Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello boys and girls.

I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of aerials and how Sky+ might work.

Quick run down of our problem. In the old house a drunken^[1] man from Sky came, did something on the roof, drilled a hole in the wall for some wire(s) stuck the wires in the sky box and everything worked.

When we moved we bought our Sky+ box with us and there was already a connection available via a panel in the wall, but it only had one output into the box, which meant that we couldn't properly use the '+' bit of Sky+, and cannot record one channel whilst watching another. We do actually have a little 'splitter' box for the lead that turns it into a double lead, but when this is used the box stops receiving a signal, and removing one of the ends from the Sky+ box means the signal returns but is very weak.

So, is it possible to actually run Sky+ to its full advantage if the aerial plate only has one connection, buy somehow splitting the signal, or does it need two separate inputs? Is it not working because splitting the signal makes the signal too weak, or is it something else?

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^[1]Really.

You can't split the wire, no. You need a second wire from the back of the Sky+ box all the way up to the LNB (the receiver block on the dish -- the little box on the end of the mounting arm). Not sure how much Sky would want to charge you to do this job officially -- you're probably best off ringing a local Sky installation franchise and asking for a quote. I'd be surprised if it was very expensive.

Unfortunately it seems that for Sky Plus, each receiver in the box has to be connected to its own LNB with a separate cable.

So unless you can gain access to the dish, and change the LNB to a dual one and run an extra cable, you will be a bit stuck.

If you do use a splitter, it will probably need to be an amplified one (yes, splitting it reduces the signal), and even then this may not work properly because the LNB is controlled by the receiver (for polarisation) - you may find you are trying to record one channel which is in the opposite polarity to the one you are watching, which won't work.

edit: so basically don't do that, call the Sky man as Dr G says

Sky have been fitting dual LNBs as standard when doing any other work for ages now -- indeed, when I had SkyHD fitted last year, the engineer removed my perfectly working dual LNB and fitted a quad LNB, as a matter of routine. (Edit) So Mimi might already have a dual LNB (forgot to say that bit).

And high/low bandpass filter. There are four tunings on the LNB: high or low band, and horizontal or vertical polarisation. Sky distribution systems fitted in blocks of flats with communal dishs have a quad LNB (one per tuning) wired to your wall socket via a box. The control box intercepts the signals the Sky box is trying to send to the LNB (say, to tune to high band/horizontal polarisation) and connects it to the corresponding LNB.

Ah, interesting! So if that's the setup, you "just" need an extra wire from the distribution amp thing.

Or bolt a fresh dish onto your patio

Sky did offer a free home move, where they come and fit the correct leads for you.

Yeah, this is why I know all about this -- a friend was moving into a flat and we had a discussion about it. This is how it works behind the scenes if your flat has two Sky wall sockets (which most modern flats do now, but some older ones only have one).

Or that, but it tends to be frowned upon by the leaseholders!

Thanks guys.

Well, it seems we'll have to just make do with what we have. We're half way up an apartment block, and do have more than one sky socket, but the other is at the opposite end of the flat, so... Oh well.

Cheers for the info.

oh bugger.... extension lead?

That's probably in case you want the room the other way around. Take the plate off the socket and look behind it, you might well find another wire already there. That's what they did in my block.

Really? Oh, I'll definitely do that in case. Danke!

I guess a lead is possible, but would probably not bother if it meant having to run a lead all the way down the hallway from the main bedroom to the living room, we had to make do with wires and leads all over the place in the house last time, and have been enjoying not tripping over things these last 18 months (I am exremely clumsy).

Again, if that's anything like my place, the socket in the bedroom is just an extension from the living room one, designed so you can use one box in the living room and just plug your TV straight into the wall in the bedroom, thus not needing to pay for multi-room.
You've not moved into the same building, have you?

I don't know. Are there phone sockets everywhere? I'm banging on the wall now, can you hear tapping?

I see what you mean now, we've got a couple of TV sets, I'll have to play around with the wires and see exactly what is happening in each room.

Ask the estate agent (or concierge, if you have one) who installed the Sky for the building, then phone them up and ask them.

Just ask Jeeves to do it.

Hang on, that'd be coax aerial lead though, wouldn't it? Sky connections look different -- they are usually threaded F-connectors, at least where I've seen them.

This is true.

This clearly is not the same building. Asking the building management anything is like hoping for blood from a stone... We have both coaxial and the threaded connectors on the plates. The plates are connected are simply, I'll take one off and have a look at it a bit later, just in case there is anything in there yet to be connected.

Take a couple of pics if you want any further help, Meems. I reckon Grim... is right: the coax one will run to the bedroom to feed a second TV there from the same Sky box. I also reckon he's right that there might be a second Sky feed hanging around in the back.

I shall do this. I'll get to the plates either in this evening or in the morning and take a couple of pictures to show what there is.

Eeee, like a mini-adventure. Who knows what I'll find?

Lizards. I virtually guarantee it.

If it's Mr Tumnus, make sure you get pictures.

A mimi-adventure.

That biscuit will be sitting there nestled in a nest of spare sky dish cable.