Fitting aerial and sockets

[GARYF123]

Hi,
My main TV in living room is operating with Sky. I have 4 more sets (3 in bedrooms and 1 in kitchen) using set top aerials. I wish to fix a roof aerial on side of gable wall (no chimney) and run coax to the 4 sets. Can anyone advise on following;

What type of aerial?
What type of coax?
What type of sockets?
Do i need a 4 way amp or 4 way splitter and what type would be recommended?

Many thanks in advance,

Gary.

 

[kkynaston]

I would fix your aerial and run it to the TV with sky on. Plug it into the Ant socket on your sky box.
Then run a coax from the 'RF2' output to the loft or a cupboard into one of these
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINI-compact-...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247
From here, run a coax to each TV. You should now receive a roof aerial signal and the sky tv at each tv. The box mentioned above will allow you to use the sky remote control extenders at each tv. So you can change the sky channel if you wish to.

 

[Chri5]

The box mentioned above will allow you to use the sky remote control extenders at each tv. So you can change the sky channel if you wish to.

But upsetting whoever is downstairs watching something else on Sky.

RF2 gives a sky signal, magic eyes allow other room viewing to change channels, but on Sky+ it still sees the same channel as the sky box and will change the main viewed channel

I understand this is Sky's reverse engineering to encourage multi room, multi sky box sales,

 

[kkynaston]

Yes, but by plugging the roof aerial into the sky box you have the choice of watching the sky channel or analogue\freeview in the other rooms. Using freeview\analogue in other rooms does not interfere with the sky in the main room.

Very useful if you are moving between rooms and want to watch a programme on sky

 

[Chri5]

And very annoying if the kids try switching channels when I'm watching my football : (kick childrens bottom smilie)

 

[electronicsuk]

What type of aerial?

If you're in a good signal area then any old wideband jobbie should be fine, it doesn't seem worth buying grouped aerials any more given that the combination of analogue and digital freeview signals seem to take up such a large chunk of the spectrum.

What type of coax?

CT100, WF100, RG6 or equivalent and in order of preference.

What type of sockets?

Try and buy fully screened outlets rather than the cheap rubbish with a PCB soldered on the back. You'll know this type of outlet when you see it as the rear usually tends to consist of fairly large chunks of metal.

Do i need a 4 way amp or 4 way splitter and what type would be recommended?

A 4-way amplifier would be better, but a masthead amp and passive splitter could also be used, or even a quad outlet masthead amplifier. The former will be easier to maintain as it would be located indoors, they're all pretty much the same thing. Triax, Antiference and Wolsey are all fairly respected brands.

 

[GARYF123]

Hi K,

I am a little confused! Is the coax running from roof aerial to sky box taking the place of the coax from the sky dish?
If i do as you suggest, will the tv's (5 in total including main one fed by sky) all be able to be used independently as in all watching different channels at same time?

Thanks,

Gary.

 

[electronicsuk]

I am a little confused! Is the coax running from roof aerial to sky box taking the place of the coax from the sky dish?
If i do as you suggest, will the tv's (5 in total including main one fed by sky) all be able to be used independently as in all watching different channels at same time?

No, this is an separate cable that runs from the RF out of the digibox to the distribution amplifier. It will not allow you to watch sky channels independently (that requires extra digiboxes + subscription cards) but you will be able to watch the one sky channel selected on the box plus any freeview/terrestrial channels independently of one another. You also have another cable from the aerial to the amplifier to give you said terrestrial channels.