett, who sells a satellite, set-top box and installation package, but promises to reimburse the cost of the satellite dish if he finds the existing Sky dish will do just as good a job.
