Listen Up Cheap switches on ebay

A nonymous

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For those of you who are looking at doing a multiswitch setup in your house i have found a seller on ebay that is selling switchs at a very good price on ebay. They are EMP Centauri branded ones an as such i have no idea what the quality of the switches are.

The seller has all sorts of switches at a very good price.

Code:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5x8-satellite-multiswitch-multiswitch-MS5-8PLP-3-4-YEAR-WARRANTY-Made-in-EU-/251805589657?hash=item3aa0c86099:g:9u8AAOSwxYxUwyVI

I have no affiliation with this seller i just thought his prices were really good and well worth a mention.

Nano
 

timo_w2s

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I've used EMP Centauri DiSEqC switches for a number of years and they work very well so hopefully these multiswitches would be of similar quality.
 

PaulR

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Thanks for that. Could be just what I'm looking for in his other stuff.
 

Willith

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Im interested in upgrading my Televes 9in 12out multiswitch to a 17in 12 or 16out model. I have it outside in a large IP66 box and it's fed 12V through a coaxial cable. I have looked on eBay and I've seen some cheap brands (Best Germany, PMSE, Rogetech). They fit my specification size wise and external power supply, but i dont want to buy anything so cheap and nasty that will make it a ballache in the long run. The EMP multiswitch of 17in 12out is the most expensive out of the lot which is not a problem, however my problem is that it is too big for the box that it will live in, and it requires me to also provide it with 240V which will make installing it not as simple as I initially want.

My question is, are these cheaper multiswitches a terrible idea? Would i be asking for trouble if i bought one? Some of the features are pretty laughable on the Best Germany one (gold plated connectors, 4k support...)
 

A nonymous

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You usually get what you pay for these days, although for the cost i think its worth a gamble. My 5 in 8 out is still working fine, although its only feeding a small 3 bed house. insertion loss on the EMP switch isn't as good as some switches i've used so unless your using a ridiculous cable run it should still do what you want it to.
 

Willith

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You usually get what you pay for these days, although for the cost i think its worth a gamble. My 5 in 8 out is still working fine, although its only feeding a small 3 bed house. insertion loss on the EMP switch isn't as good as some switches i've used so unless your using a ridiculous cable run it should still do what you want it to.

I've gone for one branded "PremiumX" so i'll post back the results. Its coming from Germany which gives me some time to put in some conduit for a 240v supply. It should hopefully fit inside the existing box.
 

Willith

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The multiswitch arrived and is now installed and working. The manual is in german but everything is rather self explanatory. Although it does mention 75ohm terminators but i cant tell if it means they should be used (probably yes). The multiswitch worked out of the box with no problems for the stb recievers. However i had some problems with DVB S2 recievers inside a server where some channels were breaking up. I had solved this issue when i had the televes switch by using the optional atx power cables for the tuner cards. Now it seems to be the other way round - i had to remove them and also remove my pci-e graphics card. As it's mainly a headless server it is not really a problem. I also grounded the multiswitch to ensure that interferance would be minimal. Overall everything now appears ok.
 

Lazarus

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So, time to update your Forum "My Satellite Setup" Profile ....... :)
 

jeallen01

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FWIW, my very recent experience with EMP is that their Tech Support is very responsive and helpful - their product instructions pdf's are very good and a guy called Petr has been great!

OTOH1, the loss thru some of their devices does seem a bit high compared with those from some other suppliers, i.e. make your choice based on your own requirements.

OTOH2 , deliveries from EMP in the Czech Republic to the UK seem to generally take about a week, even if you pay extra for the GLS courier service = not what I would hoped for :-(.
 
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