Can I replace minidish with lidl dish

jonnygee

I have a Panasonic dmr e-65 dvd recorder that accepts av1 and av2 inputs and can output on s-vhs. What I am thinking about doing is to swap my minidish and replace it with the lidl dish that came with the fta system that I bought in August this year for 99 euro. The lnb that came with this system has two outputs. I would run a cable to digibox linked to recorder av1 input and a second cable to fta system linked to av2 input on recorder so that I can watch one channel on tv and record a different channel on dvd at the same time,in other words a homemade skyplus system except all fta channels can be recorded. I think technically this would work but I would be concerned that the lidl dish may be too small to provide optimum performance during wet winter nights. Has anyone any experience of the lidl dish as regard,s performance. I dont want to climb a ladder if it is not feasible,a friend of mine is getting good results from a zone 1 minidish for some time now even though I laughed at the size of it when He bought it off e-bay for 11 pounds sterling with lnb attached. Any opinions would be appreciated .By the way I am in Donegal

Tony

If its 60cm or bigger it should be ok if the LNB is decent quality.

Ulsterman 1690

I have used a lidl 80cm dish with a $ky dodgybox for picking up some Hotbird channels along with both Astra satellites

jonnygee

Thanks for the replies. After checking the dish it is actually a 55 cm,maybe a bit small, however as my minidish is very badly rusted now it will have to come down and I will try the lidl dish for a while to see how it performs, a mornings work to replace it with a new minidish and quad isn,t a big problem.The biggest problem is trying to get extra cables down the conduit installed by the electricans. I have spent all evening trying to get an extra cable installed without sucess, electricans please note we need more coax now than we did in the sixties, stick in an extra conduit. The reason I want to run two cables is that now there are more fta channels it is becoming more important that we can watch one channel and record another without having to subscribe to skyplus. I see a lot of comments on forums running down the cable companies but I think that the ace they have up their sleeve is their ability to do this without paying more for a multiroom subscription.

watty

Many Sky dishes are not well aligned. If you align carefully it will be fine except during very heavy rain.

watty

Only the analog cable is multiroom. An I woulndt have it for free.

jonnygee

Sorry Watty,
I was referring to the local cable system we have here in the wilds of Donegal,which is analogue however it is definetley not free. I dont know anything about how the more modern systems work at all.
Anaway as I installed my lidl dish and twin lnb yesterday and finally managed to squeeze another cable into the conduit I can now watch BBC one and record UTV at the same time from satellite. Dont need cable,dont need skyplus,Lidl,s the one for me.