old analogue satellite dish

sixtysix

i presume this question has been asked before but i can't find an answer.
i have an old satellite dish that i used with an analogue decoder.
if i bought a digital decoder would i need to replace the dish?

Webmonkey

Nope its the LNB that makes the difference AFAIK

All that the Satellite dish is for, is reflecting signals

sixtysix

thanks for that
mystery solved

watty

Its mostly just the receiver that is different.

Even the LNB (the horn thing) can be the same on Analog or Digital. Some Analog receivers had "Universal" LNB which will do both bands (all the channels)

Some Analog systems had a Standard, Enhanced (or in France "Telecom") LNB. This will get about half the channels on Digital, i.e. one band.

With Satellite the actual "RF" bit of the receiver is on the "horn" bit, the LNB. The "set top" box is actually 1/2 a receiver taking an intermediate signal on the coax from the dish.

An Analog and Digital receiver in fact work completely different but the operation of the Dish and LNB is identical. Some satellite channels are analog and some digital. The four Satellites for Sky at 28.2 and 28.5 E are SES's Astra 2A, 2B and 2B and also Eutelsat's Eurobird. These have no analog channels.

Astras at 19E have about 55 Analog channels
Hotbirds at 13E have about 16 Analog channels

Digital fits 5 to 10 TV stations into the real channel used by one analog station. Some older satellites can't do digital so are still analog. Some Satellite channels can be switched Digital or Analog depending on demand.

Mostly a receiver is ONLY digital or analog, but a couple of models have both receivers in one box.