Freesat technical advice needed

[R60EST]

I have been considering freesat for a few days and went to Comet today to purchase a high definition box

The assistant asked if I had a dish ,and I told him there was one fitted but I haven't used it for 6 years although it was working prior to that . He then asked if it had a double LNB , it hasn't just a single so he told me I couldn't receive HD as the signal wont be strong enough.

After doing a bit of research on the net it seems he may be wrong ,

so what are the minimum requirements to receive freesat in HD, will a single LNB , at least six years old work ?

[Plotloss]

He's wrong, obviously, it was a shed.

You need a dual LNB for the second tuner not to receive HD.

[OldSkoolRS]

Just to back up what Plotless has said: I've been using an old dish with single LNB left by the previous house owners (over 8 years ago) and can receive BBC HD and ITV HD using a satellite card in my HTPC. This would be no different to connecting the kind of box you are looking at, so 'the guy in the shed' was talking rubbish (as usual).;

[R60EST]

Thanks for the replies. I'll go and buy one tomorrow. I hope the moron who gave me the duff advice is there, best of it was he didn't even try and push their installation service, he even said I should buy a double LNB elsewhere for about £15 and fit it myself.

[miniman]

Well to be fair you do need to buy a double (quad probably) LNB as your HD box will have a DVR onboard and that will need 2 feeds from the dish.

[R60EST]

miniman said:

Well to be fair you do need to buy a double (quad probably) LNB as your HD box will have a DVR onboard and that will need 2 feeds from the dish.

I'm only getting a receiver , not a recorder , the Grundig one on the Comet website @ £99.99

I already have a freeVIEW PVR , getting freesat purely to see what HD looks like

[headcase]

I have a neighbour who works in the said shed, i know for a fact that they recieve no technical training what so ever. What a way to run a business.

[Roop]

Each individual tuner inside the Freesat box requires it's own connection and cable from the satellite dish.

For Freesat boxes with a single tuner, you need a single output LNB and a single cable from dish to box. Those Freesat boxes that record, typically have two tuners inside the box so that you can record one channel whilst watching another. These boxes need an LNB with two (or more) outlets and two cables from dish to box.

Neither of the above two options have anything to do with HD. HD will work either way.

It may be prudent whilst getting a new receiver to upgrade your LNB to a newer lower noise model. They are cheap enough and the advantage is that your box will hang onto a signal better in poorer weather. (Less pixellisation / image breakup).

[R60EST]

Well its in & working and I can see a real difference on the BBC HD channel.

The box itself was straight forward , scanned for software ,enter postcode, then scanned for channels , then updated software almost immedietely.

It has found 160 channels including radio. It has only one dedicated HD channel , BBC HD . Is that it for now , I was under the impression ITV and C4 had a seperate HD channel. Do I add them manually , re-scan or does the HD come on automatically when being broadcast in HD

The receiver is a GRUNDIG GUFSAT02HDEX

Thanks

[OldSkoolRS]

AFAIK to watch ITV HD you have watch the standard def channel, then press the red button if the program is broadcast in HD. Unfortunately it's hard to find out what will be broadcast on ITV HD, but I use this link to find out:

http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/freesat-cha...

I think CH4 HD won't be available for some time yet on Freesat due to some agreement with Sky, but it will be available on Freeview HD in the new year judging by the link posted earlier in this thread.

[R60EST]

Just watching BBC HD now , Life is on. I can't believe how crisp the picture is. I am truely amazed.

If you've go a full HD TV and have never viewed a HD source then I can thoroughly recommend getting some form of HD , whether Freesat , Sky or Cable .

Even the non HD channels look better , I think I read somewhere about it upscaling , that or the HDMI interface is better than SCART .

I'm well pleased , best £100 I've spent in a long time

[OldSkoolRS]

Yes that 'Life' did look pretty good, but I was busy browsing the web so I just left it in SD (though upscaled via a high quality Lumagen video processor). That's the trouble with using a HTPC, you have mess on a bit more with it rather than grabbing a remote, which has got me thinking about a similar to yours as I don't want to run a 500 watt (or whatever) PC all evening just to watch a program. I could move the PC elsewhere as I mainly use it for video editting anyway.