Does anyone have one of these TV sockets?

The Sky Q LNB itself has two outputs which are not the same. One is a Horizontal output and the other a vertical output. This alone will give box almost 5Ghz of bandwidth which is massive. These cables are then connected to your Sky Q box and any additional Sky multi-room boxes are installed with a wireless connection (not via the WIFI router) and the secondary box. Obviously WIFI can experience black spots on larger buildings so it is also possible to install the secondary Sky multi-room box with a data cable.

Because of all this no switching at the LNB is required at all it already has access to all of the channels. This makes it far simpler to add additional tuners and the Sky Q silver actually has 12 tuners! All with no extra cables installed.

I’m sure the enthusiasts among you will be thinking. Hang on a minute no switching, we can just split the signals now unlike changing the LNB and theoretically yes if you installed correctly set up diode protected splitters, although you would have to install two splitters no one for the horizontal and vertical bands but you could only ever connect another main Sky Q box – not something that is likely to be done at a single address.

Another major point to make is that with a Sky Q box can never be connected on ‘single feed mode’ as it would miss out on either the horizontal or vertical signals

Most of the plates I've seen (and indeed can buy from Toolstation and Screwfix) are not like that. They are designed to use just two cables and you combine the TV and FM ones onto the Sat 1 cable, before distributing around the house.

You can see that

Indeed I have 7 of them installed around the house. Initially they were fed from a multi-switch which combined them itself and sent Satellite, TV, FM signals on all of its outputs. But now we use a unicable system and they are combined directly onto the single downfeed from the LNB, just before splitting around the house.

Every LNB can be configured to receive *one* of the above.

It used to be one LNB=one cable, but things have got a bit more complex. And now you can feed signals from more than one LNB down the same cable.

"The LNB is a combination of low-noise amplifier, frequency mixer, local oscillator and intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier. It serves as the RF front end of the satellite receiver, receiving the microwave signal from the satellite collected by the dish, amplifying it, and downconverting the block of frequencies to a lower block of intermediate frequencies (IF). This downconversion allows the signal to be carried to the indoor satellite TV receiver using relatively cheap coaxial cable; if the signal remained at its original microwave frequency it would require an expensive and impractical waveguide line.

The LNB is usually a small box suspended on one or more short booms, or feed arms, in front of the dish reflector, at its focus (although some dish designs have the LNB on or behind the reflector). The microwave signal from the dish is picked up by a feedhorn on the LNB and is fed to a section of waveguide. One or more metal pins, or probes, protrude into the waveguide at right angles to the axis and act as antennas, feeding the signal to a printed circuit board inside the LNB's shielded box for processing. The lower frequency IF output signal emerges from a socket on the box to which the coaxial cable connects.

The LNB gets its power from the receiver or set-top box, using the same coaxial cable that carries signals from the LNB to the receiver. This phantom power travels to the LNB; opposite to the signals from the LNB....

....The simplification of antenna design that accompanied the first Astra DTH broadcast satellites in Europe to produce the LNBF extended to a simpler approach to the selection between vertical and horizontal polarized signals too. Astra type LNBFs incorporate two probes in the waveguide, at right angles to one another so that, once the LNB has been skewed in its mount to match the local polarization angle, one probe collects horizontal signals and the other vertical, and an electronic switch (controlled by the voltage of the LNB's power supply from the receiver: 13 V for vertical and 18 V for horizontal) determines which polarization is passed on through the LNB for amplification and block-downconversion.

Such LNBs can receive all the transmissions from a satellite with no moving parts and with just one cable connected to the receiver, and have since become the most common type of LNB produced. "

..Wiki

I do not believe that any satellite dongles can handle more than one LNB down the same cable.

Satellite is a very good way to receive TV in places where the receiver is well below the horizon. like in a valley (as I was).

As I recall there was a little more content on freesat than freeview.

Not really.

But for Freesat or other non-SKY boxes, you can now use Unicable LNBs, which can feed all the signals for up to 32 tuners, down a single cable and can be used with basic splitters - you do need them to either pass power in one direction or for all the boxes except one to have power output to the LNB turned off.

But the old LNBs had to select between high and low frequency band for each output, whereas the SKY-Q ones cover the whole of the high and low frequency bands at the same time. Hence only needing two cables to give the four options simultaneously (Hi-Horizontal/Lo-Horizontal/Hi-Vertical/Lo-Vertical) as just Horizontal on one and Vertical on the other.

And the Unicable ones allow everthing for up to 32 independent tuners to be sent on a single cable.

I think you misunderstand. The two cables are simply there to allow

Any LNB can receive any signal. However multplexing more than one multiplex down the same cable is a layer of sophistication above that, as is controlling each one.

And I don't think satellite dongles can do that.

Er no. The satellites are up in the 10Ghz band

Sky Q appears to be a massively parallel set top box able to hit up to 8 muxes on satellite at 10Ghz and even more s*it via the internet. it may use wifi to connect to the internet

Changing the frequencies satellites work on is a little beyond 'man in a van' maintenance.

And a sky dish is simply not useful for receiving frequencies below 1Ghz.

You would do better with a Yagi array.

There’s still a mixer downconverter in the LNB

Correcting errors in TNP's posts is contra-indicated.

The Q LNB uses one cable for all horizontally polarised muxes and another for all vertically polarised muxes, it frequency shifts all muxes down by 10.4 GHz so there's no hi/lo band selection.

They are on older LNBs, but the wideband LNBs are different, each cable carries hi and lo together, one cable is horizontal, the other is vertical.

The satellites are *still* in the 10 GHz band, previously the LNB would selectively (under control of the receiver) shift the frequencies down by 9.75 GHz or 10.6 GHz giving the hi/lo sets of muxes

with wideband all muxes are shifted down by 10.41 GHz, it is terrestrial frequencies on the cables (290 MHz to 2340 MHz)

it also creates its own wifi mesh for any extra Q boxes in additional rooms.

which is why they haven't done that

Or that.

The faceplates with three cables are SAT1+TV+FM down, SAT2 down and a RETURN up to the distribution amp to allow e.g. watching a DVR on any set (together with magic eye RF remote) but that's getting a bit old-hat now ...

The error is in people claimimg that the satellite transission uses wifi and TV frequencies in sky Q.

Its the downlink that is using them in order to accomodate a wider IF frequency span.

Twin cables has nothing to do with frequency.

Correct.

I'm afraid not.

As stated above, with SkyQ one cable delivers the entire horizontal signal and the other the entire vertical signal. no switching is required in the LNB and the Sky Q box can see all signals simultaneously to feed it's 12 or so tuners.

Very art student of you not know this TNP, :-)

Bob.

It's not just polarisation, but a Sky box selects on of two wavebands. Hence if you are indeed correct I would have expect 4 feeds, 2 polarisations and 2 bands.

Are you sure TNP isn't right, for a surprising exception to the rule that he's invariably wrong?

Not with SKY-Q. They are termed wideband LNBs, as each cable carries the whole bandwith, all the time, so there is no hi/lo at all, just horizontal on one and vertical on the other. Between them they carry all the multiplexes simultaneously.

I did not write what you have attributed t me.