I Want My Mtv

[PattayaParent]

I've just moved to a new house that has one of those big (10 foot?) wire dishes on the roof.

Inside is connected a 'Dynasat Number 1' decoder box.

The dish seems to be receiving from Thaicom 5 C satellite and the channels all show an iDeaSaT logo.

I believe it may be a PSI system as on boot up it briefly showed a PSI screen but all info was in Thai. There's also PSI written on the cables but that could be the manufacturer.

Now I already have a subscription to True/UBC so I thought I would just plug my True decoder box into the receiver instead of the Dynasat box and I would get the True channels, after all it's just a dish and a box, same as plugging it into a True dish, right?

Can someone tell me why it doesn't work and how I might get it to work? All the screen shows with the True box connected is E48 Searching for Signal or E52 Searching for Signal.

Please keep technical solutions in 'for dummies' language style.

Thanks

[jsat]

The error message on the TrueVisions set top box is correct, as there is no signal, as the dish is for the low band (C Band) and Truevisions is on the high band (Ku Band).

To make it work:

Simply replace the current dish electronics called a LNB with a Ku Single LNB (not a universal LNB a Ku single is important for the Truevisions set top box) and it will work for you if you do not shift the dish in the process.

[astral]

Unfortunately for you a dish is not just a dish.

The old 10.5ft dishes were originally setup for the lower C-band frequencies 3Ghz (sorry for getting technical)

TRUE transmits on the much higher Ku band frequencies 11-12Ghz.

The receiver head (lnb) in the centre of the dish, needs to be changed for

one that will handle both sets of signals.

A simple matter for a technician, then you should be OK with your True box.

The IdeaSat logo appears to be coming from the box itself.

See here

[PattayaParent]

Thanks jsat.I'm guessing the electronics is housed in that black dome on the dish that the cable is connected to?

Can I replace it myself (plug and play type) or does it need special experience / tools?

How much would a new LNB cost?

Edit: formatting screwed up.

[PattayaParent]

Would I be able to receive ASTRO instead if I kept the same setup and got a different decoder?

[PattayaParent]

Found a local dealer that tells me he cannot swap over the C band LNB with a Ku band LNB because they are different sizes and he will have to fabricate a support for the new LNB which will be expensive.

Does that sound right?

Of course instead he wants to sell me a new Ku band dish for 1,500 Baht installed so I'm sceptical.

[Crossy]

Buy the new dish (but find a cheaper seller).

Not only will the new LNB likely not fit, but if the dish is a fairly old wide-mesh (C-band only) item then the Ku band signals will fall through the holes. No joke, if the holes are bigger than a 1/4 wave at 10GHz (8mm or so) then the signal will go right through.

[PattayaParent]

Buy the new dish (but find a cheaper seller).

Not only will the new LNB likely not fit, but if the dish is a fairly old wide-mesh (C-band only) item then the Ku band signals will fall through the holes. No joke, if the holes are bigger than a 1/4 wave at 10GHz (8mm or so) then the signal will go right through.

Thanks Crossy.

I was going to go with the new dish option but for 3 things.

His 'True' dish is more expensive than I can get on the internet, delivered to the house, so I assume his dish without the words TrueVisions on it are more expensive.

When I said OK he then asked 'do you have cable?' so immediately extra charge bells go off. How can he install the dish without cable???

He said he could 'cut' the cable to the existing dish and use that, again alarm bells as I need that to be reconnected properly as it's a rented property.

[astral]

Buy the new dish (but find a cheaper seller).

Not only will the new LNB likely not fit, but if the dish is a fairly old wide-mesh (C-band only) item then the Ku band signals will fall through the holes. No joke, if the holes are bigger than a 1/4 wave at 10GHz (8mm or so) then the signal will go right through.

Not totally true, but it can affect the performance of the dish

When I said OK he then asked 'do you have cable?' so immediately extra charge bells go off. How can he install the dish without cable???

He is planning to save you money for a new cable run.

Personally I would not worry too much about restoring the old setup,

as it is pretty well redundant

For Astro, the dish would need to be realigned to a different satellite.