Cable query

mattcullen · 23-07-2018 02:09PM #1

Just moved into a house which has a satellite dish and aerial. There’s 2 cables coming into the living room so I assumed one would be aerial and one would be Satellite. When I went to hook up to combo box, both cables were identical and only fit into Satellite. Hooked one up and got my satellite channels but I’m at a loss with the other one. I’ll try the other cable on the sat input and run a scan and I suppose I’ll get my answer that way but does anyone know can an aerial cable sometimes be the same fit as a coax requiring an adaptor?

STB. · 23-07-2018 02:16PM

It's likely that it is one of a few things.

Either the two cables are satellite with the other one for recording

Or at least one of the satellite cables has also been diplexed in the attic. You then split it in the room with a diplexer in reverse. A UHF/sat splitter costs about 3 quid.

https://maxbitt.ie/satellite-tv-splitters/479-satellite-tv-aerial-signal-combiner-splitter-diplexer-vhf-uhf-f-sat--5906881176771.htm

Or the terrestrial aerial output is somewhere else in the room.

The high horse brigade · 23-07-2018 02:20PM

Look in the attic, post a pic of what's there

mattcullen · 23-07-2018 02:59PM

Thanks for the replies. I took a glance from outside the house to see if I could track the cables. They seem to run down the outside from the roof but I can’t see whether one is from the aerial. They run down the front wall and in through to the living room. Again the same thing is replicated in the bedroom and the cables are coming in through a vent.

I’ll take a look in the attic to be sure. No aerial cable anywhere else in the room or the house as far as I can see

STB. · 23-07-2018 03:15PM

If the aerial and dish are besides each other the it's likely that someone has previously added a UHF sat combiner outside and that one of those sat feeds is carrying both a sat and UHF signal. Theat needs to be split again with a UHF sat splitter. You'll need two cables after that. One with a UHF aerial connection and one with a sat connection.

You can buy sat to uhf connectors on eBay if you don't want to crimp on your own

Is there 4 cable connections on the satellite dishes lnb connected ?

mattcullen · 23-07-2018 03:58PM

Cheers, They are about a ft apart. I’ll take a look and see can I see but I doubt I’ll be able to tell from a distance. Defo worth trying the splitter from what you say.

Out of curiosity, why would someone go to the trouble of combining one of those cabled to carry Sat and aerial? Would it not be easier to just have one aerial cable and one Sat?

Ten Pin · 23-07-2018 04:12PM

Out of curiosity, why would someone go to the trouble of combining one of those cabled to carry Sat and aerial? Would it not be easier to just have one aerial cable and one Sat?

If someone had sky for RTE and no aerial then they had 2 cables to the TV from the dish. To get RTE after unsubscribing from Sky needs an aerial. To save chasing walls and crawling around in the attic, one of the 2 satellite cables is shared with the aerial.

Johnboy1951 · 23-07-2018 05:03PM

mattcullen wrote: »

Cheers, They are about a ft apart. I’ll take a look and see can I see but I doubt I’ll be able to tell from a distance. Defo worth trying the splitter from what you say.

Out of curiosity, why would someone go to the trouble of combining one of those cabled to carry Sat and aerial? Would it not be easier to just have one aerial cable and one Sat?

You need two satellite cables to two tuners to be able to watch one channel while recording a different channel (on a different transponder).

STB. · 23-07-2018 07:20PM

To answer your question Matt.

It may have been a fix that the previous owner got the satellite installer to put in whilst they were up there.

If its on the chimney not many people besides installers are comfortable working at height.

The advantage of the system if it is in place is that you don't have to run another cable.

mattcullen · 23-07-2018 10:06PM

Thanks all, trip to Mapins is in order!

Quackster · 23-07-2018 10:11PM

mattcullen wrote: »

Thanks all, trip to Mapins is in order!

Hmm, not unless you have a time machine!

mattcullen · 24-07-2018 07:45AM

Oh right, ah sure, I’ll find somewhere, cheers for heads up!

Cable query

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