Freesat question

[hedgie]

Originally Posted by Chris

Do you wish to continue using your existing Sky box as well as a new Freesat box? If so, then yes, you need an additional cable - you will also need a new widget to sit on the arm attached to your dish. The widget is called an LNB (low-noise blocker) but to run two set-top boxes you will need a 'dual LNB' that is capable of feeding two different boxes simultaneously.

Every satellite set-top-box requires its own connection to the dish, as the box needs to send tuning instructions to the LNB attached to the dish as well as receiving signals from it.

Right familiar with cable not so with satellite so bear with me......if you wanted the equivalent PVR functionality to a V+ box you would need a triple LNB and three cables ? Assuming Humax or whoever make a triple tuner box, excluding a connection to the TV.

If I understand correctly on a satellite installation the "tuner" is in the LNB and the cable only carries the tuned signal not the full "bandwidth"?

[Kymmy]

For each tuner you need an LNB, so three tuners you;d need a triple LNB (a quad one is probably cheaper as sky uses them..)

As for the tuner well NO, an LNB converts the signal from somewhere in the region of 10-11Ghz down to a more reasonable figure that can be carried down Co-ax without to much attenuation..(roughly about 900-1100Mhz), the tuners inside of the sat reciever handle the lower signal..

Originally Posted by hedgie

Right familiar with cable not so with satellite so bear with me......if you wanted the equivalent PVR functionality to a V+ box you would need a triple LNB and three cables ? Assuming Humax or whoever make a triple tuner box, excluding a connection to the TV.

The Humax is a dual-tuner box, same as a Sky+ box. It requires two feeds from the dish, so you need a dual-LNB. You can watch one/record one, or record two/watch a previous recording.

If I understand correctly on a satellite installation the "tuner" is in the LNB and the cable only carries the tuned signal not the full "bandwidth"?

The LNB is not the tuner, but a satellite tuner needs to be able to control an LNB to tell it whether the station the tuner requires is broadcast with horizontal or vertical polarization.

For a + box to work fully, it has to allow for the possibility that one tuner will want to tune in to a horizontally polarized signal at the same time as the other tuner will want to receive a vertically polarized signal. The only way to ensure this full flexibility is to give each tuner its own LNB (or rather, install multiple LNBs within a single casing, which is what a dual, quad or octo-LNB is).