The Astra 2G launch was resedualled to September some time ago because of the backlog of launches after the launches where stopped due to the rockets blowing up. Now we have rockets blowing up again so there wil be a longer delay. They have a lot of satellites waiting to launch before they get to Astra 2G and everyone has to take their turn. The 'rumour' about American components has already been sorted and Astra 2G is not affected. The satellite that they lost on the 15th is the same Eurostar E3000 platform as Astra 2G but for somebody else.
Now back to our problems. Everything I have read on professional sites and everything in between says the same thing, size is everything. As I have repeatedly said I am no expert but when you see 20 people saying one thing and somebody else implies that it is not the case I am afraid I am more likely to believe the 20.
The rest now is for everyone and not aimed at any one person.
Most of the people on this website just want their UK TV. They don’t understand any of the technical terms being used. It is a bit like somebody who wants to send an email, they don’t know or care how it works they just want to type it and press ‘Sent’ and the other person can read it.
As far as an LNB is concerned people can find out themselves which is better by looking around the Internet and there are particular LNB’s that have been reviewed. The Black Ultras come out very well and even better the Ivacom LNB’s. The Black Ultras seem to have a good reputation for long cables from the LNB to the decoder and on short distances there is little difference between the two except the price. The Ivacom on the other hand has a good s/n ratio over a large temperature range which is quite important in SW and SE France as most figures are given at a specific temperature in a laboratory which does not reflect real life.
The bottom line however if you are in a situation where only a specific LNB gives you good reception then you are clearly back to size of dish because most LNB’s should work without much of a problem.
There are two types of dish Prime Focus and Off Set. As an example for explanation if you wanted a 130cm dish either will be sold to you as a 130cm dish and it will state that on the box. The difference is that a Prime focus dish will be 130cm exactly in diameter and the LNB will be in the centre of the dish. An offset dish will not be a perfect circle it will be something like 124 x 134 cm this is because the LNB is at an angle to the dish so the dish needs to be oval to make it look like a 130cm circle as viewed by the LNB.
My dish was sold as a Gibertini 150cm offset dish when in actual fact it is oval and measures 155 x 166cm. As far as the LNB is concerned it looks like a 150cm circular dish.
With s/n ratios or levels you have to be careful because not all is what it seems, you have to look at the frequency at which it is tested and that varies between different makes and sizes of dish so you need to select like for like i.e. the same frequencies. What I have noticed is that in general they all seem to be around 45db to 48db gain. There are some cheaper ones like “Label WS” which only gives 41db but then they are half the price of the rest so you ‘pays your money’ etc as they say.
As I said earlier all this is way beyond the capabilities of most of the people here. They just want something that works (as do I).
I personally had only an HD problem where most round my area lost everything. This could have been caused by several things but at the end of the day losing HD is no great problem for me. The problem would have been if I had lost everything like the others. I suspect that if I want perfection I will need to get a bigger dish where as those that lost it all will defiantly need a bigger dish.
Then there is the finance of it all. Great if you are ‘loaded’ but if you don’t have a fat wallet and bottomless pockets you could spend a lot of money buying different LNB’s and even feedhorns like my mate has done, money that could have been better used to buy a bigger dish which would have fixed his problem.
I have always said from the very beginning that you should go to a properly registered (SIRET number and insured) installer. You should tell them what you want (working and stable UK TV) and tell them you want to make sure it works for at least 6 weeks before you hand over any money. If it does not work properly then you don’t pay until he fixes it and of course you want a 1 year guarantee in writing. Whatever you do make sure you get a Devis that way you don't pay extra if he needs to change things to get it right. If the installer is a good one he won’t argue with those terms because he knows what he is doing and will install the right dish size etc. Yes initially it may cost more than trying to do it yourself but in the long run it could save you a fortune and you benefit from the guarantee on the dish, LNB, cable and labour. So if it works for thre months then it rains and you lose yout TV picture it is down to him and should not cost you any more money.
A quick story before I go. I know of an English chap who was told that the 130cm dish would work in his area. He put his own up and aligned it using a compass and inline meter. To fine tune it he took his Humax box and small telly up on the roof and adjusted the dish for best signal and quality. He saw that on the Internet the 130cm dishes were selling fast and many companies had run out. He found a company that had six in stock so he bought the lot paying cash thinking there was a golden opportunity to make a bit of money selling and installing them for fellow Brits.
I learnt from my mate that this chap had called him because after five weeks of installing his dish he also had lost all his TV channels (just like everyone else) and was worried because he had paid cash for the dishes and if they didn’t work he had nobody to sell them to and of course the company has refused to take them back.
Sorry for the length of post.