Anyone know much about splitting Sky cable?

[DR]

I've got Sky in my house - and I want to run a couple of sockets in case I want to move my Sky box to another part of the room one of my floors is up at the moment and it seems easy to do it!)

I need to know what do I use for splitting the signal with? with TV I use a distribution box to send the signal out to other parts of the house - but what can I use for my Sky signal?

[directhex]

would you want to be able to use a second (or more) sky box to tune different channels in different rooms, or are you just looking to extend a single connection?

[DR]

I already have a set of cables running to my lounge and a set which runs to the master bedroom - the challenge is I might want to move the box around - so I was not sure if it is possible to have a number of sockets in the room(s) which I could simply have a box plugged in to - I would only ever want to use 2 Sky boxes... one downstairs and one upstairs.

This is Sky HD not Sky normal

[tiggerai]

I have one sky box that runs through Co-ax to my bedroom, that has a secondary remote through a little IR reciever.

The sky boxes should have an aerial out - my Sky+ box does, to be able to do this... it's a hidden setting on the menu.

[DR]

Yeah - that's fine - I already use that to 'hide' my Skybox away - what I want (in essence) is a Sky socket 1 side of the room and one on the other side of the room so I can move my TV - right now its very easy to run a cable so I am trying to work out if it is actually possible...

[tiggerai]

Nm, i'm getting confused... as per

[DR]

I don't want to feed the signal out via RF though since it's HD going in to an HD panel - or that would be fine

[directhex]

what you want to do is possible with digital satellite - but i don't know if it's possible with sky (given sky boxes). that's what i'm trying to check

[directhex]

nope, i'm not seeing anything encouraging. can't see any way to make sky boxes behave well in an "advanced" environment like the one you describe.

[TheAnimus]

Its not in heir murdoch's intrest to do that.

Anyway, your sky dish will have a 'octo' probably on it, that is to say enough outputs for 8 tunings. (i don't know why it was designed this way, my knowledge of high frequncey analouge signals isn't upto speculating, but i will say its a pain in the arse!). Or 4 sky+/skyHD boxes (as 1 tuning = 1 wire from the octo).

So its very easy to run more co-ax from the sat, to the rooms in question, and just move the box, that is by far and a way the best way of distrabuting SKY, a seperate box for each room.

HDMI does not lend itself to distance transmission (but it is possible, for a price) but that said, there seam to be cheap ones about now (were all 200+ when i looked last), i don't know what their like, but they claim 1080p which is more than enough.

hdcompany.co.uk

as an example.

Then you would have a splitter, and distrabute HDMI to each room. I really like this idea, getting the sodding nosiy skyHD box under the stairs, and out of the living room..... hmm got me thinking about this now. Then all you need is a bob standard IR forwarder. fleebay must have a glut of those, if not i can post the schematic of mine (and send a programmed PIC for in exchagne for much lovign)

[dave87]

The other option is run CAT5 now, and get a set of HDMI-Cat5 converters.

Some guy on AVForums did it, and it was quite impressive - allowed him to hide all the kit away and run a remote room should he choose to do so.

[TheAnimus]

those really aren't a bad option, at £50-150 a pop, if the cheaper ones work ok, by the time you've factored in the cost of cable (CAT5e is so cheap).

[directhex]

Originally Posted by TheAnimus

Its not in heir murdoch's intrest to do that.

Anyway, your sky dish will have a 'octo' probably on it, that is to say enough outputs for 8 tunings. (i don't know why it was designed this way, my knowledge of high frequncey analouge signals isn't upto speculating, but i will say its a pain in the arse!). Or 4 sky+/skyHD boxes (as 1 tuning = 1 wire from the octo).

So its very easy to run more co-ax from the sat, to the rooms in question, and just move the box, that is by far and a way the best way of distrabuting SKY, a seperate box for each room.

HDMI does not lend itself to distance transmission (but it is possible, for a price) but that said, there seam to be cheap ones about now (were all 200+ when i looked last), i don't know what their like, but they claim 1080p which is more than enough.

hdcompany.co.uk

as an example.

Then you would have a splitter, and distrabute HDMI to each room. I really like this idea, getting the sodding nosiy skyHD box under the stairs, and out of the living room..... hmm got me thinking about this now. Then all you need is a bob standard IR forwarder. fleebay must have a glut of those, if not i can post the schematic of mine (and send a programmed PIC for in exchagne for much lovign)

i'd be pretty worried about messing with the DiSEqC switch config supplied by sky (since you can't modify parameters on the skybox), and i'm pretty sure their LNBs are quads

[dave87]

Hex - they seem to only install the octo if you have multiroom when they install - when they put in my SkyHD they only put a quad in.

I have a feeling if you choose to have Multiroom x2 with Sky+ boxes it would be upgraded, but for most peoples needs the quad seems to suffice.

[DR]

So basically I can have Sky in 2 rooms max - and freeview for the rest then

[dave87]

Without changing the end on the dish, you can have sky in 4 rooms. 3 if you have 1 sky+/HD box, 2 if you have 2 sky+/HD boxes.

Standard Sky box only uses 1 input, so you could have 4 of those.

This is without changes to the end on the dish - sky can and will upgrade it for you if you have a sufficiently high subscription.