Switching a single feed (alternate Sky/Freesat

ciotog · 03-09-2009 4:37pm #1

Been reading through the threads for the past couple of days and wanted to run this by the more experienced heads (yell or break it to me gently if I'm trying to do something really daft):
- Have a single coax feed coming into my Sky box (renting and setup is such that I can't run another input for Sky+ HD)
- Fancy some HD content (make the most of the HDTV) from the likes of the BBC so looking at introducing Freesat to the mess of devices around the TV
- Single TV in the house and not looking to record any channels while watching so I'm looking at options on how to alternate between viewing Freesat and Sky channels off my solitary coax cable.

Some of the linked STBs in various posts do LNB pass through which I understand to mean that I could pop in the box then daisy chain the current sky box and watch via either box as appropriate. What are the pros/cons of this? What other options would I have (if any)?

Tony · 03-09-2009 5:20pm

Only option you have is to plug/un plug cable from dish. LNB out sockets rarely pass voltage thorough and I often wonder why there are included on boxes.

ciotog · 03-09-2009 6:36pm

Tony wrote: »

Only option you have is to plug/un plug cable from dish. LNB out sockets rarely pass voltage thorough and I often wonder why there are included on boxes.

Thanks for the response Tony, I can live with some manual switching, thought I'd run the idea by the experts anyway

Tony · 03-09-2009 8:14pm

No problem. Maybe checkout the global electronics site , they may have some kind of smart switch

Edit: something like this maybe http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/smart-priority-switch-sps1-_W0QQitemZ250484810902QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090819?IMSfp=TL0908191610001r7561

Donegal_TDI · 04-09-2009 10:08am

I have used 2 of the global smart priority switches with some success over the years. You feed 1 lead from the LNB in, and 2 leads out to your devices.
When you power up the device, it takes posession of the lnb.
Standby mode does not cut the cheese on this,
you will have to power down one device to let the other one use the lnb properly. They will work together depending on the channels/transponders/band you are using.
Play with it and you will find out how it works.
It will do your job.

ciotog · 04-09-2009 10:29am

Thanks guys, appreciate those suggestions. Once I decide what STB I'm going to use I'll look at doing an update on what I end up using for this.

Apogee · 04-09-2009 10:33am

You don't necessarily have to power down the receiver, if you use the 0/12V lead attached to the scart pin 8. When the scart is sending out 12V, then that receiver is master, regardless of whether the other receiver is powered on or not.

(I think the Freesat receivers are the same as the digiboxes in that they are still powering the LNBF even when they are in standby - can anyone confirm?)

Global and Invacom have merged recently, and it seems to be harder to source the SPS1 switches, but try contacting them directly - both companies used to do direct sales in the past.
http://www.globalinvacom.com/products/sps1.php

Switching a single feed (alternate Sky/Freesat

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