Do i need a Freesat box per tv ?

thebackbar · 27-07-2015 1:02pm #1

Hello,

I'm currently building a house and I'm planning on installing freesat. I've a question in relation to what type of sockets I will need per tv.

I'm hoping that ill be able buy TVs with a freesat encoder built in, this will mean that for my wall mounted tvs all I will require is an electrical socket, a network connection and co-ax cable to the satellite. All of this should fit neatly on the wall, I'm hoping that I wont have to mount a decoder box on the wall ? is this correct ?

thanks

Sam Russell · 27-07-2015 1:44pm

Well, it depends.

If the TV has a built in Freesat decoder and Saorview you will not have an external decoder. Some TVs have dual satellite inputs and would require two coax cables. You can use a splitter to add Saorview to go down the one cable, splitting it at the TV. The aerial can be located near the dish and combined, or you can une an LNB that includes the combiner. These work well but you cannot use an amplifier for the aerial.

Good luck.

Gerry Wicklow · 27-07-2015 1:44pm

If you want recording 1 channel while watching another, you will need two coax feeds from the dish to the tv/box. If you need this in many rooms (>4) it might make more sense to run these to a central location and fit a switching system. If you need terrestrial (Saorview) also, it is possible to "piggyback" the signal onto one of the satellite coaxs but you will need a splitter at each tv/box to extract the signal. Many people also recommend running 2 network cables to future proof the setup. Just remember it's much cheaper to do it once now than redo later.

Thurston? · 27-07-2015 2:01pm

thebackbar wrote: »

I'm currently building a house and I'm planning on installing freesat. I've a question in relation to what type of sockets I will need per tv.

I'm hoping that ill be able buy TVs with a freesat encoder built in ...

You're probably already aware but, Freesat is a brand name, basically for a set of licensed features that make free UK satellite TV more user-friendly.

The current-model Freesat TVs are Samsung & Panasonic listed here. (Click the 'TVs with Freetime' tab for the Pana models.)

thebackbar · 27-07-2015 4:29pm

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

If you want recording 1 channel while watching another, you will need two coax feeds from the dish to the tv/box. If you need this in many rooms (>4) it might make more sense to run these to a central location and fit a switching system. If you need terrestrial (Saorview) also, it is possible to "piggyback" the signal onto one of the satellite coaxs but you will need a splitter at each tv/box to extract the signal. Many people also recommend running 2 network cables to future proof the setup. Just remember it's much cheaper to do it once now than redo later.

Thanks, the switching system sounds interesting, could you point me at more info about these systems ? cheers

The Cush · 27-07-2015 5:36pm

thebackbar wrote: »

Thanks, the switching system sounds interesting, could you point me at more info about these systems ? cheers

Examples of multiswitches here - http://www.freetv.ie/satellite/distribution/multi-switches.html

They requires 4 feeds from an LNB on the dish to cover all 4 satellite sub-bands. The LNB will either be a quad or Quattro type depending on the type of multiswitch used. The multiswitch can also combine the aerial feed with the sat feed to each TV point if required. They come with 8, 16, 32 outputs etc. depending of the number of TV points required.

I would recommend at least 2 co-ax feeds to each TV point and 3 if separate aerial feed is required.

Gerry Wicklow · 27-07-2015 8:44pm

Cheers Cush, got there before me

winston_1 · 28-07-2015 12:17am

You don't need a coax cable to the satellite, just to the dish is sufficient.

If you go down the multiswitch route note that quatro LNBs are not made for sky dishes. Also with a multiswitch you need to go the the next size larger dish.

Do i need a Freesat box per tv ?

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