Do I Need A Dual Lnb Or Not?

[gregb]

So with the proceeds of my annual bonus finally arriving, I have told my wife that we can finally get rid of those rabbit ears on the TV and I will splurge for the ridiculous fees for the satellite TV service that everyone loves to hate, but is the only game in town. However, there is no way I'm shelling out 1600+ per month so I can watch things only on 1 TV at the time someone else chooses. No way. If I'm going to fork over that kind of money every month it better be for something I can actually use and enjoy. My plan calls for building a system around MythTV. Sorry, I'm a hacker at heart and a Windoze based solution just won't do it for me.

The main TV will get a direct feed from the satellite, (just in case the server breaks and I'm not around to fix it) and the remaining channels will all be fed into a MythTV digital video recorder system. From here, the time shifted results can be distributed to any of the remaining 4 sets in the house. The first question is, how many channels do I need. There are at least 4 English speaking channels which I want to record 24 hours. So the minimum is 5, however I expect that the little missus will plead for the ability not to miss her daily dose of fighting air hostesses on the off chance the sumdum vendor takes a little longer than usual to get the exact perfect mix of blah rah. Also, I'm sure there will be a demand to watch these dramas in the bedroom despite my better judgement, so I'll need to arrange provisions for that somehow.

So I now I'm guessing I'll need about 9 receivers (8 extra, 1 comes with the initial package) and a card splitter that can accomodate this. I've seen them up to 14, so I don't think that will be an issue. (The small nuclear plant necessary to power this obscene setup might be, but I'll deal with that when they show up with the radiation detectors.)

Question #1. Can anyone provide me with a budgetary estimate for a 9+ way card splitter and 8 receivers? I'll do my own research, but I'm trying to get an idea of whether I can do this without taking out a second mortgage on the house. No need to provide detailed company information, just a ballpark estimate. (If you are in the business and want to provide detailed information, PM me.)

Question #2. Do I, or do I not, need to get a dual LNB? Obviously, the correct implentation really requires one, but I have seen discussions before that imply most of the channels you really watch are all available on a single polarization. If the only channels I care about are all on the same plane, is there any real need to do this? Can anyone tell me the exact breakdown of channels, and does this ever change? If I need to upgrade the LNB, is the necessary, more complex signal splitter (2 in, 9+ out) readily available or will that be a special order item? Can someone suggest a budget?

Anyway, this will be my project over the next few months. I've wanted to do it for a while, but never had the money. (Still don't really, but I'm tired of waiting.)

Any and all advice appreciated.

[LivinLOS]

Consider how you intend to capture those 5 channels at once and digitize them onto the home media net ??

Easier to do this...

Get one (or many) dreamboxes.. Use one dreambox as the card server and all the other dreamboxes as the cardsharers, as many points in the house as you like, and instant on, low power, low noise, low heat etc.. I have been a HTPC nut since the mid 90 (moderated AVSforums HTPC section) and even I have to admit there are drawbacks to a PC in every room, especially in the tropics.

Now once you have this system for ease of use you can still have a HTPC based system for the quality viewing (check out how dScaler filters can improve the UBC feed). You can have a sat card in the PC (better than an analogue grab card as its a fully digital bitstream without the inherant problems of analogue conversions from a normal TV grab card) and use cardsharing again from the dreambox server to access the UBC subscription.

You say you want to use myth, fair enough but I am not a myth fan.. Consider this.. With Vista media center in one central location, use DVBSBridge to get the sat channels into the Vista TV section.. So you now have a proper EPG (check out bladerunner and XMLTV listings for UBC) with PVR and with pausing of live TV etc. Plus of course theres the full media PC / DVD / Hidef / Music / Etc thats MCE does. all in one interface and all in one remote.

Lastly to 'push' this feed around your home network, instead of looking at many different computers in each room, you can add Xbox360s or any V2 Media center extenders. These are cheaper and IMO better than 'node' PC's for the over all useability.. Your GF will love you for it when she cant get the PC to work like it should.

this is how I would / have tackled the above plans in the most cost effective way.

The Dual LNB question confuses me totally.. Are you wanting more than just UBC ?? If so go movable (and one static dish for UBC permanantely probably is best)..

Edited February 25, 2008 by LivinLOS

[Crossy]

We have a single LNB (standard UBC dish and LNB), works nicely with a standard splitter (power-pass on all ports) and a wireless card splitter. I'm 99% sure all the useful channels are on the same polarity

[dave_boo]

Consider how you intend to capture those 5 channels at once and digitize them onto the home media net ??

Easier to do this...

Get one (or many) dreamboxes.. Use one dreambox as the card server and all the other dreamboxes as the cardsharers, as many points in the house as you like, and instant on, low power, low noise, low heat etc.. I have been a HTPC nut since the mid 90 (moderated AVSforums HTPC section) and even I have to admit there are drawbacks to a PC in every room, especially in the tropics.

Now once you have this system for ease of use you can still have a HTPC based system for the quality viewing (check out how dScaler filters can improve the UBC feed). You can have a sat card in the PC (better than an analogue grab card as its a fully digital bitstream without the inherant problems of analogue conversions from a normal TV grab card) and use cardsharing again from the dreambox server to access the UBC subscription.

You say you want to use myth, fair enough but I am not a myth fan.. Consider this.. With Vista media center in one central location, use DVBSBridge to get the sat channels into the Vista TV section.. So you now have a proper EPG (check out bladerunner and XMLTV listings for UBC) with PVR and with pausing of live TV etc. Plus of course theres the full media PC / DVD / Hidef / Music / Etc thats MCE does. all in one interface and all in one remote.

Lastly to 'push' this feed around your home network, instead of looking at many different computers in each room, you can add Xbox360s or any V2 Media center extenders. These are cheaper and IMO better than 'node' PC's for the over all useability.. Your GF will love you for it when she cant get the PC to work like it should.

this is how I would / have tackled the above plans in the most cost effective way.

The Dual LNB question confuses me totally.. Are you wanting more than just UBC ?? If so go movable (and one static dish for UBC permanantely probably is best)..

Actually your suggestion of using Xbox 360s is pretty valid. Of course there are other options, but 4 Xboxes shouldn't break the bank. Also, you don't have to use a Vista machine to record the required shows; it's pretty easy to set up MythTV as a UPNP/DLNA server (although this is obviously a security risk......don't use your media server for anything else--or use it in a virtual machine!). And of course there's always the PS3. I can't comment on how well his missus can read English, but I know for a fact that a lot of Windows Media Center programs/devices only want to support their install language. This could be an issue, where building thin clients wouldn't.

But to the OP: I unfortunately can't answer your questions regarding the satellite questions, but I would recommend trying to find a dual tuner PCI based sat card or two. It would definitely clean up your setup, except of course the whole mess of cables running to the back of your computer. This will obviate the need for purchasing additional boxes, ir blasters (and the headaches they always bring), etc.

I also hope you're budgeting plenty of power for this server. Like most likely, assuming maximum quality recordings and transcoding videos to Xbox 360 understandable formats, a quad core >2.0GHZ. Of course storage space is going to be a necessity, depending on how much of a digital packrat you are.

[LivinLOS]

Actually your suggestion of using Xbox 360s is pretty valid. Of course there are other options, but 4 Xboxes shouldn't break the bank. Also, you don't have to use a Vista machine to record the required shows; it's pretty easy to set up MythTV as a UPNP/DLNA server (although this is obviously a security risk......don't use your media server for anything else--or use it in a virtual machine!). And of course there's always the PS3. I can't comment on how well his missus can read English, but I know for a fact that a lot of Windows Media Center programs/devices only want to support their install language. This could be an issue, where building thin clients wouldn't.

The reason I suggest VMCE is its the best user interface I have found so far that is unified and works almost out of the box.. A single remote works for an xbox 360 and the same remote can be used on VMCE for the same functions with the same unified screen appearance throughout the net.. Thats combines with the appliance like almost instant on feature on the 360's etc.

upnp clients I have seen are not unified in the system approach.. Sure you can serve it that way but if your looking to design and implement a whole home media interface it needs to be end user transparent or it becomes geek heaven and 'user' hel_l..

[mellow1]

I use a signal booster. Cost me a 1000Baht, and run 7 TV's off one receiver. Put rabbit ears on the TV my wife likes to watch, so she can switch off the receiver when she wants. Been working fine for a couple of years. To view another Satellite at the same time, I added another offset dish(1400Baht) with a Dreambox for my son's room. Those set ups like Dynasat sells are a waste of money. Too bad I didn't know that a couple of years ago. The only good thing on C-Band is Multichoice as far as I know. It seems KU has a better choice, but an LNB is cheap and C-Band is better in the rain.