Multiroom equipment requirements

[Templeton]

We ditched our DISHnetwork 4-room system a couple months ago because of the cost, and we're tired of watching local network stations via antenna & rabbit ears. There are lots of FTA channels out there, and we'd like to expand our viewing.

We would like a 3-room FTA system so we can all watch different channels in different rooms.

We have the Superdish from DISH, and the house was wired professionally a couple years ago for 4-rooms by the DISH installation tech. Everything worked fine up to the point when we unsubscribed.

My question is, what do I need to purchase to achieve our goal? I know I'll need three receivers (one for each TV), but I'm fuzzy on the LNBs and other things.

We're pretty clever, and can probably do any necessary wiring, but we need some expert advice on equipment requirements.

Thanks in advance for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

[elgemcdlf]

You will either need 3 separate motorized dishes or a T90 dish with multiple lnbf's. First decision: One dish or multiple dishes?

[Templeton]

Thank you for the response.

I checked around for T90 dishes, and they're not too pricey, so I would answer "one dish" to your question.

Thanks again.

[elgemcdlf]

There is a very indepth post from Iceberg on the T90 that you should find informative.

http://www.sadoun.net/forums/satelli...hlight=Iceberg

Makes me want to ditch my motorized system for a few just to avoid the wait.

[Templeton]

Thanks again for helping me out. I read Iceberg's review, and I'm still interested in the T90. I really don't want a dishfarm...we live on a farm and I prefer my 'crops' to be animal or vegetable, not mineral.

My husband has some patience, and he may be 'inspired' to crank it up a little if it means he can waner from room to room and watch three different things at once. LOL!

[lumpkin666]

Before buying into the T90, or any other dish setup for that reason, check out the list of channels on KU-Band satellites. You may find that you'd only watch channels from one or two dishes anyhow. You could possibly get away with a couple dual lnb's hooked to one dish, depending on what sats you want to view content from.

[Templeton]

While we're on the subject....how come the DISH satellite dish can run four rooms with different programs without a toroidal dish? Our set up had two receivers, and two wireless antennas. Just curious.

[elgemcdlf]

DN "gathers" channels and then uplinks them to a select group of satellites. You are limited to the number of satellites. They build their dishes to be able to view the required sats for the channels you desire. You will see many of their dishes with multiple lnbf's. One lnbf per sat is the general rule. With FTA you have channels on pretty much every sat out there so your viewing range in the sky is much larger. To be able to see the entire sky you require motorized (or multiple stationary dishes).

Now enter the desire to watch whatever you want on separate tv's. Maybe room 1 wants to watch from a sat on the east side of the arc and room 2 wants to watch from the west end. With one motorized dish you make a decision which sat but everyone connected to that dish is limited to that sat at that time. For complete independance you need seperate dishes for each tv or a T90.

Realistically depending on your location you may require more than 1 T90 to view the entire arc. For my location (I am right in the middle) I would need 3 T90's to replace my motorized unit. I only run 1 tv. You can plan on "seeing" 60 degrees either direction from center. Center would be the sat located at your longitude. The T90 has limits so check those based on your location as well.

I live rural and have multiple dishes. Since you are on a farm multiple dishes would not really be any big deal. Hope that cleared it up a bit

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Templeton

Thanks again for helping me out. I read Iceberg's review, and I'm still interested in the T90. I really don't want a dishfarm...we live on a farm and I prefer my 'crops' to be animal or vegetable, not mineral.

My husband has some patience, and he may be 'inspired' to crank it up a little if it means he can waner from room to room and watch three different things at once. LOL!

LOL. this sounds like my wife on the farm thing so we comprimised she gets her aniamal farm on one side and i get my dish farm on the other side.

[Templeton]

Okay, here's where the newbie really shows through....we live in upstate NY. We have a clean shot to the southern sky, cus we live on a hill without trees, and we also have two poles mounted...I forget why the unused one is there, but it is. One has the Superdish on it. Any guess as to our ability to use a T90 to the max? Do you think I'm going to be better off with 3 dishes (shudders at the thought of hubby digging another hole...LOL).

[lumpkin666]

It's hard to say whether you'd be better with 3 dishes. I'd take a look at which sats you are going to want to view, just to make sure that a T90 is going to cut it for you - since a T90 will only view a portion of the arc, and the T90 will not allow you to easily get those sats that are only 2 degrees apart.

Depending on which sats you want, you could end up requiring multiple T90's (or a T90 and another stationary dish or two). you may end up figuring out that given the sats that you need to aim at, you can buy 3 cheap dishes and a few small dual lnbs and hit everything you'll ever watch. I have 2 motorized 90cm dishes, 3 stationary 75-80cm dishes, and 3 BUDs (1 7ft and 2 10ft), but am coming to realize that I could probably make due with 2 stationary dishes with multiple lnbfs and 1 BUD, and I'd get 90% of what we would watch anyhow (however, I don't dare mention this to my wife, who is oblivious to which sat has what channel on it!).

As far as the # poles also, you may be able to get by with mounting more than one dish on a post, as long as they are tall enough and/or you use the mounting pole that comes with your dish to affix it to the pole so that you can gain enough room between dishes on the pole.

[pmb1010]

"There are lots of FTA channels out there"


True, but it would help to give us an idea of what your expectations of channels you'd like to see, and mabye we can give a better recommendation of what a dish like a T90 setup might be able to view.

Example: "I want NBC, CBS, ABC" or "I want mostly International Channels" or "I like religious channels".
Something like that.

[Templeton]

I'd never thought of the totem pole idea...that would look a whole lot neater than a bunch of poles stuck in the ground. I'll keep that in mind when I explain the 'plan' to the hubby....I'm the researcher, he's the doer.

[Templeton]

I'm not exactly sure of what channels we want. I would like to receive the network channels including PBS stations (our reception here is dicey with an antenna), and I saw an interesting international channel from China when we had the DISH set up (it was FTA, not subscription). I think I'd like to be able to pick up some of the stations from the Middle East, and Europe, just out of curiosity. We're not into a lot of sports, outside of NASCAR racing, so that's not an issue. We just want to be able to look at more than just the network offerings, and not be tied into the monthly fees associated with DISH or DIRECT.

I don't know if that helped.

[Templeton]

Back to the location thing:

"Realistically depending on your location you may require more than 1 T90 to view the entire arc. For my location (I am right in the middle) I would need 3 T90's to replace my motorized unit. I only run 1 tv. You can plan on "seeing" 60 degrees either direction from center. Center would be the sat located at your longitude. The T90 has limits so check those based on your location as well."

Is there a resource on the internet that will help decide which kind or how many might be required? It would seem reasonable to me that some areas of the country are more difficult to hookup just because of the relative position to the orbiting satellites.

[elgemcdlf]

Sadoun Satellite Sales ( 1-888-519-9595 ) Sadoun is a dealer and distributor of satellite television systems and consumer electronics. Dish Network, DirecTV, Free To Air, Sirius, Globecast, Twinhan and more will give specs on a T90 along with the different motors available.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Templeton

I'm not exactly sure of what channels we want. I would like to receive the network channels including PBS stations (our reception here is dicey with an antenna), and I saw an interesting int