1 Sky HD Box - 4 Room split via Coax / 2 SkyHD Boxes to 2 maybe 4 rooms?

[n1tul]

Hi All

New to this all, all help appreciated.

Had a sparky in to rewire a house im renovating, in the rush of things i asked them to add TV points without thinking how it will all actually work in the end. what i have now is tv points in each room a tv may be used. the wires all start in the loft and feed into each room from there. im in the process of getting sky installed, and need to know how i am going to get this all working.

for now i only need two of the rooms connected up, but in future could do with a third. The fourth point was just in case i move the TV around in the living room. each point as a sat 1 and sat 2 point for SKY HD.

i am going to get one SKY HD Box, how do i go about placing this box (more than likely will need to be in the loft) and then split the signal to the required rooms and also have the ability to control them from each room? im aware one thing can be watched at time this way. i would appreciate links to the items i need to buy if that’s allowed?

1 box > Living room with two points / bedroom 1 and bedroom 2

secondly, i currently already have an old skyHD box from last year’s deal i cancelled. same as above but having the one feed from the sky dish split into each box then run into each of the 2 rooms and controlled without the boxes being there? is this possible and how?

1 box > Living room two points
2nd box > Bedroom 1 and 2 (although bedroom 2 will not be used at the moment)

all help appreciated on this.

Thanks a again

[seawright]

It is not possible to split the feeds from the dish to supply more than one Sky+ HD set top box (STB). Ideally each plus box should have two feeds running directly from the LNB mounted on the dish arm to the type F input sockets on the rear of the STBs The standard (quad) LNB is capable of supplying two plus boxes. There is also an octal LNB available with eight outputs if more feeds are required. Whilst you could mount the Sky boxes in the loft the signal fed from them to your TV sets would not be HD quality as this requires an HDMI lead between the TV and STB. If you want cables run into your loft then you will have to enlist the services of an independent satellite TV installer as a Sky installer will not do this. You can use the cables you have had installed to distribute TV signals around your home but as I have already stated they will not be HD quality.

[n1tul]

It is not possible to split the feeds from the dish to supply more than one Sky+ HD set top box (STB). Ideally each plus box should have two feeds running directly from the LNB mounted on the dish arm to the type F input sockets on the rear of the STBs The standard (quad) LNB is capable of supplying two plus boxes. There is also an octal LNB available with eight outputs if more feeds are required. Whilst you could mount the Sky boxes in the loft the signal fed from them to your TV sets would not be HD quality as this requires an HDMI lead between the TV and STB. If you want cables run into your loft then you will have to enlist the services of an independent satellite TV installer as a Sky installer will not do this. You can use the cables you have had installed to distribute TV signals around your home but as I have already stated they will not be HD quality.

thanks a lot Seawright,

im loosing the plot! i realise now that the STB's will need to be by each point in order for the HD signal to remain from STB to TV via HDMI!

as you mention i will need to get a independant installer, would you know what kind of costs im looking at to get someone in to do what i need? (roughly) house is in Poplar/london area

[seawright]

Unfortunately I can't help you there. I would check in yellow pages and ring around. If you haven't ordered the new Sky+ HD box yet then consider an independent installer who is registered with Sky. They can supply the box which may be free or heavily discounted if you qualify as a new Sky customer and they order a Sky subscription for you.

[Scubbie]

I would look at setting things up something like this:

TV Aerial -> Sky+ HD STB -> (RF Out 2) -> Loft Splitter

Sky+ HD STB RF Out 1 -> TV in same room

Loft Splitter (out 1) -> Bedroom #1
Loft Splitter (out 2) -> Bedroom #2
Loft Splitter (out 3) -> Bedroom #3

Fit a Magic-Eye in bedrooms 1 & 2. Set up the SkyHD STB in Bedroom #3.

Network both STBs, ideally with a Cat 5e cable which could follow the same route as the Coaxial cable to save making too many fresh holes. If you want an Ethernet connection in each bedroom, fit a Network Switch in the loft and connect the Ethernet cable/s through that.

This would mean that each room can get Freeview and bedrooms 1 & 2 can change the channels & watch the content on the main STB. The 3rd bedroom would have its own STB so can watch any live content.

[n1tul]

Thanks Scubbie, issues are that the walls are sealed and painted. end result is just the points with TV and SKY outputs. i know i should of added other cables such as CAT5 and/maybe HDMI's but in the rush just didnt think about how i was going to set this all up.

your response is something that i will need to do without the CAT5, the room setup is slightly different though and would need some help to understand how i would go about setting it up to my needs (if possible.)

So the wires from the loft run to each point (im hoping they have not been damaged in the filling process, as one main wire in the house was damaged! found out on Saturday when they completed second fix!)

The living room has two points on each side these will be where my setup will be and this has a telephone socket out the same media plate. the other is just for future changes (which will more than likely never happen whilst im there, but who knows) - this requires a HD box to be controlled individually.

The other two rooms are one my bedroom and the second a guest room which im not concerned about now. maybe in future. how would i go about setting these two points up in a non techy way?

i understand that the main living room point and the first bedroom will need two separate boxes - so multi room from sky will be needed. what will need to be setup exactly in the loft?

also is there any way of me getting away with setting up two rooms with one box? saving me having to get multiroom. i think its a no as i didnt run HDMIs from the loft?

[Scubbie]

A suitable slitter for the coaxial feeds from the Sky+ HD STB in the main room would be needed in the loft. It will need to support the pass-through for the STB so that the Magic-Eye can work. Many now specifically include this in their product specifications so do check.

If you can get the Cat 5e (not Cat 5) cable fitted for each room, then I would be tempted to have a 1Gbit switch in the loft. Cat 5 supports up to 100mb, Cat 5e supports up to 1Gbit. There isn't a huge difference in the cost of the cable, but should you get a faster Internet speed in the future, then you would be better prepared. Cat 6 needs a little extra to make, is a little more expensive but supports speeds up to 10Gbit. For now there isn't much call for Cat 6 in the home environment.

In the rooms you can fit a Ethernet faceplate. You would then be able to run a suitable length of Cat 5e cable to a smart TV, or Sky+ HD/SkyHD STB.

If you can't fit the Cat 5e cable, then look at a pair of HomePlugs. These should be sufficient for most needs.

Finally, since it appears you haven't actually got Sky's multiroom yet, it might be worth mentioning that the 2nd STB can be a DRX890 or DRX895. When you order check the deals available.

[Meteosat]

A suitable slitter for the coaxial feeds from the Sky+ HD STB in the main room would be needed in the loft. .

I hope not!! Having just cut open my thumb on a packing tape dispenser I strongly advise avoiding the slitters ;-))

[Scubbie]

Better than monsters under the bed

[Meteosat]

Better than monsters under the bed

Just don't give them the coaxial feeds though - those can really boost their metabolism ;-)