Full set of equipment for FTA?

Reyman

I'm looking at moving from NTL (cable) to FTA and I've been reading quite a few of the posts in the past few weeks which are very helpful!
I understand I won't get channel 4 and need a separate aerial for RTE programmes. I don't need Murdoch's Sky.

My questions are:
1. If I want to feed two rooms do I need a dual LNB with two cables and two set top receivers?
2. With the above setup is it posssible to get two satellites eg Astra 28 E and Hotbird 19E. ? I think Watty mentioned the differing positions of the LNBs allows this in certain situations of reflection from the dish.
3. I prefer to buy the best gear rather than put in something that will fall apart in a year or so. Is there any equipment types I should go for or even types I should definitely avoid?
4. Is an 80cm dish necessary for Dublin or can I go to 60 cm? What's the difference in aerial gain in db?

Thanks!

tapfit2004

a dual lnb with 2 set top boxes will allow you see two different channels from the same sat position. you would probably be better off getting a quad lnb for a bit more money and allows 4 set top boxes off one dish.
two seperate lnb's will be needed to view 28e & 19e and also a multi lnb holder and probably a min of 80cm dish to get all channels including the ones with weaker signals.
most people i have seen go with 2 seperate dishes, one fo 28e with quad lnb (60 cm would be fine) and the other with multi lnb holder (for 13e,19e maybe 16e (if you can get narrow enough lnb's as positions are very close) or 10e,7e,5e. you can get 4 sats on one 80cm dish with ok results.) other alternative is a motor which can give you every sat between 43w toi 42e depending on your position.
triax dishes seem to get good reviews with good gain for their size. the dish i use is a 1m in on a motor that i got on ebay for €25 and gives me everything available in the dublin area.
hope i didnt complicate things too much

Reyman

Thanks Tapfit I understand the jist of what you're saying. I seem to need two single LNBs to get reception from two different satellites on the one dish.

If I do this presumably I can only feed one room with this dish (or more accurately I can't watch two different programmes in two different rooms)

I'd prefer to just use one satellite dish for the present till I get the hang of this .
By the way I'm not clear on what the difference is between two single LNBs and a dual LNB -- maybe someone can enlighten me here?

Tony

Actually a dual should be referred to as a twin, bascically a twin output LNBfeeds two receivers from one satellite position and two singles supply signals from two satellite positions EG Astra 2 and hotbird which can be fed to a single receiver via a diseq switch or two separate receivers either of which can only view one satellite position. You could also have two twin lnbs feeding two receivers and in this case both receivers can view either satellite.

Hope I've explained this ok for you

Reyman wrote:

Thanks Tapfit I understand the jist of what you're saying. I seem to need two single LNBs to get reception from two different satellites on the one dish.

If I do this presumably I can only feed one room with this dish (or more accurately I can't watch two different programmes in two different rooms)

I'd prefer to just use one satellite dish for the present till I get the hang of this .
By the way I'm not clear on what the difference is between two single LNBs and a dual LNB -- maybe someone can enlighten me here?

Reyman

Thanks Tony, very clear - it sounds like I should have two twin LNBs from what you're saying if I want both satellites in both rooms.

Is this difficult to do in practice ? i.e. Getting a mounting for the two twins? Lining up for the two satellites, etc?

What's the approximate price of two twin LNBs?

zing

Reyman wrote:

What's the approximate price of two twin LNBs?

You should get a good idea of pricing from the link at the bottom of Tony's posts. Naturally it's always worth shopping around as you may get better deals elsewhere.

Tony

zing wrote:

Naturally it's always worth shopping around as you may get better deals elsewhere.

Nah dont shop around

Tony

If you are able to line up your primary focus satellite the its relatively easy to add the second

Reyman wrote:

Thanks Tony, very clear - it sounds like I should have two twin LNBs from what you're saying if I want both satellites in both rooms.

Is this difficult to do in practice ? i.e. Getting a mounting for the two twins? Lining up for the two satellites, etc?

What's the approximate price of two twin LNBs?

Reyman

Thankd lads for all your help!