All posts by Neil Bell
Below are all of Neil Bell's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Eric I no longer use the motor on my dish to get the other satellites but 4 separate quad LNBs fixed to a bracket on my dish and cabled to diseqc switches. Both my Passions and my Panasonic boxes have DiSEqC 1.0 software which allows switching between the various satellite positions without moving the dish. The Panasonic box doesn't support Diseqc 1.2 which the Passions do support and which allows them to operate the motor. It was the absence of Diseqc 1.2 in the Panasonic firmware which forced me to invest in the bracket and the extra 3 LNBs but as I said in my last reply it is actually better in that you can record from different satellite positions at the same time which you couldn't with the motor. The motor with a single quad LNB can only point at one position at a time whereas using Diseqc switches means you have an LNB dedicated to each satellite position and the receivers switch between the LNBs electronically. 3Sat is a German language programme broadcast at 19.2 East. At the time I bought my Panasonic box I wanted to be able to burn Blu Rays and as far as I know Panasonic is the only company providing recorders with this function. Alas Panasonic UK had stopped marketing Satellite equipment by then so I had no choice but to buy it from Germany. It has a slight disadvantage in that its not a Freesat machine so doesn't support the Freesat EPG but only Now & Next on UK broadcasts. The EPG works fine on German and other language broadcasts and you can record UK programmes with the timer. Since buying the Panasonic I have invested in a couple of media servers and so if I want to archive a video now I just copy it to the media server. An advantage of it not being a Freesat box is that it does allow me to stream HD video. I have a very similar Panasonic Blu Ray Freeview recorder which only allows me to stream SD video so I suspect that a Freesat recorder would be similarly restricted. I don't have any experience of other satellite receivers which allow USB recording but there are several on the market. Until quite recently I would have advised use of a recorder with a built in hard drive like the Panasonic rather than an external USB drive as I have always found the Passion+ a bit flaky but both my Panasonic recorders have started playing up lately with HDMI blackouts followed by reboots which leave me with 2-3 minute gaps in my recordings. Not great when you are recording a Mozart symphony! I've never had my Passion+ render a drive unreadable although it frequently can't read the drive. I used to follow a tip I read once and plug the drive into my laptop and delete a recording I no longer require, reboot the Passion+ and plug in the USB drive again and it often seems to work again. I also used to record a few short clips to give me something to delete.
| link to this comment |
Hi Eric My 1.2 metre dish is pointing at 23.5 degrees East where the Czech programmes reside (these being the weakest I watch). Clamped on the arm is a bracket which can take another 3 LNBs which are positioned individually to receive signals from satellites located to the left and the right of 23.5 degrees East. The size of the dish more than compensates for any discrepancy in the shape of the elipse as seen by the other LNBs and I get excellent signals on both UK broadcasts at 28.2 and German broadcasts at 19.2 and very good results on Hotbird at 13 degrees East. Its the position of the LNB relative to the satellite which is critical rather than how close it is to the focal point of the dish. Its not just at the focal point that you get a strong signal but on an arc either side of it. Neil
| link to this comment |
Mike P I have never looked at that web site before and on a quick look today I couldn't find any reference to the maximum size for satellite dishes. However when I had my 1.2 meter dish installed some years ago I did look at my local authorities (Redbridge) web site where it said that planning permission was not required for a satellite dish and additionally there was no mention of maximum size. I think it did mention listed buildings and conservation areas but as I live in neither I didn't concern myself further. I've had people visit from the planning dept. in connection with a neighbours planning application more recently and no comment was made and I've not had any complaints despite the dish being inline with the front of the house, on a big bracket with the motor and quite low down ( I can reach it with a tall step ladder) so its not been an issue for me.
| link to this comment |
Mike P Your'e certainly correct. I was looking for the word "max" which of course isn't there. I also note on the Redbridge site that it links through to the Planning Portal now which I don't recall it doing in 2007 when I had the larger dish fitted. I'll just have to hope that nobody notices.
| link to this comment |
Carole I'm guessing here. Have you connected your loop amplifier to the SCART output on the Tivo box rather than the TV? If so maybe you are hearing a TV channel on the Tivo box rather than anything from the TV. You don't say what model TV you have but if it is a newish one it may not have an analogue output which I think your loop amp needs but you can get a digital to analogue converter fairly cheaply on Ebay. Could you give us a bit more detail - TV model, Loop amp model, whether the loop amp is connected to the SCART output on the Tivo box. If you can get the sound output from the TV into your Loop amp it should work with your DVD player. Neil
| link to this comment |
Hi Carole
The Sarabec LA215 has phono plug inputs so presumably your red/white 'connectors' are actually cables? If so where do these cables plug in to on your Tivo box? My Tivo box has no phono plug outputs but it does have a SCART output which is why I thought you could be using this for analogue audio output. You don't say what model your Samsung TV is but if it is like mine (Samsung UE40H5500) it doesn't have analogue audio or SCART outputs but does have a Toslink Optical output. If this is the case you can get a digital optical to analogue converter to provide the analogue audio output for your LA215. You can get them quite cheaply on Ebay or Amazon and you should get one with a Toslink optical cable and a UK power supply.
First however tell us what model Samsung TV you have and where do the cables plug in to on your Tivo box.
Neil
| link to this comment |
Mike B I'm puzzled. My Samsung TV certainly has an analogue output in the shape of a headphone socket but that mutes the TV speakers when headphones are plugged in so hearing viewers wouldn't be able to listen if the Loop amp was connected in this way. There is no line analogue output independent of speakers or volume control on this TV such as existed on my older Sony TVs. So unless Carole lives on her own and never has hearing visitors she will need to make use of the optical output via a converter. Neil
| link to this comment |
Mike B Carole has a Samsung TV so its not too helpful to tell her she should have bought a Sony or Panasonic now! and we don't yet know what model she has or if she has a sound bar. I've bought 2 digital analogue converters on Ebay that cost about 10 including UK power supply and Toslink cable so no pain involved at all.
| link to this comment |
I was curious about Mike B's point about more than one audio output simultaneously so I checked on my Samsung UE40H5500 this afternoon and the act of plugging in headphones does not mute the Toslink signal. It only mutes the internal speakers so you can use both outputs at the same time. We still don't know what Samsung model TV Carole has but if she has an optical output she could use it via a Toslink cable and digital to analogue converter to feed her loop amp leaving her internal speakers for any hearing members of her household.
| link to this comment |
Thursday 23 July 2015 1:05AM
Eric It was nice of you to spend so much time suggesting how I update my Passion + but as I said before I now use a Panasonic DMR-BST700 Bluray recorder to watch/record German & Czech programmes so there isn't much point. I did do some scans of the various satellites on my Passion + about a month ago and found I could now receive Channel 4HD but I can get that on Freeview and I still have problems with 3Sat HD on the Passions so they don't get much use now. The one thing I can use my Passion for is to orientate my dish if it gets blown out of alignment. The Panasonic doesn't support the version of Diseqc which can control the motor but only the multi LNB version. However having had to invest in extra LNBs for the Panasonic I find it works better anyway and I was using the 4 quad LNBs for the Passion + as well. You don't have to wait for the motor to move the dish and you can record from different satellites at the same time. I had a look at the German Amazon site the other day and they are now doing a Panasonic DMR-BST940 bluray recorder with triple DVB-S tuners and a 2TB hard disk which is quite tempting!