Why this DStv user couldn’t watch TV when it was cold at night
A DStv customer recently contacted MyBroadband after he experienced problems watching sport channels at night.
The reader stated that when he moved into his home, he ordered DStv and its set-up in early 2017.
The house had an existing DStv satellite dish installed, but the installers stated the smart LNB – the “arm” on the satellite dish – did not work with his decoder, and he required a new one.
Fast forward to July 2018, and the reader started experiencing an issue when watching TV at night.
“On SuperSport 1 and 2, I would get the following error: E48-32,” he stated.
“I tried to troubleshoot the issue myself based on the help guides online, but nothing helped. I reconnected all the cables and checked for any damage.”
After no change with the issue, he called DStv’s call centre – which took him through the process of checking the relevant signal levels.
“On some of the tuner signal status, the signal would fluctuate between 90% and 0% every few seconds. When scanning for channels, only half of the channels would appear. It seemed only standard definition channels worked and none of the HD channels,” he said.
The dish
With the problem persisting, the reader called a DStv installer who came out to inspect the dish and general set-up.
“Upon the installer’s arrival at 11:00, I wasn’t able to reproduce the issues I was experiencing previously and all channels worked,” he said.
However, when he explained the scenario to the installers and they looked at the dish, they told him the issue was caused by the LNB model.
The LNB was sensitive to temperatures and in cold temperatures it suffered. The installers added that MultiChoice was aware of the issue and had since changed the LNB it provided with decoders.
Faulty component
MyBroadband contacted MultiChoice about the matter, and it stated it first received complaints about the LNB in 2016.
“During the winter of 2016, we received complaints from Explora customers experiencing an E48 error during cold snaps (-9 degrees Celsius). Our investigations showed that a faulty component was used in that particular batch of smart LNBs,” said MultiChoice.
“This was corrected in the production of our smart LNBs almost immediately. We swapped out any such faulty units free of charge, including installation, and continue to do so in the very few isolated cases we receive.”
The company added that not all E48 errors on an Explora with a smart LNB installation are necessarily related to this fault.
An E48 error can also be as a result of installation faults.
“That is why we examine each claim on a case-by-case basis. Any customer who suspects that their smart LNB might be part of this batch can email our field services team at [email protected],” it said.
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