Using an old Sky dish

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toprob

126 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#81868 19-Apr-2011 15:32

I'm thinking of getting my flatmate a cheap satellite receiver for her birthday... She has a very old Sky dish, I don't think it's been used for a long time, I'm talking last century... Will she need a new LNB? If so, how easy would it be for me to change it out, once I get over the whole looking down from a height issue?
If I had plenty of money I'd be back in my old place with terrestrial reception, so cost is the main issue, just ahead of Fear of Heights...

Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' flightsim scenery.

Jaxson

8172 posts

Uber Geek
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Trusted

#460544 19-Apr-2011 15:58

You won't know till you power it up.

It's probably a round 11300 lnb and these have been fairly reliable.

You may need to check the cabling if it's been up there for a very very long time, but once again lets not jump the gun.

If you need to swap it then it's a case of buying a new one, unclipping the existing lnb, unscrewing the cabling, re screwing the cabling

and then re clipping the new one into place.

Take a photo and we'll know more.

Also, are you in a freeview HD reception area and is there a current UHF aerial. Might pay to spend a few $ more for a HD unit perhaps? (Though I'm yet to find a cheap one I consider reliable).

toprob

126 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#460553 19-Apr-2011 16:21

Cheers for that, sounds easy enough. Unfortunately no terrestrial reception at all here, and not likely to be.

Taking a closer look at this, though, I might need a rethink -- line-of-sight there's a forest up the hill which I'm sure wasn't there when the dish was installed. It is possible that I can find a clear spot, but I suspect that the existing dish takes advantage of a 'v' in the hills, so might not work at the other end of the house. Not quite as easy as I thought.

(I do have a terrestrial freeview setup, which I'll hopefully get to use again one day, but no hope for my flatmate who wishes to stay here on the side of a cliff...)

Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' flightsim scenery.

bfginger

1330 posts

Uber Geek
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#460626 19-Apr-2011 19:46

Unfortunately, a low end receiver won't support the DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 needed to support SBS HD and 3 Australian C9 channels available from the Optus D1 satellite. The Ultraplus 900HD supports these and costs around $380. I'd be interested to hear if there are any cheaper receivers with DVB-S2 and h.264 support.

http://www.lyngsat.com/optusd1.html

If she's the sort that only watches TV2 then she may not care.

If you're in a DVB-T reception area but only have the signal blocked by a hill, might it be possible to do a long high quality cable run to an aerial where reception is possible?

illicit

553 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 15

#461205 21-Apr-2011 09:07

The dish doesn't 'look' straight ahead

Its like this...