SKY+ Cable

[thomas1516]

Hi Guys,

I want to upgrade my standard sky system to sky plus. I know I have to change the box and LNB but what spec cable should I use?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Surely the SKY installer does all that?

But.. AFAIK you need a second satellite grade piece of coax from your LNB to the SKY+ box/

 

[Markey]

i believe they and everyone else uses CT100 from the lnb, but the installer brings his own, unless you got one off fleabay of course

 

[RF Lighting]

Sky+ will not work unless you have a sky+ subscription.

It is not just a case of upgrading the box and LNB

Depending on your current sky package, it might be free, or there might be a £10 per month fee.

 

[streetlighter]

They have an offer on now for new an existing customers a Sky+HD box supplied and fitted for £49 if you pay the extra £10 a month for the HD mix well worth it if you have a HD ready TV.

Sky Plus or sky HD has two tuners so needs an extra feed this is done by fitting a quad output LNB in place of the standard single LNB and either running a second downlead or using CT63 twin coax called "shotgun" cable in the satellite trade.

 

[kkynaston]

Sky+ subscription is now free with any basic package,
Basically you need to get yourself a Sky+ box, a quad LNB and an extra cable CT100 specification.

With sky+HD now at £49 if you ring sky and try the "I want to cancel" line you may get sky+ free. (So you will get 12 months warranty)

 

[Steve]

With sky+HD now at £49 if you ring sky and try the "I want to cancel" line you may get sky+ free. (So you will get 12 months warranty)

OR they might just say "ok then, goodbye"

That would be soooo funny.

 

[thomas1516]

Thanks for the help,

The reason I wanted to know the spec of the cable is that sky will only carry out a basic install. I want to run the cables ready and hide them out of site so that when the sky engineer comes he will only need to connect the LNB and sky+ box

 

[hairyben]

Thanks for the help,

The reason I wanted to know the spec of the cable is that sky will only carry out a basic install. I want to run the cables ready and hide them out of site so that when the sky engineer comes he will only need to connect the LNB and sky+ box

tell him to "throw it through the house, don't bother clipping, leave plenty of slack as I'm threading it through after you gone" and he should oblige.

 

[kkynaston]

With sky+HD now at £49 if you ring sky and try the "I want to cancel" line you may get sky+ free. (So you will get 12 months warranty)

OR they might just say "ok then, goodbye"

That would be soooo funny.

Yeah but its worth a try, its worked a few times for me.
But even if they do say ok goodbye, its a 30 day cancellation period so you just ring back and cancel the cancellation

 

[thomo27]

OR they might just say "ok then, goodbye"

That would be soooo funny.


I rang to cancel , I was 50-50 on keeping it as if they had of offered me a deal for say 3 months I'd have hang on , but they offered me absolutely nothing. I kept the SKY plus for 9.75 a month as I like the pause , recording facility.

 

[bonebill]

Hi Guys,

I want to upgrade my standard sky system to sky plus. I know I have to change the box and LNB but what spec cable should I use?

CT100 a.k.a. "Satellite cable". It's not hard to find. I doubt you'd need to go very far down the list of B&Q, Screwfix before you found a roll of it.

If you currently have Sky (not +) you will likely have one cable. You will need a total of two cables for Sky+, so you will likely need to run one more cable at a minimum. (Though, there is nothing stopping you running two fresh cables --- at least this way they will match in appearance and performance, and you will then be running on fresh cable on both inputs rather than one new cable and one daggy old cable.)

Technically, CT100 is in a class of similar cables. There are thinner ones (like CT67) and thicker ones (like CT125), the difference being that thicker cables lose less of the signal per unit length, so the thicker the cable, the longer the run you can have, but CT100 is your basic bread-and-butter satellite cable that will work well in most ordinary houses.

I seem to recall a kind of cable which was like two satellite cables joined together side-by-side, probably CT67 grade, and in theory this meant an installer could just run one of these cables and save time.

But if you're bothered enough to do it yourself, you might as well have two proper full CT100 cables and get a good signal to your box.

 

[FourFootMedia]

I seem to recall a kind of cable which was like two satellite cables joined together side-by-side, probably CT67 grade, and in theory this meant an installer could just run one of these cables and save time.

Often called "shotgun" cable it is CT67 spec (or is it 65...), and is what most sky installers will use as it'll fit through the same size holes as CT100 cable. Upto 20m is fine for sky+/sky+hd. You can also get it as CT100, but it's quite difficult to work with.