Freesat LNB advice

Columbo

Columbo

Columbo

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Joined
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Nottinghamshire
Morning all,

I'm in the process of cancelling both mine and parents Sky TV subs and moving to Freesat as we simply don't use Sky at all.
I currently have Sky Q 1tb and my parents have the older Sky+ HD box. We both would like to retain some form of recording capability so given my Q box has to go back I have to buy a box and as the recording function of my parents Sky+ HD is tied to the Sky sub I need to find them something too..

So the obvious choice is the Freesat 4k boxes, but the question will they work with either my Sky Q LNB or my parents older HD+ LNB, I suspect one of them will need changing, I just don't know which one :cry:
My search skills have failed so I'm hoping someone here can advise.

Also FYI neither of us have Freeview available as a storm ripped the aerial of my roof and they have never had one on their new build bungalow.
 
Short answer - Yes, either type of LNB will work with the new Freesat 4K boxes.

A bit more info if you're interested. You'll get slightly different results with how many channels can be recorded between your Q LNB and the standard Quad LNB at the 'rents.

Freesat/Sky satellite signals are grouped in to 4 bands. Two of the bands have the bulk of the channels split between them. The other two have fewer. A single output LNB switches between the four bands subject to a bit of voltage and polarity on the feeder cable between the box and the LNB. When you change channel, the box tuner will either look for that new channel from the band it is already receiving, or it will change the LNB to a different band.

So far, so simple. If you want to watch or record another channel then you need an extra LNB and tuner to drive it. This avoids the problem that sometimes the channels will be in different bands. Rather than just doing a twin output LNB Sky went for four LNBs in the same housing; hence the Quad LNB. That gave them enough outputs to run the dual-tuner boxes and provide two spare.

When you plug in the 'rents LNB feeds to the new Freesat box you'll get the familiar 'watch one / record another' facility as Sky+HD.

SkyQ uses a different type of LNB. It's called a wideband. It works very much the same way as a TV aerial in that you get all the channels down a single wire. The new Freesat 4K boxes recognise the wideband signal and change how they they work. When you connect two feeder cables the box flips over from two-tuner-mode to 4-tuner-mode. This means that if you're happy to leave the box in standby, or watch one of the recording channels live, or play a previous recording, then it's possible for the box to make four recordings simultaneously. That's handy if you're going on holiday and want to avoid timer clashes.

In most cases the 4K box with wideband LNB will be used as the main TV tuner, so in reality you'll watch one channel live and be able to record three channels even if all the timers overlap.
 
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@lucid thats superb info, very detailed and extremely helpful many thanks fella.
Watching one channel and recording another one is plenty of functionality for us both and I've never used the record more than 1 channel even once so it sounds like from the above that the we are both ok.
 
Grimley said:
Ignore me, go with the Advice @lucid says as hes in the trade & I'm not anymore.
Click to expand...
You were correct in so much as a normal Freesat box such as a Humax or Manhattan (AFAIK) only work with the regular Single/Quad/Octo LNBs. Since the OP is talking about the newer (Arris) Freesat 4K boxes though then they're different. They're backwards compatible but also work with Wideband LNBs.

SkyQ: most installations make use of a twin output wideband LNB. On special request Sky will fit a hybrid LNB for new installations. This has 2x wideband outputs and a 4x output Quad in a single body.
 
The only Freesat boxes that seem to be available (new) are the Freesat badged ones. Only used Humax etc. around ?? As far as I can see? Mel
 
Well I set the 1tb 4k Freesat box up today on my Sky Q enabled dish and it worked flawlessly, not done the parents yet as their cancellation doesnt happen until next weekend but I'm sure it will be fine.
 
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