SKY Q lnb direct into a 4K tv

[CWE77]

I'm looking to leave Sky as I'm paying for the basic package and in essence my monthly subscription is purely for pausing the live TV. I've tried to test it before i do cancel my subscription.  I have plugged the satellite cable directly into my Samsung 4K and tuned it in using the Astra 28.2E signal but less than half the channels installed actually work. BBC and ITV work but things like MTV or E4 for example  don't seem to work. 

What am.I doing wrong? 

[TimmyBGood]

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@CWE77 wrote:

What am.I doing wrong? 

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A satellite tuner built into a television is unlikely to be compatible with a Q LNB: TV manufacturers know that direct dish input very rarely gets used, and so specify the cheapest components even though Q LNBs now presumably outnumber legacy pre-Q versions on UK dishes.

https://www.smartaerials.co.uk/blog/what-is-difference-between-a-sky-q-and-quad-universal-lnb 

Currently only the tuning hardware in Freesat 4K-branded boxes is fully viable without having the LNB replaced with a 'universal' model.

[Jones_The_Cat]

@CWE77 

If your dish is easily accessible then it's actually quite easy to swap the LNB yourself. I did it with mine a few years back. You can buy a standard Freesat comaptible LNB from Amazon:

https://amzn.eu/d/com5qpG 

If you're careful then no re-alignment will be necessary. 

[CWE77]

Thanks both. I'm curious though as to why a normal lnb would work better than the Q wideband one when I have a 4k TV with direct satellite input? I coukd change the lnb but the dish is really high up as I'm in a 3 storey house. 

[nigea99]

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@CWE77 wrote:

Thanks both. I'm curious though as to why a normal lnb would work better than the Q wideband one when I have a 4k TV with direct satellite input? I coukd change the lnb but the dish is really high up as I'm in a 3 storey house. 

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hi @CWE77 

it is the way the LNBs work 

the older 'Universal' LNBs provide the Satellite signals in 4 bands depending on the voltage and the setting of a 22kHz tone Horizontal & Vertical polorisations and High / low bands using a single cable (although more may be used to allow separate tuners to be used)

The Wideband LNB used by SKY Q ( which can be used with the newer Freesat 4K boxes which can use either type of LNB ) provide  both the High & Low bands in one 'wideband' signal  without any tone switching & have 2 separate outputs (needing 2 cables) - one  for each of the differnet polorisations 

BTW Thus the wideband LNBs always provide the full selection of channels to the receiver allowing different channels to be recorded from the same feed (with the older Universal method - only those in the same band/polorisation are avalable at the same time)  

[TimmyBGood]

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@CWE77 wrote:

 I'm curious though as to why a normal lnb would work better than the Q wideband one when I have a 4k TV with direct satellite input?

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The 4K resolution of the television panel is not the same as the 4K-branding of the current model Freesat boxes, which have been specifically (and rather expensively) built to cope with either a universal or wideband LNB: a sensible decision in a UK market where Q now has the vast majority of Sky satellite use.

Confusingly, though, there is no UHD broadcast at all by Freesat...