VU+ Duo 4K SE - lnb type and DVBT feed

Supercell

I'm loking at getting the VU+ Duo 4K SE as I'd like to be able to record two things on satellite and watch a third at the same time which I currently cannot do.

This looks like it will do what I want but I'm confused by the description:-

What is a DVB-S2 FBC Twin Tuner?
A DVB-S2 FBC Twin Tuner has 8 demodulators.
With two conventional (e.g., Twin-LNB) satellite feeds, the tuner is comparable to 2 conventional and 6 additional tuners operating in loop-through mode. You can watch, stream or record simultaneously stations from 8 different transponders from 2 different Sat levels.
In SCR operation (Unicable) with 8 frequencies, this corresponds to 8 conventional tuners.

Do I need two lnb's like these Unicable ones to make that work or will loop through mode suffice with my existing dish which is rusting badly anyhow (I'm thinking of replacing the dish and box all at once for a clean start).
Currently I am combining the ariel feed for saorview into one of the dish feeds and splitting it the other end, would that work with this type of lnb at all, if thats what i need for tri-record/watch capability?

Johnboy1951

A single Unicable II LNB to get the most functions.

It is possible I believe to assign all 8 tuners to one input, unless you need the second input for a second dish.

I do not have this beast, so the above is IMO.

You cannot combine the sat and terrestrial feeds if using a Unicable LNB.

Supercell

Thanks John, one feed with appropriate splitters in the attic would do the trick ideal. Pity about the ariel feed though.
I'm wondering if a regular quad lnb with "two conventional (e.g., Twin-LNB) satellite feeds, the tuner is comparable to 2 conventional and 6 additional tuners operating in loop-through mode" might do what i want as the cables are already ran, dont really understand what that means?

Gerry Wicklow

Supercell wrote: »

Thanks John, one feed with appropriate splitters in the attic would do the trick ideal. Pity about the ariel feed though.
I'm wondering if a regular quad lnb with "two conventional (e.g., Twin-LNB) satellite feeds, the tuner is comparable to 2 conventional and 6 additional tuners operating in loop-through mode" might do what i want as the cables are already ran, dont really understand what that means?

It is possible to use a conventional twin LNB feed connected to the two inputs. In that case the box behaves like any other but the pseudo tuners will also work as long as the other channels are on the same band and polarity that this cable is using. In other words, say tuner 1 is watching low band H, the pseudo tuners will also be able to watch/record any Low H TP. Meanwhile tuner 2 and its pseudo tuners will be available for another band / polarity combination.
You can still use the terrestrial piggyback as well.

NewClareman

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

A single Unicable II LNB to get the most functions.

It is possible I believe to assign all 8 tuners to one input, unless you need the second input for a second dish.

I do not have this beast, so the above is IMO.

You cannot combine the sat and terrestrial feeds if using a Unicable LNB.

It is possible to combine the sat and terrestrial feeds if using a Unicable 1 LNB. It should be possible with Unicable 2, but I haven't tried it.

Johnboy1951

NewClareman wrote: »

It is possible to combine the sat and terrestrial feeds if using a Unicable 1 LNB. It should be possible with Unicable 2, but I haven't tried it.

I received strong advise (some time ago) not to use the combiner with Unicable II LNB, so I never tried it

Be interesting to hear from anyone who has done so with no interference between the two.

dubrov

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I received strong advise (some time ago) not to use the combiner with Unicable II LNB, so I never tried it

Be interesting to hear from anyone who has done so with no interference between the two.

I've an aerial and quattro LNB feeding a Unicable II Multiswitch( ISKY-UST110-CUO8O-16P). Two coaxial cables run from the multiswitch to each TV point (each cable contains combined aerial and unicable sat signals).
I don't even bother splitting the signals back out at the receiver (one goes to an FBC Sat tuner connector and one goes to the DVB-T connector).

All works fine

dubrov

Supercell wrote: »

Thanks John, one feed with appropriate splitters in the attic would do the trick ideal. Pity about the ariel feed though.
I'm wondering if a regular quad lnb with "two conventional (e.g., Twin-LNB) satellite feeds, the tuner is comparable to 2 conventional and 6 additional tuners operating in loop-through mode" might do what i want as the cables are already ran, dont really understand what that means?

I have a Gigablue UHD UE which is similar to the box you are looking at (but a bit cheaper).
It also has 2 FBC tuners.

"2 conventional and 6 additional tuners" basically means it has 2 physical connections for connecting a satellite feed. Each of these connections have an associated satellite tuner. In addition to this you get 6 virtual tuners (so 8 in total). The two physical connection allow you to connect two different satellite feeds and assign the virtual tuners as you wish.

I have a single satellite unicable feed connected to my box with all tuners configured to use it. So I can record up to 8 channels from different transponders at the same time.

To be able to use the virtual tuners, you need a Unicable feed which combines multiple SAT feeds by shifting the frequency and stacking it You need a Unicable compatible receiver then to destack it. I'd say all satellite boxes are compatible but maybe only some TVs.

Unicable coaxial cable feeds can be split unlike conventional satellite feeds. Each receiver just gets assigned one of the frequencies,

There are two types of Unicable (Unicable I and Unicable II - also called JESS). The main difference I think is that Unicable II can send many more satellite feeds (32 vs 4 I think) over a single cable.

If you decide to go with Unicable, you'll need a Unicable LNB or a Unicable multiswitch (fed by 4 Quattro/Quad LNB feeds).

Most people find that 2 Sat tuners and 1 terrestrial tuner suit their needs (see ZGemma H7S or similar). Your TV probably also has a sat and terrestrial tuner in addition to the Catch up players.

Johnboy1951

dubrov wrote: »

I've an aerial and quattro LNB feeding a Unicable II Multiswitch( ISKY-UST110-CUO8O-16P). Two coaxial cables run from the multiswitch to each TV point (each cable contains combined aerial and unicable sat signals).
I don't even bother splitting the signals back out at the receiver (one goes to an FBC Sat tuner connector and one goes to the DVB-T connector).

All works fine

That uses a quattro LNB and not a Unicable II LNB, and the terrestrial signal is then combined.

What is in question here is whether a terrestrial signal can be combined with Unicable II LNB signals directly, without interference to either.

I am unsure if there is much difference to be honest ... but ...

dubrov

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

That uses a quattro LNB and not a Unicable II LNB, and the terrestrial signal is then combined.

What is in question here is whether a terrestrial signal can be combined with Unicable II LNB signals directly, without interference to either.

I am unsure if there is much difference to be honest ... but ...

The output of the switch is Unicable II combined with terrestrial (same as if it came direct from a Unicable II LNB and was combined with terrestrial). The virtual tuners are configured on the satellite box to pick up the Unicable II User bands.

Unicable frequencies seem to start at 950MHz which is higher than Saorview so can't see how they would interfere.

NewClareman

dubrov wrote: »

The output of the switch is Unicable II combined with terrestrial (same as if it came direct from a Unicable II LNB and was combined with terrestrial). The virtual tuners are configured on the satellite box to pick up the Unicable II User bands.

Unicable frequencies seem to start at 950MHz which is higher than Saorview so can't see how they would interfere.

Thanks a million for that, it's exactly as I expected. I'll be wiring a house, soon, and this will save the expense of using a multiswitch. I hate a mess and want only one coax and one ethernet cable at each point.

Johnboy1951

dubrov wrote: »

The output of the switch is Unicable II combined with terrestrial (same as if it came direct from a Unicable II LNB and was combined with terrestrial). The virtual tuners are configured on the satellite box to pick up the Unicable II User bands.

Unicable frequencies seem to start at 950MHz which is higher than Saorview so can't see how they would interfere.

This has caused me to have a re-think, so thanks for that

I went and checked the details from my LNB and it seems to show the lowest central frequency at 984 MHz, so it should indeed function without a problem, combined with terrestrial on one cable.

Standard configuration
32 UBs in dynamic mode:
UB1 1210 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB2 1420 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB3 1680 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB4 2040 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB5 984 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB6 1020 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB7 1056 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)
UB8 1092 MHz (EN50494+EN50607)

Thanks guys for this clarification.

dubrov

NewClareman wrote: »

Thanks a million for that, it's exactly as I expected. I'll be wiring a house, soon, and this will save the expense of using a multiswitch. I hate a mess and want only one coax and one ethernet cable at each point.

The Unicable multiswitches are expensive new but when I looked before there were loads on Ebay "as new" around the fifty euro mark. Probably cheaper to get the Unicable LNB though. The main reason I went for that switch is that it supports non-Unicable devices and i had a TV in that category. It also supports Sky Q but I can't see myself ever going back there.

If you really don't like cables, I'd have a serious look at putting a good wireless setup in place. You could even send the TV channels over the home network (see some of JohnBoy's old posts for what would be involved).

NewClareman

dubrov wrote: »

The Unicable multiswitches are expensive new but when I looked before there were loads on Ebay "as new" around the fifty euro mark. Probably cheaper to get the Unicable LNB though. The main reason I went for that switch is that it supports non-Unicable devices and i had a TV in that category. It also supports Sky Q but I can't see myself ever going back there.

If you really don't like cables, I'd have a serious look at putting a good wireless setup in place. You could even send the TV channels over the home network (see some of JohnBoy's old posts for what would be involved).

Yeah, a multiswitch might still be a better option. I'll be doing a major revamp, before moving in, so I can put in (some) cables.

I have looked at JohnBoy's setup - a fantastic job.

Johnboy1951

Thanks for the kind words about my chosen method.
I am continually testing and trying different ways to achieve the same end, with the same emphasis on lowest cost possible without compromising features/functions.

I have pulled the PC with the TBS terrestrial dual tuner card from the system and used two DVB-T USB tuners plugged into the wee server box running CoreElec, which has Tvheadend managing everything, as replacements. Those USB DVB-T tuner sticks cost less than €10 each delivered (at the time).

I have also picked up (free) a few Zgemma H.2S boxes, one of which is presently on test in the system. It has minisatip running on it which makes its tuners Sat?IP available and thus available to the TVH server.

Both those changes have been running without problems for some weeks now.
I like free or cheap!!!!!!!!

This is a pic of the tuners in the system today.
The top two are the USB DVB-T tuners.
Digibit is the Telestar R1 quad DVB-S/2 tuner device
minisatip is the Zgemma



Apologies if I should not have gone OT, but thought it might be of interest.

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