Two room viewing conundrum

Dr. Nick

Maybe some of you could help me on this one:

I currently have a full-package irl box in the sitting room and a uk box with ftv card in the living room. the 'good' tv (widescreen) is in the sitting room. I intend to get a cheapish 21'' for the living room to replace the current portable. I've a cable running to and from each tv so we can see what's on the other box, but not change the channel.

Up to now, the kids have used done their viewing of disney/nick jr. et al in the sitting room, but we're doing it up (at last, after a year in the house) and shifting them into the living room, which we hope will become a playroom/living room sorta place. They channel-hop a lot, which brings it's own challenges to this :rolleyes:

So far the best I can think of is to have a digisender transmit from the irl box to the living room (with two scart tv so channel changing in the s/room doesn't affect l/room). however, channel changing in the l/room will be transmitted to the s/room. Are there other scart possibilities I haven't thought of?

What are my best options here, remembering that ideally (though not necessarily) i'd like to keep the irl box in the sitting room?

I know I've probably left some info out!....Thanks in advance.

sheff the ref

What you need is the magic eye.

1. Keep Irish box in sittingroom, but run coax cable to livingroom with magic eye meaning that channels can be changed from living room.

2.Leave UK box in living room but use coax to sittingroom with magic eye.

However the problem I forsee is that the Sky remote could bring up the sky menu on both boxes when you press TV guide.

parsi

If you use a digisender and have 2 scarts on the 21" then the 21" people can just change from (for example) AV1 to AV2 when they want to watch/control the IRL box. Otherwise leave it on AV1 for the "local" directly attached box...


Of course this all does mean that the 21" people can keep an eye on whats on the IRL box...

Dr. Nick

Thanks lads.

I did a bit of experimenting at the weekend, and the best I can come up with is to run two coaxs in opposite directions (which I have done), and use a magic eye (I took my digisender receiver from the bedroom for the moment and used it as a magic eye, but it'll have to go back upstairs!).

Best combination seems to be irl box in the living room, uk box in the sitting room. this means I have all stations in the sitting room, and the kids can zap to their hearts content during the day without interrupting the wife's ITV daytime fix!

My problem is as sheff says, the channel changes in both rooms when it's changed in the sitting room coz both the magic eye and the uk box pick up the signal.

Any more suggestions?

Booms

Watty posted a reply to a query some time ago where someone wanted to individually control two boxes that were in the same room, at http://pie.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=70160&highlight=controlling+boxes+%22polarising+filter%22

If you think of the magic eye as the second box, it might be worth trying.

Dr. Nick

Thanks for that Booms. What's polarising film though?

Doodler

The most elegant way to manage this situation is to get a Sky+ box for your irl subscription. As you already have a full package there is no additional monthly fee. You could get a cheap box and quad lnb secondhand and do the cabling yourself (phone call to sky to activate) or get a new box with free installation from sky, I think it's €199 all-in right now.

The advantage for the remote control set-up is that the Sky+ rc uses a different command set, so you can happily beam the commands via a digisender to both rooms, and the sky+ rc will control your irl subscription, while your standard sky rc will control the ftv box.

Booms

polaroid sunglasses are one example of the use of polarising film. They only allow through light vibrating in one plane. Because light reflected off water is mostly polarised in a different plane, they reduce the glare.

Ask in a photographer's shop, if they're not busy, and they might show you how polarising filters work.

Watty's suggestion of using the filter off an old LCD display would be the cheapest.

Doodler's suggestion of using Sky+ would be the nicest!

best of luck.