Is this possible? Wiring problems - please help

[Johev]

Hi everybody,

I will try to structure this thread in a way it can be understood, but please be aware that I am not an expert on this so I might not be able to do as good of a job as I would like to.

Introduction:

My father has a 2 fixed satellite setup – 1 has 3 LNB's on it and the other one has 1 - in total they he has 4 LNB's pointed out at 4 different satellites.

He than has a switch (4 in - 1 out) next to the dishes and only one cable is going to the living room, now connected to a Xtrend ET9200 Silverline Edition (SE) bought from the sponsor of this nice forum.

He has this setup because before he used to have a small Sat Tuner that could only support up to different 4 LNB's.

Questions:

1) Now with a twin tuner setup is it possible to buy a switch (1 in - 2 out) that he could use on in his living room (on the other side of the cable that comes from the dishes), and this way have both tuners working?

1.1) Would this setup allow him to watch one channel on 1 satellite while recording another one on a different satellite?

1.2) Are there any bandwidth problems with this setup? Would it be possible to stream 2 HD channels from 2 different satellites at the same time?

2) He would like to add some more LNB's and/or Satellite dishes as he needs to have access to channels on satellites that he has not at the moment. My father does not like motorised dishes as he doesn't want to wait for it to position when he is zapping through channels and he wants to have the flexibility that both tuners should be connected to all LNB's which would in theory allow him to watch and record / stream any 2 channels at the same time.

Is this possible and what should he ask the installer to do when he comes over?

I have tired to make this as clear as possible.

Thank you in advance for all your help. :)

[Larry-G]

This is not a area i am too familiar with so i cant really help but i'll just give the thread a little bump for you so others who may be able to help may see the thread.

[Sicilian]

With your current setup you can only use one tuner as you only have one feed from the switch. So you would have the tuner set to Simple, DiSEQC A/B/C/D, then you would set the relevant satellites.

Only way to be able to use second tuner here would be to add a second switch thus giving a another feed. So in affect you would need to either move a couple of the LNB's to the second switch or you could use twin output LNB's and have them connected to both switches/tuners.

[Rob van der Does]

With your current setup you can only use one tuner as you only have one feed from the switch. So you would have the tuner set to Simple, DiSEQC A/B/C/D, then you would set the relevant satellites.
Correct, but setting the second tuner to 'loopthrough to tuner A' (and actually providing a loopthrough cable) would provide some possibilities for the second tuner.

But indeed upgrading the dish(es) by replacing the LNB's by twin-LNB's (and maybe add more twin LNB's for other satellites) would be the way to go.

[Johev]

Thank you all for replying.

I have been researching a bit more about this issue and as you have already mentioned the twin LNB's will be a must. I have read that the Inverto Black Ultra 0.2dB Twin Output would be ideal, but I would like to know if anyone could explain to me what is the difference between the Ultra and the no-Ultra Inverto Black, besides the price ;). What are the main parameters to watch for when buying LNB's?

As for the setup I was thinking if something like this could work - for simplification I assume that all the satellites can be found with 2 to 3 dishes.


3 dishes with a total of 6 twin LNB's
2 "DiseqC 8-1 Best Multiprotocol" switches (8in and 1 out) - are these OK? I have found them on fleBay
Finally I would connect one feed from each twin LNB to each switch, which would give me 6 in and 1 out on both switches and 2 feeds, one for each tuner.



Would this work? Is this the optimal way of setting this up?

I have even thought of a motorised dish for my father, but he zaps through a great variety of channels so many times I don't think any motor would last long with him. The other thing is that with the 6 LNB's pointed correctly at the satellites that he needs he would not need anything else.

Please comment as any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Sicilian]

I'll reply to this tonight and give you a guide on tuner settings for this sort of setup.

[Rob van der Does]

Apart from your specific questions: I find a motorised dish a very good addition to a multiple sat dish. That way you have the quick zapping you want for the most common satellites via the fixed dish, and (a cheap) possibility to see all satellites as well.

[Johev]

I'll reply to this tonight and give you a guide on tuner settings for this sort of setup.

Thank you for your input, a guide on this subject would help me a lot.


Apart from your specific questions: I find a motorised dish a very good addition to a multiple sat dish. That way you have the quick zapping you want for the most common satellites via the fixed dish, and (a cheap) possibility to see all satellites as well.

I already discussed it with my father. The thing is that he wants to always, and the key word here is always, be able to see any channel and record any channel. If he was using the motorized dish on a new satellite (one where no other dish would be pointed at) and he would start a recording there, he could not move it to another satellite (one that no other dish would be pointed at). I know that this can sound a bit far fetched, but that is how his argumentation works.

On a more reasonable note, would he need to have the motorized dish on the second tuner alone, or could he have the fixed satellites on it also? In other words, if he used a switch to connect one LNB feed from all 4 fixed LNBs, could he also connect the motorized dish LNB to that switch and still make it rotate whenever he would select a satellite that was not pointed by the other 4 LNB's?

Thanks for replying.

[Sicilian]

You cannot connect a motor to a diseqc motor to a diseqc switch.

[Rob van der Does]

You cannot connect a motor to a diseqc motor to a diseqc switch.
Sorry to contradict you there: you can.
I have two switches (4/1) with 3 fixed (twin)LNB's + the motor on input 4 (I can give you more specific details if you would be interested).

And about the arguments: it's just what your wishes are. I have the fixed LNB's for the satellites I always want to be able see. The motor is there for only a once in a while excursion on exotic satellites. And indeed: if you don't want that, a more comprehensive dish with many LNB's would be possible (Wavefrontier T90 e.g.).

[digi247]

Sorry to contradict you there: you can.
I have two switches (4/1) with 3 fixed (twin)LNB's + the motor on input 4 (I can give you more specific details if you would be interested).

And about the arguments: it's just what your wishes are. I have the fixed LNB's for the satellites I always want to be able see. The motor is there for only a once in a while excursion on exotic satellites. And indeed: if you don't want that, a more comprehensive dish with many LNB's would be possible (Wavefrontier T90 e.g.).

I have nearly the same here to Rob i nave an 800se that's conected via a 2 way diseqc switch LNB1 is a fixed mini dish and LNB2 is a small 60cm motorised my test rig i just have an Advanced setting with LNB1 on diseqc 1.0 with command AA and the rest of the sats on LNB2 with command AB. works a treat.

This is not the first time i have heard people saying you cant use a diseqc switch with a motor.

[Johev]

Sorry to contradict you there: you can.
I have two switches (4/1) with 3 fixed (twin)LNB's + the motor on input 4 (I can give you more specific details if you would be interested).

And about the arguments: it's just what your wishes are. I have the fixed LNB's for the satellites I always want to be able see. The motor is there for only a once in a while excursion on exotic satellites. And indeed: if you don't want that, a more comprehensive dish with many LNB's would be possible (Wavefrontier T90 e.g.).

Dear Rob, if that is correct I might be able to convince my father. I would like to make it clear that this is not for me, I am just trying to help my father with these new technologies. I myself don't yet have a satellite dish or a decoder (too expensive and I need the approval of my neighbours), but I am interested in this technology and I am eager to learn more about it.

Could you explain to me what is your setup? My father would need 6 LNB's for 6 satellites. A combination of 2 dishes with 5 LNB's and 1 motorised dish with 1 LNB?

Would the LNB on the motorized dish have to be twin also? Would the connections look like this.

Tuner1 - connected to the first diseqc switch, which would have one feed from all 5 fixed dish LNB's
Tuner2 - connected to the second diseqc switch, which would have the other feed from the 5 fixed dish LNB's and both connections of the twin LNB from the motorized dish

Would the box be able to figure out on its own, that when a channel was selected that was not on any fixed dish LNB he would need to switch to tuner 2 and rotate the dish to find the correct satellite?

Thanks all of you for your help.

[Rob van der Does]

My own experience is limited to 4/1 switches, so somebody else may fill in the details for more extensive switches.

My setup is:
1- tuner A connected to a 4/1 switch, which is connected to 4 (twin) LNB's in one dish
2- tuner B connected to a 4/1 switch, which is connected to 3 (twin) LNB's in one dish (the same dish); the 4th input comes from the motorised dish

In any setup the tunerconfiguration tells the box which satellites are on which tuner, so a user will never have to worry about that.
In a setup similar to what I have a twin LNB for the motor makes no sense. That would be the case if only one motorised dish was connected to both tuners.

So in my case the 3 LNB's that go to both tuners allow for immediate switching to the satellites I normally use (Astra 1, 2 & 3); the motorised dish connected to tuner B allows for visiting all satellites (which I do only occasionally).