Can saorview use the upc wiring in house?

M007

Sorry if this is a stupid sounding question but am interested in buying a new house the comes with upc pre wired. But I wish to cut down on TV expenses and get in saorview/free sat. I understand that mean you have to put in an aerial and dish. But do you then have to run wires all over the house to the locations where you want to have a TV or can to link into the current upc wiring ?

The Cush

Yes the existing wiring can be used, How many cables do you have to each TV point? Is the cabling easily accessible for joining to sat and aerial feeds, in the attic for example, or does it run to some other point in the house?

If you're planning to use a Freesat+ recorder then 2 feeds from the dish will be required at that TV point, it will be possible to piggyback the aerial signal on 1 of the satellite feeds if required.

slinky2000

If there's one UPC cable into each room you can use freesat and send saorview via that no problem. If you want freesat+ you need 2 dedicated cables.

I'm just doing the same. Single UPC cabling to 4 rooms in the house, I'm sending a single satellite signal and saorview via the one cable.

You'll need splitters and joiners etc but it's possible.

kooga

yes. we had upc MMds wired to two tv points in our house. Have both saorview and satellite using the upc wiring and no issues.

M007

Thanks for the replies.

I am considering getting one of the free sat installer to do the job. Spoke to one yesterday (following the replies here) that said he could use some splitter to enable the use of a freesat plus box/DVR as two cables would be required for this function normally.

The house is a new build and has cable running to three points in the house - does this mean the Saorview/Free Sat would have to be connect to all three as I was hoping of staying with UPC for broadband? Could you in theory leave one of these points free to get UPC Broadband?

kooga

i may be wrong but the upc tv wiring should be separate to the BB wiring. the upc tv was it via cable or mmds aerial?

M007

I was under the impression that the broadband from UPC comes through the same cable as the TV - will have to double check the current set up tonight?

M007

kooga wrote: »

i may be wrong but the upc tv wiring should be separate to the BB wiring. the upc tv was it via cable or mmds aerial?

Its via cable

kooga

M007 wrote: »

I was under the impression that the broadband from UPC comes through the same cable as the TV - will have to double check the current set up tonight?

you could be right

The Cush

M007 wrote: »

I am considering getting one of the free sat installer to do the job. Spoke to one yesterday (following the replies here) that said he could use some splitter to enable the use of a freesat plus box/DVR as two cables would be required for this function normally.

The house is a new build and has cable running to three points in the house - does this mean the Saorview/Free Sat would have to be connect to all three as I was hoping of staying with UPC for broadband? Could you in theory leave one of these points free to get UPC Broadband?

Cables from the 3 TV points will go back to a single location in the house, maybe an external box where the UPC feed enters the house and so can be separated there.

I assume 1 co-ax cable will have to be separate for UPC broadband and so can't carry Saorview or Freesat as they may interfere with the frequencies carrying broadband. You will have to point this out the installer when he's doing the installation.

reni10

I am looking to do the same thing with sending the satellite and saorview signals down the same cables that UPC have connected in a box on the outside of the house so that the cable run from the dish is only a few feet

I do want to keep the upc broadband though so would this work?

I seem to have 2 upc wall sockets in the house.

reni10

reni10 wrote: »

I am looking to do the same thing with sending the satellite and saorview signals down the same cables that UPC have connected in a box on the outside of the house so that the cable run from the dish is only a few feet

I do want to keep the upc broadband though so would this work?

I seem to have 2 upc wall sockets in the house.

No, not if you intend to keep the UPC connection active. If you're in Dublin, Channel 4 and Discovery analogue on UPC will interfere with Saorview Mux 1 and 2 respectively, rendering both unusable.

Turbulent Bill

Karsini wrote: »

No, not if you intend to keep the UPC connection active. If you're in Dublin, Channel 4 and Discovery analogue on UPC will interfere with Saorview Mux 1 and 2 respectively, rendering both unusable.

Is there any way of filtering out the analogue UPC stations before the Saorview feed is added, or alternatively putting a satellite and UPC feed down the same cable?

I've two coax feeds going to a TV point from the attic. One of these is used for UPC cable broadband and phone, which I want to keep. Looking at putting one Freesat+ feed and Saorview down one cable, with the other Freesat feed and UPC down the other cable. Is this a runner?

The Cush

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I've two coax feeds going to a TV point from the attic. One of these is used for UPC cable broadband and phone, which I want to keep. Looking at putting one Freesat+ feed and Saorview down one cable, with the other Freesat feed and UPC down the other cable. Is this a runner?

Saorview and the UPC frequencies will interfere if on the same cable, you could disconnect the UPC feed this from this cable to avoid the conflict. As regards Freesat and UPC phone/broadband sharing the same cable I'm not sure how well this would work, no one has posted about it here before.

winston_1

The UPC cable is NOT yours to interfere with. It belongs to UPC. Interfering with it could put dangerous voltages on to the UPC system worst case and cause mismatch and reflections best case.

Run your own cables.

reni10

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Is there any way of filtering out the analogue UPC stations before the Saorview feed is added, or alternatively putting a satellite and UPC feed down the same cable?

I've two coax feeds going to a TV point from the attic. One of these is used for UPC cable broadband and phone, which I want to keep. Looking at putting one Freesat+ feed and Saorview down one cable, with the other Freesat feed and UPC down the other cable. Is this a runner?

This is exactly what I want to do as well and surprised there is not more discussion here on doing this...

winston_1

reni10 wrote: »

This is exactly what I want to do as well and surprised there is not more discussion here on doing this...

Because as I've already said:

The UPC cable is NOT yours to interfere with. It belongs to UPC. Interfering with it could put dangerous voltages on to the UPC system worst case and cause mismatch and reflections best case.

Run your own cables.

reni10

The cables are in and on my property so I would have thought that this makes them mine?

winston_1

reni10 wrote: »

The cables are in and on my property so I would have thought that this makes them mine?

You may think so but you would be wrong.

But the real issue is that putting your own signals on these cables can interfere with UPCs network. If your satellite receiver were faulty you could feed 240 volts on to their network. So don't do it.

Turbulent Bill

winston_1 wrote: »

You may think so but you would be wrong.

But the real issue is that putting your own signals on these cables can interfere with UPCs network. If your satellite receiver were faulty you could feed 240 volts on to their network. So don't do it.

That makes no sense. What's to stop a fault in one of UPC's famously-reliable routers or Horizon boxes causing a similar issue? I'd be stunned if UPC's network didn't have over voltage protection to cope with all kinds of fault conditions.

winston_1

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

That makes no sense. What's to stop a fault in one of UPC's famously-reliable routers or Horizon boxes causing a similar issue? I'd be stunned if UPC's network didn't have over voltage protection to cope with all kinds of fault conditions.

UPC outlet plates have isolation built into them to stop dangerous voltages being fed into the network.
But if you tap into the cables before the outlet plates, as is being suggested, you will bypass this protection.

Don't do it.

Turbulent Bill

winston_1 wrote: »

UPC outlet plates have isolation built into them to stop dangerous voltages being fed into the network.
But if you tap into the cables before the outlet plates, as is being suggested, you will bypass this protection.

Don't do it.

This isolation could also be added before the outlet plate (upstream of any cable changes) to give the same level of protection. An isolated add/drop coupler should not be very difficult to install correctly, common in other forms of telecoms.

On the ownership, UPC are using my own coax runs within the house to provide their service. Whatever about the external supply (and their own router equipment), the cables are mine to do as I please. I don't take the technical issues lightly, but I want to get maximum value from my own infrastructure.

winston_1

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

This isolation could also be added before the outlet plate (upstream of any cable changes) to give the same level of protection. An isolated add/drop coupler should not be very difficult to install correctly, common in other forms of telecoms.

On the ownership, UPC are using my own coax runs within the house to provide their service. Whatever about the external supply (and their own router equipment), the cables are mine to do as I please. I don't take the technical issues lightly, but I want to get maximum value from my own infrastructure.

Indeed isolation could be added though you are the first one to suggest doing this. Does not change the problem of additional connections mismatching the network or introducing interference into the network however. Perhaps you should ask UPC if they mind what you propose.

I'm surprised UPC are using your cables, they don't normally do this as they don't know if they are faulty or not. How did this come about?

Turbulent Bill

winston_1 wrote: »

Indeed isolation could be added though you are the first one to suggest doing this. Does not change the problem of additional connections mismatching the network or introducing interference into the network however. Perhaps you should ask UPC if they mind what you propose.

I'm surprised UPC are using your cables, they don't normally do this as they don't know if they are faulty or not. How did this come about?

Proper 75Ohm matching and isolation should avoid any reflection or interference issues.

The house is pre-cabled with coax from the cable entry box on the outside wall to the attic, with a separate coax run from the attic to the TV point. UPC just joined up the existing cable segments and added their outlet plate at the end point. I guess that if there was a fault they might insist on their own cabling, but the existing stuff works perfectly.

Rippy

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Is there any way of filtering out the analogue UPC stations before the Saorview feed is added, or alternatively putting a satellite and UPC feed down the same cable?

I've two coax feeds going to a TV point from the attic. One of these is used for UPC cable broadband and phone, which I want to keep. Looking at putting one Freesat+ feed and Saorview down one cable, with the other Freesat feed and UPC down the other cable. Is this a runner?

I have done this before on a couple of jobs with no problems .Aerial and sat feed 1 combined using triax sat -UHF combiner /splitter at each end of cable .
UPC combined with sat feed 2 on other cable using same .
The triax diplexers split 5-862 MHz and 950-2150 so fine with UPC(Virgin) high VHF /low UHF frequencies.

The UPC installers connected from the external tap, put isolated outlet in attic as requested and I did the rest .

Turbulent Bill

Rippy wrote: »

I have done this before on a couple of jobs with no problems .Aerial and sat feed 1 combined using triax sat -UHF combiner /splitter at each end of cable .
UPC combined with sat feed 2 on other cable using same .
The triax diplexers split 5-862 MHz and 950-2150 so fine with UPC(Virgin) high VHF /low UHF frequencies.

The UPC installers connected from the external tap, put isolated outlet in attic as requested and I did the rest .

Sounds promising. What's the maximum UPC signal frequency and minimum satellite frequency (say for standard FTA stations)? I'd be concerned that there isn't enough bandwidth separation between these, and can't find out what the actual bandwidths are.

STB.

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Sounds promising. What's the maximum UPC signal frequency and minimum satellite frequency (say for standard FTA stations)? I'd be concerned that there isn't enough bandwidth separation between these, and can't find out what the actual bandwidths are.

The two that Rippy quoted are the analogue/DVB-C/T bands first, followed by the L Band for satellite.

If you worried about the DVB-C Frequencies, the highest is 418MHZ

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=94845073

Capt'n Midnight

Note: If you still have Virgin then Virgin/UPC analog channels overlap saorview from Three Rock. So a good saorview signal will wipe them out.
CH 30 Channel 4
CH 34 Discovery Channel

http://www.saorview.ie/get-saorview/make-the-switch/coverage-map/
THREE ROCK
Channel: 30, 33
Polarization: H

Turbulent Bill

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Note: If you still have Virgin then Virgin/UPC analog channels overlap saorview from Three Rock. So a good saorview signal will wipe them out.
CH 30 Channel 4
CH 34 Discovery Channel

http://www.saorview.ie/get-saorview/make-the-switch/coverage-map/
THREE ROCK
Channel: 30, 33
Polarization: H

Thanks. The outline plan is to combine the UPC/VM signal with a Sat1 signal on one cable, with Saorview and Sat2 on another independent cable,so hopefully Saorview and UPC won't interfere. I don't plan to use the UPC analogue TV stations in any way.

I'm in North Dublin and the Saorview site is pointing me towards Kippure, though Three Rock is actually closer.