what is up with my sky HD box? can't connect to multiple TV's

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Hi Guys,

I have Sky HD in my lounge, and i have just bought another SKY HD box and a multi room subscription and i am trying to get this other Sky HD box to work in my attic which is connected to my home cinema projector.

I bought this other box off a internet retailer to do home self install. The thing is i haven't done any cabling yet for this other box to my satellite dish. I will be doing this sometime over the next few months.

But for now where i have Sky HD in my lounge i have been swapping the box with my new box and multi room subscription card and it works perfectly obviously because i am using the current coax cables in the lounge that are connected to my satellite dish. What i have been doing now is recording a load of HD content onto this box.

Then as a test i unplug both of the coax cables from the 2 inputs on the back of the HD box to see if i can still play recorded media which is on the hard drive without needing to have the coax cables inside the satellite input ports and it works without them fine. In this lounge i am connected to a 480P plasma TV via HDMI.

Now when i take this box with it's recorded media on the hard drive and plug it into my native 1280x720p projector in my attic which i use a component cable to plug to my projector, it doesn't allow me to watch the recorded content off the hard drive.

It's strange because it works downstairs in the lounge without needing to be plugged into the satellite coax cables so it should on my projector for the time being until i have my attic coaxed to the dish. Do you think it's because i am stepping down from HDMI to component to connecting to the projector, this shouldn't make any difference right?

What is strange is i have the multi room subscription card inside this box in my attic but it comes up with the onscreen message something like cannot find any channels to connect to.

When i go into sky anytime it previews the different films and then when i click on each of them it plays about three seconds and then stops and returns to the sky anytime menu, is there anything that can be done to gain access to the hard drive?

any help much appreciated

Many many thanks
 
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Well it's a hard job, as my house is really high, i don't have a long ladder and don't plan just yet to have all sorts of cabling going over the place, as well i am a bit short on the cash for an install. So i hoped i can run it from my hard drive for the time being, do you know how to?
 
You cant play anything off the hard drive, without a signal, if thats what your asking quite hard to know what your post is saying though.
 
What my post is saying is that i can play stuff off the hard drive without a signal as i have tested this, but i don't understand why it's not working when i connect the box to my projector? Can you tell me please?

TIA
 
I wanted to read your post and help but gave up after reaching the second line of the gigantic paragraph. My eyes actually hurt!
 
I just edited my starter post for this thread so it's a lot easier to read, for anyone that didn't like the big one paragraph.

Please if anyone can help me on this much appreciated?

TIA
 
what happens when you try an play it back? U cant play anything back without a signal or the card being registerd to that box. I know u have said it has worked before but unfortunatly it doesnt.
 
Begbie,

I have said it works without a signal, i have tried many times now and it works, i can play everything perfectly off the hard drive but it's when i connect it to my projector for some strange reason it won't play? So why is that?

TIA
 
Begbie,

I have said it works without a signal, i have tried many times now and it works, i can play everything perfectly off the hard drive but it's when i connect it to my projector for some strange reason it won't play? So why is that?

TIA

I would take a guess that powering off the box to move it is the point where you lose the ability to play back your recorded programmes.

You may be able to show that you can play back recordings with the cables to the dish disconnected but I would also imagine that this would only work for a short period of time until the sky card checks for validation and this would not last through a power cycle.
 
DavidMarq

You Sir, have brought an excellent answer it very well could be the power cycle, do you think i can keep the validation if i was to use a portable battery supply connected to the sky HD box while it's in my lounge connected up to the coax cables and then disconnect and take it to my attic, would this work?

Where could i get this kind of portable supply from, do you know?

TIA
 
I don't know the frequency that the card would try to update the validation with Sky but I don't think that a battery is a viable option as you would be constantly be having to re-cable the box to validate. I would guess at least daily and almost certainly more frequently than that.

The box is designed to be permanently connected to the dish.
 
Begbie,

I have said it works without a signal, i have tried many times now and it works, i can play everything perfectly off the hard drive but it's when i connect it to my projector for some strange reason it won't play? So why is that?

TIA

Can you tell me how you managed it please? Been trying to do this for years!

What happens when you try and play it back.

Sorry for sounding like a jerk, work for sky and the software is designed not to allow playback without a coax feed into the box with a signal so a bit surprised you can get it to work.


Just tried it on my HD box and it also doesn't work without a signal. :confused:
 
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