Matching an LNB and dish to a sky box

[Guest]

As part of the monthly outgoings austerity measures in the MJG household I've just ditched my Sky+ subscription and the TV package I had (I reckon we weren't watching around 90% of the channels anyway.

 

A Humax Freesat+ receiver (very nice BTW) bought with my retirement gratuity now serves the living room telly. The Sky+ box has gone upstairs but obviously only functions as a std. non recording box as I've only got one LNB cable to it and I have obviously ditched the sky+ subscription (Bit of a cheek of Sky to charge for the privilege of recording don't you think when it's free on Freesat+)

 

Upshot is I now have a neat Pace TV box which will now function as a 'Freesat from Sky' receiver. I would like to set this up on the boat- but need to match it to a dish and LNB - what spec LNB do I need to look out for in particular, I'd like one of the the really small non elliptical dishes you I've seen too.

 

Any advice and thoughts welcome.

[cotswoldsman]

As part of the monthly outgoings austerity measures in the MJG household I've just ditched my Sky+ subscription and the TV package I had (I reckon we weren't watching around 90% of the channels anyway.

 

A Humax Freesat+ receiver (very nice BTW) bought with my retirement gratuity now serves the living room telly. The Sky+ box has gone upstairs but obviously only functions as a std. non recording box as I've only got one LNB cable to it and I have obviously ditched the sky+ subscription (Bit of a cheek of Sky to charge for the privilege of recording don't you think when it's free on Freesat+)

 

Upshot is I now have a neat Pace TV box which will now function as a 'Freesat from Sky' receiver. I would like to set this up on the boat- but need to match it to a dish and LNB - what spec LNB do I need to look out for in particular, I'd like one of the the really small non elliptical dishes you I've seen too.

 

Any advice and thoughts welcome.

 

Bit like double Dutch to me what you have said.....all I can say is that the Maplin Satelite thingy I bought a few years ago now works very well with the Freesat box I bought this year, guess that no help to you!!

[pete.i]

Hi MJG

Your ex sky box will work with the LNB and dish that come with the Maplin suitcase kit. The downside to buying that is that the Maplin kit comes with a freeserve satellite box which will negate the use of your Pace box. I think that by the time you have bought a suitable LNB and Dish you will probably find that the Maplin kit is not going to be that much more expensive. I think the Maplin one was retailing at £99.99p plus postage. I actually got mine for £69.99p plus the postage as it was a second. Also the dish that comes with the Maplin kit, whilst being small, IS elliptacle.

 

The other problem with the Maplin kits are the brackets that come with it. As the kit is meant for camping/caravanning/boats the brackets are free standing. I found them very difficult to mount anywhere with any degree of stability and, of course, when the boat moves the signal disappears. I eventually ditched the satellite idea and went for a normal aerial and freeserve standard box. The other problem with your Pace box is that it is mains (240 Volt) only. As long as you have mains on board either via an inverter or shoreline you are okay. The Pace boxes though do (or did) like a nice clean stable voltage or the power supplies give up the ghost. Inverter mains and some shorelines don't always give this.

 

One big advantage, though, with satellite is that you can point the dish at various different satellites and get loads of other stations other than the Brit freeserve ones. with an aerial you are limited to what comes from Brit freeserve which in my humble opinion is absolute, complete, and total rubbish. A bit like Sky really which I do have at home and where I spend most of my time flicking through the channels trying to find something (anything) suitable to watch, much too the annoyance of my wife.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Pete. I

 

Hmm looks like they bunged 30 quid on the maplins one since I bought it.

Edited December 17, 2010 by pete.i

[ditchcrawler]

As part of the monthly outgoings austerity measures in the MJG household I've just ditched my Sky+ subscription and the TV package I had (I reckon we weren't watching around 90% of the channels anyway.

 

A Humax Freesat+ receiver (very nice BTW) bought with my retirement gratuity now serves the living room telly. The Sky+ box has gone upstairs but obviously only functions as a std. non recording box as I've only got one LNB cable to it and I have obviously ditched the sky+ subscription (Bit of a cheek of Sky to charge for the privilege of recording don't you think when it's free on Freesat+)

 

Upshot is I now have a neat Pace TV box which will now function as a 'Freesat from Sky' receiver. I would like to set this up on the boat- but need to match it to a dish and LNB - what spec LNB do I need to look out for in particular, I'd like one of the the really small non elliptical dishes you I've seen too.

 

Any advice and thoughts welcome.

How about this on ebay More than you want but give you some bits

[charles123]

Regarding the house Sky, you could have reduced the package (and cost) bought an dual LNB and a length of cable off ebay, swapped it onto your dish and run the second cable into the house, all very cheap and easy then used your sky+ box and recorded what you wanted

 

On the boat my understanding is that any dish will connect with your box but you need to work out a mounting

 

Charles

[Guest]

Regarding the house Sky, you could have reduced the package (and cost) bought an dual LNB and a length of cable off ebay, swapped it onto your dish and run the second cable into the house, all very cheap and easy then used your sky+ box and recorded what you wanted

 

On the boat my understanding is that any dish will connect with your box but you need to work out a mounting

 

Charles

 

But you can't record on Sky+ unless you pay Sky £10 per month for the Sky+ service - which in principal I object to - when you remove all your TV packages and just have the free channels they still sting you the £10 charge just to be able to pause live TV, record and FF/rewind.

 

Freesat+ lets you do that for zilch...(aside of course from the price of the STB) which you will eventually recoup.

Edited December 17, 2010 by MJG

[saltysplash]

But you can't record on Sky+ unless you pay Sky £10 per month for the Sky+ service - which in principal I object to - even if you remove all your TV packages and just have the free channels they still sting you the £10 charge just to be able to pause live TV, record and FF/rewind.

 

Freesat+ lets you do that for zilch...(aside of course from the price of the STB) which you will eventually recoup.

 

 

If all you want is the free channels to record, why complain that Sky charge for their Sky+ service? They are a subscription based provider.

[charles123]

But you can't record on Sky+ unless you pay Sky £10 per month for the Sky+ service - which in principal I object to - when you remove all your TV packages and just have the free channels they still sting you the £10 charge just to be able to pause live TV, record and FF/rewind.

 

Freesat+ lets you do that for zilch...(aside of course from the price of the STB) which you will eventually recoup.

 

I said reduce your packages, in any event each to their own, if you want to watch stuff not in freeview then you have to pay

 

Charles

[Guest]

If all you want is the free channels to record, why complain that Sky charge for their Sky+ service? They are a subscription based provider.

 

Not sure I was actually complaining as such just saying I wasn't happy to pay for a service that I could get at no charge with another service.

 

I said reduce your packages, in any event each to their own, if you want to watch stuff not in freeview then you have to pay

 

Charles

 

I was on the min. package so reducing meant getting rid of the lot, at which point Sky charge you for the pause/record live TV facility, of course it's each to their own - that was the point of my first post, I don't want or don't get time to watch the multitude of stuff on Sky including stuff that isn't free so I can't really see the point of continuing to pay for it.

[Guest]

Ok thanks for the help - whilst googling around some of the suggestions above I stumbled across this-

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218642&OrderCode=B78LN# also available brand new non 'B grade' for just £20 more.

 

- seems a bargain at £40 all in for a complete system - I seem to remember some folks on here have this same system - any one who has care to comment on them.

 

At 46cm it's a bigger dish than I was looking for though and I'll have to work out how to fix an adjustable mount for it.

[alan_fincher]

For boat use the Maplin system used is more often the portable "satellite suitcase".

 

This has the advantage of being able to be powered off either 240 volts AC or 12 volts DC, and has a smaller dish that offers a variety of mouting options including a useful "sucker base" as well as a "G cramp" style one. n(A small dish is generally considered better, if you are attaching it to a narrow boat, as although gain is less, alignment is also less critical, so it deals better with boat movement).

 

The system you have identified here is quite different, but should provide a good option for home use.

 

I have noticed that it's not just Aldi / Lidl etc that are now regularly offering complete systems, with dish, for under £50. I have recently seen very cheap complete systems in Homebase, B&Q & Wilko, often as little as £30. I have no idea of quality, but can't see why they wouldn't be OK.

[Guest]

For boat use the Maplin system used is more often the portable "satellite suitcase".

 

This has the advantage of being able to be powered off either 240 volts AC or 12 volts DC, and has a smaller dish that offers a variety of mouting options including a useful "sucker base" as well as a "G cramp" style one. n(A small dish is generally considered better, if you are attaching it to a narrow boat, as although gain is less, alignment is also less critical, so it deals better with boat movement).

 

The system you have identified here is quite different, but should provide a good option for home use.

 

I have noticed that it's not just Aldi / Lidl etc that are now regularly offering complete systems, with dish, for under £50. I have recently seen very cheap complete systems in Homebase, B&Q & Wilko, often as little as £30. I have no idea of quality, but can't see why they wouldn't be OK.

 

Thanks Alan I'll have a dig around.

[Martyn Hicks]

As part of the monthly outgoings austerity measures in the MJG household I've just ditched my Sky+ subscription and the TV package I had (I reckon we weren't watching around 90% of the channels anyway.

 

A Humax Freesat+ receiver (very nice BTW) bought with my retirement gratuity now serves the living room telly. The Sky+ box has gone upstairs but obviously only functions as a std. non recording box as I've only got one LNB cable to it and I have obviously ditched the sky+ subscription (Bit of a cheek of Sky to charge for the privilege of recording don't you think when it's free on Freesat+)

 

Upshot is I now have a neat Pace TV box which will now function as a 'Freesat from Sky' receiver. I would like to set this up on the boat- but need to match it to a dish and LNB - what spec LNB do I need to look out for in particular, I'd like one of the the really small non elliptical dishes you I've seen too.

 

Any advice and thoughts welcome.

 

Hi....you'll see a multitude of sat dish's on the network, a small dinky one will work ok with out any problems at all...walking about the boat will not loose any signal, other boats crusing past still no problems( not while the canal is frozen solid mind) so long as the ropes are reasonibly taught, a boat swinging about will cause the signal to break up, as will the blizzards and don't forget to brush off any snow thats settled on the lnb...

 

Also you will need a twin LNB this will enable you to watch one channel and record another at the same time or even record two channels at the same time, I've even noticed that the Humax freesat pvr will allow you to watch a certain ammount of channels whilst recording 2 programmes.... you will need two cables from the lnb to the sat box...I've just used a gizmo that allows me to use just the one cable and comments from the customers it is working ok...

 

Martyn.....

Edited December 21, 2010 by Martyn Hicks

[Guest]

Hi....you'll see a multitude of sat dish's on the network, a small dinky one will work ok with out any problems at all...walking about the boat will not loose any signal, other boats crusing past still no problems( not while the canal is frozen solid mind) so long as the ropes are reasonibly taught, a boat swinging about will cause the signal to break up, as will the blizzards and don't forget to brush off any snow thats settled on the lnb...

 

Also you will need a twin LNB this will enable you to watch one channel and record another at the same time or even record two channels at the same time, I've even noticed that the Humax freesat pvr will allow you to watch a certain ammount of channels whilst recording 2 programmes.... you will need two cables from the lnb to the sat box...I've just used a gizmo that allows me to use just the one cable and comments from the customers it is working ok...

 

Martyn.....

 

Hi Martyn - got your PM too thank.s.

 

The plan isn't to use a PVR on the boat - the Humax I've bought is for home, (Brilliant kit BTW if anybody is thinking about ditching Sky+ like I've done) the Pace box I was planning to use on the boat is just a bog std. single LNB feed sky box - I have no plans at the mo for any recording facility on the boat so a single LNB will suffice.

[Martyn Hicks]

Hi Martyn - got your PM too thank.s.

 

The plan isn't to use a PVR on the boat - the Humax I've bought is for home, (Brilliant kit BTW if anybody is thinking about ditching Sky+ like I've done) the Pace box I was planning to use on the boat is just a bog std. single LNB feed sky box - I have no plans at the mo for any recording facility on the boat so a single LNB will suffice.

 

Hi...A good dish will do the job, the lower the rating on the lnb the better but I don't have any issue's with 0.3 desibal type, but remember if the roof is of a non slip type then the suction pads WONT fix properly, so a mag mount or a pole fixing will have to do the job..

 

Martyn

[J R]

Hi....you'll see a multitude of sat dish's on the network, a small dinky one will work ok with out any problems at all...walking about the boat will not loose any signal, other boats crusing past still no problems( not while the canal is frozen solid mind) so long as the ropes are reasonibly taught, a boat swinging about will cause the signal to break up, as will the blizzards and don't forget to brush off any snow thats settled on the lnb...

 

Also you will need a twin LNB this will enable you to watch one channel and record another at the same time or even record two channels at the same time, I've even noticed that the Humax freesat pvr will allow you to watch a certain ammount of channels whilst recording 2 programmes.... you will need two cables from the lnb to the sat box...I've just used a gizmo that allows me to use just the one cable and comments from the customers it is working ok...

 

Martyn.....

 

Out of interest, what is the gizmo that allows the use of one cable from a single lnb for a two cable feed to the box?

[Martyn Hicks]

Out of interest, what is the gizmo that allows the use of one cable from a single lnb for a two cable feed to the box?

 

Its called a stacker ....a twin lnb is still needed though.....I've used it twice on a metal narrowboat all seems ok so far....it certainly worked ok on houses but I wasn't sure if the metal would have any effect on signal quality...

[Guest]

Its called a stacker ....a twin lnb is still needed though.....I've used it twice on a metal narrowboat all seems ok so far....it certainly worked ok on houses but I wasn't sure if the metal would have any effect on signal quality...

 

It would seem a bit pointless (certainly on a boat) then to me Martyn unless I'm missing some clear advantage.

 

To add a PVR to en existing system single output LNB system the the new dual/multiple LNB will be the pricey bit so all you need after that is an extra cable run, not really that hard or expensive to do on a boat.

 

I can see if you have to install an extra cable in a domestic installation to go with the new LNB this might be a better option but I guess this Stacker doesn't come cheap still leaving an extra cable run as a much cheaper option....or as I say unless there is an advantage I'm missing.

 

 

..

Edited December 22, 2010 by MJG

[Martyn Hicks]

It would seem a bit pointless (certainly on a boat) then to me Martyn unless I'm missing some clear advantage.

 

To add a PVR to en existing system single output LNB system the the new dual/multiple LNB will be the pricey bit so all you need after that is an extra cable run, not really that hard or expensive to do on a boat.

 

I can see if you have to install an extra cable in a domestic installation to go with the new LNB this might be a better option but I guess this Stacker doesn't come cheap still leaving an extra cable run as a much cheaper option....or as I say unless there is an advantage I'm missing.

 

 

..

 

On some boats where the Tv is NOT on the front shelf, the boatbuilder has run a single cable behing all the wooden panelling and to get a second cable run would be near on impossible....apart from that I'd go for a second cable but in some situations that can't be done very easily...

 

Martyn....

[Guest]

Der - numpty edit cause I'm stupid and have got my threads crossed....

Edited December 22, 2010 by MJG

[J R]

On some boats where the Tv is NOT on the front shelf, the boatbuilder has run a single cable behing all the wooden panelling and to get a second cable run would be near on impossible....apart from that I'd go for a second cable but in some situations that can't be done very easily...

 

Martyn....

 

Whats a stacker? Can easily source and fit a duel LNB but cannot run a second cable to the TV setup easily and do not wan't to drill an extra hole in the steelwork. On normal Sky Plus you have two cables automatically run to the box from the sat dish. How does the stacker come into play?

[Guest]

Whats a stacker? Can easily source and fit a duel LNB but cannot run a second cable to the TV setup easily and do not wan't to drill an extra hole in the steelwork. On normal Sky Plus you have two cables automatically run to the box from the sat dish. How does the stacker come into play?

 

Martyn will no doubt explain better than me but it seems to me that it electronically separates the inputs from the LNB and sends then down a single co-ax cable (already there in most cases) whereupon near the box the signals are pushed to the two shy+ inputs (or possibly any other PVR that has 2 inputs).

 

Effectively it 'mimics' 2 co-ax cables with some clever electrtickery - that's my understanding anyway.

Edited December 22, 2010 by MJG

[Martyn Hicks]

Whats a stacker? Can easily source and fit a duel LNB but cannot run a second cable to the TV setup easily and do not wan't to drill an extra hole in the steelwork. On normal Sky Plus you have two cables automatically run to the box from the sat dish. How does the stacker come into play?

 

Hi....I'll try my best to explain....The Stacker converts the two LNB signals such that they can co-exist on the same piece of co-ax without interferring with each other, by moving one of the LNB to a higher frequency. The De-Stacker reverses this process.

 

No other TV amplifiers, splitters, connectors, etc can be introduced between the Stacker and De-Stacker, as this will disable the operation of the system.

 

The Stacker box is mounted directly behind the LNB and has two inputs (47-2,150 MHz and 950-2,150 MHz) and one output (47-3,550 MHz). You connect two of your LNB outputs to the Stacker unit. Connect the Stacker output via single cable (with no joints or wall plates interposed) to the De-Stacker input. All connectors are satellite screw fit 'F' type.

 

Two short coax cables link the two Destacker outputs to the two LNB inputs on the Sky HD (or Sky Plus) decoder. Whilst you must not use a wall outlet for the single co-ax cable run from the Stacker, you may use wall outlets after the DeStacker, before the Sky box.

 

This is a powered device. The power supply is supplied and connects to the De-Stacker. The Stacker unit is then powered over the co-ax cable from the De-Stacker.

 

It is critical that the single run of co-ax cable is of the highest quality (at least CT100 specification), and is one continuous length, without kinks or sharp bends.

 

Hope this helps..

 

Martyn