Sky installation

BERBA

i got sky multiroom in over weekend and the guys installing this destroyed my house.There are holes in the house everywhere , the cables are running over the black tiled roof (all white cables) and down the back of house and running along one of the walls in living room...there are black marks back and front of house running the whole way up the walls from there cheap ladder!!!.. i wouldn't mind but the attic is all set up for them to put cables in there but they wouldn't do this. they said the normal way was over the roof and i like a fool let them at it. Its a disgraceful effort. i asked them to put all the cables through one hole but they said they couldn't as they had only one drill bit and it was to small so they drilled 3/4 holes to put each cable through. It seems anyone can do a one day course and do these installations with a ladder and a drill !!!...crazy stuff and sky themselves term them 'sky engineers'...i rang sky and they said they will send out another 'sky engineer' to re-wire house , i said to them i didn't want the same guy that did teh original mess doing this. I'm a bit worried that whoever comes out will create an even bigger mess as i'm gonna be the one patching up holes everywhere when theyre gone!!

Can anyone tell me should there be a noise coming out of sky + box???...mine is like the noise on a fridge!!..its coming out over the television , its very annoying.

conax

just think that the guys that carried out your installation are doing 5-10 installation a day.......scary isnt it.
the Sky+ box makes a small bit of noise on its own, a small low level hum. but it shouldnt come out on your TV. its possible you have a faulty box or faulty scart lead. do your DVD/VCR or terrestrial (aerial) channels have this noise.

BERBA

I'm not on my own so , being a disgruntled sky customer!!...what i meant with sky + box was even when i have the television down i can hear the noise coming out of box ( whining noise) and after a while it begins to annoy!!!

conax

that noise is normal enough, once your ear tunes to it, it can be a bit annoying (bit like a clock)
the noise may be exaggerated if it is sitting on another box or not sitting level (resonance) ot if the box is getting a bit hot due to tight enclosure/other equipment.

Dopey

I got it in a few weeks ago too and the guy went out of his way to make a mess.

He put cables over the tiles in the roof but thankfully the cables are black. He taped the cables to the drain and down pipe using black sticky tape.

I don't notice any noise from the sky+ box. I think I got an 80 GB one. The new boxes are supposed to be 160 GB aren't they?

mustang68

Those cables on the roof won't last very long, some roof tiles are like corse sandpaper and the cables aren't secured. When the guy came to do mine, first he says "i'll throw it over the house", "No you won't" then he wants to pipe it into my ntl, cutting off my broadband. Eventually he says: "What do you want me to do?", "you're the installer" I told him. After he drilled a few vent holes in the house I cleaned up a few weeks later, re did the job properly.

byte

They go over the roof, because they're not insured to enter peoples attic spaces.

Dopey: all new Sky+ boxes are really 160GB alright, though only 80GB is usable for Sky+ features (AFAIR, it says 80GB on the cardboard box too). The rest is locked away for Sky Anytime use.

If you've got Sky Anytime (via Red button on the Sky Guide), then your box is a current model.

Sam Radford

Cables over the roof must be clipped to every second tile to avoid abrasion and consequent water ingress (as mentioned above).

Installers in the UK are now queuing up to take the RDI (Registered Digital Installer) course. This will be like "Corgi" to a gas fitter. In a couple of years time, those without the certificate will be officially classed as "cowboys" and won't get much business.

No doubt, however, Sky will get an exemption based on the fact that their "engineers" are trained by them specifically to do their own installations.

O7Pat

Do they need two cables or one from dish? (for sky +) just I already have one cable; the chorus aerial has a cable coming in thru a vent and done reasonable neatly so if they could join up to this it would make life easy

BigMoose

Drilled a hole in the side of our house the other day to run a 2nd cable up to the dish (for a Mythtv box) and was crapping myself that I'd make a big mess and the wife would have a fit. Seems I did a far better job than some "Sky installers" would have done!!

conax

O7Pat wrote:

Do they need two cables or one from dish? (for sky +) just I already have one cable; the chorus aerial has a cable coming in thru a vent and done reasonable neatly so if they could join up to this it would make life easy

Sky+ requires two seperate cables from the dish to the receiver, you could use the Chorus cable if you were badly stuck ( if its RG-6 ) if its RG59 i would try to avoid. but if you run a new cable from the dish down you could use the Chorus cable to feed a 2nd TV with a magic eye.

Connections on satellie cables should be avoided if possible.