Best LNB ?

[joidevie]

Hi..

Before I go out and spend a fortune, what (type/make) would be the best

LNB to get for a 90cm round dish to receive freesat in southern France?

Before I only had one LNB for one receiver, but I will soon want 2 receivers, and a likely third in a year or so..

Signal strength can be a little ropey, and I have heard that using a "quad" with only two receivers can weaken reception?

And would reception of UK TV from southern Europe be considered 'vertical' reception or 'horizontal'?

Many thanks..

[pachapapa]

The old LNB that you used for your one receiver will work fine for another receiver.

Definitely horizontal or vertical, UKTV dont do circular polarisation.

[Martin963]

You need a "quad" universal LNB if you are going to use three receivers.   I've never heard of an LNB being "weakened" by only having some of the outputs connected,   I have 2 quads in Britain with both wired to only three receivers.

If reception is a bit ropey you're not really goint to achieve anything with an "expensive" low noise floor LNB.   To be honest most of the 0.3 dB or whatever claims are just that,   measured under ideal conditions in a nice warm factory,  nowhere near a "real" satellite signal.   If reception is patchy you either need to tweek the dish,  tweek the skew of the LNB (a 20 - 30 deg twist clockwise as viewed from the front of the dish) or in extremis get a bigger dish.   90 cms should be working fine in the south of France unless it's doing a diluvian.

The BBC and ITV etc use both vertical and horizontal polarisation,   normally adjacent frequencies (transponders) are interleaved H/V/H/V etc.    Your sat receiver "tells" the LNB which polarisation to use,   by means of a change of voltage fed back up the cable to the dish.   As pachapapa says,   other forms of polarisation are available,   but not on Astra 2!

Finally,  you want a Quad not a Quattro LNB.

[joidevie]

Great, thanks..

So, if I use an LNB that is "better for vertical transponders than horizontal" (a review), then this should be no issue..?

In the past I've tried all the skewing,  switching to 125 cable etc etc.. However, we have since moved (hence more receivers), and the reception has been great, though I just want to get a decent quad LNB.

Cheers.

[Martin963]

If the LNB reviewed was significantly better for V than H then there was either something wrong with it or with the reviewer!

In practice (unless the signal is absolutely marginal) any bog standard universal LNB should respond to both V and H with equal efficacity.

I've never heard of this situation,   and there must be very few set ups where it would make a difference.

I'd be interested to read the review if it's on line and you have the time to flag it up.....?

Thanks.

[LEO]

I posted this on here  earlier this year;

I needed this item today and after a bit of research I could only source it at,   "EXPERT" in Vire,Normandy,France

cost 70 euros.............

..............ouch

If I was in Germany it would have cost 9.90 euros!...(https://www.smartcard24.com/warenkorb.php)

exactly the same product by the same manufacturer ("INVERTO", based in Luxembourg).

Inverto

Quattro Red Extend Long Neck LNB 40mm 0,3

PS . It is made in China!

[AnOther]

I agree with Martin that LNB's are much of a muchness and when comparing noise figures the results are only valid if the tests have been carried out using identical procedures, particularly in regard to frequency. If a manufacturer only quotes the best case, which will always be at the lowest frequency, then although a particular LNB might appear to the casual observer to be a better product than another which has a supposedly higher noise figure, the latter could well turn out to be a far superior product in a real situation if it's noise figure is an average over the spectrum.

You could draw a broad analogy with car fuel consumption figures. Manufacturers fiddle the urban test to make it appear as good as possible but in reality few owners will ever come close to it. Far better to have a car which claims say 40mpg and delivers it, or more.

Finally, again echoing Martin, low noise is only of any real significance in marginal situations and virtually none of France really falls into that category so there are precious few places where a 90cm dish and bog standard LNB will not produce satisfactory results.

[joidevie]

[quote user="Martin963"]If the LNB reviewed was significantly better for V than H then there was either something wrong with it or with the reviewer!

In practice (unless the signal is absolutely marginal) any bog standard universal LNB should respond to both V and H with equal efficacity.

I've never heard of this situation,   and there must be very few set ups where it would make a difference.

I'd be interested to read the review if it's on line and you have the time to flag it up.....?

Thanks.

[/quote]

The review is here - and the reference I was looking at was half way down for 'Smart Titanium" LNB's..

[Martin963]

Very interesting - thanks for flagging it up.

TBH I wonder how many LNB's the reviewer actually tested.....

I only wonder because often I've bought equipment (mainly semi-professional and sometimes pro-audio) and I'm constantly amazed that magazine reviewers often miss the most basic drawbacks.

Don't know if this applies in this case,   but as I say very interesting to read that comment.   Thanks again.

[AnOther]

I think the article proves the point.

They talk about pin diodes producing a typical noise floor of around 0.5dB noise yet go on to review devices claiming figures as low as 0.1db - QED !

[Jako]

The writer of the article is an idiot.

If any lnb has a bias towards any polarisation it is malfunctioning and should be replaced.

Performing one test with one item during one moment and conclude anything is also ridiculous.

A website publishing this nonsense should be ignored.

 

[joidevie]

So a load of hocus pocus ..  Save the £30 and get a decent brand £6er from a well known auction site..

Sounds good to me..

[Danny]

just make sure you follow Martin's advice and get a quad LNB and not a quattro LNB

http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/techtip-quatro-quad-lnb-differences.html

Danny

[joidevie]

Will do.. Was one of the first things I learned!