As I've said before, there's not a lot on the box worth watching anymore and I am going to ditch Sky in a couple days giving 31 days notice so, if I want, I can still catch the end of the football season.
I like the idea of a Humax HD Freesat box with recording facility but note that it comes with 2 sockets for two feeds to allow watching one channel while recording another. This feature doesn't interest me too much, but might come in handy one day. The thing is, I only have a dish with one LNB in this house as well as at the other site where we might take the box on occasions. One day I might fix up a double one, but when we had it first installed I was a bit too clever for my my own good and arranged for the dish to be really hidden away from sight so I now need scaffolding to get up to it.
Do I have to have 2 LNBs ? Or will just connecting one be sufficient ? Maybe one is for live viewing and one is for recording.
Any assistance would be most welcome.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Tue 26 Apr 11 at 15:58
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I'm not sure about the Humax, the Sky HD boxes have a single LNB option in the service menu, unlike the SD ones; my SD Sky+ needs a work-around to record reliably.
I'll see if I can find something more relevant to post shortly.
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EDIT:
Looks like with a short connecting cable the Humax behaves itself with 1 LNB, see post from ciaran2506 in this thread:-
www.avforums.com/forums/freesat/1233302-humax-foxsat-hdr-one-feed-help.html
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>> EDIT:
>>
>> Looks like with a short connecting cable the Humax behaves itself with 1 LNB, see
>> post from ciaran2506 in this thread:-
>>
>> www.avforums.com/forums/freesat/1233302-humax-foxsat-hdr-one-feed-help.html
Only for setting up.
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That thread states that you can record and watch different channels even with one LNB connected (assuming the two channels are the same polarisation and frequency band)
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the assumption is the thing. Its a PITA.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 26 Apr 11 at 16:26
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At least it looks cleverer than my Pace V3 Sky+ box, which uses feed 1 for live view and feed 2 for recording by default. Hence my first few recordings were 'no satellite signal received', marginally less interesting than some of the programmes. I now have a scheduled recording set up 24/7 on a random channel, which ties up feed 2, hence the box now uses feed 1 for any actual recordings I want to make. The HD boxes avoid this faff.
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Yes, two LNBs are required where your recording schedule channel requires different polarity from the one you are currently watching/recording.
You will have a problem whereby it requires both LNBs for setting up the channels, but it can be fiddled around.
If you only ever intend to watch or record one channel at a time, it wont be a problem. If you want to record two things at once or watch and record at the same time, it will be a problem.
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Thanks - I've made a note of the "tuner 1 out to tuner 2 in" connection.
I think I may just go ahead.
I could always put up a second dish in a more accessible place too.
Of course the old Sky box and card will be kept as a standby.
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you do know, you can get a lot of what is on freesat, free on sky?
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>> you do know, you can get a lot of what is on freesat, free on
>> sky?
>>
Yes
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>>
>> I could always put up a second dish in a more accessible place too.
>>
You can usually just swap the LNB, I did it on mine for a quad, before I got rid of wretched Sky service and went to the slightly less wretched Virgin cable service (which is actually very good!)
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>>
>> >>
>> >> I could always put up a second dish in a more accessible place too.
>> >>
>> You can usually just swap the LNB, I did it on mine for a quad,
>> before I got rid of wretched Sky service and went to the slightly less wretched
>> Virgin cable service (which is actually very good!)
>>
It'll cost about £250 for the scaffolding to get up there. It was first installed in less obsessive Health & Safety days and the chap was happily climbing up the roof until he reached the back chimney. I think he saw it as a challenge and refused to be beaten.
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What's the point of buying a satellite receiver with recording facilities if you can't make full use of these features because it only has one LNB connection? Freesat HD won't have many channels anytime soon because the majority were Sky channels.
Why not keep the Sky box you are happy with and stick a FreeSat card it it to watch all the standard free to air satellite channels?
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The standard Humax Freesat HD box has a non freesat mode anyway - I assume that the PVR does as well.
The only pain is the the method of selection from the set up menu is convoluted for other non adept users. You can set up with a second dish on an alternative satellite as well.
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The Humax is a bit strange with only one LNB connected. You don't get a loss of signal warning, or any indication that it's one LNB down, but recordings will fail without warning and the box will hang when channel hopping.
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I will get a second LNB at some time - well in one of the places anyway. I just wanted to make sure that in the meantime it would work with only one.
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It will, but you do need to loop LNB 1 to 2 to prevent lockups and to channel tune.
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>> I will get a second LNB at some time - well in one of the
>> places anyway. I just wanted to make sure that in the meantime it would work
>> with only one.
>>
I'm considering getting a second dish at some point, using the cheapo kit Zero linked to the other week:-
www.amazon.co.uk/Satgear-Sky-Freesat-Complete-Self-Install/dp/B00282BPYS/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I37UEP38FGNS10&colid=2YID7VAP84LWA
According to the ultra useful dishpointer site I should be OK mounting it on my shed:-
www.dishpointer.com/
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After plenty of practice I now find it dead easy to line up a dish. Before I went to the trouble of sticking it on the roof at our other location in France I used to fix it on a pair of decorators steps. After some practice I eventually got it down to maybe 5 or 6 minutes each time.
Once there was a huge gust of wind and despite my concrete block deadweight the whole assembly blew over and hit the ground. We were left with a big dent on the side of the dish.
Expecting nothing I wearily set it up again and guess what - the signal strength was even higher with a bent dish. Maybe it's do with skew angles and so on. Even so, not to be recommended.
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It's strange, what works better than designed.
I inadvertently plugged my freeview box into my old VHF aerial feed. I got a stronger signal than my UHF feed!
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we have been using UHF for TV since 1970.
Did you mean you plugged it into your FM radio aerial?
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Reverting to the original point I found this on another site:
It is possible with a Humax Foxsat HDR to record two channels or watch one/record one using one LNB by using a "secret" setting.
There is some restriction on which channels are available at the same time but the Humax will offer, in the event of a clash, optional choices by using BBC and ITV regional channels and most of the major channels are possible.
The unpublicised and not in manual "secret" setting is obtained
Menu > Set up > Freesat tune > press red, green, yellow, blue, green yellow, blue > Antenna setting > Connnection type > one cable
Edit:
You will need a loop link cable from 'LNB1 out' to 'LNB2 in' on the back of the set.
May be useful to somebody and it certainly is to me !
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>> I found this on another site....
there's a limit to the combinations of things you'd want to record which are in the same frequency range and on the same polarisation as one another.
see
www.lyngsat.com/28east.html
Humax haven't just been awkward to make you use two feeds, for full functionality you need two (so to speak).
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As above, you can fiddle you way round it as much as you like, without two feeds its compromised.
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The limitations are completely understood. I just wanted to make sure that if I bought one that it would actually work with only one LNB and not just sit there as a heap of expensive junk. Now I know it can work in a fashion.
One day - it could be a month away - it could be a year away I'll get around to setting up a twin LNB.
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Getting the twin LNB and cable from the dish will be fairly easy. I'd just get it done.
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You will see its not easy from his dish. Its a scaffold jobbie.
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Get a new dish then. Or someone willing to risk the job - it was put up without scaffolding.
We had the chimney repointed at the old house and the roofer tied himself to the chimney! It was a long way down to the drive - the equivalent to at least 3 stories (big house).
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 4 May 11 at 22:32
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I had a quad LNB included with my satellite dish a year ago, even though I was only going to use it for Freesat, in case I ever decided to go with Sky - the cost difference was modest.
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Stuarli if your Freesat does watch one channel and record another then you need dual LNB. For minimal cost the Quattro LNB means you could do the same from another room at the same time with the cabling.
Our house had a satellite dish already and cabling to two rooms for satellite so it is Quattro LNB with two cables to both rooms. If I wanted more it would be easy to go to Quad LNB and then there's almost no limit to how many boxes you can have. You'd need a switch box for a Quad LNB of course.
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>>Stuarli if your Freesat does watch one channel and record another then you need dual LNB. For minimal cost the Quattro LNB means you could do the same from another room at the same time with the cabling.>>
Thanks for providing that information, but I have a 42in plasma Panasonic TV with both Freeview and Freesat HD tuners - it was the first on the market with the dual setup...:-)
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I got a quad LNB because there was no cost difference.
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>> Stuarli if your Freesat does watch one channel and record another then you need dual
>> LNB. For minimal cost the Quattro LNB means you could do the same from another
>> room at the same time with the cabling.
>>
You need a Quad not a Quattro, they're different - a Quad will feed up to four tuners - whereas a Quattro is used to feed four LNB outputs (high and low freq., H & V polarisation) into a multiswitch, which is then used to feed however many outputs are connected - up to a dozen or more, depending on the multiswitch. Most domestic users need a Quad.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Thu 5 May 11 at 12:53
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Eh, I'm still pondering whether to buy a Humax Freesat HD recorder but, I don't require the facility to record 2 channels, or record one while watching another.
Ideally I'm after a single tuner jobbie as I don't want to faff about with twin LNB's + new co-ax cable but, they just aren't available it seems.
I was a'reading recently that y'all can loop a piece of coax from LNB1 out to LNB2 on the Humax which could do what I want?
Obviously a question for an A/V forum ... but you never know :)
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Yes dog, as I explained the last time you asked, you can, and its advisable to, use a loop through for the set up and tuning phase.
But while you can now record one and watch another, that still limits you to particular sets of MUXs depending on how they are polarised.
The good advice is and always will be fit a multiple feed LNB if you want to use a Humax properly. Thats not going to change how ever many ways or threads you ask the question on.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 14 Jun 13 at 09:22
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Way to thread-revive, Perro! (As my North American bison cousins might say.)
};---)
Yes, that's exactly what I do with my Foxsat HD, using a short cable to bridge two of the three sockets at the back of the machine. It's occasionally irksome that it refuses certain combinations of channels to watch and record, but since switchover I've discovered that we have usable Freeview, so I can use the TV's own tuner as a further option.
I've had the machine for three years, meaning to get the LNB doubled but never quite managing it. Think I need to get the dish checked though, as the horizontal channels (including 5 for cricket) are frequently unwatchable or absent, and even the verticals (except, oddly and uselessly) ITV, are getting patchy. Might even go back to Freeview full time.
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Dog, i know Z will dismiss this post out of hand, but if you've used a Sky+ control box do not for one minute imagine the Humax will be as easy or as reliable to use or in use....Sky it must be said have got this sorted and if they contact us again with a half price offer we may possibly go back to them for the druation of the offer.
It all works eventually but the system and the remote design is not user friendly for normal people, probably fine for Z and other experts.
The remote and slow responsiveness of our Humax gets cursed frequently here, neither of us are dunces but then neither are we techies.
Just suggesting you might want to consider trying one out before buying is all.
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>> Dog, i know Z will dismiss this post out of hand,
Talk to the Hand Truckie!
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--:-))
Not Truckie...lorry driver...flippin train spotter.
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Cheers Zed, Beest, and gord, I'll order a 320GB refurb and give it it a go as I'm sick and tired of my recordings pixelating every time the weather goes nipples up (Freeview)
I might even consider fitting a twin LNB at a later date depending how the looping the loop goes.
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I reckon, even for the odd occasion, it's worth the modest expense of fitting a dual LNB & associated cabling, if you have the dish there already.
It might not happen often , but there can be times when a combination of Freeview & Freesat is useful.
For the first time, last night, I recorded a Freeview programme to an 8GB USB stick, directly from our Samsung TV, using the built in Freeview tuner, while at the same time recording another programme on the Humax and viewing (on the same Samsung TV) another programme, both via Freesat.
The arrangement does give great flexibility.
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I've placed the order (at last!) Dodger, only a 320Gb refurb jobbie, but that'll do me.
If it isn't sat-isfactory using just my single LNB + loopy looping, then I'll just have to go the whole hog.
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>>The remote and slow responsiveness of our Humax gets cursed frequently here, neither of us are dunces but then neither are we techies
It can't be any worse than the LG Freeview DVD recorder I've been using fro the past 5 years ;)
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>> It can't be any worse than the LG Freeview DVD recorder I've been using fro
>> the past 5 years ;)
If you've coped with an LG then i doff me titfer in respect for you are the superhero ''Remote Man'' and i claim my fiver.
How the LG DVD/Video we bought didn't go through the window without opening it is still a mystery...it gathers dust in the spare room unused.
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Ah but, I've unlocked my one, so I can watch DVD's from any region ;)
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>> Get a new dish then.
That's what he said "I could always put up a second dish in a more accessible place too."
>> Or someone willing to risk the job - it was
>> put up without scaffolding.
>> We had the chimney repointed at the old house
>>
Was the old house in Chorlton?
Dulwich prices for building jobs are astronomical.
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>> Was the old house in Chorlton?
No. But the student house I lived in during 1990/91 last sold for over £400k in recent times. We did not have access to some attic rooms and that was larger than the previous house.
Old house was the Heatons.... if my student house was there it would be £600k+ minimum. Location Location I suppose?
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Humax Freesat Box - 2 LNBs necessary ? - spamcan61
