Relocating sky box

[JJ1959]

Can anyone tell me how my husband can relocate our sky box to the loft and still be able to watch sky and work the remote from another room. We have coaxial aerial cables running from an amplifier in the loft to all the rooms. Any help and suggestions would be great.

 

[ChrisFrost]

It's up to you, but I'd recommend that you leave the Sky box where it is and run some cable instead.

Lofts aren't the best place to leave mains powered electrical items unattended. Apart from the risk of a leak from the roof or a water pipe causing a short and electrical fire, lofts are also subject to big swings in temperature - particularly if they are well insulated. The space can go from freezing cold in the winter to stifling hot in the summer. That's not going to do the Sky box much good because it's really designed to live somewhere less hostile.

If you do still plan to put the box in the loft then make sure it goes in to a fire retardant box and add a smoke alarm up there. That way if there is a problem then at least you'll have some time before the fire spreads and you're less likely to invalidate your house insurance.

The other really good reason to leave the Sky box where it is is reliability. Your box might have been working perfectly fine for years, but I can almost guarantee that as soon as you hide it away in the loft it will start to give you grief. It's a real pain having to go in the loft to reset the box.


What I'd recommend instead is to run an aerial cable from RF2 on the Sky box up to the aerial input on your loft amp. Your TV aerial cable needs to come down the house an in to the back of the Sky box on the RF input. This will give you Sky distributed to all the TVs in the house as well as the ordinary TV channels.

Next, check that your loft amplifier is one that can pass the 9 volt feed to power the "Sky magic eyes" that are going to let you change channel from any room. If you haven't got the manual then go on line to the manufacturer web site and look up your model. The phrase you're looking for is "9v pass" or "pass through" or "Sky compatible"

Buy enough Sky magic eyes (Google for it) for the TVs you have. They come with instructions about installing and how to setup your Sky box so it gives the correct signal.

If you have wall plates fitted in each room for the aerial output then they'll need to be "pass through" compatible too. If not, then they'll need to be changed. That should be all you need.

Here's one other useful tip if you have a Freeview box attached to any of the other TVs around the house. These boxes don't pass 9v so the magic eye won't work if it is connected between the box and the TV. Attach the magic eye on to the cable from the wall before it gets to the Freeview box, then it will work fine.