freesat alongside sky

Forget that. Silly question regarding the Y connecter. Found this

http://www.uksatellitehelp.co.uk/2008/05/07/freesat-on-sky-dish/

Run a dedicated cable from the dish's LNB and you are good to go.

Is it likely to have a quad LNB already fitted RDB? Had Sky+ installed 2 or 3 years back.

Doubt it but you can pick up a nice Quad or Octo on Ebay for buttons. Invacoms are good and will improve the signal a bit if thats an issue.

Thanks RDB.

My dish is shared in an apartment block, so without changing the LNB on the dish I'm guessing a Y cable is my only option.

Does anyone know the cable required please?

feck,

If the Freesat box you buy has an LNB loopthrough, ie, an IN and OUT then this might save you running a cable from your dish. You could run the current dish cable to the LNB IN of your Freesat box then have a small length of satellite cable to run from the LNB OUT of the Freesat box to your Sky HD box.

However, this might not work if you wish to view the pictures from both boxes at the same time, ie, on separate TV's. If the channels you choose for simultaneous viewing are the same polarity then you will be OK, if not, then the loopthrough will not work for simultaneous viewing but will still be OK for one box at a time viewing.

CrapCoder,

You need an LNB 2 way switch box. The Y type splitter that you can use for normal (non satellite) TV will not work for a satellite signal, ie, you cannot split it. You can route it one way or t'other with an LNB switch.

Thanks dogform, it's the thought of messing about with lnb's, dish's and cables that's holding me back. I was thinking of buying a telly with integrated freesat. Would they be likely to have the loopthrough?

Cheers dogform.

Feck, I can't comment on the loop through but from personal experience can say that adding an extra cable to the lnb is a breeze. If you need to fit a new lnb, this is easy as 1 2 3.

Feck,

Hmm, a TV with integrated Freesat and a loopthrough, not heard of one. I have a Panasonic TV with integrated Freesat and it does not have the loopthrough.

As I said earlier, if you are going to have simultaneous viewing of pictures from both boxes then the loopthrough is not the best option. However, if you are definitely not going to have simulataneous viewing then loopthrough is the best solution.

Also, it depends on what you wish to view from your Freesat box, if it is non HD and non subscription stuff then you do not need to stick with a Freesat box, you could use a £50 Technomate receiver with guaranteed loopthrough and still get all the stuff that is available via Freesat.

Thanks dogform, it was a panasonic I was looking at. Having read muqbil's post I'm now thinking I should just fit a quad lnb and run the cable. I suppose it might be useful to be able to record 2 progs on sky while watching a freesat one.

Muqbil, thanks. Any particular cable or connecters I need. I always hated working with coax cable and messing about with those fiddling connecters for analoguel tv.

The sat cable is slightly different to normal analoge cable, rightly or wrongly I paid a tad more for cable that was supposedly super screened! The connectors are much easier to use as they are all screw fitting ie; they screw onto the cable covering.

Thanks Muqbil, that sounds less fiddly.

Feck,

The satellite cable end connectors are called "F" connectors. Also avoid the CTF66 grade cable get CTF100 grade cable as a minimum spec, that will do you fine for most purposes.

Cheers dogform, you've been a great help. I take it I need an F connecter for both ends of the new cable?

feck. Are you auf fait with Linux?

Haven't used it RDB although I programme using cpp builder which is linux compatable.

In my sky box I've got a second coax cable that goes to a tv in another bedroom. I'm now wondering if it's worth it changing the lnb and laying more cable as the second tv will always be reliant on that coax cable for sky content unless I go for sky multiroom.

If I used the loopthrough setup dogform mentioned earlier would the second tv be able to show the freesat programme showing on the freesat box? If it was an hd tv with either integrated freesat or its own dedicated freesat box and the main freesat box was showing an hd programme, would it be able to show this programmes in hd despite being relayed the signal through an old coax cable?

* would it be able to show thiat programme in hd despite being relayed the signal through an old coax cable?

Feck,

No, the old coax cable will not be able to send an HD signal, for that you need either an HDMI cable or a set of 3 Component leads and an audio lead. The single HDMI cable does the equivalent of the 3 Component leads and the audio cable.

All Sky HD boxes have an HDMI output, however, only the older ones have Component outputs. It is only the HDMI or Component outputs that can send HD

Feck,

Yes, you need an F connector at each end of the cable.

Cheers dogform. It probably wouldn't be any great problem to attach an hdmi cable to the old coax one and pull it through but I take it there isn't an hdmi version of the sky magic eye?

PS Would a magic eye work if the coax cable from the sky box was attached to a signal booster and another cable left the signal booster to join the magic eye which in turn is connected to the second tv?

Feck,

Hmmm, I am not sure if the HDMI port on a Sky HD box will accept instructions to change channels via a magic eye. When the magic eye is set up on a normal Sky box or Sky+ box then the RF power has to be set to ON in the box menus, this provides the power for the magic eye to work and enables the box to change channels. If it was possible via an HDMI cable then there would need to be a similar setup in the HDMI port menu.

If you opt for an HDMI cable then I would not spend more than £15 or £20 for a 10 metre/15 metre cable as generally they are just as good as the 50 quidders. There is is a company selling them on fleabay called ukhdmi dot com or just goggle them. They sell good cables and at good value.

Thanks dogform, I think I'll just stick with the coax so I can get a magic eye.

feck google a Dreambox & Sky. You should be capable of implementing that

Googling now RDB. Thanks.