DIY sky multiroom

[SwanJack]

Had Sky HD installed today and now have the old sky box sitting in a corner. Can I use one of these

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID=1&cr...

to feed the old sky box so that I can get normal Sky in another room?

[cjs]

No, you cannot split a Sat Coax to two boxes. You will need a quad LNB on the dish and a new cable drop to your old box.

[mcflurry]

A quad LNB is around a tenner, and coax isn't expensive if you want to DIY
Don't forget Sky will want another £10 a month to run 2 boxes a la multiroom...

[SwanJack]

I think the installer put a new LNB up and it looks as if it has the capacity for 4 leads. The dish is a long way up though, higher than the apex of the roof (gable end). I have big enough ladders, but get a bit twitchy at height. If I only have one Sky box in use at any one time, can't I just move the viewing card from one to another and avoid the £10 a month?

[mcflurry]

SwanJack said:

I think the installer put a new LNB up and it looks as if it has the capacity for 4 leads. The dish is a long way up though, higher than the apex of the roof (gable end). I have big enough ladders, but get a bit twitchy at height. If I only have one Sky box in use at any one time, can't I just move the viewing card from one to another and avoid the £10 a month?

AFAIK the card is tied to the box...

[cjs]

mcflurry said:

SwanJack said:

I think the installer put a new LNB up and it looks as if it has the capacity for 4 leads. The dish is a long way up though, higher than the apex of the roof (gable end). I have big enough ladders, but get a bit twitchy at height. If I only have one Sky box in use at any one time, can't I just move the viewing card from one to another and avoid the £10 a month?

AFAIK the card is tied to the box...

Yes the card is tied to the box, you cannot switch it. You could buy a 'Freesat from Sky' card for £20, this will give you FTA channels and other stuff.

[savage1987]

hello, i have sky plus in my living room and i have just installed a box in my bedroom i was wondering how do i get a viewing card? how much is it? is there different types?....

i was told that all i got to do is ring sky and ask for a multiroom viewing card but im not sure if it costs.

Can anyone help please???

[DocJock]

£10 per month extra for a second card.

They also insist your second box is connected up to a BT line (so they can check the card's not for your mate next door?) but I don't know how strictly they police that.

[mrmr96]

SwanJack said:

I think the installer put a new LNB up and it looks as if it has the capacity for 4 leads. The dish is a long way up though, higher than the apex of the roof (gable end). I have big enough ladders, but get a bit twitchy at height. If I only have one Sky box in use at any one time, can't I just move the viewing card from one to another and avoid the £10 a month?

If you were to do this then you'd only be able to watch sky in one of the two locations.

What I do is use the 'RF Out' on the back of the sky box to pipe the signal to TV's in the kitchen and bedroom. Obviously quality takes a hit but I have the advantage of being able to use the existing coax RF cable which runs from all rooms to the loft (for aerials) and then join them with a joiner. It also allows use of a 'magic eye' IR controller to control the channels from the bedroom by sending signal back up the RF cable into the sky box.

If you want better quality then you could just run long versions of whatever cable you want to use. There are such things as 'Video over Cat5' boxes to assist. These are boxes which have video inputs on one side, then a cat5 network plug so you can run a long lenght of (cheap) cat5 cable to the destination, then plug in the reciever box which takes the cat5 input and outputs video onto connectors in the same format as the original input. You'd have to solve the 'remote control' issue seperately, but there are all manner of IR 'extenders' on the market.

No additional monthly fee, no tall ladders and you can watch the same sky channel in as many rooms as you want simultaneously. (This isn't as good as proper multiroom with quad lmb and two boxes and two cards, as that allows different channels, simultanously. But if you're considering doing it with one card then 'simultaneously different channels' doesn't appear to be an issue for you, hence my suggestion outlined above.)

HTH

[plumAJP]

Im running a magic eye in my bedroom fed off the rf output on the back of my sky+ box in the lounge.

I want to put sky in all my bedrooms (not multiroom, only magic eye versions)if I run the rf output coax cable to a junction box with multple outputs and then supply the tvs from that, will it work?

or will the voltage from the rf output drop and not allow me to change channel from the other rooms?

do I need another bit of kit to keep the voltage supply constant.

any help or advice is appreciated.

[rsv gone!]

Buy an amp with magic-eye pass through;

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Aerials_Ind...