Sky + info please

[bikeit]

Our house TV, Sky set up used to be two TV aerials one to supply BBC ETC to the main living room TV and another to supply the bedroom TV, one bedroom used to have multiroom which we no longer subscribe to but we are using the digi box and we have a cable running from the RF out at the back of the box to another bedroom TV.
Today a local aerial engineer called to do some work,
He replaced both the aerials and fitted a box in the loft now all the three bedroom TVs can get terrestrial TV and two can still get Sky TV. he also got my SKY dish ready for SKY plus, he fitted another cable to the LNB and ran it into the loft and put it along with the Original SKY cable into a splitter and fitted another splitter behind the SKY box in the living room, so when i get my new box will i only have to install it and ring SKY to pair the new box and the viewing card.

 

[ChrisFrost]

Probably....but why didn't you discuss this with him when he was there???

 

[bikeit]

I am not long home from work and the wife is clueless about any thing like this, so there was no point in him trying to explain to her.

 

[flameport]

Sky+ requires 2 cables from the LNB to the box.
Therefore if you have 2 cables, installation is just connecting the new box to the cables and calling sky re the card etc.

If you only had one cable from the LNB, then the upgrade would have been to add a second cable.

However this:

he also got my SKY dish ready for SKY plus, he fitted another cable to the LNB and ran it into the loft and put it along with the Original SKY cable into a splitter and fitted another splitter behind the SKY box in the living room, so when i get my new box will i only have to install it and ring SKY to pair the new box and the viewing card.

really doesn't make any sense. What is this 'splitter' in the loft and behind the existing box?

 

[bikeit]

I have looked at the splitter and there is a spare cable coming from it so i assume its the second cable that Sky+ needs, I have included some photos of the splitter, he had some sort of meter on both cables and he said that both cables are showing signs of life and are spot on for Sky +

 

[Sam Gangee]

I also fail to see the point of the splitter. You can't use a splitter with an LNB connection (except for specific commercial installations - which yours isn't).

For Sky+ you need two cables connected directly between the dish LNB and the two tuner inputs on your Digibox.

Also, I don't understand why you need two aerials. This is a case where ONE aerial plus a splitter will feed two TVs. Your aerial fitter must be a very confused individual.

 

[bikeit]

Sam where we live here in N Ireland we need two TV aerials, one for BBC,UTV etc and one for RTE, TV3 etc there is a little box fitted to aerial pole and the aerial leads go into it so whenever you are watching TV the signal automatically switches from one aerial to the other depending which channel you choose to watch , the engineer is working at TV aerials for more that thirty years, so i hope he knows what he is doing, i might give him a ring tomorrow and ask him to explain what the splitters are for and will my set up work okay with Sky+
He also installed another cable on the LNB it now has three cables coming from it, one for multiroom and two i hope for Sky+

 

[flameport]

As it appears from the picture that one of the cables from the 'splitter' goes to a normal RF inlet, there is another possibility:

Originally there were 2 cables from the loft to the TV. One for the normal TV aerial, and one for the Sky box.

Installer has added two of these:
http://shop.satelliteonline.co.uk/sat--tv-combiner-513-p.asp
to the original TV cable, so it now has the aerial and second sat in the same cable.

If so, the Sky+ box will connect to the original sat cable, and ONE of the cables from that small metal box.
TV aerial is the other output from the metal box.

 

[bikeit]

Flameport thanks for your help, so will Sky+ work okay with this set up?

 

[Sam Gangee]

If, as flameport suggests, it's a diplexer (not a splitter) then that system should work OK (if the cable is suitable). It does raise some "ifs" and "buts" but it stands a chance of working. However, I can't read the label because your photo is out of focus, so we are guessing that it's a diplexer. Tell us what is on the label.

 

[bikeit]

Triax 340110, look below

http://aerials2go.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/triax-340110-tvsat-combiner-diplexer-p-160

 

[Sam Gangee]

Excellent, so we've established that it's a diplexer. If the cable is proper "double-screened satellite cable" it should work OK. If the cable is wrong, you'll get intermittent (or no) reception of the higher frequency multiplexes. The fact that it's black suggests that it's the good stuff.

 

[bikeit]

Update.
Got Sky+ installed earlier today and it works perfect, the Sky engineer has only seen these diplexers used once before he has tried to buy them locally without success as he claims that they would save him a lot of work and cable in some houses.
Thanks to all who took the time to offer help and advise.

 

[Sam Gangee]

There are various different makes of diplexer. Here's one example: http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page15.htm#combiner