What kind of satellite dish do I have?

ruggedtoast

Just moved into a new house with a satellite dish (never had one before). How can I tell if its capable of watching one programme while recording another at the same time (dual lnb?).

Would like to spring for a freesat hdr, but not if I can't use much of the functionality.

MackemPunk

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Just moved into a new house with a satellite dish (never had one before). How can I tell if its capable of watching one programme while recording another at the same time (dual lnb?).

Would like to spring for a freesat hdr, but not if I can't use much of the functionality.

Have a look up at the dish (where the cable comes out) and count the spare connectors.

ruggedtoast

It has one wire coming out of it and three spare holes.

withabix

ruggedtoast wrote: »

It has one wire coming out of it and three spare holes.

Sounds like it is probably a Quad LNB with only one coax connected - ie you can probably add 3 more and then use two twin tuner receivers etc.

However, if it only a single LNB or the other unused connectors are weather damaged (quite common), replacement LNBs cost very little now and are easily fitted.

ruggedtoast

Does that mean running extras wires inside the house and new face plates and things. Sounds expensive.

bobthedambuilder

Sounds to me too like a quad LNB - if you can get up to it, you will probably find that there's a sliding cover to the connector(s), and if you slide it back, you will see 3 unused coax screw sockets.

If it's a single LNB, you can get a replacement quad for about £8 on eBay. It should be a simple matter of sliding the old LNB off the mount and replacing with the new unit. If you're careful, you shouldn't need to realign the LNB - just make sure the new one goes on at the same orientation that the old one had. It took me about 10 minutes to do mine off a ladder recently. Look on UTube for advice videos.

You will need a second (or replacement twin) cable to get 2 feeds to a freesat box. If you get a twin channel tuner/hdr (I got the Humax Foxsat), you will be able to record 2 channels simultaneously while watching a third.

Good luck!:)

ruggedtoast

Assuming I can no more run a new coaxial cable down to the lounge than I can perform brain surgery, how much would I be looking at to get some bloke to do it?

withabix

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Assuming I can no more run a new coaxial cable down to the lounge than I can perform brain surgery, how much would I be looking at to get some bloke to do it?

Hard to say without knowing where your dish is and what your house is like.

Probably minimum £80 + materials.

Everything you need is at B&Q - why can't you do brain surgery?

bobthedambuilder

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Assuming I can no more run a new coaxial cable down to the lounge than I can perform brain surgery, how much would I be looking at to get some bloke to do it?

Depends on so many things - what's the route, will the cable(s) be buried in/behind walls etc. If the existing cable is down the outside of the building and then straight through a wall into the socket, it's no biggie - probably easiest just to replace the old single cable with a twin, and fit a new wall socket with 2 connectors. You could use the old cable to pull the new one through the hole already in the wall, and then reseal the hole.

I've no idea how much a technician would ask for that, but I'd be surprised if it was over £100.

If you want an internal route/refit, that's a different matter, and cost would be directly related to the complexity of the job. I'd guess you could get a free estimate from one or several of the many guys on the net or in your local papers.