Freeview (yes A-gain ...)..

fatboypee

I know this subjedt has been done to death but I'd still appreciate your advice.

I'm having an independent man install Sky for me next week. I want two boxes but dont have a landline so it leaves me with an option of free-view. The man installing wants 350 for free view whereas he's charing only 40 for the sky install.

I'm told he will install 2 dishes, 1 for sky and 1 for free-view.

I simply can't afford the free-view at this cost and don't understand why I need 2 dishes !?

What I need help on is:

1. do I need to get the man to configure the two aerial points (the one sky and one future free-view) to get feeds from the one dish ?

2. How easy is it for myself to install a free-view box and connect it to the one dish installd by the man ? Exactly what do I need and where would I get it and how would I do it ??


Thanks muchly. Appreciate the patience

Fatboy.

Ronan|Raven

Ok I assume what you want is to be able to watch the sky package and to be able to get the free to air channels such as bbc and itv?

If so then you dont need two dishes imho as the signal comes from the same satellite. Surely if he was to stick a quad lnb on the dish then you could run two cables (with option of two more) to two seperate recivers. One sky reciever and one FTA reciever. It could almost be done with just the sky digibox, and add the channels manually to the other channel section.

350 seems a lot.

fatboypee

Ronan|Raven wrote:

Ok I assume what you want is to be able to watch the sky package and to be able to get the free to air channels such as bbc and itv?

If so then you dont need two dishes imho as the signal comes from the same satellite. Surely if he was to stick a quad lnb on the dish then you could run two cables (with option of two more) to two seperate recivers. One sky reciever and one FTA reciever. It could almost be done with just the sky digibox, and add the channels manually to the other channel section.

350 seems a lot.

~Thanks for the reply ~

I've got two sitting rooms and wanted tv in both, are the quad lnb things easy to fit ? (my wife does'nt want me annoying the man !!)....

Cheers

Fatboy.

Bogger77

are you getting a reciever for that ammount, if not, in my opinion, he's way over charging you! considering it's a nixer for him as sky are giving him money as well.

look at satellite.ie, and you'll see loads of quality freeview recievers for a lot less than that, you can get a quad lnb from same site for 75 odd euro, cabling is about 25 to 30euro for 100m roll. All you need to do is, add qaud lnb to the dish (removing the installed one), run the cable to the freeview box, and violla, you've done it for less than 200euro. I know the professionals will jump at this, but I honestly, cannot see 150euro's worth of extra labour in doing this, and I've added VAT at 21% to the items, the installer would only add 13.5%.

And tell the wife, you're not annoying the man, any professional worth his salts should be able to add an lnb with his eyes closed.

Re: TV in two rooms. there's an excellent thread on this forum from watty on how to set up multi room viewing with loftbox etc.

Also, make sure the dish isn't installed on Chimney or in a hard to reach position if possible.

fatboypee

Bogger77 wrote:

are you getting a reciever for that ammount, if not, in my opinion, he's way over charging you! considering it's a nixer for him as sky are giving him money as well.

look at satellite.ie, and you'll see loads of quality freeview recievers for a lot less than that, you can get a quad lnb from same site for 75 odd euro, cabling is about 25 to 30euro for 100m roll. All you need to do is, add qaud lnb to the dish (removing the installed one), run the cable to the freeview box, and violla, you've done it for less than 200euro. I know the professionals will jump at this, but I honestly, cannot see 150euro's worth of extra labour in doing this, and I've added VAT at 21% to the items, the installer would only add 13.5%.

And tell the wife, you're not annoying the man, any professional worth his salts should be able to add an lnb with his eyes closed.

Re: TV in two rooms. there's an excellent thread on this forum from watty on how to set up multi room viewing with loftbox etc.

Also, make sure the dish isn't installed on Chimney or in a hard to reach position if possible.

Thanks for the help I've looked on the satellite.ie and can't see the quad lnb on its own ? can i get one from maplins or someplace ?

Will look up the watty thread and see how it goes. Really only want to prep the cable and maybe after Christmas stretch to the free-view....

Cheers

FBP.

DMC

http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Titanium_Quad.html For non-Sky dish

http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/LNB_Quad__for_Sky_Minidish.html for Sky Dish.

fatboypee

fatboypee wrote:

Thanks for the help I've looked on the satellite.ie and can't see the quad lnb on its own ? can i get one from maplins or someplace ?

Will look up the watty thread and see how it goes. Really only want to prep the cable and maybe after Christmas stretch to the free-view....

Cheers

FBP.

Thanks !!

FBP

jm2k

Firstly, I think you should be suspicious of anyone telling you that you need a second dish for this, you definitely don't need one. I've fitted a quad LNB to my sky minidish and run the cabling into the house without any problems.

Try ebay for the receivers, you can pick up brand new 'no frills' models for near €50. Also try it for the LNB (I paid €35 delivered for a minidish quad LNB a few years ago). Get the cable in B&Q (CT100), you might find it cheaper online but adding the price of postage usally eats up the savings.

The only other tip I'd give you is becareful not to move the dish when replacing the LNB. They have to be accurately aligned so even the slightest movement can mean you will lose signal. That being said, if the dish has been put up properly and if you are careful, you shouldn't have any problems.

fatboypee

jm2k wrote:

Firstly, I think you should be suspicious of anyone telling you that you need a second dish for this, you definitely don't need one. I've fitted a quad LNB to my sky minidish and run the cabling into the house without any problems.

Try ebay for the receivers, you can pick up brand new 'no frills' models for near €50. Also try it for the LNB (I paid €35 delivered for a minidish quad LNB a few years ago). Get the cable in B&Q (CT100), you might find it cheaper online but adding the price of postage usally eats up the savings.

The only other tip I'd give you is becareful not to move the dish when replacing the LNB. They have to be accurately aligned so even the slightest movement can mean you will lose signal. That being said, if the dish has been put up properly and if you are careful, you shouldn't have any problems.

I know this is being thick perhaps but how easy is it to replace the LNB ? Dya simply unscrew it??

Thanks

FBP.

Sponge Bob

Look at it closely , it is held in with clamp (clamp forms an O shape around the LNB in two halves which are screwed together ) Note that LNB is not vertical but skewed 20 degrees or so right as you stand in front of LNB facing dish .

your new LNB must be twisted the same degrees right of vertical but as the dish/arm will not move you will be grand

jm2k

Sponge Bob wrote:

Look at it closely , it is held in with clamp (clamp forms an O shape around the LNB in two halves which are screwed together)...

I've seen a lot of non sky dishes like this, but on the minidish (well on my one at least) the LNB pushes onto the end of the arm of the dish. FBP, its only one screw so its easy to take off.

Tony

fatboypee wrote:

Thanks for the help I've looked on the satellite.ie and can't see the quad lnb on its own ?

Sorry you could not find it, i'm working on a drop down list to make individual items like this easier to find. Thanks to Damo for listing the urls

watty

Most Sky dishs the LNB isn't screwed on at all! The rectangular peg is just pushed into the end of the metal arm.

Sponge Bob is talking about a NON-Sky dish.

fatboypee

thanks chaps, gonna DIY this after Christmas I think....:D

FBP.