Connecting to FTA using existing Sky dish

Cuchulain

Hi,

Ive recently upgraded to Sky+ and the installer put on a nice quad lnb. He also left me my old Sky box which got me thinking about using it to feed FTA satellite around the house. (I thinking Sky is on Astra2). Anyway before I start running cables up to my dish, is it possible to run both FTA and Sky stuff from the same dish?

If it works I could buy a cheap FTA receiver. Would this be a better option than using my old sky box? I would have to tune in channels manually under "Other Channels"?

Thanks for your time and help.

azzeretti

Yes this is identical to my setup, except I installed the Quad LNB myself. You can get many different types of free to air boxes or you could use you old Sky box, but like you said the Other Channels won't appear on your EPG

ethernet

With Sky+, two outputs are used and two are free.

Why not use the digibox for UHF distribution [handy for Channel 5, Sky 3] in conjunction with a free to view card from Sky.

Then you could add another receiver -- a FTA receiver -- and connect it to the digibox by means of UHF loopthrough. These boxes should be set to use different RF channels.

Using a Sky digibox-approved distribution amplifier [products from tvLink come to mind], you could even change channels on your digibox from another room. Of couse, you'd only have mono sound from the UHF output but, unless you're an audiophile, it probably won't bother you.

norbert64

wouldn't most of the ''other channels'' not just turn up as regular stations on the FTA system, or are the ones you're after really obscure, lol. :cool:

joe25

Hi
If you use old sky box you can get UK Epg on it and you do not need to use other channels.
To do this you first turn on sky box
then turn on sky news and press the red button.
then take out card and turn card upside down and place back in.
Press backup and you then should have uk epg.

This is better than having a FTA box as you have full Epg.

Cuchulain

joe25 wrote:

Hi
If you use old sky box you can get UK Epg on it and you do not need to use other channels.
To do this you first turn on sky box
then turn on sky news and press the red button.
then take out card and turn card upside down and place back in.
Press backup and you then should have uk epg.

This is better than having a FTA box as you have full Epg.

Thanks man, I might give this a try. However I think I threw out my old Sky card :smackshead:
I presume I wont get into the box without some card in the slot. Where do I go from here?

Thanks.

keanebg1

No need for the old Sky card at all. Just start it up with no card. I left the orginal pace sky box not connected for a while after I got Sky+. Just connected one of the spare leads from the quad LNB 2 weeks ago and set it up in another room, UK EPG started first go. You will not get Channel 4 or Sky 3 as you still need the card for these, but BBC 1,2,3,4, ITV 1,2,3,4 & Film4 + a few hundred others all on the normal UK epg (BBC1 at 101, BBC2 at 102 etc...).

The software/epg on the box was old so I updated it. (hold down 'backup' when booting up the box). Upgades took about 5 mins....