Satellite splitters

Onikage

My parents (ok, my father) recently bought the lidl sat kit to watch the fta bbc channels. Due to some interesting cable layout in their house, there is one terrestrial aerial cable going from the attic to the living room and no possibility of dropping another without seriously disturbing the house.

I initially thought I could just use a splitter/combiner (like this: http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Satellite_UHF_VHF_Cable_Combiner.html)to join the sat and aerial signals and send them down the cable and split them at the bottom. Now I notice that the cable actually has a joint on it and is being fed to another tv into the dining room. Ugly, probably the reason some channels are so bad and subsequently part of the decision to get the kit. The problem now is that if I go through with my original plan I feel it could damage the tv in the dining room as it would be receiving power from the stb.

Putting the splitter before the joint is not an option (not enough room to manoeuvre) and getting another splitter seems wasteful and confusing (he could try and add another set top box to the "spare" outlet :eek: )

Would the second tv be damaged by the stb output and if so is there an inline filter available that will remove all frequencies above 800Mhz?

givecredit

I would try by taking the Dining Room tv out of the equation by running the Cable from Dining room tv straight from aerial to tv.

Onikage

givecredit wrote:

I would try by taking the Dining Room tv out of the equation by running the Cable from Dining room tv straight from aerial to tv.

There is no way of getting a cable from the aerial to the dining room without seriously disturbing the house. There is cable inside block walls, under floor boards in bedrooms, in partitions... it won't happen.

conax

look ok, its messy but this is what you have to do.
get a sat IF/RF combiner and mix the sat and aerial signal togeather onto the one drop lead, next get a wideband two way splitter with power pass on one leg, and put that where the "joint" is with the input of the splitter connected to cable coming from the output of the sat IF/RF combiner. the cable going to the 2nd TV connects to the leg of the splitter without the power pass and the leg with the power pass to the main TV. at the main TV connect either another IF/RF combiner (in reverse) with the cable from the above mentioned splitter to the input and the leg marked sat to the STB and the other (well wherever either the RF in of the STB/VCR/TV) or get a IF/RF service outlet plate and connect in the same fashion.
now, you cannot connect another STB at the 2nd TV without running another cable from the dish in which case you would be better off rewiring the whole set up anyway.

Onikage

So, if I understand:

1. Combiner as described in link
Input(aer): From external aerial
Input(sat): From external satellite
Output: Attic-Living room cable

2. Wideband 2-way splitter
Input: Attic-Living room cable
Output(???): To Dining Room TV
Output(pow): To Living Room cable

3. Splitter, inverted combiner as in 1
Input: Living Room cable
Output(sat): To STB
Output(aer): To TV

Not sure what a Wideband 2-way splitter is, or if it would fit inside the wall space. The joint is just a split cable, no fittings. Is there some inline connector available that will block the voltage from the stb going to second tv? I don't care about adding a second set-top box downstairs and I don't want to give anyone false impressions about the possibility of adding one.

conax

Onikage wrote:

So, if I understand:

1. Combiner as described in link
Input(aer): From external aerial
Input(sat): From external satellite
Output: Attic-Living room cable

2. Wideband 2-way splitter
Input: Attic-Living room cable
Output(???): To Dining Room TV
Output(pow): To Living Room cable

3. Splitter, inverted combiner as in 1
Input: Living Room cable
Output(sat): To STB
Output(aer): To TV

Not sure what a Wideband 2-way splitter is, or if it would fit inside the wall space. The joint is just a split cable, no fittings. Is there some inline connector available that will block the voltage from the stb going to second tv? I don't care about adding a second set-top box downstairs and I don't want to give anyone false impressions about the possibility of adding one.

That looks about right, regarding the "joint" in the cable I think that this is what you need, you wont get that at satellite.ie

an isolated wall plate will isolate the TV from the STB or an inline isolator, but that really is messing the job, you should get rid of that dirty connection (impedence missmatch, dialetric loss, open connection carrying current just to name a few) get rid of that joint join the cables with F connectors and extend them out, dont leave it open.

Tony

conax wrote:

this is what you need, you wont get that at satellite.ie

Sure hope not

Zaphod

Onikage wrote:

Not sure what a Wideband 2-way splitter is, or if it would fit inside the wall space. The joint is just a split cable, no fittings. Is there some inline connector available that will block the voltage from the stb going to second tv?

You can combine the splitter and the DC blocker in one.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=9273&criteria=satellite%20splitter&doy=7m9

brenny2506

Just another query, looking to install Sky+, put only have one cable running from attic to television room, if a use a diplexer/combiner in attic and then a second in television room to split again, would this work, would i have all Sky+ functions

conax

nope because all this is doing is adding two sets of different frequency groups togeather. the sat IF on both leads required for the Sky plus is identical. however having said that it can be done if the quality of your cable from the dish is good.

Edit: but not with the combiners mentioned above.

Sam Radford

The combiner you need for Sky+ is called a "Stacker". But it won't work unless your cable is good for 3.4 GHz.
See http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/stacker.htm