Splitting sky satellite to two receivers

coxmattycox · 24 Jan 2010 at 23:30

Hi all,

We have sky TV, and have also got a new TV with freesat. Now I know freesat is pretty useless for HD channels but until we get sky+ its better than nothing.

Is it possible to split the single lead coming into the house, 1 into the sky box and 1 into the TV so you can watch sky etc like normal yet the TV would be able to receive freesat broadcasts also

Thanks

muon · 25 Jan 2010 at 00:10

If it is a single lead from the satellite, whilst you can split them, you will have problems.

Half the channels are on a horizontal polarisation and the other have on vertical. In order to switch from one channel in one subset to another channel in the other subset, the polarisation needs to be changed.

However, if you split the lead, then both receivers will fight over over the polarisation. What you end up with is only being to switch to half the channels if both receivers are on.

You need a multi-LNB, something you'll get with a Sky+(HD) installation to alleviate this problem. Since the technician will only install 2 feeds for the Sky+(HD) box (and which ever TV that is being used with), but if you want to use the freesat box on another TV, try and get him to install another line to another room.

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Why is freesat useless for HD? Out of all free HD channels its only missing 4HD. And that's mostly upscaled anyway.

coxmattycox · 25 Jan 2010 at 00:34

Thanks for the responce, freesat is built into the TV, so wouldn't need the line anywere else. simply a case of 1 into the tv, 1 into 1 into the skybox next to eachother.

Multi-LNB is that something on the actual satellite, or something that you put on the inside of your house to split?

The reason I say about freesat is there is basically just bbc HD and itv HD

whitecrook · 25 Jan 2010 at 00:58

There's been numerous threads on this recently in here. Do a search. You'll need an LNB with 2 outputs, - not sure how it works with a subbed sky box though, in terms of will Sky be arsey if they see you have fiddled with it etc/unsupported etc?

It's a pity that even with preety much every new TV being HD, the actual HD content still lags well behind, unless you pay loads for all the sky hd channels, or loads for blu rays. If you aren't a film watcher this is teh suck. And BBC have just downgraded their HD service to levels I believe almost indistinguishable from SD in certain circumstances.

muon · 25 Jan 2010 at 00:58

coxmattycox said:
Thanks for the responce, freesat is built into the TV, so wouldn't need the line anywere else. simply a case of 1 into the tv, 1 into 1 into the skybox next to eachother.

Multi-LNB is that something on the actual satellite, or something that you put on the inside of your house to split?

The reason I say about freesat is there is basically just bbc HD and itv HD

Here's a dish with 3 LNBs.

whitecrook said:
There's been numerous threads on this recently in here. Do a search. You'll need an LNB with 2 outputs, - not sure how it works with a subbed sky box though, in terms of will Sky be arsey if they see you have fiddled with it etc/unsupported etc?

It's a pity that even with preety much every new TV being HD, the actual HD content still lags well behind, unless you pay loads for all the sky hd channels, or loads for blu rays. If you aren't a film watcher this is teh suck. And BBC have just downgraded their HD service to levels I believe almost indistinguishable from SD in certain circumstances.

Funny you say that.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1195988

Turns out people can barely tell the difference with BBCs new encoders. So the fuss over the BBC reducing the quality was over pretty much nothing.

Also apart from sky sports, the bit rates are low across the board.

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/satellite_hdtv_bit_rates.php

dandos23 · 25 Jan 2010 at 01:05

Take a look at this thread.

whitecrook · 25 Jan 2010 at 01:09

ghost101 said:
Turns out people can barely tell the difference with BBCs new encoders. So the fuss over the BBC reducing the quality was over pretty much nothing.

Also apart from sky sports, the bit rates are low across the board.

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/satellite_hdtv_bit_rates.php

Yes. I was reading bits here and there about the bro-ha-ha and picked up various things, the worst being what I wrote above

I Still haven't managed to hook up the HD feed into my TV yet and don't claim to have first hand experience. I suspect the quality varies with time of day and programme as it does with SD. (Some SD stuff is Shocking - like watching a mpeg off the net from about 1996 or something)

The op would be requiring dual output LNB rather than dual/twin lnb as he would be looking to receive from the same satellite. That dish above will be pointing at more than one sattelite?

muon · 25 Jan 2010 at 01:17

whitecrook said:
The op would be requiring dual output LNB rather than dual/twin lnb as he would be looking to receive from the same satellite. That dish above will be pointing at more than one sattelite?

It looks like a motorised dish. Hoever I'm guessing all 3 LNBs are still getting a signal from the same satellite for any given point in the sky the dish points at.

I was more intending to find a clear picture showing multiple LNBs. All the sky ones are compact and difficult to see. Or perhaps that's what ensures they all have the same satellite feed?

whitecrook · 25 Jan 2010 at 01:26

ghost101 said:
It looks like a motorised dish. Hoever I'm guessing all 3 LNBs are still getting a signal from the same satellite for any given point in the sky the dish points at.

I was more intending to find a clear picture showing multiple LNBs. All the sky ones are compact and difficult to see. Or perhaps that's what ensures they all have the same satellite feed?

The dual/quad lnbs as someone said to me the other day are actually mulitple lnbs housed in the one casing.

It's a simple case of angles - those lnbs above are literally in different places so they will be receiving the radio waves from a different point. It was (or maybe still is?) common in this country/europe to get a twin lnb spaced apart enough to pick up astra 19 and astra 28.8 at the same time. Doing this means you don't need a motorised dish, but the signal can be weaker as you aren't geting the full benefit of the parabolic dish as the lnbs are off set.

Thinking about it, that motorised dish probably has that setup to allow it to 'hit' the satellites faster or omething, as it moves, it's likely to pass by all three, maybe is uses it to gather the optimum position... Or maybe it's american and their satellites are exactly spaced apart like that.

3dcandy · 25 Jan 2010 at 06:15

it was cheaper for us to get skyHD+ with a 4 output lnb than to do it ourselves almost 12 months ago. although we are considering getting rid of our "normal" sky+ sub now and replacing it with freesat+ to save some money, we got a nice 4 output lnb and the cabling installed ready for whatever we wish.