c-band help

[edustat]

i am definitely a "newbie" so bear with me - i have a 12' paraclipse mesh dish with a 450i GI receiver - what would i need in the very least to get the most fta channels - will adding a ku set-up on my dish give me what i need to get most of them? if so what equipment do you recommend?

[bill190]

I would suggest...

-BSC621-2 C/Ku LNBF
-VBox II diseqc to 36 volt Positioner controller
-Mercury II blind scan FTA receiver

[elgemcdlf]

You asked this question in a different topic area. See response there. If your present receiver can move the dish I would not purchase a VBox. Simply slave off of your present receiver. You only need to purchase a lnbf or different feedhorn if you wany Ku capability

[edustat]

thanks bill. looks very economical.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by bill190

I would suggest...

-BSC621-2 C/Ku LNBF
-VBox II diseqc to 36 volt Positioner controller
-Mercury II blind scan FTA receiver

?
The above kind of assumes that the person is trying to get only DVB, and give up analog and or DCII on Ku band, and also makes some assumptions about just what the person has, and wants to keep, and is interested in receiving.
If adding Ku, the BSC621 (not -2) might be a better choice if the person doesn't want to give up Ku via the 450i or a DCII receiver. this decision also depends on what he currently has for a feedhorn too. If it's just a plain C-band, then yes, the BSC is certainly a cheap way to upgrade, but if he has a co-rotor, and just isn't hooked up for Ku, then he'd be better off upgrading with a new Ku lnb. However if the person is looking for the low band Ku, for atlantic sats, etc, then perhaps the BSC621-2 would be a good choice. Whatever choice is made for LNB or LNBF though, there are some channels that you gain and some that you lose, so it's a choice based on what channels are desired.
Also, with a perfectly good Ku setup, perhaps the best way to upgrade to Ku might be to get a separate Ku dish. Both the new dish and the C-band dish could be connected to the DVB receiver. I think this would be a better option than completely re-working the existing dish, unless there isn't room for a 2nd dish.
Also, with a perfectly good receiver like the 450i, the switch to the VBox is kind of a waste, unless the 450i is dead. Not quite as automatic, but cheaper to just slave the DVB receiver to the 450i.
Also, I'm surprised that after all the bugs you've discovered in the Mercury software, that you'd still be recommending it. It certainly has a good picture, if you have a TV with component input, but I'd have a hard time recommending it on any other basis. Also, the choice of receiver depends on whether he's interested in HD reception. If he has an HDTV, then there are better options.
Anyway, I think that recommendations should only be made if we know just what channels are desired, Ie analog Ku, DCII Ku, low band Ku, HD, component output, etc, etc. There are way too many factors to start making decisions here.
I think my recommendation would be to first pick up a DVB receiver and play with it for a while slaved with the current 450i setup, just to get an idea of what is involved, and then make a decision whether to upgrade to Ku, and what way to upgrade to Ku. The choice of DVB receiver picked up would depend on whether HD was desired.
To slave to the existing C band receiver, all you need is an rf "T" and a DC-block, or else a "T" with one DC pass port.

[edustat]

i would like to keep what i presently have on the c-band analog side - so maybe just adding the ku to the existing dish would be what i need? can i still get what i presently have on analog with the new receiver?

[elgemcdlf]

You would be best off if you only want to add Ku and DVB capabilities to buy a motorized package from Sadoun. It will give you all the Ku for DVB MPEG2 that you can view, C Band DVB MPEG2 & retain your present capabilities. You will also need a DiSEqC switch along with a T that Bill spoke of with one leg being DC Pass and one leg DC Block.

[bill190]

Note: I read on another forum that Fortec says they have fixed the bugs in question.

And that is the reason for posting the messages about the bugs in the first place, so they will be fixed!

All in all I find that Fortec is a very good company. They do fix their bugs when they are reported.

Also note that with my setup (BSC621-2/VBox II/Mercury II) I have hundreds of FTA channels. I can go to a channel, click on it, and the dish moves and adjusts the LNB polarity - the channel comes up.

So pretty much like regular TV. Select channel, channel comes up. No mess, no fuss. This is important for other less technical types who live in my house. If I wanted analog, I would just connect the analog receiver to the Mercury pass through connection.