Current Sky Setup Tweaks - Advice Please

eddiem74

Apologies for the long post :eek:, for what will probably be an quick answer? I just wanted to ensure I gave you as good a picture as I could.

Okay so I have the following as my current set-up:

Main Living Room: Sky HD

3 Cables ran out externally up drain-pipes, 2 to dish, 1 into attic to be distributed around the house, see attached pic of distributer. (Originally had this wired to another corner of the room internally from attic, so no external wires were needed, except from dish to attic. Wires are still present but no longer used)

Small Living Room: Sky Plus

- Single gang faceplate in one corner feed from attic not used. (originally put in to allow TV to be moved prior to Sky Plus addition)
- Single gang faceplate in another corner connected to Sky Plus (removed connection from faceplate as it did not allow return signal)
- 1 cable externally via drain-pipe from attic from dish connected to Sky Plus.

Kitchen, Main Bedroom, Kids Bed1, Kids Bed2:

All feed from attic via single gang wall plate in each room. (not modified)

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Sky Tweaks:

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Now what I want, or would like your recommendations on:

My daugther wants a TV/ability to changes channels in her room.

Option 1:

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I was thinking of taking the Sky Plus box and putting it in the attic, and using it to distribute around the house rather than the HD box. I would need to be able to control that box in the attic in order to change channels in each room.

- What would I need here ?
- Any downsides to this approach?

Option 2:

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I have an old original Sky box which is unused.

- Could perhaps this be used similar to option 1, even without a card to receive free channels, and distribute around the house?
- Or would this be best used located in my daugthers room, via the wallplate, and then connected from dish via new cable run joining cable in the attic to receive free channels?

Option 3:

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Is it best just to have receiver (Sky, Freesat, etc) in each room, fed directly from dish and connected to TV via scart/HDMI rather than coax?

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DTT Additional Question:

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I am also considering freesat and DTT, and assume my Sky setup can just leveraged off of for Freesat, however for DTT, what would I need to add to my above set-up?

- DTT receiver (will recording be possible?)
- Aerial in Attic
- Could it also be distributed around the house ?
- Could it link in to the distribution thats already there for sat ? Or is it best to keep separate ?

Other thoughts/inputs?

Many thanks for taking the time to get this far.......:pac:

kdobey

eddiem74 wrote: »

I was thinking of taking the Sky Plus box and putting it in the attic, and using it to distribute around the house rather than the HD box. I would need to be able to control that box in the attic in order to change channels in each room.

Not an expert - but putting a device like a sky box in your attic is probably a REALLY bad idea. First, I think, it's against electrical wiring regulations to wire sockets in to your attic (or you hotpress). Second, due to the extreme conditions in your attic - very hot and very cold - the device will probably die really quickly - same goes for routers or wireless hubs and that sort of thing.. Third it's probably a fire risk up there due to reasons already stated (I wonder if your insurance would cover such an incident).

I don't use a magic eye myself - but I installed one and the weekend in a friends and it works a treat.

Regarding DTT - the Terrestial forum has lots of discussion on boxes that have BOTH DTT and Sat decoders.
Personally I use a HTPC and an xbox 360 as an extender device which works pretty good.

eddiem74

kdobey wrote: »

Not an expert - but putting a device like a sky box in your attic is probably a REALLY bad idea. First, I think, it's against electrical wiring regulations to wire sockets in to your attic (or you hotpress). Second, due to the extreme conditions in your attic - very hot and very cold - the device will probably die really quickly - same goes for routers or wireless hubs and that sort of thing.. Third it's probably a fire risk up there due to reasons already stated (I wonder if your insurance would cover such an incident).

Hmm, actually when we built our house we got the attic insulated, plasterboarded, floored, and wired with lights and sockets, along with having the sat wiring fed back to there. Not done much with it since, apart from filling it with junk.

kdobey wrote: »

Regarding DTT - the Terrestial forum has lots of discussion on boxes that have BOTH DTT and Sat decoders.
Personally I use a HTPC and an xbox 360 as an extender device which works pretty good.

I have just ordered a Pinnacle 7010i for my HTPC to check things out too, be interested to see the results.

Thanks for the reply.

eddiem74

D'oh..........post was to long.....