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Blank screen from new Skybox F3

M

mtbc

Newbie
We have two satellite dishes that we're told the previous tenants used, one pointing to Sky, one to some European thing. One has twin LNB, I don't yet know which. The cables seem to come down okay from the LNBs through the wall into the lounge. The landlord seems to think I should be able to just hook up a box and I should be ready to go.

To find out what dish points where, I figured I'd buy a Skybox F3 to see what it can see on the three cables from the LNBs. I plug in its power, screw a cable from the wall into "LNB IN 13/18V", plug its HDMI into my 720p television's HDMI input, and ... well, not much, whichever cable from outside I use. The Skybox F3's display counts up to L100, pausing a bit as it goes, then says NoCH. The television display stays completely blank.

Aren't I meant to see something from it? I play around on the remote but I don't seem to be able to make any menus appear or anything. The user manual seems to assume I should be able to see something from it.
 
No, I haven't done a scan: how do I? I can't get to see any menus or options at all, I'm just stuck with a completely blank screen on the television, and "NoCH" on the STB display. (As well as the remote, I've also tried the buttons behind the front panel, like "MENU".) Is there some combination of buttons I can push, or some other input I can do, to do a scan and make anything start to appear?

(Or was it dumb to assume that HDMI would be the output, and I should go find some old component video cabling or something and hook it to the television with that? The television works fine with other HDMI sources.)
 
mtbc said:
We have two satellite dishes that we're told the previous tenants used, one pointing to Sky, one to some European thing. One has twin LNB, I don't yet know which. The cables seem to come down okay from the LNBs through the wall into the lounge. The landlord seems to think I should be able to just hook up a box and I should be ready to go.

To find out what dish points where, I figured I'd buy a Skybox F3 to see what it can see on the three cables from the LNBs. I plug in its power, screw a cable from the wall into "LNB IN 13/18V", plug its HDMI into my 720p television's HDMI input, and ... well, not much, whichever cable from outside I use. The Skybox F3's display counts up to L100, pausing a bit as it goes, then says NoCH. The television display stays completely blank.

Aren't I meant to see something from it? I play around on the remote but I don't seem to be able to make any menus appear or anything. The user manual seems to assume I should be able to see something from it.
Click to expand...

I am assuming you have pressed the scource button on your Tv to get the correct channel on you are using ie hdmi1 or hdmi2 etc ? if the box displays no channels that is because the box needs to be scanned on the 28.2, if you press the menu on your remote do you get any display, also make sure you took the plastic cling film off the front of the box.

let us know the state of play thanks.
 
Yes, I actually tried the same source input and same HDMI cable by unplugging it from the STB and plugging it into my laptop computer instead and I can then see display from my laptop on the television just fine.

I did take the plastic cling-film off the front of the STB. Good question. (-:

There does seem to be life in the remote: if I use the power button on it, it switches to showing the time since the STB was first powered up, then if I push it again it does it's Lnnn... scan up to NoCH again.

The MENU button on the remote and the STB don't show anything, though, the screen just stays completely blank.

So, you'd normally expect to see something by HDMI when the box says "NoCH" and you press MENU?

---------- Post Merged at 07:03 PM ----------

Ha, success!

I hooked up a composite video cable, then I could see the menus. I set the video output to be 720p (matching my television) rather than the 1080p it was set to, then I could immediately see the menus through the HDMI source too.
 
You can change the video output by pressing "vformat" on the remote.

If it changes again then just press it and look in the LCD panel on the box for the output. It will say 576i,576p,720p,1080i,1080p.
 
hi have you connected it to the internet , also did your box come with the firmware on it ? if you go in the settings on your box you should be able to see which satellite the box is tuned into but you can change it through the list, there are a few in the list. you need sky uk or 28.2. you will also see if the lnb power is on in the menu also it could be you might need a hd lnb cuz most channels on the f3 are hd
 
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