Satellite & aerial signal distribution in house

brendan_donegal

I have a digital aerial and a satellite on the outside of the house.
Both are fed into the attic.
All rooms in the house have a sat and TV point all fed up to a central point.
So as far as I can see both the tv and sat cables are fed down to the main point in the house where my sky box is then then are fed back up to the central point and into the tv distribution switch where all the other tv points in the house are plugged into.

This leaves me that I cannot move the sky box as then the main point will have to use the tv signal to get digital tv and this means it cannot be fed to the rest of the house as it is in use, so I loose it everywhere else?

Why in gods earth did they set it up this way, I thought both would be fed into a switch in the attic and then all would be fed off that, why do they both have to come down to the sky box?

Peter Rhea

It's set up like that, so you can plug the aerial feed into the Sky box RF-in, where the terrestrial tv signal will be combined with the RF output of the Sky box (UHF analogue version of the channel currently being viewed) & then the whole lot can be fed to the other tvs in the house via RF2. RF1 is used to send the terrestrial signal to the main tv.

This setup can be easily reconfigured if you want to move the Sky box to another point, though you might lose the Sky box return (RF) feed, depends how many cables go to each point.

brendan_donegal

ok so that makes sense now I've inserted the cable and now getting std digital tv on my tv set.
Now still leaves a few questions:
1. All my satellite connections seem to be sitting up in the attic not plugged into anything, is there not a switch I can get so all points are active all the time?
2. Should the tv signal not go straight into the switch so it can be distributed to everywhere in the house, why does it have to come down to the sky box, what is the reason behind that?

Peter Rhea

Each satellite tuner needs its own feed, either from a multi-output lnb (up to 8 outputs), or a multiswitch (fed from a 4 output lnb). A multiswitch can also take a terrestrial signal input & combine this onto the satellite feeds. There are also separate satellite/terrestrial combiners available & I think an lnb with a terrestrial input & combiner.

Exactly what you need will depend on how many cables run to each point & how many tuners you wish to feed.

The tv signal can go straight to the distribution system, if you want it that way. It only goes to the Sky box so as to make the Sky channels available on other tvs in the house (the box can be controlled remotely with 'magic eyes'), along with the signal from the aerial.

Johnboy1951

You can change things but it will cost a little.

Use a Quad LNB, take four cables in from the Sat and one from the DTT aerial, combine them in a multiswitch, and feed each room separately.
In each room break apart the signals and have two sockets --- Sat & DTT.

You would then need a Sat and a DTT tuner in each room. (more cost)

An example of a multiswitch

http://www.satshop.tv/EMP-CENTAURI_7

brendan_donegal

ok, so I see now, the installer just did it the cheapest way possible.
So what I need is a multiswitch, plug 2 of the sat (4 cables available) and tv into that and then plug all the points in the house into that for distribution, I have 2 cables from each room, one for sat and one for tv.

I can leave the main sky box setup with the 2 sat cables it is using and use the other 2 for the multiswitch feed.

Does this make sense?

Peter Rhea

You don't necessarily need a multiswitch & if you do, it takes 4 satellite feeds & some will only work with quattro lnbs, not the more widely available quad.

What kind of lnb is currently fitted to your dish?

brendan_donegal

Not sure on type of LNB.

Could I leave the TV switch in place and just get something to distribute the sat signal with 2 cable input from sat? Would that be easier/cheaper?

JHet

Nope, to distribute properly you need at least four sat cables coming from the lnb. This is because a multiswitch needs to capture the vertical high and lo and horizontal high and low in order to distribute to each sat cable properly. Usually you need a quattro lnb to do this but there are more expensive multiswitchs out there that will allow you use a quad lnb.

Your only other alternative after that is to get an octo lnb and have each sat feed going direct to each box in the house. You can connect these up in the attic with cable joiners. For your situation this is the most cost effective method albeit probably not as neat and tidy as the multiswitch solution.

Peter Rhea

If you have a Sky+ installation, the lnb will more than likely be a quad (4 switchable outputs that cover all needed frequencies & polarity). Octo (8 outputs) are also available.

A quattro lnb, for use in conjunction with a multiswitch, has 4 fixed outputs (1 for each band/polarity combination) & the switch supplies the receiver with the appropriate feed.