Rented House - Do you understand this set up?

CarPark2

Recently moved into a rented house, and it has the following set up:

- Aerial in the attic
- Satellite Dish outside
- Sky box in the attic

I don't really understand how, but the cable that comes to the living room seems to carry both the sky signal and the Irish digital signal. There is a small triax box (size of a matchbox) that connects onto the end of the cable that comes out of the wall before it enters the back of the TV. That has a wire coming out of it to a small receiver box.
The TV tunes the Irish digital channels and a single analogue channel that corresponds to the sky box. The Sky remote control changes channels via the small receiver box.

Does this make sense?

Anyway my question is, based on this setup, can I add in a freesat box in the living room and then pick up the freesat channels? The main reason for this is that we don't have a sky subscription, so the vast majority of the channels on the sky box are not available. It is really tedious to scroll through a list of channels, 90% of which are not available.

Would the satellite dish pick up the freesat channels as it is, or would it need to be reoriented?
Would the fact that the signal is going via a skybox in the attic affect the ability of a freesat box to decode the freesat channels?

As it is already set up, I don't want to make any significant changes to the landlord's setup (unless I was very confident that I would be able to undo those changes before I move out!).

Thanks in advance, I know that this is a long post.....

Bayonne

Assuming the cable between Sky box & livingroom TV is decent quality, you could disconnect the satellite feed from the Sky box & join it to this cable, which will currently be plugged into the Sky box RF2 socket, which outputs an analogue version of the currently selected Sky box channel & also carries the aerial signal (aerial plugged into RF-in). Then the livingroom connection would carry the signal from the satellite dish, ready for connection to a Freesat (or generic free-to-air satellite) receiver.

If you want to keep the Saorview (Irish digital) signal on the same cable, you will need satellite/terrestrial diplexers to combine/split signals at either end of the attic-to-livingroom cable.

Note that the system may have been set up this way so the single Sky box can feed a number of rooms.

CarPark2

Bayonne wrote: »

Assuming the cable between Sky box & livingroom TV is decent quality, you could disconnect the satellite feed from the Sky box & join it to this cable, which will currently be plugged into the Sky box RF2 socket, which outputs an analogue version of the currently selected Sky box channel & also carries the aerial signal (aerial plugged into RF-in). Then the livingroom connection would carry the signal from the satellite dish, ready for connection to a Freesat (or generic free-to-air satellite) receiver.

If you want to keep the Saorview (Irish digital) signal on the same cable, you will need satellite/terrestrial diplexers to combine/split signals at either end of the attic-to-livingroom cable.

Note that the system may have been set up this way so the single Sky box can feed a number of rooms.

Thanks. I think I understand! I'll have a look at the cables into and out of the sky box. So if it is as you describe, I could take the two input cables currently going into the sky box, and put them into the diplexer, then connect the current output cable from the sky box to the other end of the diplexer. Then in the living room, I could connect a diplexer to the wall socket and run one cable directly to the TV (terrestrial digital) and one to the freesat box (satellite). Bobs my uncle.........?

Would the freesat box have a output cable that would continue to carry the terrestrial signal and therefore save on the need for a diplexer in the living room?

Bayonne

CarPark2 wrote: »

... Would the freesat box have a output cable that would continue to carry the terrestrial signal

Nope. Everything else should work as you described. Wallplates with integrated diplexers are available.

The Cush

CarPark2 wrote: »

So if it is as you describe, I could take the two input cables currently going into the sky box, and put them into the diplexer, then connect the current output cable from the sky box to the other end of the diplexer. Then in the living room, I could connect a diplexer to the wall socket and run one cable directly to the TV (terrestrial digital) and one to the freesat box (satellite). Bobs my uncle.........?

A splitter/combiner like this will work at both ends of the cable - http://www.satworld.ie/satellite-and-terrestrial-combiner-indoor.html, http://www.tvtrade.ie/alltrade-tv-aerial-and-satellite-combiner.html

At the TV end a splitter wallplate like this would be a neater solution and could be left in place with the old Sky-box setup when you move out - http://www.tvtrade.ie/wolsey-tv-aerial-and-satellite-wall-plate.html (1 cable in, 2 or 3 cables out). They should be available in good local DIY shops.

CarPark2

Brilliant.
Thanks very much for the advice.

One last question, is the direction in which the satellite is currently pointing (and successfully picking up UK channels through the sky box) the same direction that will be needed for freesat (i.e., can i assume that i won't need to adjust it).

bk

CarPark2 wrote: »

Brilliant.
Thanks very much for the advice.

One last question, is the direction in which the satellite is currently pointing (and successfully picking up UK channels through the sky box) the same direction that will be needed for freesat (i.e., can i assume that i won't need to adjust it).

You won't have to move anything the "freesat" channels and the Sky channels are all on the same satellite.

Actually that is a vast simplification but it should be fine for your (and most Irish peoples) needs.

There is actually more then one satellite in the same "area" that a standard Sky dish can pick up. These satellites carry a mix of both unencrypted free to air (FTA) channels (e.g. BBC, ITV, etc.) and encrypted Sky channels (Sky 1, sports, etc.).

Both the Sky and Freesat boxes pick up and show the same FTA channels, in other words BBC 1 is only transmitted once, there isn't a separate Sky and Freesat version. Sky just use a different EPG to show the channel.

There are other FTA channels across Europe on different satellites that a typical Sky dish can't pick up, but a larger dish could pick up or a motor driven dish. However these channels tend to be German, Spanish, etc. so less interesting to your typical Irish person.

CarPark2

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

winston_1

If I was your landlord I would be pretty upset if you interfered with the system. You won't get any extra channels, so why not just learn the programme numbers of the channels you watch. No need to scroll through.