HD PVR P2 1LNB?

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pirata

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Hi Just want5ed to find if it's really necessary to have 2 LNB cable running into this decoder. I have always held it off because the complex I live in just have 1 satellite cable into the house. So waiting for the Satellite installer to add a second cable I decided to just connect and violla! I had perfect picture, including on the HD channels which was very nice, I tested recording and it recorded a bit and could replay this recorded stuff. So my Q is, is this 2nd cable really a necessity on these decoders?
 
Its not necessary no, I had one LNB running to my decoder and everything worked perfectly. However, when I tried to record, I couldn't due to the 2nd cable not being present. Not sure how you got it lucky that way!
 
pirata said:
Hi Just want5ed to find if it's really necessary to have 2 LNB cable running into this decoder. I have always held it off because the complex I live in just have 1 satellite cable into the house. So waiting for the Satellite installer to add a second cable I decided to just connect and violla! I had perfect picture, including on the HD channels which was very nice, I tested recording and it recorded a bit and could replay this recorded stuff. So my Q is, is this 2nd cable really a necessity on these decoders?
Click to expand...

Yes, basically the DSTV feed is split into horizontal and vertical polarity and you can only receive one at a time if you only have one cable, having 2 cables from your LNB covers both so you can record one type and watch another. If you watching Super Sport you can't record Animal Planet as they're opposing polarities.

This kind of explains what happens if you only get one.
http://forum.dstv.com/archive/index.php/t-1196.html


Something like that anyway.
 
thanks guys for the quick response, I just wish some1 had told me sooner I could started watching HD long time ago. Come to think of it, I was testing so it could be I recorded the same channel I was watching, even though I kept changing channels. I took matter into my own hands at the complex I live and being on the top floor went up the ceiling and found an empty port on multiswitch. sO I just hope all my neighbhors still have TV. hehe. Anyone else know if there is a difference between RCA cable and the digical coaxial. It's the only way for me to move sound to my sounds system which has limited HDMI ports
 
You can use a multiswitch instead of installing a second cable
 
mister said:
You can use a multiswitch instead of installing a second cable
Click to expand...

No you can't, a multiswitch needs two feeds. They have an input for vertical and another for horizontal.

You use them when you need three or more feeds such as in the case of an HDPVR + multi-view.
 
@pirata
If your building has a dish with a single channel LNB feeding to a multiswitch and you take two cables from the m/s to your PVR, you will only be able to watch and record the same channel. To watch and record different channels the dish has to be fitted with a dual channel LNB and each cable from the LNB will then go to its own multiswitch. You have to take a cable from each of these m/s's to your PVR to be able to watch one and record another channel. Coax cable is designed for RF signals and the most common is 50Ohm RG 58 which is used for radio and ethernet and the 75Ohm TV areal cable. Your RCA cable is just a normal screened twinflex and is not designed to carry RF signals. As long as you use the RCA cables for audio you are ok as the audio is not a RF signal. Enjoy your TV.
 
Nick333 said:
No you can't, a multiswitch needs two feeds. They have an input for vertical and another for horizontal.

You use them when you need three or more feeds such as in the case of an HDPVR + multi-view.
Click to expand...

erm woops. good catch. I need more coffee!
 
CA195 said:
@pirata
If your building has a dish with a single channel LNB feeding to a multiswitch and you take two cables from the m/s to your PVR, you will only be able to watch and record the same channel. To watch and record different channels the dish has to be fitted with a dual channel LNB and each cable from the LNB will then go to its own multiswitch. You have to take a cable from each of these m/s's to your PVR to be able to watch one and record another channel. Coax cable is designed for RF signals and the most common is 50Ohm RG 58 which is used for radio and ethernet and the 75Ohm TV areal cable. Your RCA cable is just a normal screened twinflex and is not designed to carry RF signals. As long as you use the RCA cables for audio you are ok as the audio is not a RF signal. Enjoy your TV.
Click to expand...

Almost everything in this post is wrong or irrelevant.
 
CA195 said:
@Nick333

Don't dis other peoples posts when you don't know what you are talking about.
Click to expand...

Hey no problem, I won't and don't. I do know what I'm talking about though so nuts to you.

Don't post bad info on topics you are ignorant about.
 
CA195 said:
@pirata
If your building has a dish with a single channel LNB feeding to a multiswitch and you take two cables from the m/s to your PVR, you will only be able to watch and record the same channel. To watch and record different channels the dish has to be fitted with a dual channel LNB and each cable from the LNB will then go to its own multiswitch. You have to take a cable from each of these m/s's to your PVR to be able to watch one and record another channel. Coax cable is designed for RF signals and the most common is 50Ohm RG 58 which is used for radio and ethernet and the 75Ohm TV areal cable. Your RCA cable is just a normal screened twinflex and is not designed to carry RF signals. As long as you use the RCA cables for audio you are ok as the audio is not a RF signal. Enjoy your TV.
Click to expand...

I think OP meant Digital Coaxial (spdif/toslink type) to carry surround sound from pvr to amp or ht system.
 
pirata said:
thanks guys for the quick response, I just wish some1 had told me sooner I could started watching HD long time ago. Come to think of it, I was testing so it could be I recorded the same channel I was watching, even though I kept changing channels. I took matter into my own hands at the complex I live and being on the top floor went up the ceiling and found an empty port on multiswitch. sO I just hope all my neighbhors still have TV. hehe. Anyone else know if there is a difference between RCA cable and the digical coaxial. It's the only way for me to move sound to my sounds system which has limited HDMI ports
Click to expand...

RCA usually is 3 cables, red (R audio) white (L audio) yellow (video) this can only carry stereo audio signal. Digital coaxial cable carries digital audio from source to destination (amp, home theater sys) for true surround sound 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2 depending on your system setup.
 
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OK useful input guys. So I guess what I am asking:
1. If there is vertical and horizontal cables, there is a chance I might end up connecting the 2 cables turner1 & 2 to the vertical instead of splitting them (between a vert & hori), which means might not access all channels for recording if I'm not watching any?
2. regarding RCA and digital coaxial is for carrying surround sound and it looks like digital coaxial has way more throughput in one cable that the 2 (R+L) RCA cable. In fact what I wanted to do is maybe no the best thing but it would to use and RCA cable on the digital coaxial output on Decoder and connecting it to my sound system, but I guess the sound will not be the same.

A quick edit: I have set surround to auto, and the decoder automatically picks this up when available and I have used an RCA cable (just 1) on the digital coaxial as interface is almost the same and it works perfectly except of course that disable volume control on the decoder, I would use the volume on the sound system each time a channel with surround sound comes up
 
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1. The tuners actually control the polarity on the output of an lnb or multiswitch via a voltage. Something like 18 for vert and 14 for hor. So its not a question of accidentally connecting up two of either. As long as you have two feeds from a twin or switch youre fine.

2. An rca would work but not well.
 
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