Really simple TV set up

[studentspark]

What would you recommend coax cable wise, as the minimum that should be installed. i.e how many cables to each room.

Would you take the aerial feed to the TV/sky box first, then on to a splitter, or splitter first.

AS you can see basic questions, but I only want a very simple setup (if possible)

Basic setup
Freeview/terrestrial TV in living room, three bedrooms and kitchen
Sky in living room, and ability to watch whats on in the living room in the other rooms


The new generation sky Q with no rf out, will this mean I cant tune to sky in different rooms

Many thanks

 

[flameport]

If you just want Freeview then the minimum is one coax for each room. Normally aerial - amp/splitter - multiple outputs one for each room.

The new generation sky Q with no rf out, will this mean I cant tune to sky in different rooms

Sky boxes haven't had RF out for years, and the whole point of the Q product is that you have a box in each room, so you can watch anything you want anywhere in the house, including things you have previously recorded on the main box.

It's possible to get adaptor devices for some Sky boxes which then provides an RF output, but that only provides an analog non-HD signal, requires that you can actually find an output frequency which is not already in use or subject to interference, and generally is not recommended.

 

[Lucid]

Really simple TV set-up: Aerial on roof feeds in to Sky box RF in, then from Sky box RF2 out to multi-way distribution amplifier to lounge, kitchen plus 3 beds....

BUT since Sky Q box doesn't support RF at all then you can't do it this way. This is only possible with the older HD boxes that either have RF in/out or can use the i/o adapter. It's just like flameport said in this respect.

There are other ways of achieving what you want though.

1) Sky Q supports multi-room with the mini boxes that connect via wireless. You would need to upgrade your package to include muliti-room and possibly change your wireless router as well, but that would allow you to watch the same or a different channel in another room. See SKY for costs and options.

2) There's a device called a HD RF Modulator (approx £150-£200) that will take HDMI at both standard def and HD, and then blend that signal with Freeview from a roof/loft aerial and allow you to pipe the signal around the house. This will give you the normal Freeview channels plus one RF channel on the TV that carries the Sky box signal from the lounge. This signal is simply a window on what's being watyched in the lounge, so you can't watch Sky Sports in one room and Sky movies in another.

To use the modulator you have to split the HDMI output from the Sky box 2 ways, then connect one to the local TV and one to the modulator. The aerial feed goes direct from the roof/loft aerial in to the modulator, and then from the modulator up to the multi-way distribution amp that feeds the other TVs. You'll also need some way of controlling the Sky box from the bedroom/kitchen. One simple solution is to use the Sky Control App from an Android or iOS smart phone connected to your home network.

3) HDMI balun. This is only really practical/cost-effective for one or possibly two rooms. What's involved is the same HDMI splitter, but this time the signal from the splitter output goes to a box with HDMI on one side and an Ethernet network socket on the other. From there an Ethernet cable is run to the remote location. At the far end a box converts the signal back in to HDMI. There are versions of these TX/RX balun kits that include IR relay back down to the Sky box. NOTE: Although this uses Ethernet connections the signals running through the cables are not compatible with the IP signals that are used for PC networking. Don't mix IP and HDMI balun signals; they're not compatible

The above aren't the only solutions, but they are probably the most commonly used where a HD signal is required in a remote location.


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