Digiglobe hidden sattelite dish

EricM

http://www.digicams-uk.com/prod30.htm

Does anyone have one of these?
Does it get all the sky digital channels? even HD?
How many ports does the LNB have?

Also, what direction does the dish need to point to get sky digital?
and.. how do i find out if my balcony (corner apt) has a view to the right direction?

Does the dish/digiglobe need to be bolted to the wall/floor/anywhere or can it be loose?

Im not allowed to have a dish in my apt, doesnt say anything in the rules about a "globe".
Can the force me to remove it? can i refuse and take it to court to delay as long as possible? im only renting.

Thanks.

Heinz

EricM wrote:

http://www.digicams-uk.com/prod30.htm

Also, what direction does the dish need to point to get sky digital?
and.. how do i find out if my balcony (corner apt) has a view to the right direction?

The satellites used are at 28.2°/28.5°E. In layman's terms, that's just east of south.

watty

Actually from Ireland very nearly exactly South East.

thos

EricM wrote:

http://www.digicams-uk.com/prod30.htm

Does anyone have one of these?
Does it get all the sky digital channels? even HD?
How many ports does the LNB have?

Also, what direction does the dish need to point to get sky digital?
and.. how do i find out if my balcony (corner apt) has a view to the right direction?

Does the dish/digiglobe need to be bolted to the wall/floor/anywhere or can it be loose?

Im not allowed to have a dish in my apt, doesnt say anything in the rules about a "globe".
Can the force me to remove it? can i refuse and take it to court to delay as long as possible? im only renting.

Thanks.

I've got one.
Get's 99% of channels, having difficulty getting MotorsTV and a few obscure ones - RajTV, Challenge+1 and some of the filth preview ones. I've got SkyHD and picks up all the HD stuff no problem. Part of it is due to the smaller size of the dish, and partly because the LNB is covered.
Comes with a single LNB, but I've put a dual into mine, the LNB included is tiny, but a a standard one still fits no problem.

The digiglobe comes with both a floor stand, and a 90degree wall bracket. It will need to be bolted down.

I've got one in my apartment, and everyone thinks it's a light. Have it 90degree on the wall in full view.

Tom

Zaphod

Lots of people have enquired about these in the past, but no one had any hands-on experience with them, so if you wouldn't mind answering a few more q's?

thos wrote:

I've got one.
Get's 99% of channels, having difficulty getting MotorsTV and a few obscure ones - RajTV, Challenge+1 and some of the filth preview ones.

Can you get Motors TV at all even in dry weather, or is it always breaking up?
Roughly which part of the country are you located?

thos wrote:

I've got SkyHD and picks up all the HD stuff no problem. Part of it is due to the smaller size of the dish, and partly because the LNB is covered.
Comes with a single LNB, but I've put a dual into mine, the LNB included is tiny, but a a standard one still fits no problem.

Any problems with the Sky channels in rain? Did you notice any drop in quality when you changed from the single to the dual LNBF?

Ta!

thos

I'm in a 3rd floor apartment in Bray, Wicklow, very clear South facing view.

MotorsTV - get nothing with the cover on, get a breaking up signal when the cover is removed, have tried fine tuning after that, but havent been able to get a solid picture. Have tried rotating the LNB recently - sound channel improves, but video still breaks up, and everything is then lost once the cover is put back on.

Some problems with the rain alright, lost everything completly the other night, but a call into my Dad with a 1.6m & 1.2m dish said he'd lost a lot aswell, so was definitely rough weather high up. Had some problems night before last, but only seemed localised and was back within an hour. They are the only incidents over the past 6 weeks I've been using it.

Neve used the single LNB as I swopped to Dual LNB before installing, it was said that a Dual LNB would have slightly worse signal alright.

Anything else ?

Tom

Zaphod

thos wrote:

Anything else ?

Yes!

thos wrote:

MotorsTV - get nothing with the cover on, get a breaking up signal when the cover is removed, have tried fine tuning after that, but havent been able to get a solid picture. Have tried rotating the LNB recently - sound channel improves, but video still breaks up, and everything is then lost once the cover is put back on.

Motors is definitely one of the harder ones to pull in relatively speaking - I think it's on Eurobird rather than Astra. What was the brand of dual LNBF you inserted and the noise figure (0.X dB) if you can recall?

thos wrote:

Some problems with the rain alright, lost everything completly the other night, but a call into my Dad with a 1.6m & 1.2m dish said he'd lost a lot aswell, so was definitely rough weather high up. Had some problems night before last, but only seemed localised and was back within an hour. They are the only incidents over the past 6 weeks I've been using it.

Thunder showers will kill signals on most dishes, but it'll be interesting to see how it fairs in general autumn/winter/spring mucky weather.

Is the dish 50cm when you take of the lid?
Is there a manufacturer's name/label for the digiglobe?

And finally ... how much did it cost you?

thos

MTI 0.6dB C120 TWIN LNB

The dish is 45cm diameter.

Dont recall the branding on the box, and dont think there is anything labelled on it.

Dont remember exact price, but I've seen prices online from £149-189, the main problem being the shipping as they are quite bulky.

Any tips on trying to get MotorsTV ? It's one of the channels I actually used to watch quite a bit.

Tom

Zaphod

For Motors, really the only sure fire way is a bigger dish. You could try a lower noise LNBF (0.2dB smart titanium or inverto are getting good feedback), keep the cable as short as possible and use high quality stuff (e.g. ct125 or double or quad screened stuff if you can source it) and try again the skew/twist on the LNBF while watching Motors TV. Each of them will make a small difference and might add up to enough of a difference to pull it over the "digital cliff".

watty

A "better" LNBF is nearly worthless option if your LNB is 0.7dB NF or less. An increase to 80cm dish is about 40 times the difference of 0.7dB NF to 0.2dBNF.

Similarly different tuners, coax etc is little difference as this is IF signal. If you have not enough signal the only thing that gives more is a bigger dish.

Zaphod

Changing the LNBF is certainly less effective than getting a bigger dish but I wouldn't consider it worthless - especially in those cases where the dish size is restricted. Similarly with coax. Where a signal is just under the lock level, all these factors do add up.

Changing tuners, although not an option here, can make mean the difference of 2dB to threshold levels. Just look at the performance of the various digiboxes in fringe reception areas such as Cyprus. I've seen it often myself with different low power channels - one receiver will lock and another model won't.

watty

The tuners issue is more down to stronger signals desensing the IF. A tunable passive IF filter will have more effect than a different tuner.

A similar think could be an issue in some LNBs. Though none have RF AGC, they all have a fairly high gain MMIC after the RF mixer. I'm not sure if any have AGC built in. probabily not.

Omnipresence

Just bumping up this discussion in case any more people can provide feedback.. I need to install a discrete dish on my balcony as it is at the front of the house...

Have also seen this :
http://www.threedoubleyou.com/glassdish.htm

As another alternative...

Anyone know the legalities of erecting dishes on the front of your house... I know its a strict no-no but what covers something placed low in a balcony where it cannot actually be seen from the front of the house. As I know its the sight thing that is the issue

glomax

Hi all,

Been reading all your stuff about digiglobes etc. over my head I'm afraid so I cant help eith your questions but I hope you can help with mine. I'm in sky withdrawl tablets :-( as I have moved in to an apartment which 1). faces the complete opposite direction and 2) no dishes allowed.

I can get around the dish problem by either transparent / digiglobe or digicube but Am I doomed to cable tv (which incidently has no contract with sky so basic 20 channel package).
Or is there any technology out there that can either pick up signals, draw them in or bounce them in????

Please please help if you know

Kenpo

Hi, I live in Dublin (Lucan).

Can someone recommend a Sky operator who can install the digiglobe and sky packages in my apartment?

Thanks

K

PDD

Hi Folks,

I would also be looking for those on sale from an Irish operation who might have these (thats if I can't get a communal dish)

Dave

Ulsterman 1690

aloleary wrote: »

Anyone know the legalities of erecting dishes on the front of your house... I know its a strict no-no but what covers something placed low in a balcony where it cannot actually be seen from the front of the house. As I know its the sight thing that is the issue

Well if nobody can see it how will anyone know

Glomax there may be ways around the "no dishes" rule but the "wrong direction" thing is a far more intractable problem. If you are on the top floor it might in theory be possible to use a long pole which can "look over" the roof but this will almost certainly attract the attention of the nazis from the managment company or even the planning dept. Any chance of getting roof access and putting a dish up there. Failing that I hope youre on a short lease

Or is there any technology out there that can either pick up signals, draw them in or bounce them in????

a very long shot would involve using a very large dish high up to recieve a signal bouncing of a conveniently located nearby building (forget it)

Another possibility would be a freindly neighbour with a dish who lives within videosender range

Or if you can afford two (uncapped) broadband connections and a slingbox

Tony

I'd love to stock these globes if they made a slightly bigger one with a 60cm dish