Inexpensive tuner for PBS & RTV?

[Phottoman]

Dee, is there any sort of recycle plant, car disposal junk yard near you? I went to Kingman Auto Recycle (KAR), a local junk yard, and they had all sorts of metal pipe there, I bought one for one of the 4' Patriot dishes I received. And they charged me about $1 per foot.

Something to think about.

Photto

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee, is there any sort of recycle plant, car disposal junk yard near you? I went to Kingman Auto Recycle (KAR), a local junk yard, and they had all sorts of metal pipe there, I bought one for one of the 4' Patriot dishes I received. And they charged me about $1 per foot.

Something to think about.

Photto

Oooooo! That's an idea!

I think there is a recycle place in Beaumont, I remember people warning me not to drive on that road because you always get a flat from the metal junk that falls off trucks there. I haven't been out that way in years but I'll check the yellow pages this afternoon and give them a call.

Earlier today I found a pole laying alongside the fence that I think used to be for the 1 meter dish I fixed with lawn chair parts last year. I tried to drag it out where I could get to it and it almost killed me! I think it's about 7 feet long, about 3 inches around and it's got to weigh 500lbs. I should have used my mower to pull it out but I ended up getting it with just pure red head stubbornness. I regret it now, my back is killing me. I can't believe that thing weighs so much.

If I do attempt to put up that big dish, well, I don't know. A pole like what I would need for it is certainly going to be way beyond anything I can lift.

Maybe I can pay my friend's new boyfriend to do the labor, he looks pretty fit and strong and I'm sure he could use a little cash. Maybe that's what I should do. Wow, I don't know why I didn't think of that until just now! Doh! Ok, so maybe I can get this done after all...

 

[osu1991]

I would check out the 6' C band dish WSI has on sale for satguys here too. Its an amazing deal for a new dish that will get most things C-Band.

 

[Anole]

While the WSI 6' dish is lighter and smaller, I'd read the install thread to see if it's for you:
6 foot dish install

But back to your original request, Ku for Mom & Pop . . .
I strongly recommend multiple Ku dishes... probably two.
I knew from your previous posts that Mom wouldn't go for that solution, and frankly I don't care. -

Two ideas to keep down the objections:
- add some smaller dishes where the signal would be well served by such a solution.
(easy to experiment at home to find the answers)
- think which satellites might be handled by two (or at most three) LNBs, and grow the dish farm that way.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I will look into the 6 foot cband dish later in the week, I have a few days of doctor appointments. Fun.. Not...


What scares me on the 6' dish is the shipping fees.

I glanced over the WSI site but I can not find a shipping calculator or even a way to purchase the thing. Maybe I'm too tired to find it, I'll try again later and move closer to the screen.

From what I see, it appears the dish is $70, the motor thing is $35 and shipping can be just about anything. The overall price is good I think but I'm worried about the shipping.

The dish looks a LOT smaller than that giant 10' thing I have so maybe it's something I could manage. If I could put that up for now to get This TV, that would be awesome. I could always put the giant dish up next year.

Maybe I can work a deal with my dad, he buys the dish for me and I do some work for him in exchange. Like help him with putting in a ku dish for him and Mom.

We'll see I guess..

 

[Phottoman]

Dee, if you have followed the threads on mini buds at all, I posted a few pictures of the 1.2m (4 foot) Patriot dish that was given to me, so if THIS is the main thing you are looking for, try a four foot dish. Those are the easiest to find on old gas stations and Blockbuster stores. I started out with the Patriot and an analog LNB here in Northwest Arizona, plus if you aim at the right satellite, you'll pick up CW, NBC and Fox (all East feeds from New York) all on the same transponder. Stationary dish, Analog LNB so only one sat and one polarization, but at least there's good stuff to watch right there.

Photto

 

[Mr Tony]

Shipping on those 6 footers isnt that bad since the dish is in pieces. Cost like $40 to ship to Minnesota

 

[Dee_Ann]

I ordered the 6 foot cband dish...

It will be here Friday! Yay!!!

I was going to wait because I have to leave town for a few days for some doctor stuff ( ) and I got to thinking that if I wait too long I might miss the sale so I went ahead and called them and ordered one while I still could.

I didn't wait to talk to Dad, I just dipped into my grocery fund. Sigh.... Why did I do that??

As to my parents, well I'm going to be stuck in the car with them for a few days so I'll have plenty of time to talk it over and see what they want to do. I know Mom is going to say a big fat NO on multiple dishes, even getting her to say yes to one dish is going to be difficult. Dad really wants satellite though. The only way they can put one up though is on the side of their house because of neighbors having tall roofs. There is no way they can put it on the ground. It will also have to be so that Dad can take it down when there is a chance of a hurricane so it doesn't tear the side of the house off.

I know that mounting it on the roof isn't going to happen. Dad already made that very clear the first time he talked about this with me.

You know, I don't know how all this has happened. 2 years ago I didn't know ANYTHING about satellite. Now I'm a consultant?

Seriously, this is messed up and all backwards! My Dad should be the one helping me with this stuff, not me helping him!

I think this is becoming my own personal tar baby. Somehow I got enticed into this and now I'm stuck with it and can't shake it loose and it just gets worse.
Where does it end?

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well....

I just spent two days on the road with Mom and Dad...

I explained to the both of them what I know about this stuff.

I explained to them about all the pros and cons of one dish, two dish, one tuner, two tuners.

Dad was like "Eh, just one dish and tuner is all we need."

Mom was like "NO! TWO dishes and two tuners so we can watch different things upstairs and downstairs!"

Woa! Mom wants the freedom to watch whatever she wants independent of Dad.
I explained that RTV has a *few* things Mom will like but it's primarily a guy channel and I told them about all the testosterone fueled shows with cowboys, guns and bombs and that was it. That's when Mom pipes up with "TWO OF EVERYTHING!"
She says "We can well afford two."

She likes Banachek, McMillian & wife, Columbo, Quincy, etc... (I'm not a huge fan of those shows but if I remember to on weekends I will watch them but I'm usually doing something else, I don't watch much TV on weekends, I turn on PBS all weekend and work around the house)

Dad is all excited to get RTV & Tuff. He'll be in guy heaven if they ever bring back that show were the guy builds airplanes out of bubble gum and shoe laces. Gawd...

Mom will be in heaven with PBS. And she's never even seen Create or World. I love those channels! She'll be addicted to World instantly.


So. Dad told me to find all the stuff they need for two identical systems and he'll order them then I have to go over and help him install it. Wait. I'm not a dish install person... Dad is going to have to do the labor. I'll just help find the satellites. He can do everything else.

So the plan is, two each of;

1) 90cm ku dish ( Is this big enough to get 83, 101 & 125 ??)
2) ku lnb
3) motors for the dishes
4) mpeg 4 HD fta tuners. (basic, nothing fancy, just functional)

Then I guess he will need poles to put them on and wires. Maybe he should buy it on a roll. A few months ago I bought a set of connector tools and learned how to use them so I can put the ends on the wires. (Thank you youtube!)

 

[jaray]

90cm is pretty standard in terms of a KU dish. I'm pretty far "up north" and I get all the KU just fine on a dish just a little smaller.
Don't forget to get yourself a bunch of RG6 cable, might think about dual RG6 if you'll have 2 feeds to a central location in the house (either or works fine though).

Oh, and please...PLEASE for the love of gawd, no consulting! the world just doesn't need any more of those...hehe.

You're in knee deep now, no turning back.

 

[chapelrun]

So the plan is, two each of;

1) 90cm ku dish ( Is this big enough to get 83, 101 & 125 ??)
2) ku lnb
3) motors for the dishes
4) mpeg 4 HD fta tuners. (basic, nothing fancy, just functional)

Dee Ann,

I don't think number 1 and number 3 - - - - match up.

If you are getting two dishes and two receivers (say for 83W and 125W fixed) you need a simple multi-switch like Perfect Vision or Zinwell.

See the 4x4 multi-switch about halfway down this page.

Satellite Switches

The little Green Lizard has warned twice about "no motors" and I agree with him!! Save yourself many "service calls" and go fixed dishes - - - It will be a much better setup.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee Ann,

I don't think number 1 and number 3 - - - - match up.

If you are getting two dishes and two receivers (say for 83W and 125W fixed) you need a simple multi-switch like Perfect Vision or Zinwell.

See the 4x4 multi-switch about halfway down this page.

Satellite Switches

The little Green Lizard has warned twice about "no motors" and I agree with him!! Save yourself many "service calls" and go fixed dishes - - - It will be a much better setup.

Well, they both want access to RTV on 83, History/Bio on 101 and PBS on 125. They also may find things on 97 and some of the other satellites I haven't explored yet because I don't have a motor up yet, my dishes don't move so I don't have the freedom to explore.

That would require a minimum of three dishes if we fore go the motors. It would also limit them to three satellites and less than a dozen channels. Ten channels actually, if they use three dishes for 83, 101 and 125. Nine channels for mom as I assure you, she has zero interest in Tuff TV. Sometimes I watch the kooky movies at midnight on Tuff. Sometimes. And I know for a fact that she will NOT find anything of interest there, she doesn't like those kooky old "scary" movies. Not even a little.

With two dishes on two motors they will have all the freedom in the world to search around and find things that they may like. They are in their 70's and like high brow edutainment type things and news.

Besides, what's the problem with motors? Are they that bad?

 

[jaray]

Motors...I dunno, always adds an extra bit of confusion and possible failure point, but mine has never been touched and just keeps on moving where I tell it to go. If it breaks, change it.

 

[rv1pop]

Well, they both want access to RTV on 83, History/Bio on 101 and PBS on 125. They also may find things on 97 and some of the other satellites I haven't explored yet because I don't have a motor up yet, my dishes don't move so I don't have the freedom to explore.

That would require a minimum of three dishes if we fore go the motors. It would also limit them to three satellites and less than a dozen channels. Ten channels actually, if they use three dishes for 83, 101 and 125. Nine channels for mom as I assure you, she has zero interest in Tuff TV. Sometimes I watch the kooky movies at midnight on Tuff. Sometimes. And I know for a fact that she will NOT find anything of interest there, she doesn't like those kooky old "scary" movies. Not even a little.

With two dishes on two motors they will have all the freedom in the world to search around and find things that they may like. They are in their 70's and like high brow edutainment type things and news.

Besides, what's the problem with motors? Are they that bad?

Well kid, If anyone can do it, you can. I like your spunk! From another thread I see you are a younger than our oldest daughter and all four of our girls can figure out how to do most anything.

I personally would go with 3 dishes, and get the 2 sat setup from Satellite AV for the 101 - 97 combination, and also the dual bullet lnbfs. Then use switches per the green one's thread to get everything everywhere. But that is me - and I am a guy! (But I have been married to this wonder gal for almost 35 years.)

I am in a windy area, and you are in the huricane area. That is the main reason I am leary of motorized.
POP

 

[chapelrun]

No - - I'm not saying motors are bad - - -

Let me give a couple examples that might help.

When I first setup my motorized KU band it took me about 9 months of "on and off" weekend work to get it in its current working state. I made most of the rookie mistakes that can be made and it took much trial and error - - - and a lot of asking here. I could go on and on about this part - - - but my point is maybe get a motor working for you first before trying to do it for mom and dad. I'm not saying you could not do it - - - I'm just saying I think the frustration factor would be very high.

That being said and also seeing all the dishes you have setup at home - - - my opinion is that mom and dad will be happier and you will be happier with fixed dishes. Here is a deeper explanation of why I say that.

First complete system versus two separate systems. Using the multi-switch way you could get all the SAT's you have noted with three dishes. Let's say you do something similar to a GloryStar setup for 97W and 101W (that would be one 90cm dish for both SAT's) Here is the dish I would recommend for that - - - I did this myself over a year ago and the results were very good.

Satellite AV - Free to Air Satellite Equipment Distributors - GEOSATpro, Glorystar 888-483-4673

Now for 83W and 125W you could use PrimeStar's or DirecPC dishes if mom and dad approve (that would be cheaper). I very much think your idea of making sure the receivers are the same is the right decision (you may want to check out remote freq's and make sure when mom changes the channel on her receiver it does not change dad's channel too (that would be bad).

If you were to use two dishes and two motors - - - I would think two completely separate setups where the two systems do not interact. Again, I'm not saying you couldn't do this but the way the requirements have been spelled out - - - this would not be the best solution in my opinion. And would require you to keep coming back on a regular basis (you have to come back either way but it will be less often for the fixed than the motorized)

Here is another compelling reason to go fixed. Since it is one system all connected via the correct multi-switch mom and dad can watch separate channels and change to any channel immediately without waiting for the dish to turn. (I know this was meantioned before but as a "ease of use" and out of the box experience for mom and dad - - - I think that is what they are already used to) - - - - "Hey, why is it taking so long to get from 'Daniel Boone' to 'Keeping up Appearances'?" Again this is my opinion take it for what it is worth.

Lastly, I want you to succeed with the least pain possible. I was in the Air Force for 10 years and we alway said use the "KISS" principle "Keep is Simple Stupid" Not calling you stupid - - - far from it - - - you seem like a very smart lady. Just think you are going in the harder direction.

I hope this is taken in the spirit it was given - - just want to help. :up

 

[Mikhel]

Nice, i had not visited this thread since a few days ago and i see you're in your way pretty good Dee Ann =), this hobby is like a vice, but a good one, expensive, yeah, but a good one =).

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, this is messed up BS now.

Montana PBS just changed to DBV S2 and I can not get it tuned in and I have an S2 tuner. I can get OETA and OKLA just fine and all the other PBS channels are still working.

Montana is gone and I made the changes to my pc and there's nothing there.

This is very annoying to me and worrisome.

I'm afraid they may change the other channels to this new S2 stuff in the near future.
If my folks don't have S2 tuners they will be dead in the water and mad at ME when it all quits working.

This considered, I am going to tell them they need to have two S2 type tuners.
This will ensure that they can get what's there now and if they change the existing channels to S2 like Montana did, they will be able to keep watching TV without having to buy new tuners.

My luck, they'll switch everything to S3 next year. Grrrrrrrr!!!

Why can't they just leave things be when things are working fine?
Change is NOT always good.

 

[Mikhel]

Right now for me PBS Montana in DVB-S2 is a tad weak, much much weaker than the DVB-S version was up until early this morning (the past few days i was recording the Ken Burns documentary for PBS "Baseball: The Tenth Inning" and Q was pretty good, even a bit higher than previous times).

P.S.
Not to be of bad luck but in Europe they're already developing and experimenting on DVB-S3 with visions on the future, they're also developing DVB-C2 (the second version for cable) DVB-T2 (instead of ATSC for digital tv over the air they use a different standard which it's also in the early stages of its second incarnation), all in all those guys in Europe are a few years ahead of us in the whole american continent, from Alaska down to the Patagonia. But there's nothing to be afraid nor angry for, well, a bit hehehe because now our brand new receivers are obsolete when facing those new standards and protocols.

Now more than ever it's time to look for used coolsat 8000/8100 that can do DVB-S2, or a couple of cheap OpenBox S9, altough you could begin with just one antenna and one cheap receiver tuned to RTV or Bio/History and check your parents opinion (a cheap receiver you can pick up for 5-10 dlls at a yard sale, craigslists, something like that).

 

[chapelrun]

May want to look at this receiver

I do not have any personal experience with this tuner but many folks here have them. Does S2 but not 4:2:2

SatHawk PVR800 USB HD MPEG4 DVB-S2 Satellite Receiver

Can someone who has a SatHawk talk about easy of use and the ability to tune S2.

 

[longhalkilo]

The Sathawk, Solomend, and the Openbox S9 are the same box with different face plates.They blind scan very well both DVB-S and S2 at the same time.You get a very good picture from the Sharp tuner (one of the best tuner in the market).IMHO.The only draw back is if you use it on some of the older TV sets with composite A/V(green tint picture) Now if you use component(Y/Pb/Pr) no issue on older 480i TVs.HDMI cables on a HD TV set WOW! The new v3 remote also works very well .It will decode AC3 in the box for you.