Distributing TV!

[bundy]

Can anyone help?

My aim is to have Sky+ in my living room, and Freesat in my 2 bedrooms and Kitchen, with the option of watching the 1 sky channel if necessary.
I have already run coax cable from the living room to each of the three rooms in preparation. There is a Sky+ cable already attached to the LNB and a separate length of coax attached to the LNB in preparation for the Freesat box to be connected.

I have also purchased a 4-way sky distribution pack which includes:-

· 4 way signal amp.
· Fly leads
· Adaptors
· Plugs
· Digi eyes.

What do I need to do?

[bundy]

Perhaps im being a bit vague. Is the above possible?!

[Chris]

What you're proposing will not work. The Sky distribution pack will allow you to view the output from your Sky+ box on a TV in another room, and by using the Digi Eyes you can even control the Sky box from another room, but you will not be able to connect a Freesat box to a lead coming from your Sky+ box and get it to work.

A satellite tuner needs two-way communication with the LNB (Low Noise Blocker), the widget that sits on the arm sticking out of your satellite dish, in order to work. If you want to run more than one tuner from your dish, then every tuner has to have its own LNB, which means every tuner has to be cabled directly back to the dish, and not via any other tuner.

Your Sky+ box contains two tuners. Each Freesat box you require will have one tuner each. That's five tuners in total, which means five cables to run from your dish. If you have had Sky+ installed you already have two cables (probably moulded together so they look like a bit like single cable), both connected to the Sky+ box in your living room and at the other end, both connected to a dual-LNB (two LNBs contained in a single housing).

To add three Freesat boxes to this, you will need to replace the LNB on your dish with one that has sufficient connections - I think the next size up that will do for you is an octo-LNB, which contains eight LNBs in a single housing and has eight cable points. You would then need to attach your Sky+ cables to it, add three more cables, and run them to the bedrooms and the kitchen.

And if you haven't unpacked your Sky distribution pack, take it back to the shop!

[bundy]

Ok. Back to square one. How can I pick up BBC1, BBC2 etc in the bedrooms/kitchen? I am unable to get a digital signal where I am situated!

[Chris]

If you just want to view the output from your Sky+ box in more than one room, then the Sky Distribution Pack will do the trick. You won't be able to watch different channels simultaneously in more than one room though.

If you want to watch different digital channels in different rooms at the same time, then you need a digital set-top box in each room. As you can't receive Freeview, Freesat is your only option, and you get that in the way I described above - although seeing as you don't already have the necessary knowledge of satellite installation to do it, you really ought to get an accredited Freesat installer to do it for you. Any retailer who can sell you a Freesat box can also arrange installation for you, however you ought to buy from someone face to face rather than online as yours will be more than the standard single LNB/single STB/single cable installation that they would normally quote you for.

[bundy]

Thanks for the info.

I understand the set up with regards the Distribution pack and that fact that I'll only be able to watch the channel thats on the box, elsewhere in the house.

However, I was under the impression that I could plug the Freesat box and the Sky+ box into the splitter that comes with the Distribution pack and send both signals around the house. This is not possible though is it?

The reason I began to query this in the first place is that having looked at the splitter in the pack, it has one UHF input and one FM input. Therefore I assumed only one of Freesat and Sky could be plugged in?

Also, I have run the cable that I propose to plug into the Freesat box up to the Satellite Dish and into the LNB - as opposed to plugging into the sky box!!

[Chris]

There are a couple of potential problems with that. First, you're taking a chance that the RF-output frequencies of the Freesat and Sky+ boxes are sufficiently different to avoid them interfering with each other. I don't know how you would determine those frequencies without actually having both boxes already and tuning into them. If they were clashing, you might be able to change one of them in the way many VCRs had to be adjusted when Channel 5 was launched, however I don't know how easy it is to do that. On old VCRs it was a tiny rotating knob you could get at with a screwdriver.

The other potential problem from a distribution point of view is what happens when you try to use the FM input socket for one of the boxes. I have a sneaking suspicion that this actually won't be an issue - I'm not sure that there's anything clever in the splitter to ensure only VHF frequencies can pass through that socket. But I don't know. There are some RF experts on this forum however, so I'll leave one of them to confirm this.

Your major problem, of course, is that even if you only want to have one Freesat box, you still need to feed that box from the LNB on your dish. You would need three cables; one for Freesat and two for Sky+. You would need to replace the dual-LNB currently installed on your dish with a quad-LNB and add another cable.

[bundy]

I have a quad LNB though. Sky+ was installed by the previous owners, hence either the LNB or indeed the dish was then updated to a quad-LNB. Of course the last bit I am assuming, but I definately have a quad-LNB.

Anyway, Ill deal with that when the times comes to move in. As you advise, ill probably get an engineer in. But currently all I want to do is get a tv up and running through Freesat so that I can watch the Sco v Wal rugby match on Sunday, in my new house.

So, I have the double-layer Sky+ cable plugged into the quad-LNB (Which is of no use at the moment as i dont have sky installed), and as of tonite I will have the Freesat (brown coax) cable plugged into the quad-LNB. Is it just a case of me plugging the Brown cable into the Freesat box and plugging a tv into the Freesat box?!

[Chris]

You have a quad-LNB already ... well fine, that's half the battle. Are you saying you have also wired a third piece of coax into it, so that you have the original dual Sky+ installer's cable, plus your own DIY cable, attached to the LNB at the dish?

To be honest, if you have a pair of redundant Sky+ cables sitting in your living room, and a new Freesat box in need of a feed from the dish, I'd just use one of the Sky+ cables for the time being. They are quite interchangeable between Freesat and Sky boxes. I've successfully run a Freesat box on my own Sky installation.

Unless you're competent and confident, you risk a poor-quality connection between your coax and the LNB at one end, and coax and the f-plug connector on the other end. Also, I don't like the sound of 'brown coax' - that sounds like regular terrestrial aerial cable, and is lower quality than the sort you should be using for a satellite installation.

[bundy]

Yes, I have a quad-LNB, and I was intending to connect my DIY coax into 1 of the 2 spare sockets. The only reason for me doing that now was to get 'A' TV up and running for the weekend. I did not thinking of using part of the dual Sky+. I will try that instead of attempting to connect my DIY Brown 'Wilkinsons' best Coax. It was advertised as Sky cable though!!

Thanks for your help. With regards my initial query, I'd better get an engineer in.
Quality site this by the way. As a new house owner I have a feeling i'll be frequenting this a lot more.

[bundy]

Originally Posted by Chris

To be honest, if you have a pair of redundant Sky+ cables sitting in your living room, and a new Freesat box in need of a feed from the dish, I'd just use one of the Sky+ cables for the time being. They are quite interchangeable between Freesat and Sky boxes. I've successfully run a Freesat box on my own Sky installation.

Ok. I seem to have a problem picking a signal up. I have followed the instructions on the Freesat manual but its coming up with 'No Signal Available' and therefore 0% signal.

As I understand there could be a few reasons for this.

* The dish is out of line.
* There something wrong with the cable (I am using 1 of the redundant Sky+ cables).
* Theres something wrong with my connection at the Freesat box.

Any thoughts Chris?!

[Chris]

It really could be any of the above, especially as you don't know what may have happened to the dish in the past. Can you visually inspect the quality of the connections between the cables and the LNB? Can you take a close look at the f-plugs on the living-room end of the cables? Have you tried both of the pair of cables?

The dish could be out of line but it's not very likely, unless it's sitting somewhere it could have been knocked. If possible, give it a very gentle nudge to see if it is still firmly in place on its bracket. It can be tricky to actually adjust the dish without a handheld signal finder though. Still, unless it's way off-beam it should be picking up something, even if very weak.

The LNB itself could have died. You can replace these cheaply enough but if you're buying a non-Sky one, be sure to also order the correct adaptor for fixing it onto the Sky minidish (yep, Sky unsurprisingly uses non-standard fixings). Maplin has all this stuff, so it's not hard to get hold of if you need it.

It could, of course, also be a dodgy Freesat box. The first one I bought (Goodmans) was very flakey and was back at the shop for replacement within 48 hours. Can you borrow a box from a friend or neighbour for a few minutes? You would be able to tell very quickly whether it's your Freesat box or something about the existing installation that's at fault. Alternatively take the Freesat box to a friend's house and plug it in to their satellite cable.

I would say you need to firstly eliminate the Freesat box from your enquiries; after that, it's probably simpler all round to get a professional installer to check the set-up for you, unless you're happy to buy all the kit you need to test and replace each individual component one at a time (cables, connectors, LNB, dish alignment).

[bundy]

One thing i'm not convinced about, having not done this kind of thing before, is the connection at the back of the freesat box. I have two (all be it I only need one in this instance) connecter/plug type things which i've assumed fit onto the end of the cable in order to connect it to the Freesat box. Does the end of the cable need to be prepared, for want of a better word, in any way before fitting the plug onto the end?
For some reason I think it might be down to something like this. Although if this connection wasn't quite right isn't it more likely to have a partial signal loss as opposed to complete signal loss?!

As you say, I dont think it is the dish to be honest, but im not 100%. The dish is situated in such a place that it would be difficult to be moved in any way. Only once have I inpsected it close up, and that was to check if it was a quad-LNB. I am convinced that I didnt actual disturb it then though.

[Chris]

Were there no connectors on the ends of the cables when you first saw them? Just bare copper braiding and a copper core surrounded by plastic? I can't imagine why they would be like that, there's no reason for the former owner to rip them off, unless for some reason he couldn't manage to unscrew the connectors from his Sky+ box and decided to just cut the cable instead.

If you have had to replace the connectors, firstly a stupid question, but did you use the correct f-plug connectors, i.e. one of these:


and not a standard terrestrial aerial connector? If you try to use a standard connector you won't be able to mate it with the socket on the back of your Freesat box properly.

If you have got yourself the proper f-plugs, then fixing them on the end of the cable isn't too difficult, it's a case of stripping back some of the sheath and screwing the thing on (unless you bought crimped connectors, in which case you need a crimping tool as well). The most important thing is to make sure none of the copper braiding comes into contact with the solid copper core of the cable.

Once you have your f-plug in place, it should fit snugly over the socket on the back of the Freesat box, and then you need to screw its small nut into place to tighten the thing up. Finger tight is enough.

[bundy]

Job Done. I hadn't stripped enough of the cable back, hence the actual wire can't have been in contact inside the socket.

Thanks.