I did a search for posts on how to use LNB1 out to feed a Sky box, to use when the HDR is in standby.

I managed to glean the fact that you have to disable power saving standby mode, then put the foxsat it standby for it to feed the signal.

I've done this, but the Sky box still reports no signal. I can get a (bad) signal when the HDR is powered off, but that's not much use.

What am I doing wrong then?!

Basically you're trying to do something that it's not designed to do, run an extra feed from your quad LNB and do it properly. The LNB out is for looping across on the HDR when you only have a single feed, NOT to feed an extra box.

Bah.

Someone should tell the Humax marketing department.

Copy/pasted from the manual:

I have my PC Skystar Hd card fed from the LNB 1 OUT port & it works. It's not ideal as the PCI card is limited to what the Humax LNB 1 is tuned to & if I press GUIDE on the Humax, the feed to the PC is momentarily lost. But if you make sure LNB 1 is tuned to the same transponder as what you want to record on the PC and don't mess with the Humax, it works.

Feeding a second tuner is the same whatever box it's in.

To the OP have you got a good source signal and quality the quality in particilar if marginal may not survive the pass through the tuner. There is no reason why this should not be OK. To check the signal is OK try setting up the stb in single cable mode by connecting the link cable and doing a factory reset to recognise the connection change (do it again when going back to 2 cables) and see if the stb allows recording using both tuners. (Make sure that the channels you record are on different transponders as if they are on the same transponder only 1 tuner is used). If this works perhaps the coax feeding the second stb has a faulty connector

Not at all, the HDR is designed to work in that way, other boxes aren't - but in particular the HDR is designed to operate with LNB's that provide all channels in such a configuration (I can't remember what they are called off hand?).

I have used the lnb1 out to feed an old sky box and it works fine with 100% channels with the hdr in sby and of course with limited channels when its booted. As others have pointed out even the instruction manual says it can be used in this manner.

Funnily enough, it works fine if i turn off the HDR at the mains, this rules out the cable to the Sky box and everything like that.

Still doesn't work with the HDR with it in non power saving standby though. Hmm.

Interesting back in the dim past I think I remember a similar post. Can you try a factory reset on the hdr and then turn off power saving in sby.

Additional thought, check the connection setting type in the secret menu. Enter the setup menu, press RED GREEN YELLOW BLUE GREEN YELLOW BLUE.
Select Antenna Setting

You should have type - fixed, Connection type - Two cables (same)

Just tried that, Sky box still says "no satellite signal is being received" with the HDR in non-power saving standby.

If I turn the HDR on, tune to say BBC2, then switch over to the Sky box, BBC2 is working fine. Can't get a signal on any channel with the HDR in standby.

I wonder if perhaps for some reason (can't imagine why) the signal sent to the Sky box is worse with the HDR in standby, because the "signal quality" indicator on the Sky box is jumping between the bottom two settings if I switch to it with the HDR on. Maybe it gets bad enough such that it doesn't work at all if the HDR is in standby.

With it on the sky box will get the same signal as the 2nd tuner would if the stb was working on one cable feeding the second tuner using the loop. (also in the manual)

With the foxsat on you watching BBC2 should get any of the following as well as BBC2

104 Channel 4................................
125 More4 +1............................
300 Film4...............................
301 Film4 +1............................
974 Channel 4...........................
968 BBC 2 England.......................
750 RTE Radio 1 ........................
751 RTE Radio 2fm ......................
752 RTE Radio Lyric FM .................
753 RTE Raidio na Gaeltacta ............
102 BBC Two.............................
105 Channel 5...........................
106 BBC Three...........................
107 BBC Four............................
600 CBBC................................
601 CBeebies............................
950 BBC 1 London........................
957 BBC 1 NI............................
705 BBC Radio 5 Live ...................
706 BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra ......
960 BBC 1 Scotland......................
964 BBC 1 Wales.........................
969 BBC 2 NI............................
970 BBC 2 SCOTLAND......................
971 BBC 2 W.............................
118 ITV4 + 1............................
114 ITV2 +1.............................
139 Zone Horror + 1.....................
514 Clubland............................
786 BFBS Radio .........................
806 TV Shop.............................
138 Zone Horror.........................
811 Thane Direct........................
809 JML.................................
400 Wedding TV..........................
103 ITV HD (red button).................
986 Teletext............................
807 Shop on TV..........................
861 Gala TV.............................
206 Russia Today........................
690 Inspiration TV......................
851 Netplay TV..........................

The channel nos are freesat not sky

Yep, I do get those as well as BBC2 if the HDR is on at the same time.

Oooooooooooooooooh hang on! I just turned the HDR off (*with* power saving) and the Sky box signal disappeared for about 30secs, then it's now come back to life, and I can tune to any channel.

So it appears for me it *only* works with power saving *on* (the default), as long as you wait 30secs or so after turning the HDR off.

s/w version 1.0.2 btw.

Well blow me down with a feather, I will have to get the old sky box out of the garage and try it again

( s/w 1.00.01 )
I have my old sky box connected to LNB1out and at the moment when Foxsat is recording BBC R2 I can get radios 2,3,4,4lw,world, and a few other radio ch`s.
also get sky 3, ch5 and the others like 5 US,etc but not BBCs 1,2,3,4.
however if not recording or playing and pvr in powersave mode the sky gets all channels ok except sometimes lately ITV1 Border( Scot ) shows no sat signal when channels either side are ok.
I must try reset to see if series recording can be made to work.

You're seeing pretty much the same as me then - working perfectly in power saving 'off' mode.

Does seem to be a common theme that the signal piped out of the LNB1 out is rubbish quality - seems to be a lot of attenuation in the unit between the LNB in and out for some reason.

That's exactly what you would expect when on, the foxsat tuner 1 controls the lnb, this means that only channels in the same frequency band and polarisation are available to the chained tuner. A hdr on one cable with a loop cable uses the same principle to make a second recording at the same time, the firmware in the hdr knows what's available to record and indicates this in the epg.

I have been using LNB out on my HDR for months feeding a Sky HD + or Technomate 6900 receiver and have had no problems. I have the HDR set for complete power down (no clock on display) and the LNB out feeds a signal to my other receiver.

You must be careful of setting a timer recording on the receiver connected to LNB out as the signal is cut off if the HDR is brought out of stand-by for a timer recording or for playback/viewing, not withstanding channels on the same transponder.

One of these day’s I will get round to installing a third cable but I am a lazy sod.

As for quality of signal from LNB out I can say the Technomate returns a first class picture as long as it receives a signal from the HDR.

One strange thing I have notice when changing the Sky HD box with the 6900 is that when you re-connect the Sky box I have had to change the input on the Sky HD box from LNB 1 to LNB 2 then when changing a second time you have to change from LNB 2 to LNB 1 and so on back and fore for every swap or else you get the no signal being received message. ??

It's digital TV so the picture will always be the same as long as a signal is there.

In the technomate is there a signal strength/quality indicator? On my Sky box when using LNB1 out the signal strength plummets compared to feeding it straight from the LNB. It's still sufficient that it doesn't break up though.

I don’t take much notice of the signal meters built into these receivers as in my view there just an un-calibrated gimmick for references between one channel / transponder and another on the same receiver.

That said the difference between the signals going through the HDR as opposed to going directly through the Technomate is about 3%.