Noob to satellites

BopNiblets

Hi all, just got rid of the virgin media box there and looking at getting a satellite for Saorview and Freesat, I've been reading a few posts and a combo set top box looks good.

I have an LG TV with the right tuners but from what I read it's not a great UI for Satellite and Saorview, although someone mentioned a combiner thing that puts them into one cable would that work? Still would like to have favourites/bouquets for channels (Jesus, the terminology! It's like being in 1st year CS all over again!), and probably some recording eventually.

Since I'll be getting someone to install the dish (don't have the skills myself), are there any installers that include one of the recommended boxes out there?
The Linux ones look good, Tiviar, zgemma with openvix or whatever but I know nothing about them, I'm guessing openvix, openatv is the OS build.
I did like the look of the Manhattan SX user interface on amazon, vey clean but it's Freesat only, something like that would be ideal, my missus and I were driven mad by the Virgin media box interface, it was just crap.

I currently have a OSMC (Kodi) Vero4k (like a powerful Raspberry Pi) for movies off a Synology NAS, so if a STB has Kodi installed and it's as powerful, I could replace the Vero too.

Appreciate any advice about installers!

fritzelly

To get Saorsat you need a seperate dish from the Sky one or a very large dish, for Saorview you need an aerial
For the dish make sure you get at least a dual LNB
For the box just make sure it has 2 x DVB-S2 and one DVB-T2 - the image you can change if you don't like one particular look.
Whoever you get to install the dish will probably do the aerial as well and spit the signal so you can have it on the TV if necessary.

BopNiblets

Would a Saorsat + Freesat dish be better than a Saorview aerial + Freesat dish setup, or would it matter too much (other than being abit tidier on the wall)?
I'd need a box with 2 sat tuners for the former then?

Yes I think Dual LNB is the way to go if I want to record and watch stuff at the same time I need a dual tuner on the box.

fritzelly

Saorsat is just RTE, no Virgin

Apogee

BopNiblets wrote: »

Would a Saorsat + Freesat dish be better than a Saorview aerial + Freesat dish setup, or would it matter too much (other than being abit tidier on the wall)?

Saorview+Freesat is superior to Saorsat+Freesat in terms of range of channels, flexibility, cost etc.

You can combine the Saorview (terrestrial) and Freesat (satellite) signals onto the one cable using a pair of diplexers - one to combine and one to separate.

If you want to keep the cables to a minimum, consider using a Unicable LNB rather than a Dual LNB. A Unicable LNB will support 4+ tuners from single cable. The vast bulk of receivers now support Unicable LNBs.