Freesatfromsky to Freesat

[caveman38]

If you have a Freeesatfromsky currently. When the Freesat is launched this spring. If you want a PVR Freesat, will you require extra cabling from the dish?

[fernandez]

AFAIK most/all new Freesat PVRs will have twin tuners therefore if you want to be able to record one and watch another (or record two and watch a recording), the receiver will need two LNB feeds.
If you only have a single LNB this will need to be changed or if you have a quad LNB and are using just one feed then, yes, extra cabling will be necessary

[caveman38]

Thanks for that. Is there any guarantee that Freesat will get licence to transmit Ch. 4 and 5. Or is it still in the balance.
I personally don't care but this installation is for my parents who only watch terrestrial channels.

[fernandez]

It's hoped/expected that C4 and Five will be FTA soon when the current EPG contracts with Sky end.
But however many times you ask the replies will probably be the same. No-one knows for certain apart from the execs of Sky, C4/Five and a few highly paid lawyers..

[MAW]

C4's contract end date is still 2008, date unknown. That's pretty much for certain. C5 no idea at all.

[aekostas]

AFAIK most/all new Freesat PVRs will have twin tuners therefore if you want to be able to record one and watch another (or record two and watch a recording), the receiver will need two LNB feeds.

Interesting. Why is that? With Freeview twin-tuner PVRs the boxes can feed the second tuner off the first one with the use of a standard cable.

[fernandez]

Interesting. Why is that? With Freeview twin-tuner PVRs the boxes can feed the second tuner off the first one with the use of a standard cable.

With terrestrial Freeview an RF aerial signal can be split easily, however with satellite the channel polarisation selection is controlled by voltage to the LNB - either 13V or 18V for vertical and horizontally polarised signals,
There is also 22khz switching between high and low band signals
That's why two LNB outputs are required on a Sky+ box and will be on a twin tuner Freesat PVR as you cannot split a satellite feed.
If you did split a satellite feed only two horizontal channels or two vertical channels could be viewed/recorded at the same time not one vertical and one horizontal

[Starburst]

Interesting. Why is that? With Freeview twin-tuner PVRs the boxes can feed the second tuner off the first one with the use of a standard cable.



You may like me have to accept that the two transmission methods are fundamentally different:)
While a single aerial can pick up the RF broadcasts and pass them onto a Analogue or Digital Terrestrial tuner which then picks a specific channel for viewing/recording the dish/lnb combo has to switch between a number of parameters to access the full broadcast range.
This switching is controlled by the Dsat tuner via voltages sent to the LNB and while the LNB is tuned to one specific parameter (High Band-Vertical for example) it can not access anything else hence the need for a second LNB feed for the second tuner in a dual tuner DVR.

I am positive a more technical and probably easier to grasp explanation will follow:)

[Geofbob]

That's why two LNB outputs are required on a Sky+ box and will be on a twin tuner Freesat PVR as you cannot split a satellite feed.
This is bad news for those of us living in blocks of flats, hoping to use the communal satellite dish (currently used for Sky) to receive Freesat. Just like the Sky viewers who can't get Sky+ with the communal dish (because it's impractical to give everyone two feeds) we also won't be able to use a Freesat PVR. So it looks as though we'll just have to wait for HD on terrestrial Freeview - unless we install our own dish, which some landlords won't allow.