mole Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 hi there so just moved house and find freeview via aerial is non existant so am looking into getting a freesat recorder box and satalite dish. Is there anything I need to know before I buy a sat dish? are there different types? etc... or is there a good website someone could recommend. Not looking to spend a great deal on it.... thanks in advance.
abillybob Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 Buy the cheapest satellite you can, they're only receivers so it doesn't matter really. Mount it outside on a wall and point it in the direction that your neighbours is pointing. Connect up to freesat box. Voila 1
Oaktech Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 I've done this a few times and I've done the following... Bought a sky dish and fitting kit (20m cable, clips and wall fittings) off ebay for about £40 Bought a humax recorder, or a 2nd hand sky plus box off ebay for about £100 (if you bought a sky plus box you need to buy a freesat card off of sky for a tenner.) Fitted it all and aimed the dish by looking at where everyone elses point! 1
MkII Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 Get a minimal Sky deal and take their free installed dish?
Pyroman Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 Buy the cheapest satellite you can, they're only receivers so it doesn't matter really. Mount it outside on a wall and point it in the direction that your neighbours is pointing. Connect up to freesat box. Voila Not quite as easy as that, what specs do you want? Do you want to be able to use a freesat box that records one channel while you watch another? Then you'll need a dish with a Dual LNB, if you want 2 freesat boxes that record then you'll need a quad LNB. Also, where are you in the UK? Sometimes you need a bigger that standard dish to get a decent reception (scotland) 1
mole Posted July 13, 2015 Author Posted July 13, 2015 bought this one off ebay - 60cm Zone 2 Satellite Dish Complete Kit For SKY HOTBIRD POLSAT FREESAT | eBay single LNB but aim to get a humax foxsat hdr which i believe you can use a sinlge cable and loop it allowing recording of one channel whist viewing another as long as one same range. location is south coast, getting a 60cm dish
plexer Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 bought this one off ebay - 60cm Zone 2 Satellite Dish Complete Kit For SKY HOTBIRD POLSAT FREESAT | eBay single LNB but aim to get a humax foxsat hdr which i believe you can use a sinlge cable and loop it allowing recording of one channel whist viewing another as long as one same range. location is south coast, getting a 60cm dish As long as both channels are the same polarity yes, but whilst you're running one cable you might as well run 2 or 4 or 6 depending on how many you need especially using shotgun cable. Ben
Oaktech Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 bought this one off ebay - 60cm Zone 2 Satellite Dish Complete Kit For SKY HOTBIRD POLSAT FREESAT | eBay single LNB but aim to get a humax foxsat hdr which i believe you can use a sinlge cable and loop it allowing recording of one channel whist viewing another as long as one same range. location is south coast, getting a 60cm dish I would always run multiple cables for multiple applications. You often get odd results with looped/split cables.
denzal2k4 Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 Be aware there are certain channels that you don't get on freesat, Dave for instance, also aligning a sat dish isn't just a case of point it in the same direction as neighbours, it can be really fiddly to get bang on, and if its not perfect your picture will freeze up every so often you either need a satfinder "http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Digital-Satellite-Signal-Finder-Meter-With-LCD-Display-for-Sat-Dish-DIRECTV-/271779549670" or someone inside shouting when signal improves, personally I have a media center PC with twin sat tuners, running Windows Media center, which for me personally is the best software I have found for it, and I've been using this setup for about 6 years, doubles up as a gaming machine.
jinnantonnixx Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 (edited) You will need a satellite signal meter (I got a cheap one from Maplin). You will also need to set the skew of your LNB - this is often overlooked and can lead to picture problems if it's not set. http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/LNB_skew.htm Sky dishes must use Sky LNBs - you can't mix and match the dishes and LNBs, they have to have the correct shape as Sky dishes are short-wide as opposed to the universal tall-narrow. From the offset position, a tall-narrow dish looks round from the LNB's point of view. http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/lnb.htm#oval Try and use reasonably good cables. Rubbish cables might give you the same electrical characteristics as good cables, but remember their job is to carry gigahertz signals and junk cables can attenuate high frequencies, more so over long lengths. As an aside - the 'strength' your receiver will report is the strength of the signal from the LNB to your receiver (not from the satellite to your LNB). This is different from the 'quality' which is how free the signal is from errors. Edited July 13, 2015 by jinnantonnixx
hallb15 Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 +1 for the Satcure website. You'll find everything you need to know on there. http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/satmeter.htm
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now