0ptions for 3 X TV's

[AC43]

I'm thinking of moving house and am pondering what to do in terms of TV's bearing in mind that I'm trying to minimise cabling and mess. In my current property I was able to install a load of coax and ethernet cables around the place so I could just plug and play but the new place has already been wired and plastered and I don't want to disrupt the finish too much

In terms of channels I'm not bothered - basic packages are enough for me. What I am looking for is HD signals and pause/record.

Today I've got the following

Reception Room 1
Sky + HD in reception room 1. I've got a Sony DVD player ethernet cabled into my router for iPlayer and Lovefilm. This is where the kids watch TV most, where we watch family shows, where I watch sport and where the Mrs and I watch stuff in the evening

Reception Room 2
Just need basic stuff in here - Freeview via a No-HD Humax box server by a roof aerial

Bedroom
Simple TV server by a roof aerial

Here's what I'm thinking of doing in new place

Reception Room 1
Virgin HD box to serve everything thing up (HD, record, iPlayer, movies on demand). I guess I could just get Virgin to drill a hole in the wall in the desired location and I'd be done.

Reception Room 2
There's coax in here - though not sure how it's all connected up but assuming he's run a cable up to the roof I could just stick a dish up there and buy a Freesat box.

Bedroom
There's also coax in here - assuming I could get a Freesat signal in here I could use that - but would I need a Freesat box or can you get a TV with integrated Freesat tuner?

Any thoughts from anyone who's done this before much appreciated.

EDIT; the house is detached so in theory I can run cable round the outside - so I could go Virgin multiroom for Reception 1 and Recaeption 2. And then just connect a basic TV in the bedroom to a roof aeriel.

Edited by AC43 on Sunday 14th October 08:14

[AC43]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

why not stay with the Sky, and via RF2 output send it round the house? Advantages mean Sky everywhere and pause / rewind operationaal from room to room.
Cheap and via coax around the outside of the house.

....so is using RF2 a regular Sky config? I always assumed I'd have to use a second box in the second room and run coax cables to it. No?

As to why I might want to move away from Sky I hear that the Virgin service is pretty good for a number of reasons. Plus I have a deep antipathy to the Murdochs and kind of resent giving them my money. I only went Sky hear because the Virgin cables hadn't been laid at the time.

[maxfan]

Yes you can get freesat and freesat HD TV's though they seem to me to cost a premium over a FREEVIEW VERSION- That is just how it seems to me based on some Samsung sets I looked at with a friend some months ago.

[AC43]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

AC43 said:

....so is using RF2 a regular Sky config? I always assumed I'd have to use a second box in the second room and run coax cables to it. No?

No need for an extra box, subscription or crucially for you it seems, money to Murdoch

It is relatively simple - buy two 'RF Magic Eyes' and remotes (one for each extra box) and a splitter Amplifier.
You need to link up the TV's via the COAX cables you already have around the house.

Plus sides are you can watch the sky in any room, you can pause in one room, walk through an unpause in another and it is a cheap solution.
Downsides : the Sky is the same everywhere, (i.e. you can't hae two different sky channels showing on two different TV's) the Quality of the SKY in the two 'Other rooms' is not Digital or HD.

Thanks PM - makes sense.

[AC43]

maxfan said:

Yes you can get freesat and freesat HD TV's though they seem to me to cost a premium over a FREEVIEW VERSION- That is just how it seems to me based on some Samsung sets I looked at with a friend some months ago.

Thanks

[AC43]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

OP, the "RF2" way is relatively pain free and non committed.
IF you don't like you can then get in to sprinkling the various boxes of hardware / Virgin boxes around the house

Yup - on balance I'd go multi box as I'd rather the kids kept CBBC/Disney XD/etc to themselves in the far reception room. Then we can either have a bit of silence where we are or or music or the news or whatever in the room we spend more time in.

But thanks for pointing out the option :-)