Don't know much about sattellite connections?

AdrianR

Hi,

I've bought a dish and digibox which I intend installing myself (Astra 2 for BBC etc), our house has 75 Ohm cable prewired allready to each room from the attic, there are 4 or 5 (can't remember which) cables running to the Lounge from the attic.


I have the following queries:


To distribute the signal, I understand it can be done in 2 ways,
1. Encripted signal distributed with the aid of a multiswitcher requires a decoder in each room:
can these be used to decript the signal? If so can anyone forsee any problems.
I also came across this f type 4 way splitter and I was wondering what the difference between it and the costly multiswitcher is?


2. Encripted signal to digibox, decoded signal to rest of house, which has limitations. Question regarding this: What would I need to re-distribute from the attic? I assume I wouldn't need a loft box as I have enough cables coming from the attic to the lounge, f type splitter above perhaps?

Also, Are the standard connectors for CT100 called F connectors?

watty

No Those are all for Digital Terrestrial.

Also you can only split a satellite signal with Quad LNB or a suitable Multiport Multiswitch (often needing Quattro LNB) which can feed 16 to 1600 receivers if cascaded.

A Satellite RECEIVER to LNB connection needs CT100 or better Coax not regular TV coax.

The LNB can be in one of four "modes" like wavebands on a radio, depending on the channel you watch, so the other three receivers on a 4 way F splitter would not work. In extreme cases you can damage a receiver.

Two common sizes of F-connector, one for Cable/Radio/TV and the other for Satellite cable.

You can distribute the Sky Digibox RF, and all the TVs see the SAME channel. You need a regular TV distribution amp or a Digibox compatible one if a "sky remote eye" is wanted in annother room.

The TV aerial connects to separate RF in on Digibox via VHS RF in/out.

A multiswitch won't work with less than a Quad LNB and often a Quattro. A Quad LNB has four separate outputs and will feed four receivers directly.

see Maplin and www.satellite.ie for FTA (non pay channel) satellite receivers for other rooms. A Quattro LNB only works with a Multiswitch.

swoofer

you may be getting yourself confused with a digital satellite signal and a digital terrestial signal. FREEVIEW is terrestial and you cant pick it up on a digibox, it is over the air and u need a good aerial.

[Fixed by Watty]
The digibox is sky and you need a valid viewing card for the subscription channels (monthly charge).

You can pick up the FTA = FREE TO AIR over satellite(I know its confusing) without any card.

To get CH4, FIVE and Sky 3 you need a FTV = FREE TO VIEW CARD, a once off charge and only posted to UK addresses. There is no Irish FTV card.

So to send a digibox round the house u could use a digisender, ie wireless. or u can run a cable from the rf out on your digibox to that gadget with 4 f connectors in your loft and then run cables to each tv.

And finally the answer is yes.

So to illustrate, I have a distribution amp in loft for 8 tv's I run a good coax from the sky box to loft and there it is ampliefied and sent to all the other tv's. I do this with 4 digiboxes that are daisy chanined so I can have BBC1, on one ch, BBC2, on another, ITV another., CH4 on another. So you could have people watching 4 different channels. I only have 1 pay to view card so that is the channel that changes most.

hope this helps bt post back if lost.

gb--

DigiDec

There is no such thing as a Free to Air card, if a channel is free to air you do not need any card to view it, Channel 4, five and Sky Three are all Free to View and whilst these are not subscription channels a viewing card is required to decode the picture, a one off payment to buy the viewing card is required either directly from the broadcaster or obtained from another source eg. ebay.

swoofer

i give up

gb--

AdrianR

Guys thanks for all the replies so far, I understand a lot more now, I have a few more queries. Just to clarify, I have a digibox and dish which I aim to use to receive FTA channels from Astra 2, I'm aware that I need the once off card to get C4 C5 and 1 or 2 others, but once I get this card I assume I'll be getting these FTV channels from Astra 2 as well? . Not interested in subscription channels as there's nothing really there that interests me.

Watty wrote:

No Those are all for Digital Terrestrial.

Thanks for that info, it wasn't at all obvious from the desciptions.

Watty wrote:

A Satellite RECEIVER to LNB connection needs CT100 or better Coax not regular TV coax.

Do you mean satellite/LNB to Digibox? The part mounted on the dish is the LNB isn't it?

I'm going with option 2 as I have all the equipment for that. So, based on what's above:

sattelite to digibox:
I need to run the sattelite signal from the dish to the digibox (in the Lounge) via CT100?

Digibox back to loft:
Can the digibox RF (Once it's decoded it's normal RF right? ) then be brought back to the attic via 75 Ohm coax? I know CT100 would be better but the house is pre wired, I did however run some conjuit (spelling??) from the loft to a wall box in the lounge in case I needed to run something else:cool: however, I may not be able to run two cables through it.

Distributing the signal:

You need a regular TV distribution amp or a Digibox compatible one if a "sky remote eye" is wanted in annother room.

I'd probably go with the remote eye option. Can only one remote eye be used with one digibox, info seems to be suggesting this?

GBCullen wrote:

So to illustrate, I have a distribution amp in loft for 8 tv's I run a good coax from the sky box to loft and there it is ampliefied and sent to all the other tv's. I do this with 4 digiboxes that are daisy chanined so I can have BBC1, on one ch, BBC2, on another, ITV another., CH4 on another. So you could have people watching 4 different channels. I only have 1 pay to view card so that is the channel that changes most.

This one flew over my head, based on everyhing else that was said I don't understand how you are doing this, are you using a quad LNB?

DigiDec

I'm aware that I need the once off card to get C4 C5 and 1 or 2 others, but once I get this card I assume I'll be getting these FTV channels from Astra 2 as well? . Not interested in subscription channels as there's nothing really there that interests me.

Correct, with a FTV card you receive all the Free to Air channels plus Chl4, five and Sky Three

watty

If you have a TV distribution amp that is Sky Eye compatible there might be an issue with power consumption for more than one Sky Eye. It is small and plugs in back of TV inline with Aerial coax.

You can try two. If the LED dims then the PSU can only manage one. The RF2 socket on the Sky Digibox can only power one, but it is technically possible for a 4, 6 or 8 way TV distribution amplfier to use its own PSU rather the the Digibox power over coax to feed the SkyEyes on the RF outs. A better solution actually. In that case more than one Eye will work as long as only one person at a time uses the remote remotely.

Also the the Sky Digibox "knows" if "local" or "remote" Sky remote handset is used and can even have differing screen settings (that are the same for ALL viewers however).


Yes GBCullen is using a Quad LNB (as I do too). The RF in of one Digibox is fed with TV aerial. Its RF1 feeds the RF in of next Digibox (I have only two). The Last digibox feeds its local TV with SCART and RF1 and RF2 goes to distribution Amp RF in

AdrianR

Ok great, what about?:

Digibox back to loft:
Can the digibox RF (Once it's decoded it's normal RF right? ) then be brought back to the attic via 75 Ohm coax? I know CT100 would be better but the house is pre wired, I did however run some conjuit (spelling??) from the loft to a wall box in the lounge in case I needed to run something else however, I may not be able to run two cables through it.

digiking

yeah.

run the cable back up from the digibox RF2 output to the attic and plug it into a distubution amp and send to all the other tvs in your house

also - you should plug the roof aerial directly into the aerial input on the back of digibox so that it is combined with the sky digibox output for distrubition to the rest of the house

Digiking

watty

DigiDec wrote:

I'm aware that I need the once off card to get C4 C5 and 1 or 2 others, but once I get this card I assume I'll be getting these FTV channels from Astra 2 as well? . Not interested in subscription channels as there's nothing really there that interests me.

Correct, with a FTV card you receive all the Free to Air channels plus Chl4, five and Sky Three

Here is a list that works with NO card or FTV card:

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Free+To+Air+on+Sky

Also on this page are links as to two methods to get "missing" BBC/ITV on an ROI subscription or cancelled card on a SkyDigibox.

The channels that work without a card (FTA= Free To Air) work even with 70 Euro non-Sky Digital satellite receivers.