Quattro LNB / Dish

[Azaniah]

Hi (first post)..

I am looking at installing a multiswitch to allow any room in the house to have the choice of sky / sky+ / skyhd or freeview (dual pvr) [Plus FM/DAB]

I have a couple of questions (as I am pretty naive about this stuff).

Can anyone tell me the smallest dish / quattro lnb combination of any decent quality. I am pretty sure the dish I have now is the Standard Sky mini dish, and I don't want to replace that on the front of house with too large a dish.

Each room will recieve 2 WF100 feeds from the multiswitch, both will be triplexed for SAT/FM/UHF. However I only need one to be un-triplexed ( is that a word?) the other will be the 2nd feed for sky box / freeview pvr and I am ensure is I HAVE to un-triplex the feed, or if it can be fed straight into sat. That way I can use a single quad wall-plate.

Also if anyone knows a good installer in the Slough area that would like some business fitting new Aerials, dish and so on, that would be great.

Steve

 

[rolfw]

If you are looking to feed a multiswitch, the you probably need an 80cm dish as a minimum, or perhaps a 70cm with an IF amplifier, although I seem to remember that the Philips multiswitches are active and don't require an amplifier.

 

[Azaniah]

Silly question but are 70/80cm dishes round or parabolic?

I don't really follow why you need a larger dish for Quattro than for a quad, can anyone explain?

 

[rolfw]

Yes, because it goes through a multiswitch which has an insertion loss, most of them have a loss of at least 4db, add that to your cable run and the triplexed outlet and a minidish will come up short.

I have tried the triplexed signal from a multiswitch direct into a digibox and it has worked OK, my meter doesn't like it though.

 

[Azaniah]

This gets more confusing every day lol.

I did see this product Vision V75-242 which although "pricey" does appear to accept Quad or Quattro inputs. It also accepts UHF / FM / DAB directly ( so no additional diplexers required).

Anyone ever used one of these and can confirm it will actually work with Quad. (Which I assume increases my possible range of smaller dishes).

In fact looking closer all the Vision V75 range appear to have this Q2 technology to allow quad or quattro inputs.

Thanks Steve

 

[rolfw]

That looks like a nice unit, so being active you could probably get away with a minidish. How much is it?

 

[Azaniah]

Well list price is £250 - but I have seen it online for £159 - which to be honest is not a bad price..

Cheap Link - Not sure of reputation of dealer tho (looks a bit iffy to me).

If I could get away with mini-dish ( which I have now ) then a quad lnb upgrade plus this would be an easy fix. If thats the case then all I need is a nice installer to do my aerials / lnb.

 

[rolfw]

Well at the end of the day, you can get a quad LNB, install it on your minidish and then if the dish isn't big enough, get a zone 2 minidish, which will take the same LNB.

 

[Azaniah]

I emailed the guys at vision to confirm some stuff - turns out they have removed Q2 from the V75-242. But all the other V75 multiswitches still have it. Thought you might want to know for reference.

Steve