Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Sun Direct - Dish Realignment Procedure

Recently, all Sun Direct DTH users faced problem in viewing all the TV channels from Sun Direct, with the INSAT 4B issue. Sun Direct has changed the satellite to MEASAT 3.
Sun Direct announced that they would send their technician to all the customers at their door step for re-alignment of Dish and to upgrade the Sun Direct DTH set top box (STB), free of charge.

But, most of the SunDirect customers has faced problems in viewing the TV programs with current DTH setting, as no technician from SunDirect visited them. All the calls to SunDirect customer care had gone useless. Finally Sun Direct viewers are getting frustrated with poor service. Even to get connected to customer care executive on SunDirect customer care telephone number is a big hectic job.

I too have faced all the problems, as I am also using SunDirect DTH. Actually we should go to Consumer forum.Due to lack of time I am not able to go. But, I am planning to file a case on Sun Direct in consumer court.

But with more curiosity and as a technical guy, I tried to tune the dish and configure the set top box, from the information available in the Internet. There are so many blogs on this procedure. But did n't get complete information on how to do re-alignment to get complete list of Sun Direct TV channels.
So, I am providing here in my blog.

First let us know about the satellite details (Name of satellite, position, etc) and then we will go for tuning of dish.

Old Satellite:
 INSAT 4B
Position: 93.5E
Distance: 36178km
Dish Setup (at Chennai)
Elevation68.3°
Azimuth (true)133.8°
LNB Skew:  -44.7° 
New Satellite (that is being used by Sun Direct for its DTH services):
Position: 91.5E
Distance: 36125km 
Dish Setup (at Chennai):
Elevation69.8°
Azimuth (true)138.7°
LNB Skew:  -40.1°
So, if we see the difference between two satellite position, it is very little. And we can able to receive the signals of new satellite from the old position. But it is good to tune the dish to point to new satellite. Besides dish position, there is a little difference in LNB skew. LNB is the component in the dish antenna, where we connect co-axial cable to antenna to take the signal to our STB. Before aligning LNB and dish antenna, we need to edit the transponder(TP) details to put new satellite in the STB as follows:
Editing TP in our STB various from model to model. Here I had given to a typical STB that I had used.

Select "Info" channel and do as per below.
Step 1: Go to Menu and select “Installation” option.
Step 2: Select “Edit TP” and press OK on the remote.
Step 3: Edit first transponder details which has "Info", Sun TV and others. Press "OK" to edit.
Step 4: “Edit TP” pop up window display on the screen with “Frequency, Symbol rate, Polarity, FEC”
Step 5: Change all “Parameters” and select OK 
Frequency: 12316
Polarization: H
Symbol Rate:30000
FEC:5/6
Click "OK"

“Signal strength & Quality “displayed on top.

Step 6: Press "Exit".This saves the new settings.
New channels details get downloaded automatically to our set top box. We will able to receive the channels from new satellite. But not all the channels.
We will see the message "Searching for signals" on few channels (like Zee Telugu, ETV2, TV9, ABN, HBO, etc). 

This is the point where we need to tune our Dish and LNB.
Go to Installation Menu->Edit TP, where we see the Signal strength and quality.

Slightly increase the dish elevation (Note that from above, the difference between new and old satellite position is very little, the elevation change may be less than 5°), such that we get maximum signal strength on TP:12316 H 30000. Now, move to another TP (eg: 12643 H 30000) using up/down keys, on which we are not any signal. Now rotate LNB in anti-clock wise direction (approx. 4°) until we get signal on this transponder. Now exit from the installation menu. Check for all the channels. If you are seeing the message like "Unknown service", then we need to rotate LNB, another 90° anti clock wise(follow above procedure). Now we should get all the channels.

Now switch off and switch on your Set top box, it will download new firmware (it takes approx 5 to 10 minutes). Your Sun Direct DTH is ready to watch all your subscribed programmes.

In case of any queries or for any other technical information, write to me.
Provide your valuable comments.

12 comments:

Hemanth Kumar R said...

Signal strenght 76% to 84% and quality 94% to 99%.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, We are now able to view most of the channels. I could be able to get 75% Sig.Strength and 50% Quality only. But better than nothing.

Thank you so much.

B G Shankar
Visakhapatnam.
AP.

N.Srinivasan said...

Good Advice,really it is very helpful, today i will try and update tomorrow... Thank You.

N.Srinivasan said...

Thanks a lot, This information is nice and enough to retune sundirect to new position. tomorrow i will tune and update.

Anonymous said...

Sundirect customer care is real bad. And distributors are even worst.

Anonymous said...

The customer care team is not capable to do the job, they don't even apologize for the issue, and they don't have capable technicians. it is a great loss to Sun DTH.

Hemanth Kumar R said...

Hi Balu,
Thanks for your comments on this blog. I am not sure about your problem. But I will try to help you.

Please try to align your dish and LNB to get the signal more than 75%. and than switch off and switch on your Set Top Box (STB).
If still your problem exits, rotate LNB by another 90 degrees and see the signal strength and restart your STB,

If still your problem persist, please contact SunDirect customer care. If you do not get the service from them with in 24 hours, then file a complaint in Consumer forum. If you need any help regarding filing a complaint in consumer, I could able help you. Please let me know you need any support from me.

Thanks & Regards,
Hemanth

K P Eswaran Newdelhi said...

good info. thanks. I could tune successfully. In delhi, sun direct service is horrible! No one cares. pls dont buy sun direct connection.

Prabakaran said...

Hi Balu,

How did you fix your problem, I see exactly same issue. Appreciate your input.

Thanks
Prabakaran

Anonymous said...

tell me Sun direct Kannada World Pack Price please. i m waiting for your reply.

Hemanth Kumar R said...

I don't have data on pack. contact your service provider

Anonymous said...

Hi I am in trichy district I have problem in my dish so I replaced new one but I am not able to get signal strength I want to know the angle