New house with Sky Q LNB - options?

samus

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Hello, I am in the process of buying a house that has existing Sky Q service and no (or very poor) terrestrial signal. We intend to use FreeSat instead (and will need a new TV anyway) and I'm trying to work out my option - I'm quite new to satellite systems in general so please forgive any ignorance in my questions. As far as I can tell, my options are:

1) replace the Sky Q wideband LNB with a hybrid LNB (~£35 Visiblewave looks like it would do the trick) - then connect one of the legacy outputs to a TV with built-in FreeSat tuner. I've never had a dish before but it seems as though switching the LNB isn't too big a deal as long as I can get access easily to the dish. However, will probably be limited to a single tuner so I can watch OR record (unless I want to watch and record two different things on the same transponder).

2) buy one of the new FreeSat 4K set-top boxes with wideband input - maybe the easiest solution, but an extra £200 per TV plus the need to split the two LNB outputs, run coax to each of them. I don't think any TVs exist with wideband FreeSat built-in, but please anyone shout if that is a product that exists, or is likely to exist soon! A FreeSat equivalent of a Sky Q minibox would also do the trick but I don't know if those are in the works, or (even they are) if that would require replacing the main box too at further expense. Maybe slightly less expensive if I go with the non-recording box and get a TV with external hard drive PVR capability, but my current Samsung smart TV has this and it's not great.

3) SAT>IP - but here I am limited by the availability of SAT>IP servers with wideband input. The only one I've found so far is the Kathrein EXIP 418, which is more expensive than the FreeSat box (~£250 if I buy from Germany, more from Amazon UK). It would enable easy expansion to future TVs, but with a fair amount of DIY required and I'm not even sure yet how many TVs/other receivers we'll want. Additional expense (1) to buy/build receivers, though if I went with a Raspberry Pi-based solution this could probably be kept relatively low, and (2) for a separate Wifi router (unless I could run this by ethernet into my broadband Wifi router? but I don't know if that would work or if it would congest the network). Even more DIY would be to build a receiver box with a PCI tuner card / FMC, but even if I were up for that, I haven't been able to find any that support wideband input.

I think I might just go with the FreeSat 4K box now, but in the future use a couple of splitters to branch off to a SAT>IP device if we have the demand and/or if they get cheaper. Any thoughts/suggestions/corrections welcome! Thank you.
 
Interesting - I had focused more on retaining the possibility of wideband in the future with the hybrid LNB than with just ditching that in favour of the unicable/SCR LNB.

So if I understand correctly, I could replace the Sky Q LNB with the one you linked and connect a single coax from the LNB to the house.

I assume built-in FreeSat tuners in TV's don't accept Unicable? In which case I run it to a receiver such as an Enigma 2 box as you suggest (with SAT>IP or other streaming plugin), or to a (much cheaper than Kathrein) SAT>IP device like the Telestar Digit R1 (which seems to be popular for this sort of thing).

Thanks!
 
Interesting - I had focused more on retaining the possibility of wideband in the future with the hybrid LNB than with just ditching that in favour of the unicable/SCR LNB.

So if I understand correctly, I could replace the Sky Q LNB with the one you linked and connect a single coax from the LNB to the house.

I assume built-in FreeSat tuners in TV's don't accept Unicable? In which case I run it to a receiver such as an Enigma 2 box as you suggest (with SAT>IP or other streaming plugin), or to a (much cheaper than Kathrein) SAT>IP device like the Telestar Digit R1 (which seems to be popular for this sort of thing).

Thanks!


Yes (but you ideally need to replace the dish) in addition Enigma 2 boxes have a local network DLNA network server and as all recordings aren't encrypted you can view the recordings and live TV on local network connected smart TV's .

The reason you nned to replace the dish is a sky dish is wider than high. lnbs with a feedhorn designed to fit on these dishes have a smaller collar size so a dodge is needed to fit and you will lose signal strength.

You need a dish that looks round from the lnb location and has a 40mm collar.

eg


Check here


As a prospective customer you can raise a support ticket and detail your needs and they will suggest a suitable box.
 
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Interesting - I had focused more on retaining the possibility of wideband in the future with the hybrid LNB than with just ditching that in favour of the unicable/SCR LNB.

So if I understand correctly, I could replace the Sky Q LNB with the one you linked and connect a single coax from the LNB to the house.

I assume built-in FreeSat tuners in TV's don't accept Unicable? In which case I run it to a receiver such as an Enigma 2 box as you suggest (with SAT>IP or other streaming plugin), or to a (much cheaper than Kathrein) SAT>IP device like the Telestar Digit R1 (which seems to be popular for this sort of thing).

Thanks!

The old superceded Foxsat-HDR boxes supported unicable lnb's. Afaik no current Freesat boxes do.

This post may be of interest

 
Last edited:
The old superceded Foxsat-HDR boxes supported unicable lnb's. Afaik no current Freesat boxes do.

This post may be of interest


Thanks again, Graham. That post is indeed very helpful. I'm still thinking about whether/how to proceed with changing the LNB, but I wonder if there is any expectation that wideband gear will become more common or less expensive in the future?

If so, I might go with a new FreeSat 4K box for simplicity's sake now, and then in the future split the feeds to an Enigma2 box (if wideband-compatible tuner cards become available) or to a dedicated SAT>IP box that is cheaper than the EXIP 418 whenever we decide to expand the system.

(side question - since the wideband LNBs are non-switching, does that mean any old coax 1-to-2 splitter will work or do they still need to be power-passing?)
 
Thanks again, Graham. That post is indeed very helpful. I'm still thinking about whether/how to proceed with changing the LNB, but I wonder if there is any expectation that wideband gear will become more common or less expensive in the future?

If so, I might go with a new FreeSat 4K box for simplicity's sake now, and then in the future split the feeds to an Enigma2 box (if wideband-compatible tuner cards become available) or to a dedicated SAT>IP box that is cheaper than the EXIP 418 whenever we decide to expand the system.

(side question - since the wideband LNBs are non-switching, does that mean any old coax 1-to-2 splitter will work or do they still need to be power-passing?)


This might help

).
 

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