Sky+ HD Box Connections?

DekHog

DekHog

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Derek
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We've got a Sky+ HD box in one room, and a standard Sky HD box in the other. I was thinking of buying another + box from eBay and putting it in, but notice that the + box we have has two antenna connections, whereas the vanilla HD box only has one - would another + box work with only the one antenna connection, or do I need to start splitting and running cable?
 
DekHog said:
or do I need to start splitting and running cable?
Click to expand...
You cannot split sat cabling as the box and LNB have to have a unique connection as some of the down modulation is done in the LNB.
 
Thanks guys, but I would be able to record, pause, etc? I'll be able to record one channel but not watch another at the same time?

Just wondering with what arad said - so if you had four Sky+ boxes in the house you'd need eight different feeds all coming from the LNB??
 
DekHog said:
Thanks guys, but I would be able to record, pause, etc? I'll be able to record one channel but not watch another at the same time?

Just wondering with what arad said - so if you had four Sky+ boxes in the house you'd need eight different feeds all coming from the LNB??
Click to expand...

Yes, yes and yes (if you want record and watch different channel functionality).

Although like I say we have a splitter in our cupboard that seems to split 1 into 2 and works fine. But ours is a communal system in a set of flats that all feed from the same dish so don't know if it works differently.
 
Right..............

Basically, satellite signals are transmitted between 10 and 12GHz. When they get to the dish, they are down converted into a signal at around 1GHz by the LNB (low noise block downconvertor). This is done to allow the use of normal cables between the dish and your box. Without going into boring details of how this works, the box has to tell the LNB how to down convert. This means that you need a LNB per tuner for everything to work well.

There are 4 options when downconverting, low/high band and horizontal/vertical polarisation. In normal household installations, you have a LNB that is capable of downconverting 1, 2 or 4 (I think they do 8 as well) signals and you have a run of cable to the dish for each LNB. In a flat distribution system, what happens is a different LNB, called a quattro LNB, is used which has 4 LNBs, one each for high/low/H/V. These signals are then fed into a multi-switch which takes those 4 signals and allows them to appear as if they come from a dedicated LNB for each feed.

Yes, I am a geek. Yes, I have a quattro/multi-switch installation here. Yes, it was the first one the installer had ever put in a house rather than a hotel ;) :D
 
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You do sound a bit geeky right enough..... :D
 
My day job is project managing satellite and terrestrial (and now IP) set-top box software to production so I do have a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card up my sleeve on this one.. ;)
 
I thought it might be something like that you did! :)

So if I can get someone to run another cable/LNB or whatever it is I need from the dish, I'll have full functionality on the other box? Sky looking for £150 for one, so will pass on that lovely offer from them..... :)
 
If you have 3 cables to the LNB, you probably have a quad LNB which just means getting someone to run a 4th cable to the dish. If you have to replace the LNB at the dish for a quad, you can get them for £8 at play.com. No idea if they are any good though...

BTW: don't try to replace it yourself. You need some signal measuring equipment to make sure you have the LNB placed correctly.
 
I've actually just checked as best I can (wire mess!). Looks like only one black cable comes from the dish to the + box, then the other (white cable) connection from the + box goes directly to the non + box - would this be right? I was thinking both white and black antenna connections on the + box came from the dish, but it appears not.....
 
It shouldn't work......... It would work if only one were on at a time, but the + box should be "knobbled"* when it comes to recording.

* technical term :D
 
arad85 said:
Right..............

Basically, satellite signals are transmitted between 10 and 12GHz. When they get to the dish, they are down converted into a signal at around 1GHz by the LNB (low noise block downconvertor). This is done to allow the use of normal cables between the dish and your box. Without going into boring details of how this works, the box has to tell the LNB how to down convert. This means that you need a LNB per tuner for everything to work well.

There are 4 options when downconverting, low/high band and horizontal/vertical polarisation. In normal household installations, you have a LNB that is capable of downconverting 1, 2 or 4 (I think they do 8 as well) signals and you have a run of cable to the dish for each LNB. In a flat distribution system, what happens is a different LNB, called a quattro LNB, is used which has 4 LNBs, one each for high/low/H/V. These signals are then fed into a multi-switch which takes those 4 signals and allows them to appear as if they come from a dedicated LNB for each feed.

Yes, I am a geek. Yes, I have a quattro/multi-switch installation here. Yes, it was the first one the installer had ever put in a house rather than a hotel ;) :D
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhhhh..

(super geek ;) )
 
arad85 said:
It shouldn't work......... It would work if only one were on at a time, but the + box should be "knobbled"* when it comes to recording.

* technical term :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was talking nonsense. I just checked the spaghetti junction again, and the non+ box has it's own single cable coming in from outside.....
 
Even though you will have a signal/feed to the extra Sky plus box, you'll still require a subscription for that box - be it multi room or taking your existing card from the 'living room' and plonking it in the newly acquired Sky= box....
I've tried it myself.... and it just comes up with change your card (or similar)

I mean - to be able to use the pause/record function.....
 
I've got a working Sky card that's already in the standard HD box that I wanted to swap for the Sky+ box - but I'm now assuming that this card I have won't work in the new box. I'd also think that Sky are very unlikely to supply us with a card for a Sky+ box I bought elsewhere?

Looks like I may be wasting my time and money with this one.....
 
I'll do that mate, thanks.....
 
Set the box to one connection only rather than 2, this will save the box getting confused and locking up sometimes.

Service 0 0 1 ok.

Then goto settings and set "single feed mode" to ON.

And as people have already mentioned, you wont be able to record 2 channels at once, only the one you are viewing.
 
So it would need to be on the station to be recorded even if the TV was switched off? Probably won't bother if that's the case.....
 
Bought the box but can't record nuffin' - looks like a waste of money unless I can get the other cable run from the dish...... :(

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Even if you buy the box from a third party, sky will sell you a freeview card for £25 unless you pay per month with multiroom.
 
I've got the card, as we had a normal non+ box, so get all the stations as before but just can't record squat on it without this message appearing.....
 
Time to swap the card for the one from the working + box to test that theory, Neil! :)
 
I believe Sky disable recording if you don't have a subscription for the box (it becomes a zapper)....
 
Yeah, it works with the card from the other box....... no doubt it'll be an argument on the phone with them as they'll want more cash or something of that ilk.....
 
It's called multi Room and they'll want an extra tenner a month from you for the priviledge of being able to use/record a 2nd box in your house :D
 
They already get the tenner a month which was for a multiroom non + box. I bought the + box myself.....
 
Aha !! Would be interested to find out what they have to say then :D
 
I had just this issue..... Called and asked for the Tech support team, asked them to change the box for another one I had got hold of, all they needed was the serial number and they did it - no extra charge (but I was already paying for multiroom) and had already a sky +HD and a sky standard box; I swapped the standard box for a HD+.

Cheers,

Ste
 
They enable recording on the card no problem, but said we'd have to get a local installer to run the additional cable if we wanted it...... can live without it as we have it in the bedroom anyway.
 
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