Computer Geek but TV n00b - FTA question

davil

Hello there peoples,

Me was wondering - I moved into a house and there's a sky dish on the back. no digibox or anything but there's a coax connector coming from the wall:

it's the one on the bottom here:


{here comes the n00b question} - I was wondering if that same dish can be used for FTA broadcasts? I have a 10" nextbase TV - check it out here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NextBase-10-2-Portable-Tablet-DVD-and-TV-Player_W0QQitemZ320102088020QQihZ011QQcategoryZ15055QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It has a standard coax connector for DVB and one for analogue. it also has composite output so I can connect to my full size analogue TV.

I obviously can't connect that type of coax into a normal antenna-in (sorry about the terminology) but I was wondering is there any adapter / connector I can buy / build ??
I just want to get FTA if at all possible. I got a little active aerial with it but it's not picking up anything. I presume this is because FTA ain't really up and running terrestrially just yet in Ireland

Can anybody please fill me in? I might end up just getting the cheap SKY digital package otherwise.

Also, what's the best DVR solution available? I have a softmodded XBOX - is there anybody out there that has some sort of USB TV-in for the XBOX with XBOX Media Centre or something similar? I could setup a USB box with my gf's laptop or my own desktop PC but I'd prefer not to leave either running all day.
Could I use a Dbox2 or anything like that?

Bascially I'm looking to find the quickest/cheapest solution to getting decent quality TV without shelling out too much, although I won't be afraid of a bit of investment.
Maybe I'll just end up buying a DVR with an inbuilt HDD but if anyone has a better solution please tell me!

Thanks for listening!

davil

do I need an LNB??? and what the hell is it? :-)

I forgot to mention. I do plan on buying a 32" HD ready LCD screen in the near future. and I may need to future proof myself for this. Any advice is much appreciated.

watty

The DVB is for terrestrial, not satellite. There are seven flavours of DVB now.

You need a separate FTA satellite receiver www.satellite.ie , or Maplin

The dish arm may have a lumpish part facing the dish connected to the coax. That is the LNB which is actually part of the satellite receiver. It converts the Satellite signals to a low enough frequency for coax cable. It only picks up one group out of four groups of channels at a time, under automatic command from the satellite receiver, which is why the coax can't be split to feed more than one receiver.

davil

but I CAN use the existing dish for FTA stations, right?

oh and about this:

watty wrote:

which is why the coax can't be split to feed more than one receiver.

Is there another way to have more than one receiver in the house?

Oh and one more question, DVB (Terrestrial) is only on test rollout at the minute in Louth and Dublin yes?
Does anybody expect it to become mainstream in Ireland and if so, any chance of a rough E.T.A. ?

watty

yes. the existing dish ought to work

Yes. You have a multiple outlet LNB ( Quad or Octo). 4 or 8 Receivers. Or half as many PVRs, or a mix.

A Quad is about 65 Euro. Octos are bit hard to get hold of. LNBs come in THREE mounting styles:
* Peg for a Sky Dish
* Neck ring for regular dish 65cm to 110cm typically.
* Flange for mega big or professional dishes.

A Quattro LNB has four outlets too, but can't feed a receiver. Its outputs can be split and amplied, as long as a special box called a Multiswitch recombines the 4 signals to feed the satellite receiver. This allows up to a 1000 receivers to work on one dish.

A Quattro and a 16 outlet multiswitch will do 16 ordinary receivers or 8 PVR receivers.

True Satellite PVRs, of course need TWO inlet cables so you can watch a different channel to the one recording.

davil

Ok I think I'm starting to get all this. So if I wanted to have Freeview in two places in the house Id obviously need two receivers but - I'd need one of these Quad outlet LNB yokes - did you say I have that? i.e. with a sky digital dish? or do I have to get one ? This part was unclear.

also ,
anything that says "DVD-T" is for terrestrial freeview and no good for decoding freeview satellite signals.

Heinz

davil wrote:

Ok I think I'm starting to get all this. So if I wanted to have Freeview in two places in the house Id obviously need two receivers but - I'd need one of these Quad outlet LNB yokes - did you say I have that? i.e. with a sky digital dish? or do I have to get one ? This part was unclear.

also ,
anything that says "DVD-T" is for terrestrial freeview and no good for decoding freeview satellite signals.

A Sky dish normally has only a single output LNB (i.e. to feed one receiver). If it's been used at any time for Sky+ (which needs 2 feeds from the LNB), the LNB would have been changed but, because dual output Sky LNBs are like hen's teeth, a quad output is normally used (although octo outputs are also available).

If there's only one cable coming from your dish, it has a single output LNB and you'll need to change that for a quad and run a second cable to wherever you're going to have your second receiver. The remaining two outputs will be unused unless you upgrade either receiver to Sky+.

ebay will be the easiest place to find what you need.

http://search.ebay.ie/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=quad+lnb

byte

Also note, that "Freeview" is the name that UK use on their DVB-T system.

What you're talking about is FTA (Free To Air) satellite TV (from Astra 2/Eurobird)

podgeandrodge

Heinz wrote:

A Sky dish normally has only a single output LNB (i.e. to feed one receiver).
If there's only one cable coming from your dish, it has a single output LNB and you'll need to change that for a quad and run a second cable to wherever you're going to have your second receiver.

Hi, would one of these 2-way satellite splitters be easier than getting the double lnb?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/SEODynamicPages/module.asp?ModNo=9273

(though I see the polarity issue is a drawback)

byte

No, it would be better in the long run to just buy the Quad LNB and install it.

The splitter isnt' a great idea. First of all is the signal loss from adding it. Then only one box will have control over the LNB and its 4 states (Hor. Low, Hor. High, Ver Low, Ver High), and the other box will be only able to view whatever other channels are available in that particular LNB mode.

podgeandrodge

ok thanks. So if (considering I am using a 35cm dish which probably wouldnt fit anything other than the single lnb - sorry, I'm a noob) , if I really wanted to use the 2 receivers on the cheap and was only interested in the "main" channels such as bbc and itv - if these channels were on the same lnb mode I might get away with it - if you understand?!

Sponge Bob

35cm :eek:

where is this house with a 35cm dish ???????

podgeandrodge

firhouse - its the maplin satellite suitcase, picks up everything loud and clear (though havent tried it in a storm!)

byte wrote:

Then only one box will have control over the LNB and its 4 states (Hor. Low, Hor. High, Ver Low, Ver High), and the other box will be only able to view whatever other channels are available in that particular LNB mode.

Am I correct in saying that all the channels on Astra2D are "low" frequency - I was just reading that low covers from 10.7 to 11.8ghz and am I making too big a jump to assume that if all the bbc's and itv's are the likes of 10714 and 10773 they are are both horizontal I would be ok? (or am I talking total crap - sorry if I am!)

byte

A lot of FTA receivers have a Loop Out at the back, so you can connect a second receiver. So if the main box is on Hor Low (for example), then the slave box can watch HL channels too. If the main box is off, the slave box has LNB control.

I'm just not fully sure how well the slave box will work considering how weak the signals must be to begin with. A splitter would be nearly definitely out of the question, due to the insertion loss IMO.

watty

Forget 35cm dishes and loop outs..

Minimum 65cm if you want Movies4 men in the drizzle rain. Quad LNB.

Always compare eBay prices with those of our "stickyied" suppliers here as occasionally eBay can be more expensive than real life.

davil

Thanks everyone for your help.

For the time being I am going to stick with one reciever,namely an AVerMedia A700 DVB-S tuner card for my PC. and I might buy one other free to air decoder box seperately. I saw one on satellite.ie for €99 but I presume they can be bought much cheaper on ebay or whatever.

Here's the tuner card I bought:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=321720

Thanks again