House extension and Unicable

[Dazzling]

Hi all,
I asked a few questions about unicable a while back but my house extension is almost finished and I have a few more - so here goes:

My existing set up is a sky dish on the roof with a quad LNB and also a freesat aerial in the loft.
The sat dish feeds two cables to my Vu+ duo 2 in my living room, it also feeds directly into a tv in my bedroom.
The freesat aerial feeds a couple of tv's around the rest of the house.

My extension will have two or three tv's which may or may not have a sat input and/or an aerial input.

1. If I replace the LNB with a Unicable capable one, will tv's that have a direct sat input work, even if I split the cable, or will they only work on dedicated cables straight from the LNB?
2. Can I buy a unicable capable LNB that sits directly on the Sky HD dish or do I also need to get a new dish? If so, are there any recommendaitons?
3. Is there an LNB I could buy that could still feed my existing duo 2 and bedroom tv and also split to 3 new tv's (or boxes) in my extension?

Many thanks,

Daran

 

[Abu Baniaz]

The freesat aerial feeds a couple of tv's around the rest of the house.

I presume you mean Freeview. Freesat uses a satellite dish

If I replace the LNB with a Unicable capable one, will tv's that have a direct sat input work, even if I split the cable, or will they only work on dedicated cables straight from the LNB?

A unicable LNB only has one output. You cannot connect more than one cable to it. You will have to use splitters wherever convenient for you. The ones that have more than one output, one output is unicable (you can use splitters afterwards), the others are universal and cannot be split.

2. Can I buy a unicable capable LNB that sits directly on the Sky HD dish or do I also need to get a new dish? If so, are there any recommendaitons?

Unicable LNBs are 40mm wide, Sky LNBs are 38mm wide. You can use the same dish, but you will have to get a 40mm collar for your dish
An example is item 184307472761 on the bay

3. Is there an LNB I could buy that could still feed my existing duo 2 and bedroom tv and also split to 3 new tv's (or boxes) in my extension?

Does your bedroom TV support unicable?
Yes - Any Unicable LNB will do
No- You will need an LNB with unicable and universal outputs

You may wish to get a quattro LNB and a unicable switch. Those switches have unicable and universla outputs as well as able to send the aerial signal too. You will need diplexers at outlet ( by TV).

 

[Dazzling]

I presume you mean Freeview. Freesat uses a satellite dish



A unicable LNB only has one output. You cannot connect more than one cable to it. You will have to use splitters wherever convenient for you. The ones that have more than one output, one output is unicable (you can use splitters afterwards), the others are universal and cannot be split.


Unicable LNBs are 40mm wide, Sky LNBs are 38mm wide. You can use the same dish, but you will have to get a 40mm collar for your dish
An example is item 184307472761 on the bay



Does your bedroom TV support unicable?
Yes - Any Unicable LNB will do
No- You will need an LNB with unicable and universal outputs

You may wish to get a quattro LNB and a unicable switch. Those switches have unicable and universla outputs as well as able to send the aerial signal too. You will need diplexers at outlet ( by TV).

Thanks Abu.

Yes I meant freeview.

How do I find out if a tv supports unicable - is this common?

I already have a quattro LNB (if by this you mean an LNB with four outputs)... in which case, I could leave the existing TV's connected as they are and just take a 4th output from this and feed it to a unicable switch?

The unicable switches look very complicated... do they work straight out of the box?

For the terrestrial feeds, I already have a simple splitter in the loft so I guess I can continue to use this and use a second splitter further down the line if I need to feed additional terrestrial inputs in the extension from this?

Finally - what is a diplexer?

 

[Ferret.]

Thanks Abu.

Yes I meant freeview.

How do I find out if a tv supports unicable - is this common?

I already have a quattro LNB (if by this you mean an LNB with four outputs)... in which case, I could leave the existing TV's connected as they are and just take a 4th output from this and feed it to a unicable switch?

The unicable switches look very complicated... do they work straight out of the box?

For the terrestrial feeds, I already have a simple splitter in the loft so I guess I can continue to use this and use a second splitter further down the line if I need to feed additional terrestrial inputs in the extension from this?

Finally - what is a diplexer?

Look in the LNB setup of your TV scroll through the options. If Unicable is not listed then your TV does not support it. You could buy a unicable LNB with universal outputs .

Quattro LNB's are totally differnt to Quad lnb's.

Quattro LNB's supply four outputs with a single band and polarisation and are used with distribution switch to supply many receivers at once.

Quad LNB's have four frequency bands and polarisation on each of the four outputs.

Spltters for Unicable LNBs are simple dumb animals merely splitting the signal.

A diplexer takes in 2 signals and is more of a filter to take the signals down one cable.

 

[Dazzling]

Look in the LNB setup of your TV scroll through the options. If Unicable is not listed then your TV does not support it. You could buy a unicable LNB with universal outputs .

Quattro LNB's are totally differnt to Quad lnb's.

Quattro LNB's supply four outputs with a single band and polarisation and are used with distribution switch to supply many receivers at once.

Quad LNB's have four frequency bands and polarisation on each of the four outputs.

Spltters for Unicable LNBs are simple dumb animals merely splitting the signal.

A diplexer takes in 2 signals and is more of a filter to take the signals down one cable.

thanks...

so you can't use a quad LNB with a distribution switch then?

Going back to an earlier response... so I could get an LNB with a unicable and universal outputs - does this mean the one LNB could feed my existing tv's via the universal feeds and then use the unicable output to feed my new tv's? If so, can anyone point me in the right direction of one?

 

[Ferret.]

thanks...

so you can't use a quad LNB with a distribution switch then?

Going back to an earlier response... so I could get an LNB with a unicable and universal outputs - does this mean the one LNB could feed my existing tv's via the universal feeds and then use the unicable output to feed my new tv's? If so, can anyone point me in the right direction of one?

I dont see the point of using a quad with a multi switch be better to get octo lnb. If you go that route with a switch it would have to be the Q2 type.

As none of your kit can use the unicable LNB to its full potential the scr channels why do you want one ? Well a unicable LNB will work with the duo 2 via a switch but you dont get the full benefit unless your kit has FBC tuners.

But yes you could get a unicable with universal outputs to feed your TV's and the unicable port to feed the Duo2 with splitter if multiple tuners but not a tv unless it has unicable settings options.

 

[Abu Baniaz]

The benefit of using Unicable is the ability to split/share the signal instead of running cables direct to the LNB. So depending on the layout of your property, it may be of little use to you, or it may allow you to provide signal to every room with little disruption.

The Duo 2 will not need the legacy output.

 

[Dazzling]

I dont see the point of using a quad with a multi switch be better to get octo lnb. If you go that route with a switch it would have to be the Q2 type.

As none of your kit can use the unicable LNB to its full potential the scr channels why do you want one ? Well a unicable LNB will work with the duo 2 via the legacy port but you dont get the full benefit unless your kit has FBC tuners.

But yes you could get a unicable with universal outputs to feed your TV's and the unicable legacy port to feed the Duo2 with splitter if multiple tuners but not a tv unless it has unicable settings options.

Hi,
to put it simply - I have some existing cabling around the old part of the house but the new extension is three storeys beneath the chimney (we're built on a hill and have dug under the house) so I'm trying to find the best way of serving up to three new tv's that won't mean having to run three new cables all the way from my chimney (which is extremely high) down to the lower ground floor rooms if I can possibly avoid it.

I reality, I guess I could just run a coaxial cable from the aerial in the loft and split that three times (as I'm pretty sure the freesat and freeview channels that I actually what are pretty much the same? and then I wouldn't have to worry about the satellite dish at all and could leave it as it is. However, I was thinking of getting a new Enigma 2 box for downstairs and was thinking that if I want to record a couple of channels, I would need at least two satellite feed like I have in the living room to my Vu+ today?

 

[Ferret.]

Well first thing you need to do as mentioned is check to see if your TVs can use a Unicable LNB or your plan will not work, if they can then one cable into the house then a splitter to branch off to the TV's and Duo. Please be aware splitter will introduce a signal loss on each output.

Again from a Unicable LNB you could split the cable to the multiple tuners in the duo 2.

If your TVs can not cope with a Unicable LNB then id go with the existing cable into your house and use a multiswich to distribute the quad internally.

 

[steptoe]

You need a quattro LNB to use a multiswitch,
Or, if you want to use E2 boxes for Freeview, get ones with DVB-T tuners

 

[Abu Baniaz]

I would need at least two satellite feed like I have in the living room to my Vu+ today?

Once again, you can split the signal using a unicable devices. You do not need two separate satellite signal wires.

Without seeing a diagram of the wiring routes available to you, we are mostly guessing. I am guessing you have two satellite signal wires and one aerial signal wire coming to the original ground floor.

If so, run co-axial cables to all the three rooms from where the original wires come to. If you don't want to use diplexers, run two cables to each location. One for terrestrial, one for satellite. You will then have Terrestrial signal available to all three locations. If the TV supports unicable for the satellite tuner, well and good.

I presume you will be running ethernet cables to the rooms as well..

 

[Willo3092]

This is how mine is connected up.