2 digiboxes, one remote

wil

Any thoughts/ingenious ideas on how to have 2 digiboxes in the one room and still be able to use them individually by remote.

The only simple but ungainly solution I have come up with is to block off the IR sensors of the unit I dont want changed. Even placement of the digibox is not a reasonable possibility as the IR signal bouces off the wall and gets to the second remote even if not aimed at it..
Is there any way to alter the remote codes and use a different remote on one box - long shot I know.
(This is not a 01/04 issue)

ShaneOC

Bit of a drastic solution but get a Sky+ box instead of one of the regular digiboxes. It's remote is on a different frequency. You will need two remote but they will be independant of each other and won't be changing channels on the wrong box.

steveon

There is a very easy solution to you for this. A device called a Super Plus combiner made by Global (SPC4) will allow you to program the remotes to only work the box you select. Takes about 2 mins to setup. You can put the boxes anywhere you want i.e. in a press and control them via a magic eye...

Not too sure of an irish supplier but I have used them personally

http://www.thedigiboxshop.com/global-super-plus-combiner-global-super-plus-combiner-spc4.html?gclid=CPa8r7-6uZICFQU11AodcFjucA

JohnDigital

The way I used to manage it when I used a UK FTV card to get C4 was as follows.

My 2nd digibox with the FTV card had the sensor taped over so it would not see the remote. This box was connected to the TV via the RF1 coax output and tuned to station 1 on the TV and the box set on station 104.

When I wanted to watch channel 4 I just pressed TV & 1 and the TV switched over to showing that feed. When I wanted to go back to the main Sky box I just pressed Sky and the scart would switch the TV back to that box.

Drawback was that the RF1 only outputs mono, but It worked.

wil

Interesting product Steveon. I am not sure that it would address my issue because it uses the same remote andseems to distinguish between the boxes by what room the remote is. I presume its based on which magic eye gets a signal determines which box is controlled.
If all the IR receivers are in the same room then it will change all.
I had considered whether it could be possible to have an alternative remote via the magic eye on one and normal remote on the other.
My reason for this setup is I have both (in fact 3) connected to a DVD recorder via scart selector and all 3 are distributed to other rooms via RF. Therefore similar to Johns suggestion I can easily swap between them on the TV.

The problem arises if someone changes channel on the digibox while I am recording the other digibox, then the recording channel gets changed.
I know the Sky+ option makes most sense, but that only allows distribution of one channel despite 2 tuners. I have a third - non digibox - in the distribution - I set them all on different rf channels so they dont interfere and this setup is the most sucessful, but kids and wife prefer the Sky epg.

The rf mono issue is not really a problem for kitchen or bedroom TV, and is easily dealt with in living room with a scart selector and audio sent to your sound system.
It would be a nice idea if like video senders and cordless phones, remotes and digiboxes had a few different channels or could be paired.

steveon

You simply place the cable from the rf2 to the inputs of the spc4, and the output of it to a magic eye. Put your boxes in a press which arent visible and you can control whatever box you want by marking them 1 and 2 etc...works with all types of boxes and combinations I have used loads of them and highly recommend them..

wil

steveon wrote: »

You simply place the cable from the rf2 to the inputs of the spc4, and the output of it to a magic eye. Put your boxes in a press which arent visible and you can control whatever box you want by marking them 1 and 2 etc...works with all types of boxes and combinations I have used loads of them and highly recommend them..

The info on the site gives the impression that the magic eye relays the instructions to the relevent box based on where they are. How does it distinguish between remote instructions for identical boxes from one remote if all IR receivers are in the same room?
All magic eyes will receive the same instruction, there will either be a conflict or all digiboxes will receive the same instruction simultaneously.

This equipment seems to suit situations where boxes are dedicated to particular rooms and I can see it would work fine for this, but magic eyes in same room? Cant logically work unless you use different remotes (eg sky digibox and sky plus digibox ok, but 2 sky digiboxes?)
Enlighten me:)