Anyone with FBC / Unicable installation?

Mr_D

Hi,

Has anyone managed to get a fully working FBC / Unicable installation? I mean a generic installation, and not the proprietary Sky technology. If so could you recommend an good installer in North County Dublin (PM please).

Many thanks,
Mr_D

PS: for those interested in technical details, see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057717465

icdg

OK, so as far as I can see, this and the other thread the OP started are on exactly the same topic. The OP is welcome, by PM please, to make arguments as to why both threads should remain open. In the absence of same I'm closing this thread

icdg

The OP has made a case as to why the thread should be reopened. I'll reopen but keep under review. The threads may be merged if the discussion is similar.

Finally, a warning that there is absolutely no advertising in posts

Mr_D

Update - it took me a while but I found an installer. Due for installation on Thursday. So if you're in the same situation and get stuck, just PM me. Just one word of caution: make sure you get a Unicable II and not the older Unicable (I).

Johnboy1951

Mr_D wrote: »

Update - it took me a while but I found an installer. Due for installation on Thursday. So if you're in the same situation and get stuck, just PM me. Just one word of caution: make sure you get a Unicable II and not the older Unicable (I).

Did you have any difficulty finding an installer who knew exactly what you required and why?

Mr_D

Hi Johnboy1951,

The short answer is yes. As for the reasons I think it's because of the quasi-monopoly of a certain commercial satellite operator. It seems that most installers live from work installing / upgrading this company's products and as a consequence

1. many don't appear to know much beside this company's standard installation;
2. many installation are slap-dash jobs, with a cable thrown over the roof (e.g., instead of neatly routing the cabling through the attic).

Now I don't blame installers, after all everyone has to make a living and if this is where the money is then they have little choice. I heard the commission they were offered for new ("free") installations were not very generous, hence the incentive to make any installation as quickly as possible which explains (2.). Re. (1.) a good example of that is when one of them insisted fitting a replacement Sky LNB to my regular dish.... and just as I had warned him, I experienced very poor signal every time the weather turned very wet / windy. Or more recently when I almost ended up being sold Unicable (I) LNBs instead of the Unicable II I was looking for (it was in Ireland).

Another problem is the lack of parts in Ireland. I had to order my Unicable II LNBs from Finland. They were also available from Germany and the UK (though for double the price!) but not in Ireland. I was also unable to find any installer with a Unicable II programmer.

So IMO the main reason is that sadly the bulk of satellite installations is for this commercial provider. This results in very low volume of "free" satellite installations and hence difficulties finding specialised components and installers with a good and up to date technical knowledge of the latest technology such as Unicable II.

Sorry if I offended anyone... not my intention.

Johnboy1951

Thanks Mr_D.
It is valuable to read of your experience ..... particularly the unavailability of the programmer and the difficulties getting the correct LNB.
BTW, did/do you need to re-programme it or was/is the default ok?

dubrov

Can i ask what is the advantage of a FBC/Unicable install?

I understand that only a single cable would be required and it could be split to multiple points However, wouldn't each receiver also need a dedicated FBC tuner which tend to be only available in the top end sat boxes?

Johnboy1951

dubrov wrote: »

Can i ask what is the advantage of a FBC/Unicable install?

I understand that only a single cable would be required and it could be split to multiple points However, wouldn't each receiver also need a dedicated FBC tuner which tend to be only available in the top end sat boxes?

For me it would be for tidiness and compact function.
I would like to have the facility of the multiple tuner/demodulators at a central point and distribute the media on the LAN.
I already do this but I need 5 coax cables coming in to standard tuner cards.
Using a Unicable II LNB and FBC tuners, two coax cables is all that should be needed and one 'card' with FBC tuner with 8 tuners - virtual + physical.

The alternatives seem to be reducing.

There used to be available an iLNB which only required a CAT6 cable with all of the 'tuners' built in. This was capable of providing 8 tuners on the LAN. Those iLNBs seem to no longer be available.

The other option is a SelfSat flat panel 'dish' with an iLNB built in. This provides 8 virtuals on CAT6 cable and also two 'legacy' connections for coax if required.

My preference is that all tuners, of whatever type, be managed in a backend server, and made available to whatever device wishes to connect on the LAN.
I have such a system working for the past few years, but it needs improvement and updating and I am looking about for the best option.
So far the SelfSat option seems to be the best, but I am unsure of its future. It is easy to change an LNB on a standard dish but with the SelfSat it would mean changing dish also, most likely, should there be a failure and no replacement.

.... that's just me and not the O.P.

Mr_D

@Johnboy1951
The Uni 2 LNBs will work straight out of the box for a simple set up (e.g., one LNB per STB input) - no need to program them. Programming is only required when using switches (including the basic 2-way combiner) AFAIK. Note that I assume FBC tuners and Unicable II LNBs.

@dubrov, I can see that Johnboy1951 knows more than me about the topic, so I'm happy to go with what he's saying ;-) The benefit of Unicable II LNBs is that they can feed 32 tuners (I think the standard says 64, but the inverto LNBs support either 24 or 32). It's a big improvement over conventional technology. So if you couple this with FBC tuners (which in the case of the vu+ Solo4k provides 8 tuners) you have far more flexibility in terms of feeding multiple STBs, streaming etc. AFAIK a single LNB can feed multiple STBs, through you will experience signal loss at each splitter. To be on the safe side, you should talk to someone who has actually done it... rather than someone who has just read about it on the web (me).

Inverto has a good intro page on FBC, worth a look http://www.inverto.tv/guide/?p=12