Some Sky Q questions!

[sidicks]

Our current set-up is as follows:

Sky HD and Sky+ boxes in the lounge, distributing the signal to the rest of the house via coaxial cable. Works well and means that, via magic eyes, you can have access to either of the boxes from any room in the house, but clearly the picture quality suffers, particularly on the larger screens. The 'cinema' room (sound much grander than it actually is), where the projector is, is at the opposite side of the house as the Sky dish and main Sky boxes so getting the signal to that area of the house is an issue.

In addition, we have an internal ethernet network (10 years old when the house was built so presumably Cat 5/5e?) which is used to distribute a broadband signal around the house, as the entry point of the broadband cable into the house is above the garage and the wi-fi signal from there is poor.

At some point soon, I'm hoping to upgrade the projector and receiver in the cinema room (potentially to 4k compatible) - see related thread!

As I understand Sky Q;

1. We could replace the 2 existing Sky HD and SKy+ boxes with one Sky Q set up
2. It's not feasible to transfer recorded programs onto the new Sky Q box - if we retain these boxes temporarily, is it possible to watch the programs recorded on the hard drive or does this not work if the boxes are no longer connected to the main dish?
3. The Sky Q box won't have coaxial out, so I can no longer distribute a signal round the house in the same way as currently?
4. As I understand it, I will need a Sky Q mini box elsewhere in the house to watch programs - although I can purchase a few of these, I can only use 2 at any one time?
5. For any old TVs which don't have HDMI inputs i will need an adaptor to convert HDMI out from the Sky mini box to SCART?
6. In order to benefit from UHD available from the main Sky Q box only, I would need this to be in the Cinema room (but this is on the 'wrong side' of the house). Is it more feasible to keep the main Sky Q box in the lounge and (somehow) send the UHD signal to the cinema room or to arrange for the main Sky Q box to be repositioned in the cinema room - presumably adding additional costs for installation as the cabling from the disk will need to go right around the house?
7. Given the comments about wi-fi reception from the garage, could we use the internal ethernet network to s
boost the signal (will that work alongside the broadband signal or will this cause problems)?

Having said all that, the need for a 4k projector is debatable, given the viewing screen size / distance (see other thread), so some of the above may be academic!

Any thoughts grateful received!

Thanks

Sidicks

Edited by sidicks on Sunday 6th November 10:33

[Moily]

sidicks said:

2. It's not feasible to transfer recorded programs onto the new Sky Q box - if we retain these boxes temporarily, is it possible to watch the programs recorded on the hard drive or does this not work if the boxes are no longer connected to the main dish?

To watch back your old recordings you will need the box connected to the dish and a Sky card with an active subscription to the channel of the recording.

sidicks said:

3. The Sky Q box won't have coaxial out, so I can no longer distribute a signal round the house in the same way as currently?

Correct. No need for coax as the programmes are streamed from the main Sky Q box to the Minis

sidicks said:

4. As I understand it, I will need a Sky Q mini box elsewhere in the house to watch programs - although I can purchase a few of these, I can only use 2 at any one time?

Yes, in theory. Not sure if it's actively crippled though? Note they are £99 each after the first discounted one and need an installer visit.

sidicks said:

5. For any old TVs which don't have HDMI inputs i will need an adaptor to convert HDMI out from the Sky mini box to SCART?

Yes, although the Minis output up to 1080p so worth upgrading the TVs if budget allows.

sidicks said:

6. In order to benefit from UHD available from the main Sky Q box only, I would need this to be in the Cinema room (but this is on the 'wrong side' of the house). Is it more feasible to keep the main Sky Q box in the lounge and (somehow) send the UHD signal to the cinema room or to arrange for the main Sky Q box to be repositioned in the cinema room - presumably adding additional costs for installation as the cabling from the disk will need to go right around the house?

Sky Q main box should be near your main 4K/UHD viewing, preferably.

sidicks said:

7. Given the comments about wi-fi reception from the garage, could we use the internal ethernet network to s
boost the signal (will that work alongside the broadband signal or will this cause problems)?

Sky Q works fine with ethernet, either powerline or fixed cabling. You might need to test your cables to see what spec they are, prior to committing but if you can sustain a signal through powerline adapters then that's an alternative option.

[VEX]

sidicks said:

1. We could replace the 2 existing Sky HD and SKy+ boxes with one Sky Q set up

Yes, But the dish and its electronics also need changing. Interestingly they also insist on changing the power lead and HDMI. They claim the new ones are better and the only ones tested with Q. If they had to re-visit a system and found a non-sky cable they claim the visit would be chargeable!

sidicks said:

2. It's not feasible to transfer recorded programs onto the new Sky Q box - if we retain these boxes temporarily, is it possible to watch the programs recorded on the hard drive or does this not work if the boxes are no longer connected to the main dish?

It used to be that the old receivers needed both a sat signal and a current card to allow you to watch the recorded boxes. Recently I thought I had see a box with just a card in it playing out recordings fine, but worth checking. There are also hybrid LNB's (the electronics on the arm of the dish) that give both a Q output and standard connections for just this use.

sidicks said:

3. The Sky Q box won't have coaxial out, so I can no longer distribute a signal round the house in the same way as currently?

YOu can do it, it is a little bit of electronics to achieve it, but we have it working and sending pictures around the house as if is it a Freeview HD channel. Works well just a second delay between pressing the channel numbers and seeing it change.

sidicks said:

4. As I understand it, I will need a Sky Q mini box elsewhere in the house to watch programs - although I can purchase a few of these, I can only use 2 at any one time?

Correct, although I and a number of clients have been quoted Q plus three minis at any one time.

sidicks said:

5. For any old TVs which don't have HDMI inputs i will need an adaptor to convert HDMI out from the Sky mini box to SCART?

Correct, but getting harder and harder to find. Or not needed if using the Freeview HD modulation solution.

sidicks said:

6. In order to benefit from UHD available from the main Sky Q box only, I would need this to be in the Cinema room (but this is on the 'wrong side' of the house). Is it more feasible to keep the main Sky Q box in the lounge and (somehow) send the UHD signal to the cinema room or to arrange for the main Sky Q box to be repositioned in the cinema room - presumably adding additional costs for installation as the cabling from the disk will need to go right around the house?

Yes, ideally, we would either run cables around the house (we are experts at hiding cables!) or we would use a HD balum to send the 4K HD signal over either the CAT5 or the Coax.

sidicks said:

7. Given the comments about wi-fi reception from the garage, could we use the internal ethernet network to s
boost the signal (will that work alongside the broadband signal or will this cause problems)?

Depending on the position of the Sky Mini boxes, they act as access points, if not then you can use the cat5 cable as network connections and wifi access points at any of the loctions.

Hope that all helps.

V.