Single/Dual Feed Necessary?

[theurbanpixie]

Hi All

I recently purchased a second hadn sky+ decoder. I am now hoping to connect this up and have it matched with my current viewing card, then take advantage of the free sky+ service in July without having to pay the £10 subs..

My question is that the property i am in has pre existing satelite feeds to each flat, as far as i know this is a single feed from the communal dish. From what i understand the dual feed simply allows one to watch a channel, and record another.. If i simply want to be able to record programs, and not record one and watch another, will i be able to use the existing feed, have sky activate sky+ and it should all work from here.

Also does anyone know if it is possible to get a splitter that will allow a single feed to be used as a dual feed some how as i remember ready a previous post that this can be done?

will this product achieve my goal

2-Way Satellite Splitter

[reddwarfcrew]

re the splitter - no at least not in the sense you mean. You would need a stacker instead. Don't bother.

re the single feed. I think you can... BUT it always records from feed 2 first and then feed1 for the second recording/channel you are watching. So you would always need to set a random program to record that started before and finished after the program you wanted to record.

[PeteC]

sky say it wont work with communidal dishes as it needs a quad LNB

i paid £99 for my box and got free subs - you would have been better off doing that. what if it goes down in the first few months you got to shell out again

[theurbanpixie]

well there was no piont in paying £99 for a new box if it doesnt work!

[PeteC]

let's hope you didnt pay too much for the 2nd hand one you'll probably lose that anyway

[Tezcatlipoca]

It'll work with 1 feed, as reddwarfcrew said.


Not fully functional though... can't watch one channel & record another, or record two different channels. And if you want to set an unattended recording, you need to create a dummy entry for something which starts before the thing you actually want to record, so that feed 2 (with no actual feed) is used for the dummy recording, causing feed 1 to be used for what you actually want.


Can use a splitter, but again it isn't perfect.

For a start, you're gonna lose signal strength etc.

Plus, you could only watch/record two channels at the same time if they are both on the same polarity & same band (horizontal/high, horizontal/low, vertical/high, vertical/low)...

You can get a "smart priority switch" splitter, which gives priority to one tuner.

AFAIK (based on stuff at DigitalSpy), you'd need to use the Priority Switch with "voltage control" rather than "power control", as both tuners are always on & so powered up.

Feed 1 connected to the priority output on the switch, with the voltage lead connected to TV SCART pin 8 on the STB.

Feed 2 connected to the non-priority output on the switch.


STB turned on > pin 8 voltage on > switch gives priority to feed 1, so you can watch stuff (& record/pause what you watch).

STB turned off > pin 8 voltage off > switch gives priority to feed 2, so you can do unattended recordings.


Product Information

http://www.globalcom.co.uk/prod_blank.php?ProductsID=47

PRIORITY SWITCH - Satellite Receiver :: Digital Receivers, Dishes, Sky, Accessories at Satellite Centre UK

PULSAT - SMART PRIORITY SWITCH SPS1


Lots of stuff on it at Digital Spy.

I've been looking into it as I have the same situation: apartment block has a communal dish, using a quattro (not quad) LNB & some sort of distribution system, giving each apartment only one feed.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Couple of links from DS:


Advice & Tips: Using Sky+ With Only One Feed - Digital Spy Forums


Sky anytime with 1 LNB - Digital Spy Forums