Indeed. And they don't uplink the BBC or ITV, C4 etc either. All those broadcasters make their own uplink arrangements for Astra. The BBC do it in house at Wood Norton.
The only time their signals go anywhere near 'Sky property' is when they enter a domestic Sky box !
Bob Eager presented the following explanation :
No, there is no difference, both the same. The difference is that Sky's ouput is encrypted.
indeed
Well obviously the sky free to air is unencrypted. You are making a finer distinction than me - technically yes Freesat is a commercial entity that supplies free satellite channels, as does sky - but most people think of Freesat as 'the total fee to air satellite channels'
I not sure that they do. Freesat has always been advertised as a fixed group of channels with a 7 day EPG - roughly the same channels carried on terrestrial via an aerial.
Buy a Freesat branded box box and the only channels with the 7 day EPG will be the ones in the Freesat list. The box should be capable of receiving another 200+ free to air channels on the satellite cluster but only with a now/next EPG. There will not be a 7 day EPG for the unique free to air channels from Sky.
Something I've always wondered: given that the free-to-air channels are identical data tables and streams for both Sky and Freesat, why do they have different LCNs for the same channel? Is there some mechanism in the relevant table to include *two* LCNs for each channel, with Sky using one and Freesat using the other?
simple answer
it always needs 2 for record one, watch one (live)
if you are happy with recording or watching live, but not both at the same time, then the machine will work with one feed
Of course, most people can cope with that because they will probably also have a FreeView feed
there's a more complicated answer which I think we can dispense with
I understood Sky Q only used one cable
that how you know that two connectors isn't Sky Q
no, it uses a cable per polarisation, with high and low bands combined on each cable
Two cables to the *same* LNB? Not to two different LNBs? Are you aware that this means that the devices at the ends of the cables will both "see" the same polarisation and frequency range? How is it decided which of the two TVs/PVRs will issue the commands to the LNB to select one quadrant (ie one of two polarisations and one of two frequency ranges)?
Maybe the LNBs are the new sort which can transmit all four quadrants (polarisation, frequency range) down the same cable, in which case you are in the same state as with Freeview - that all devices can record *all* channels, in this case because they can receive all four quadrants.
Different ports of the same LNB
A quad universal LNB will internally have Horz and Vert signals, separated into High and Low bands, then depending on what volts/tone combination each TV/STB sends up its cable, it will send down the required "quarter" of the signal down from that port.
I think you're being rather picky, most people think of the black plastic lump with a horn and multiple outputs as "the LNB" ... not four LNBs sharing a horn in a lump of black plastic.
No, A universal twin LNB is effectively two independantl controlled LNBs in the same package with each being controlled by the control signals that arrive up the two independent output connectors. A universal quad LNB is effectively 4 independently controlled LNBs in the same package There are also universal octo LNB with 8 independent LNBs in the same package.
A Sky Q LNB has 2 outputs. One output is the horizontally polarised channels and the other the vertically polarised channels
There is also a new breed of Unicable II LNBs with one output that can be fed to maybe 32 different tuners/receivers.
There also some hybrid LNB which have the latest technology but also incorporate some extra outputs to support a legacy installation (a Unicable output plus 2 off universal LNB outputs).
How is it decided which
On a universal LNB with multiple outputs all the outputs are independently controlled by the box connected to each of the outputs.
This is effectively what Sky Q have done but to have all transponders at the same time it requires the resources of two cables and also stealing all the frequencies required for FM/DAB radio and terrestrial TV. This is not a problem because there is a direct connection between the LNB and sky Q box. However you cannot take the output from a sky Q LNB and combine signals from other sources, such as teressial TV and FM/DAB radio, to send down a single cable as you currently can do with some loft distribution boxes/amplifiers.
A Unicable II works in a different way where effectively there are upto
32 defined slots and each tuner is allocated a slot. Each tuner then instructs the Unicable II LNB which transponder to be allocated to that slot and can it can be changed at any time (when the user changes channel).
I probably am. I was just checking that the cables didn't both go to the
*same* port on the LNB. Forget I spoke ;-)
Yes, there is, and in fact when the Freesat platform was being built, Sky were very helpful tweaking their SI, and running tests, to make sure it didn't clash with Freesat's so that both SIs could co exist in parallel on the same transponders etc. Both are propriety systems (beyond the DVB standard of 'Now and Next' data)
Was there any reason why Sky and Freesat couldn't use the *same* LCNs for the same channels - except with all the Sky-specific channels missing from the Freesat list.
Maybe (heaven forbid) they could have tried to use the same numbers as for Freeview, where channels exist in all three platforms.
Or is there some weird commercial advantage in a given channel being known by three different LCNs on Freeview, Freesat and Sky?
No technical reason, no.
For Freesat or Sky you just tune to a certain frequency or polarization and on there is all the EPG and channel lists for the service. You don't need to scan all the frequencies in both polarizations.
For Freesat it's 11426 Horizontal. For Sky it's 11778 Vertical.
If Freesat boxes did scan all the frequencies you'd end up with a lot more channels than those that are officially part of Freesat, but they wouldn't have EPG.
In the Sky case there wouldn't be much extra you could get by scanning all the frequencies in both polarizations, maybe just a few new channels testing before launch or before changing their frequency and polarization, or from SD to HD.
Most people believe what they're told, if they're told it often enough. Global warming?
Bill
Islam is a good example of that.
And Pickeys are taught that theft is good honest living.
OK, we moved in.
I bought a fifty quid Manhattan box. When I set up, in tuning it always goes into extra time and no channels work. No postcode is asked for. TV guide is slow but does happen eventually.
However, using one of the two cables and setting SCR slot 2 for tuning, I can get a reported good signal strength and quality. No other slots do this, and only on the one cable.
Postcode gets entered.
185 channels found.TV guide is there.
Info is there.
But every channel I try to watch says 'no signal'.
So the only combination which gets any claimed signal is SCR slot 2 with one of the two cables. I have no idea what SCR slots are.
It's perfectly possible something is f***ed, it's also perfectly possible I don't know what I'm doing.
Will I have to GAMI?
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