Setting up a Sky+ box and magic eyes for the first time

Tony

If I understand you correctly then yes but why not double check this by calling the installer?

EDit: Just re read this, sounds like there may be a power supply to the aerial so you definitely need to talk to the installer to clarify which cable should be sent to the living room.

dlambirl wrote: »

i'm after checking and it only has one uhf Input. Great. There is a white box beside it with a black cable running into it and a white cable coming from it and into the amp. So. . . I was thinking (run for the hills) if i was to join the black cable that goes into the white box with the cable that goes to the living room and get combine it with the sky box and bring it back to the amp and use the uhf input. Will that work?

recycler1

Tony wrote: »

Nonsense, several installers have already posted above to disagree with your view and between us we have many,many years of experience doing this. Putting a box in the attic is not best practice and never will be, it is never a sensible option and anyone who says so is either misinformed, does not care about the quality of the installation or is trolling.

I'm dissappointed that you would resort to a charge of trolling to back up your position. I also understood that this was against the rules of Boards.ie

Anyway ....

I can't compete against your experience in a domestic setting. However, the issue in dispute need not be a matter for conjecture.
I will put a data logger beside my downstairs Sky box for a few weeks and a second in my attic beside one of the boxes there. The readings are timestamped and will allow direct temperature and humidity comparisons between attic and sitting room. I expect this to show that daily cyclic temperature variations are greater in the house downstairs.
(If not, I'll readily concede that the environment in the attic is the more hostile. )

Tony

Your kidding right?

recycler1 wrote: »

I will put a data logger beside my downstairs Sky box for a few weeks and a second in my attic beside one of the boxes there. The readings are timestamped and will allow direct temperature and humidity comparisons between attic and sitting room. I expect this to show that daily cyclic temperature variations are greater in the house downstairs.
(If not, I'll readily concede that the environment in the attic is the more hostile. )

recycler1

No, not at all. Modern loggers are smaller than a packet of cigarettes, and are not obtrusive.
(When I first used these they were like a big multimeter and had a paper readout. You then had to go thru reams of paper to try and spot trends.)

By the way, I do accept that dust can be an issue with forced air (i.e.fan) cooled equipment, or equipment with harddisks. I wouldn't put a Sky+ or Freesat+ box in a dusty attic. However, not all attics are that dusty. I have a Freesat+ box in my attic since January - I use an RF Remote Control and it feeds all the rooms in the house. The idea was that the OH could watch Corrie wherever/whenever she wanted to. (Hasn't really been a success as it freezes about once a week, then its up to the attic for a reset!)

Tony wrote: »

Your kidding right?

syboit

recycler1 wrote: »

No, not at all. Modern loggers are smaller than a packet of cigarettes, and are not obtrusive.
(When I first used these they were like a big multimeter and had a paper readout. You then had to go thru reams of paper to try and spot trends.)

By the way, I do accept that dust can be an issue with forced air (i.e.fan) cooled equipment, or equipment with harddisks. I wouldn't put a Sky+ or Freesat+ box in a dusty attic. However, not all attics are that dusty. I have a Freesat+ box in my attic since January - I use an RF Remote Control and it feeds all the rooms in the house. The idea was that the OH could watch Corrie wherever/whenever she wanted to. (Hasn't really been a success as it freezes about once a week, then its up to the attic for a reset!)

getting way off-topic, but in fairness this is truely taking things too far to prove a point. Speaking from personal experiece (and not a professional installer) attic's in the summer get fairly warm (especially for bungalow's or dormer's), doesnt heat rise!

dlambirl

Righto - sounds like my set-up is complicated - great :rolleyes:
looks like i'm gonna have to get the installer back.

Like everyone at the minute money is tight and i was trying to resist getting him back. Does anyone know how much it'd cost for an installer to come out and size up the situation??
How much would it roughly be to install the magic eyes for 2 tvs and amp?

Tony

As i've suggested already why not just call him first, phone calls are cheaper than call outs.

dlambirl wrote: »

Righto - sounds like my set-up is complicated - great :rolleyes:
looks like i'm gonna have to get the installer back.

Like everyone at the minute money is tight and i was trying to resist getting him back. Does anyone know how much it'd cost for an installer to come out and size up the situation??
How much would it roughly be to install the magic eyes for 2 tvs and amp?

auditek923

dlambirl wrote: »

Righto - sounds like my set-up is complicated - great :rolleyes:
looks like i'm gonna have to get the installer back.

Like everyone at the minute money is tight and i was trying to resist getting him back. Does anyone know how much it'd cost for an installer to come out and size up the situation??
How much would it roughly be to install the magic eyes for 2 tvs and amp?

i was quoted about 60 euro, but it depends on whats needed to fit the job etc.

recycler1

syboit wrote: »

getting way off-topic, but in fairness this is truely taking things too far to prove a point. Speaking from personal experiece (and not a professional installer) attic's in the summer get fairly warm (especially for bungalow's or dormer's), doesnt heat rise!

Yeah, yeah, a bit over the top all right.
(I was really annoyed, at Tony's reply.)

I don't intend to get into further debate on this. The point is that there are far, far, more hostile environments for electrical equipment than attics. (On this I speak from extensive, professional, experience.)

I accept that putting a standard satellite box in an attic is not optimum. I agree that putting Sky+/Freesat+ boxes there could be problematic as these require more cooling and dust could be a problem.

Lets leave it at that!

Tony

recycler1 wrote: »

The point is that there are far, far, more hostile environments for electrical equipment than attics.

Of course there are but that was not how you originally expressed your view. I was really annoyed at your posts too especially after other installers weighed in with their opinions and experience which you gave no credence to whatsoever even going so far as to question what is best practice.

If you have professional experience in satellite installation or a closely related field then fair enough but your only evidence put forward was that yours and somebody elses box works ok in an attic. There are I'm sure many dishes which have not been installed to the best standard that still work, that does not make it right.

Our priority as installers is to give customers the very best quality of sound and picture available and putting a box in an attic will never achieve that unless you want to go down the road of HDMI routers, re wiring the building , providing a dust free area which is well insulated.

recycler1

Tony wrote: »

Of course there are but that was not how you originally expressed your view. I was really annoyed at your posts too especially after other installers weighed in with their opinions and experience which you gave no credence to whatsoever even going so far as to question what is best practice.

If you have professional experience in satellite installation or a closely related field then fair enough but your only evidence put forward was that yours and somebody elses box works ok in an attic. There are I'm sure many dishes which have not been installed to the best standard that still work, that does not make it right.

Our priority as installers is to give customers the very best quality of sound and picture available and putting a box in an attic will never achieve that unless you want to go down the road of HDMI routers, re wiring the building , providing a dust free area which is well insulated.

OK. War over.

dlambirl

auditek923 wrote: »

i was quoted about 60 euro, but it depends on whats needed to fit the job etc.

Was that to install a sky amp and magic eyes? If so, how many?

dlambirl

i got freesat installed for free yesterday (windfarm is disturbing our signal) and the installer used a sky box (not sky+). He placed the box in the eaves, the central location where all our tvs are wired to. (Eaves - the slopey part in a dormer house).

He then put it to the kitchen tv, controllable with a magic eye. Doesnt the sky box need to have a scart lead connectin it to a tv? The sound and picture quality are perfect.

In relation to the thread - would it not be easier to put an old tv in the eave with the sky+ box hence not having to run wires everywhere?

Sparko

Sorry to hijack this thread, but came across something strange earlier when my dad set up a magic eye to his standard sky box. It's a one for all tvlink. Fairly standard setup I assume, coaxial cable going from the box downstairs to a tv upstairs, through a small tvlink box which has the magic eye connected.

The first time he set it up, seemed to be working fine, but we seemed to be picking up the UK Sky EPG and channels?? As in BBC1 etc in place of RTE1 etc. Totally stumped me when I seen it. We just turned everything off and hard reset the sky box and after that we were picking up the Irish channels again. So as it is it's working as we want it to with no problems, but just wondering if anyone knows why/how it was picking up the UK signal the first time?

samdeluxjones

doing a favour for a friend who has just got in sky and 2 boxes, one for sky+ and the other for free to air. he has 2 flatscreens, wall mounted and wants sky independant on both with no wires or boxes visible..(head scratcher)

i suggested putting the 2 boxes in the attic and using 2 magic eyes as the 2 tv's have coax feeds from the attic, but after reading those posts i'm having second thoughts of putting the sky+ in the attic because of hardrives and dust/heat, etc..

what ather alternatives does he have?
will 2 magic eyes interfere with each other?

cheers.

dlambirl

I have my sky box in the attic/ eaves or a dormer house upstairs (cupboard type) and it is well insulated and ventilated and there is no problem with the box or running the tvs off it.

Sam Radford

syboit wrote: »

attics in the summer get fairly warm

My loft floor is insulated to keep the house warm in winter. The roof is not insulated and there are air vents to allow air flow to prevent condensation. I assume my loft is fairly typical.

In summer the air temperature sometimes exceeds 40'C. In winter it can be below freezing (that's why the water tank is lagged). In contrast, my living room varies from about 12 degrees (winter, early hours of the morning) and 28 degrees (summer, midday).

Be sure to leave your temperature loggers in place for July/August and Jan/February.

fat-tony

dlambirl wrote: »

I have my sky box in the attic/ eaves or a dormer house upstairs (cupboard type) and it is well insulated and ventilated and there is no problem with the box or running the tvs off it.

I think I had a comment about this as being a bad idea in your other thread about "magic eye" problems.

From what you said in that thread I understood that what you have is not a conventional attic - it is a living space.;) Your SKY box is in a cupboard in that living space.

A "normal" attic in a 3 bed semi or whatever is usually insulated between the floor joists, has uninsulated roof timbers, has huge temperature variations between summer and winter and is usually dusty.

You should not really describe your setup as an attic - it misleads people and starts rows about whether it's a good or bad location - in your case it's ok:)

Did you finally sort out your distribution amplifier problem

dlambirl

Sorry, I suppose its not the same as the attic in a 3 bedroom semi... but i would still use the rest of the eaves as storage space but i have the place where the sky box is studded off so its like a cupboard.

No i never got it fixed. I meant to check the connection going into the distributor box but never got the time to.