Sky HD coaxial cable...

Naan_H

Naan_H

Naan_H

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Hi guys, getting some redecorating done, and the decorator has said he can install coax cable into all the rooms.

Does anybody know where i can get a reel of sky hd grade coax cable for a decent price? ill be looking at about 100m or so, and shotgun cable if possible.

Many thanks
 
Labgear cable isn't that good. They do a selection that ranges from poor to middling quality. They don't have anything that could be considered decent. Screwfix decided to range the cheapest stuff. IME most electricians don't care about the quality of TV coax, they think it's all the same.

The silver-looking foil and braid is aluminium. It's not as good as the copper stuff. "Not as good" means it looses more signal than good copper-screened stuff and those losses get progressively worse as the frequencies go up from TV range to the Satellite bands. Cheap cables also degrade faster when exposed to the elements. For decent cable have a look at Webro WF100 (single coax) and Webro WF65 (thin "Sky" twin coax). LINK Beware other cables labelled as WF100 and WF65. They aren't the same spec.

Thin shotgun cable is easier to install but also more lossy than regular sized cable. Sky's own install guidelines recommend this for runs no more than 10 metres, though I have seen sites where the runs were much longer. So it's really quite important to get the best you can afford when installing. In the long run it's cheaper to put in decent stuff than buy cheap then have to rip it out again to install the good stuff. Google for Webro WF65 rather than just WF65.
 
Lucid -that is a fantastic post, thank you very much.

My friend might have a reel a sky installer left at his house - do sky use webro WF 65 / 100 cables in their installs?

I already have an octo LNB. I'll be using 3 feeds for the freesat and sky hd in one room, another twin feed to an adjacent living room for either relocation of the current box or another +HD box, and 3 single feeds to 3 bedrooms.

Two of the bedrooms are next to each other; is it wise to use a single run of twin WF65 and split for each room, or should the rooms have an individual run of single WF100? the former is obviously cheaper and will create less clutter, but would i run the risk of severely downgrading the signal quality?
 
First off, forget any ideas of splitting satellite cable. Satellite works differently to TV. Run one cable to each tuner input i.e. a twin tuner box like a Sky HD need two dedicated feeds from the LNB.

The reason you can't split satellite cable and get full service on each receiving box is that satellite transmissions use four "channel" groups and the LNB can see only one channel group at a time. An Octo LNB like yours has 8 LNB receivers. Each LNB receiver is switched between the "channels" by signalling from the satellite receiver (Sky box) in your home. The receiver knows what Sky TV channels are in which "channel" group. Feeding two boxes from a single LNB feed is physically possible. But sooner or later the boxes will ask for TV channels in two different groups. Since the LNB can't look at two things simultaneously then one box will win and the other box gets no signal.

There are some exceptions to the above, but in the main it's much much simpler to stick to the no splitting rule.


Your friend's cable: have a look at the writing printed on the outer jacket. It will (or should) give manufacturer and model number of the cable. Just look it up online.
 
Sorry lucid, i wasn't very clear in my post.

A shotgun cable is a run of two cables/feeds moulded together - like what i have currently with my sky hd box - the bedrooms need only one feed as i will not be needing sky+ recording features. To save me running two lengths of seperate WF100 cable, is it wise to run the WF65 shotgun cable to the first room, terminate one of the feeds there, then drill a hole to the adjacent room, and terminate the remaining feed there - so basically i am using a single shotgun cable to provide seperate connections to the bedrooms, each plugged to their own socket of the LNB.

does that make sense?
 
Ah right. That makes sense now. Yes, that will be fine.

Just make sure to run enough cable to reach the furthest room. You want to avoid joining on extension pieces of cable.
 
Going on 10 years now with "cheap" cable. Maybe my eyes are going but I see no loss of quality with HD channels via my sky box. What type of quality loss can I expect to experience with digital tv lucid?
 
jas72 said:
Going on 10 years now with "cheap" cable. Maybe my eyes are going but I see no loss of quality with HD channels via my sky box. What type of quality loss can I expect to experience with digital tv lucid?
Click to expand...
As long as your signal is above the minimum signal threshold required then with digital there'll be absolutely no difference at all. But two things to bear in mind...

1) without a good signal meter then you're effectively working blind. You have no idea how close your signal level is to the minimum threshold and you also have no idea how much of that loss is down to the attenuation caused by the cable. The best you have to hand is the Sky box signal quantity/quality display. But that is only an indication of the whole system (LNB/cable/box/connections), so if there is a level or quality problem and the cable is a factor then you have no way to properly diagnose it. Why add uncertainty when doing a DIY install? Use decent cable. It's simply good install practise, not snake oil. After all, the specs are given for attenuation and return loss for good cable. So as long as whichever cable you are considering also has some published specs then you can make an informed decision. And if it doesn't have full published specs (just like the Labgear cable hasn't) then do you really want to be using it in the first place?

2) every install is unique. Just because bottom of the barrel works for one doesn't mean it'll work for everyone. By the same token, someone can use the best quality cable and still have issues because of some other factor in the system. However, when diagnosing, if decent cable has been used then it's one point of uncertainty removed from the equation.

If you are genuinely interested in learning about the measureable effects cable has on reception then have a look at this. :)
 
Hi again, got coax put into all rooms, octo LNB all hooked up :)

I bought a SkyHD box (the 595), off ebay, from somebody in Scotland. Unfortunately 101 is stuck on BBC scotland, 103 is STV - is it possible to change these to London/local based services?

I have already ordered a freesat from sky card which will be here next week.
 
It'll be locked to the TV region associated with the viewing card. You can however add extra channels, though they won't replace the main channel 103 etc

LINK
 
lucid said:
It'll be locked to the TV region associated with the viewing card. You can however add extra channels, though they won't replace the main channel 103 etc

LINK
Click to expand...

I am getting a freesat card from sky - does that mean the box will lock to the london region once the card is inserted?
 
No. Generally in the initial set up, the post code of the box dictates which ITV TV region the box will default to. Have a look at this guide from the Sky pages.
 
When you get the new card try running through a 'new Installation' from the installer setup menu and that may put your channels to the correct region.
 
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