HD-20 with power center/surge protector & b-band converters

[Bay CIty]

I receintly added a power center (power cleaner/surge protector) unit to my system.

I ran the two cables from the dish into the power center`s in connectors - than ran two short cables from the power centers out connectors into the b-band converts and hooked the b-band converts to the hr-20.

I believe this to be correct. Or should I have ran the b-band converters before the power center?

thanks

[Earl Bonovich]

Don't use the surge-supressions in the power center.

IIRC they are not rated high enough to carry the signal, and could cause a fair amount of signal level drop.

The B-Band converters should always be connected directly to the HR20

[Steve Robertson]

Are the B Band converters really needed?

[Earl Bonovich]

Are the B Band converters really needed?

Not as of today... but they will be once the broadcasts start from either of the two new SATs

[Ken S]

I think it depends on what satellite your local channels are being broadcast from. It won't hurt to have them on because you may need them eventually.
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To the purists out there..yes I know they might cause a slight signal loss...but I'd rather have them in place if/when I need them than have to look/order them and wait if I lose them :) For the record, I have tried with and without and see no difference in picture quality.

[Steve Robertson]

Ok what do these things do?

[Ken S]

This is taken from a post on another forum...pretty decent explanation....I'm not the author and I hope he doesn't mind it being posted here...

Here's a link to their thread...http://www.highdefforum.com/showthread.php?p=179076
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Has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with mpeg conversion.

It is a Ka-band RF converter. I've explained this before, and will again, here we go:

The original Ku/DBS band, around 12Ghz, is 500Mhz wide. Within that 500Mhz is the 16 channels, actually 32 but 16 in each polarization (LHC -Left Hand Circular, and RHC-Right Hand Circular). For those who know that the DirecTV reciever puts out two voltages (12V-18V), that's what controls the LNB (low noise block converter) polarization settings. So, one gets actually 1000Mhz, half each at either polarization. The LNB's downconvert the signal to the 2GHz range, which goes down the coax to the sat reciever.

Ka band is way different. First, it's HUGE bandwidth wise. The entire band is closer to 10GHZ (approx. 20-30Ghz). The Spaceways sats are at the lower end of the band, and the Ka-LNB downconverts the RF to the same 2Ghz as the Ku LNB's do. Therefore, one can leave off the BBC (Base Band Converter, which is it's name), for NOW.

However, DirecTV10/11 will use a different part of the Ka spectrum, higher than the Spaceways. Now, there won't be any 'newer' Ka band LNB's, and you need to understand how RF mixing works. The mixing frequency in the LNB doesn't change (one may have multiple recievers hooked to it), and since it doesn't, higher frequencies recieved result in a LOWER output spectrum. If the recieved frequency (from the sat) were lower, it would result in a higher frequency output.

But, it's higher off the satellite, therefore lower after the mixer. Now, the block of frequencies coming off the Ka LNB are some 250Mhz-1Ghz in range, and therefore, in order for your reciever to recieve and decode the signal, it needs to be up-converted. That's what the BBC module does. If you look closely, you'll see it's full name is "Ka lo-band Up-converter". The H20/HR20 recievers will send a signal to the BBC's to 'kick in', and do their work, if one selects a channel within that particular satellite/spectrum.

Again, nothing whatsoever to do with Mpeg. Folks need to get that out of their brains, as one can easily transmit Mpeg4 at any frequency, just like Mpeg2 at any frequency. Mpeg is the Video/Audio CODING system, has nothing to do with the RF

[Bay CIty]

Don't use the surge-supressions in the power center.

IIRC they are not rated high enough to carry the signal, and could cause a fair amount of signal level drop.

The B-Band converters should always be connected directly to the HR20

So I should just run my cables from the dish to the hr-20 and not connect the cable to the power center.
Now is it ok to plug the hr-20 itself into the power center?
I just bought this unit and want to protect myself against power surges.

Also I do believe that it did clean up the picture but not sure about the sound

thanks Earl

[Steve Robertson]

I found the thread on the BBC'S and got all my answers.

[Earl Bonovich]

So I should just run my cables from the dish to the hr-20 and not connect the cable to the power center.
Now is it ok to plug the hr-20 itself into the power center?
I just bought this unit and want to protect myself against power surges.

Also I do believe that it did clean up the picture but not sure about the sound

thanks Earl

Go ahead and connect the power to the center.
Connect the SAT signals directly to the HR20

It can't clean up the picture, because of the path of incomming signal.
The signal that is comming in via the SAT is a bunch of 0's and 1's. Either the information get's there, or it doesn't.

In an analogy: It is like saying the TEXT on a Microsoft Word document looks better, because you are accessing it from your hard drive, instead of a CD-ROM

[Bay CIty]

Go ahead and connect the power to the center.
Connect the SAT signals directly to the HR20

It can't clean up the picture, because of the path of incomming signal.
The signal that is comming in via the SAT is a bunch of 0's and 1's. Either the information get's there, or it doesn't.

In an analogy: It is like saying the TEXT on a Microsoft Word document looks better, because you are accessing it from your hard drive, instead of a CD-ROM

Thanks again Earl

So would I be better off returning the power center and just buying I good surge protector to plug all my componets into?

[JimMc]

Go ahead and connect the power to the center.
Connect the SAT signals directly to the HR20

It can't clean up the picture, because of the path of incomming signal.
The signal that is comming in via the SAT is a bunch of 0's and 1's. Either the information get's there, or it doesn't.

In an analogy: It is like saying the TEXT on a Microsoft Word document looks better, because you are accessing it from your hard drive, instead of a CD-ROM

Earl:
I was under the impression from other posts on this site, that it was important to have ALL of the inputs to the satellite receiver protected by some type of surge protector. This included not only the power, but also the phone line AND the satellite (coax) feeds. Others have indicated that even though the dish may be grounded and the incoming cables should be going through a grounding block, even then, a lightning strike close by could send enough of a surge through the system to cause problems.
I have both my HR20 and R15 incoming coax lines going to power center/surge protectors and have no problems with signal at the receiver.

Jim

[Earl Bonovich]

Thanks again Earl

So would I be better off returning the power center and just buying I good surge protector to plug all my componets into?

IMHO... Return the power center.
Purchase a small UPS (which also acts as a power strip/surge protector)

Plug the DVR into the UPS side of it... and you are good to go.

[Earl Bonovich]

Earl:
I was under the impression from other posts on this site, that it was important to have ALL of the inputs to the satellite receiver protected by some type of surge protector. This included not only the power, but also the phone line AND the satellite (coax) feeds. Others have indicated that even though the dish may be grounded and the incoming cables should be going through a grounding block, even then, a lightning strike close by could send enough of a surge through the system to cause problems.
I have both my HR20 and R15 incoming coax lines going to power center/surge protectors and have no problems with signal at the receiver.

Jim


If you get a lightning strike on your dish, that your properly installed grounding block doesn't catch it... most surge surpressors are not going to catch it either...

[dsm]

If you get a lightning strike on your dish, that your properly installed grounding block doesn't catch it... most surge surpressors are not going to catch it either...

Yikes, that reminds me, in January when the last D* installer came he did not ground the new pole/slimline he put up for me (on the ground about 40' from my house). I asked him to and he said it wasn't needed (sigh). If it's warm enough this weekend, I've got to go out and do that.

-steve

[JimMc]

Earl:
Thanks for the input. I agree that if lightning actually strikes your dish (even with a good grounding system) any surge protector probably won't eliminate the potential damage to the system. I have to admit that the marketing stuff from the likes of Monster, Panamax, and others certainly "scares" one into believing the you absolutely need to buy one of their boxes with the coax connections.

I guess they can't hurt as long as they don't interfere with the signal to the receiver. I wonder how many people may be getting error messages (e.g., searching for signal) because they have the sat cables routed through a surge protector and the signal is weak due to long cable runs.

BTW, your responses to may other posts have been very helpful to me. Thanks for all of your efforts on this site.

[dpfaunts]

In an analogy: It is like saying the TEXT on a Microsoft Word document looks better, because you are accessing it from your hard drive, instead of a CD-ROM

Wow, I need to try viewing my doc's from my CD-ROM, it make sense that they'd be more clear since it is digital !rolling !rolling :uglyhamme

[Bay CIty]

If you get a lightning strike on your dish, that your properly installed grounding block doesn't catch it... most surge surpressors are not going to catch it either...

If you would get a lighting strike nothing will help save your equipment, but for a power surge I`m sure this device will help.

I`ll probably keep it, but will not connect the satellite cables into it and just run them directly into the hr-20

My hr-20 has been running great for some time now, and this is the only new piece of equipment I added recently so if I encounter and problems this is the first place i`ll look.

thanks everyone for your thought's, anyone else have any ideas on power conditioners/surge protectors.

[Scott B.]

Yikes, that reminds me, in January when the last D* installer came he did not ground the new pole/slimline he put up for me (on the ground about 40' from my house). I asked him to and he said it wasn't needed (sigh). If it's warm enough this weekend, I've got to go out and do that.

-steve

If the dish is mounted on a metal pole anchored directly in the dirt you do not need to ground it. The metal pole is a sufficient grounding rod.