Using my Sky Q dish for Freesat (UK), what do I need?

[Swindiff]

Hi
I have been using NextPVR with the Jellyfin plugin to watch Free IPTV in the house and also remotely as I have my Jellyfin Server set up so I can access it away from home.  I also share access with my close family.

I am thinking about using Sat - IP rather than the M3U8 lists and XML guides as I think that will offer me far more channels at a much better quality.

Pretty new to all this so trying to get my head round how this would all work.

My SkyQ dish currently has a dual wideband LNB.  I am thinking can I change it for one of these?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Visiblewave-Hyb...1Z2YP?th=1

This would allow me to keep my SkyQ using the 2 wideband, but allow me to connect the quad LNB to something like this
https://www.sotel.de/en/Home-Cinema-TV/H...&shipto=GB

I assumed each cable from the quad LNB would allow 1 tuner/channel, but this says it has 8 streams so I guess this is not the case?

Any help greatly appreciated

[Swindiff]

I have also been reading about unicable LNB's This would make it much easier to cable than using a quad LNB. Does such a thing exist as a hybrid LNB which has the 2 x wideband for my SkyQ plus the unicable for the Kathrein exip 418? From what i have read it is compatible with unicable.

[something_fishy]

@Swindiff
I have the Kathrein SatIP server. It will work with a wideband LNB out of the box (as well as unicable and quad/quattro) and provides eight tuners. Its manual is here:
https://www.manuals.co.uk/kathrein/exip-418/manual?p=14
I've no complaints about it (other than it being expensive).

My understanding is that with the correct splitter you can split the two wideband signals (though I don't have any personal experience, I use a quattro LNB). 

Cheers

[Swindiff]

Splitting the signal to both the SkyQ box and the Kathrein woulkd certainly save me a lot of time and effort.

There seems to be some very cheap splitters for just a few quid, bit I am wondering if this would do the job?

https://www.satellitesuperstore.com/wide...litter.htm

[something_fishy]

From the pictures I would expect the Triax splitter to work with the Kathrein and I can confirm that NextPVR will pull the program information from a SatIP source.

FWIW I played with an NextPVR backend feeding Jellyfin and found it very clunky. I attribute this to Jellyfin not NextPVR but your mileage may vary.

In the interests of fair disclosure NextPVR is not my primary PVR solution (I'm a SageTV dinosaur) but I can spin up an NPVR docker and answer any questions that you have on a Kathrein.

[mvallevand]

It could be NextPVR if you didn't test v7 which imporved SAT>IP.

In my experience a whole home Jellyfin PVR system based on a backend like NextPVR or TVHeadend is not as good as with with dedicated clients. They never enhanced anything after the MediaPortal fork from Emby but you still have two backends for each stream. Jellyfin direct play PVR is also not as good, as with direct play Kodi or UI clients.

I found Jellfyin web PVR GUI is actually pretty good, but you don't get NextPVR thumbnails on recordings.

Martin

[Swindiff]

When I am at home I generally use Kodi as my media player client with the Jellyfin addon to access my Jellyfin server.  So I would probably use the NextPVR Kodi addon rather than the Jellyfin NextPVR plugin for watching live TV.  When away from home and accessing remotely via my phone I always use the Jellyfin app as I don't find Kodi to be particularly user friendly on a phone.

I am tying myself in knots trying to work out the best hardware to use to enable me to have a Sat to IP server and still use my SkyQ.  I thought that Triax splitter and Kathrein server was it but now I am reading about these switches
https://www.kathrein-ds.com/en/products/...d-158-twin

Could I go from the LNB to this switch and from this switch one cable to the SkyQ and the other to the Sat to IP Server?  Or does this switch require 2 x LNB inputs? This switch's output seems to put all 8 streams down 1 cable, does this mean it would not be compatible with SkyQ?

Sorry for all the questions, but I find this all a bit confusing lol

Thanks for the offer something_fishy, good to know that all the  channel guide info will be pulled from the sat feed

[something_fishy]

@Swindiff

I am tying myself in knots trying to work out the best hardware to use to enable me to have a Sat to IP server and still use my SkyQ.  I thought that Triax splitter and Kathrein server was it but now I am reading about these switches
https://www.kathrein-ds.com/en/products/...d-158-twin

I don't think that this product will work for what you want. It takes a quattro LNB signal in and converts it to two unicable outputs. I don't think that Sky will work with standard unicable and you would need to swap your current Sky wideband LNB for a quattro LNB. 

The Triax splitter you first linked will work as it will take the Sky wideband signal and split it to two wideband signals that both the Sky Q box and the Kathrein SatIP server can use. 

This Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_...nconverter# has some good background information on types of LNB and capabilities ("Astra" LNBs are applicable in the UK) but TLDR
Universal LNBs - 1 to 8 outputs (4 = "quad LNB", 8 = "Octo LNB"), each tuner requires a dedicated cable (because it sends control signals to the LNB) so the cable cannot be passively split. This technology was 99.99% of the market until Sky Q arrived.
Quattro LNBs - 4 outputs each dedicated to one quarter of the frequency range (high and low frequency, horizontal and vertical polarisation). Normally connected to a multiswitch not directly to tuners however multi-tuner devices like the Kathrein can work directly with them. Each of the four blocks can be passively split if need be.
Wideband LNBs - 2 outputs (all frequencies horizontal polarisation, all frequencies vertical polarisation). Each of the two blocks can be passively split if need be. 
Unicable LNBs - Single cable that can be passively split to feed up to 32 separate compatible tuners. The Kathrein is compatible (and would take 8 of the 32 slots), I don't think that Sky Q will work with standard unicable LNBs (they have their own unicable system)

Quattro and wideband LNBs are IMO similar in that they supply all frequencies and polarisations all the time and therefore can be split to feed any number of tuners (either the cable can be split or the receiver can have mutiple tuners which means that the signal is split internally). Universal LNBs only supply the block (high/low freq, horizontal/vertical polarisation) that the tuner requests and therefore cannot be split

@mvallevand
I fully agree with your comment about dedicated clients. I find Jellyfin to be pretty clunky for most things to be honest.

[Swindiff]

Thanks for that.  I thought that was probably the case as this is a switch rather than a splitter, but thought it worth checking.  I also did not think that I could use Unicable with SkyQ, but again wanted to check.

Thanks for the link, very helpful

[Swindiff]

Are there any other options to consider alongside the Kathrein EXIP 418. From the research I have done there seemed to be more but many have been discontinued. Are there any that offer more than 8 tuners?