Can i convert a sky installation to freesat

[madman41]

Hi there , i was wondering if i could use my existing sky installation to add a freesat tv? Would i have to re-align the dish to another satelite? What satelite does sky tv use?

 

[teddywood1]

you do not need to re-aline the dish just plug in the freesat decoder and tune it in i have done the same

 

[plugwash]

sky and freesat use the same sattelite position so dish realignment is not required

Be aware that satellite feeds cannot simply be split so if you want to add a receiver rather than replacing one you will need to run a new cable all the way back to the dish and you may need to repalce the LNB on the dish with one that has more outputs.

 

[Mickymoody]

sky and freesat use the same sattelite position so dish realignment is not required

Be aware that satellite feeds cannot simply be split so if you want to add a receiver rather than replacing one you will need to run a new cable all the way back to the dish and you may need to repalce the LNB on the dish with one that has more outputs.

Or buy a receiver that does. Or a splitter. Or ignore the spelling of sattellite?

 

[Monkeh]

sky and freesat use the same sattelite position so dish realignment is not required

Be aware that satellite feeds cannot simply be split so if you want to add a receiver rather than replacing one you will need to run a new cable all the way back to the dish and you may need to repalce the LNB on the dish with one that has more outputs.

Or buy a receiver that does. Or a splitter. Or ignore the spelling of sattellite?

How do you suggest a receiver make the LNB operate in both horizontal and vertical polarisation at the same time?

 

[ericmark]

In error the Sky engineer took the output cable from my Free to Air box and feed it into the Sky box. It did work of sorts but since the Free to Air box controlled the LNB only some programs could be received and these varied according to which program was being watched on the Free to Air box.

On return the Sky engineer refused to go to my dish as it seems heath and safety would not permit it even though Sky fitted it in first place. However since the satellites are high in the sky the dish does not need to be very high so a new dish was used at just 10 foot high.

As far as I am aware and I stand to be corrected Freesat has the advantage of a good electronic program guide where as Free to Air the program guides can be rather poor. However if they follow the same system as the Sky boxes then using other satellites may not work too well. The Sky box has a very limited ability to use other satellites. Being born British and not interested in sport I have little interest in other satellites, however my son-in-law does and has two dishes one pointed to Turksat. It took him some time to find a box which would receive full EPG UK and Turksat and also connect to internet there are it seems so many variations and very little is put on the box to say what the box will do.

I know he ended up with a Technisat-HDFS-High-Definition-Digital-Satellite-Freesat-Receiver which was far better than the Lidi Free to Air I have.

 

[Sam Gangee]

A friend of mine got that same Technisat from Satcure. It's impressive.

Supermarkets tend to go for lowest price, so quality suffers. The receivers have poor specifications and poor reliability. Better to pay a little more for something decent.

 

[Mickymoody]

sky and freesat use the same sattelite position so dish realignment is not required

Be aware that satellite feeds cannot simply be split so if you want to add a receiver rather than replacing one you will need to run a new cable all the way back to the dish and you may need to repalce the LNB on the dish with one that has more outputs.

Or buy a receiver that does. Or a splitter. Or ignore the spelling of sattellite?

How do you suggest a receiver make the LNB operate in both horizontal and vertical polarisation at the same time?

I don't understand your comment? h/v at the same time? not without a twin receiver? I don't understand what you are talking about?

 

[ChrisFrost]

I don't understand your comment? h/v at the same time? not without a twin receiver? I don't understand what you are talking about?

It's because you suggested using a splitter...

Or a splitter.

Is it not obvious to you that a splitter won't work because satellite (correct spelling BTW ) is different to an aerial signal in the was the reception works?

 

[Mickymoody]

sky and freesat use the same sattelite position so dish realignment is not required

Be aware that satellite feeds cannot simply be split so if you want to add a receiver rather than replacing one you will need to run a new cable all the way back to the dish and you may need to repalce the LNB on the dish with one that has more outputs.

Or buy a receiver that does. Or a splitter. Or ignore the spelling of sattellite?

How do you suggest a receiver make the LNB operate in both horizontal and vertical polarisation at the same time?

You say that satellite feeds cannot be split up, so what is a double or quad lnb for?

You also have satelitte receivers with dual inputs.

I don't understand what you mean?

 

[ChrisFrost]

What he means is that a Quad LNB is four satellite signal receiving devices (LNBs) in one housing. One output per cable. There's no splitting involved. The fact that you see a single block on the end of the dish stalk is irrelevant. What's inside is like having four single output LNBs, but it's combined in to one housing.

Satellite receivers with twin inputs have two tuners - one per input. Each input is fed by a direct connection to one LNB feed. Remembering what was said above, this could be two single LNB outputs from two separate dishes or two outputs from a Quad LNB which is obviously more practical in a domestic installation because of space.

Do you get it now?

 

[plugwash]

A LNB (of the type used in the UK) can be set to four modes (two polarisations and two frequency bands) and the channels in the UK are spread across those settings. Therefore if you want things to work properly you cannot simply split the signal to multiple receivers (attempting to do so will typically result in one receiver working properly and the other only being able to receive channels that are on the same band and polarisation as the channel the first is tuned to). The normal way to provide multiple feeds is to run each feed all the way back to the dish and the install a LNB with multiple outputs (each of which can be individually set to the required mode)

Alternatively you can use a multiswitch with a quattro LNB but since you need four feeds from the LNB to the multiswitch and the multiswitches are rather expensive it's only a reasonable option if you need more than 8 feeds.

 

[Mickymoody]

What he means is that a Quad LNB is four satellite signal receiving devices (LNBs) in one housing. One output per cable. There's no splitting involved. The fact that you see a single block on the end of the dish stalk is irrelevant. What's inside is like having four single output LNBs, but it's combined in to one housing.

Satellite receivers with twin inputs have two tuners - one per input. Each input is fed by a direct connection to one LNB feed. Remembering what was said above, this could be two single LNB outputs from two separate dishes or two outputs from a Quad LNB which is obviously more practical in a domestic installation because of space.

Do you get it now?

No. So a block of flats have one satellite dish, but 20 people get a signal from that one dish. You state that there is no type of splitter device used. So where do I buy this wonder LNB device from? If as you state, that splitters are not involved?

Ah a multiswitch has been mentioned by the last poster. Is multiswitch not another term for a splitter?

 

[Monkeh]

What he means is that a Quad LNB is four satellite signal receiving devices (LNBs) in one housing. One output per cable. There's no splitting involved. The fact that you see a single block on the end of the dish stalk is irrelevant. What's inside is like having four single output LNBs, but it's combined in to one housing.

Satellite receivers with twin inputs have two tuners - one per input. Each input is fed by a direct connection to one LNB feed. Remembering what was said above, this could be two single LNB outputs from two separate dishes or two outputs from a Quad LNB which is obviously more practical in a domestic installation because of space.

Do you get it now?

No. So a block of flats have one satellite dish, but 20 people get a signal from that one dish. You state that there is no type of splitter device used. So where do I buy this wonder LNB device from? If as you state, that splitters are not involved?

Ah a multiswitch has been mentioned by the last poster. Is multiswitch not another term for a splitter?

You need a special (quattro) LNB to do that. A quattro has four outputs, one for each frequency and polarisation combination.

Also note that a multiswitch is not a simple splitter.

 

[Mickymoody]

Never mentioned a simple splitter, simply a splitter.