Splitting sat cable

[funkyboogalooo]

Hope someone can help. Ive just ordered sky+ HD to replace my standard sky+. I have told my son he can have my old sky+ box but I am aware he will need 2 cables rather than the one he has at the moment. Is this something I can do myself (basically can I buy the bits anywhere) or do I need to pay sky?
Cheers
Mike

[Silverbullet767]

You'll need a quad LNB on your dish for the 4 connections needed.

And you can buy twin coax that will do the job fine.

First step is before you buy anything, check your dish.

You can also buy a new LNB if you need it, not sure if you still need a multiroom subscription though.

[JONSCZ]

Hi Mike. Hopefully someone who knows definitively will come along soon, but as far as I'm aware, you'll need a Sky subscription to enable the recording feature on the original Sky + box - ie you'll need a Sky multiroom package which will require paying Sky to come and install a quad LNB (ie an LNB with 4 outputs on it - 2 to the new box and 2 to the old one) and they'll send you a viewing card for the old box. If this has changed recently, then someone will say so, I'm sure - but this always used to be the case ie the Sky + recording feature used to be free to anyone who has an Sky package registered to that box, otherwise it was a tenner a month.
If your son just wants to watch the free to air channels and not use the Sky + recording features, then free sat or Sky's one-off payment subscription card would do.
Hope that this is still relevant.
Jon
(edited to add - damn, beaten to it - must learn to type faster!!)_

Edited by JONSCZ on Wednesday 3rd November 16:13

[illmonkey]

You don't need to feeds to record on Sky+ but you can only watch/record on one channel. I'm not too sure what happens with clashes etc.

As above, its very easy to swap the LNB and run a new cable in. It'll only cost £20 for the parts and you get the best out of it.

I'm pretty sure you don't need a subscription plan for Sky+ now, but you'll need multi room.

[funkyboogalooo]

We have multi room so thats good but I don't know whether we have a quad out.
I'll have to investigate further me thinks

[007singh]

So, if I have got this right, the two feeds into a Sky+ Box are simply to allow you to record two items at the same time, or to record one item whilst watching another?

If you only have one feed, does that effectively mean you can only record what you are currently watching?

[illmonkey]

007singh said:

So, if I have got this right, the two feeds into a Sky+ Box are simply to allow you to record two items at the same time, or to record one item whilst watching another?

If you only have one feed, does that effectively mean you can only record what you are currently watching?

2 feeds means 2 recording, you then can either watch one of those channels that are being recorded, or watch something from the planner.

1 feed means 1 recording, you then can either watch that channel, or something from the planner. But, the Sky box uses feed 2 for the primary feed for recording. So you need to put the box on the channel you want to record. So, if you set something up for 7pm, and go out at 5pm, ensure its on the channel for the recording program before you go, or its likely it'll fail (due to a 'signal' issue)

[cjs]

007singh said:

So, if I have got this right, the two feeds into a Sky+ Box are simply to allow you to record two items at the same time, or to record one item whilst watching another?

If you only have one feed, does that effectively mean you can only record what you are currently watching?

Yes, correct.

IIRC you can set the box up for 'single feed' mode, it's in the installer menu. It is on HD boxes anyway, not sure about Sky+ boxes, I will need to check.

In the 'services' menu press 0 1 select, this will bring up the installer menu.

[Mr AJ]

Single feed mode is HD box only.


You may aswell just run a fresh run of co-ax from the dish to the room you want to move the box too. Chances are you will already have a Quad LNB if you have Sky+ anyway. You will defenitly have one if your already using Sky+ in one room and a Std box in the other, Which from reading your posts this is what you have already - With a multiroom subscription?

In which case all you need to do is move the sky+ box to the room you want it in, Run an extra feed out to it put your primary card in the HD box and your secondary card in the sky+ box. Ring sky, get them to pair the cards up and they will activate recording on both boxes - assuming you are paying for the multiroom subscription.


Running a Sky+ box on one feed can cause all heaps of problems. The box doesn't always follow the default settings for the inputs. Whilst in theory it should use Input 1 for live, Input 2 for recording in reality it mostly seems to choose at random which input to use for live programs. I've had many boxes coming up as no signal for live but showing a signal on input one. This is why the single feed mode was brought in on the HD boxes - Mainly for people using communal dishes though...

Edited by Mr AJ on Friday 5th November 19:02

[007singh]

Cheers guys, I do indeed have a dish with the 4 connections on it, so will just run a second cable if I decide to move the Sky+ HD box to another room etc. I will maintin the two inputs to it to ensure it works.

[T_Pot]

funkyboogalooo said:

Hope someone can help. Ive just ordered sky+ HD to replace my standard sky+. I have told my son he can have my old sky+ box but I am aware he will need 2 cables rather than the one he has at the moment. Is this something I can do myself (basically can I buy the bits anywhere) or do I need to pay sky?
Cheers
Mike

mike sorry to hijack, could you drop me a mail mate i cant mail you from your profile, im after some wrapping prices]]]martin

[stevieb]

funkyboogalooo said:

Hope someone can help. Ive just ordered sky+ HD to replace my standard sky+. I have told my son he can have my old sky+ box but I am aware he will need 2 cables rather than the one he has at the moment. Is this something I can do myself (basically can I buy the bits anywhere) or do I need to pay sky?
Cheers
Mike

If you have sky multiroom, the sky installer should install the additional cabling to the second room as part of the upgrade for no additional charge. That assuming you are continuing with the multiroom part of the contract.

STeve