[123taff]

I am in the process of ordering the Humax Foxsat HDR recorder.

I have bought the quad LNB ready for the second lead.

I have noticed on the back that there are three LNB ports, LNB 1 in, LNB 2 in, but what is the purpose of the LNB1 out port?

[Trollslayer]

It doesn't really do a lot since that won't let you select high or low band or polarisation.

[dbaileyuk]

but what is the purpose of the LNB1 out port?

Is it so you could use it to feed lnb2 if you only had one lnb cable ?

It works like that on a terrestrial set top box I have, and also a sat box I have, in the box is a little cable to join them together.

[123taff]

My understanding is that you cannot feed two LNB feeds from one cable, hence the need for a dual or quad LNB and two down leads, so that cannot be the answer.

On a normal AF feed, you can loop the feed via the Aeriel sockets in and out to TV or DVD recorders so that you can tune on one feed with more than one tuner.

As you cannot feed the LNB input through to more than one tuner circuit, what does this LNB1 output do. Does anyone actually know over and above speculation?

[Geofbob]

Originally Posted by dbaileyuk

Is it so you could use it to feed lnb2 if you only had one lnb cable ?

It works like that on a terrestrial set top box I have, and also a sat box I have, in the box is a little cable to join them together.

Dbaileyuk is quite correct, and 123staff is wrong. It's in the Humax Foxsat Manual on Page 16 - http://www.humaxdigital.com/global/p...101308_low.pdf Though of course you don't get full functionality with only one feed, you are able to record any channel, and I think even view a limited range of channels at the same time.

[nwhitfield]

If you were using a Single Cable Distribution (SCD/Unicable) then you could loop from LNB1 out to LNB2 in, however that's not presently a supported mode of operation for the HDR, and doesn't seem to work very well in my experience.

[Caz41]

I think the box has been designed to work very well with one feed. You can still record 2 channels at same time Eg: I'm recording Jonathan Ross in HD and the James Bond movie on ITV4 at the same time tonight. Granted, it does limit what channels you can watch at the same time but I'm really surprised how well it functions with the loopthrough

Biggest downside is the inability to get the OTA software updates

[Geofbob]

Originally Posted by Caz41

I think the box has been designed to work very well with one feed. You can still record 2 channels at same time Eg: I'm recording Jonathan Ross in HD and the James Bond movie on ITV4 at the same time tonight. Granted, it does limit what channels you can watch at the same time but I'm really surprised how well it functions with the loopthrough

Biggest downside is the inability to get the OTA software updates

I'd like to receive & record HD, but am in a block of flats where the communal system only allows one feed to each flat, which is why I'm interested in this issue. Therefore I'm particularly pleased that you can actually record two channels at the same time - something I thought you definitely needed two feeds for. But I don't understand your reference to the inability to get OTA updates - how does that relate to the single feed?

[123taff]

Originally Posted by Caz41

I think the box has been designed to work very well with one feed. You can still record 2 channels at same time Eg: I'm recording Jonathan Ross in HD and the James Bond movie on ITV4 at the same time tonight. Granted, it does limit what channels you can watch at the same time but I'm really surprised how well it functions with the loopthrough

Biggest downside is the inability to get the OTA software updates

So what is the difference in having a twin feed then?

[nwhitfield]

At the moment, as part of the installation process, the HDR uses both tuners. It uses one to check things like the postcode data, and then when it decides to fetch a firmware update, switches to the other. If it's previously decided that you have only one cable, then that second stage doesn't work properly - probably because it needs a different mode on each tuner, and with one standard LNB, that's not possible to achieve.

There is a workaround, which involves unplugging the cable from one tuner and the right stage, and plugging it into the other. But you can't do an automatic update with just one cable at the moment.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by 123taff

So what is the difference in having a twin feed then?

A lnb is switched by it's tuner to one of 4 bands, Low Frequency, High Frequency, Horizontal Polarised, Vertical Polarised. Giving Low Band Vertical, Low Band Horizontal, High Band Vertical, High Band Horizontal.

Two cables gives each tuner full access to any band and therefore any channel

One cable (looped to second tuner), second tuner only has access to channels in the same band as tuner 1 is using (Which is a surprisingly long list)

If you have Excel - see here

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