Splitting Sky cables

[Ken77]

Hi all,

Is anyone familiar with splitting Sky cable? I want to install sky outlet points throughout a property, so two Sky boxes can be used simultaneously. Can I split the main feed from Sky? What do I need to insure the is a good signal strength.


Thanks

Ken

 

[mhar]

You can't, well you can but it won't work!
2 x sky boxes require two cables each back to the quad lnb on the dish. Run two even if they only have the single input non sky+ boxes as these are no longer supported / easily available. For more than two boxes you will need to use a magic switch

 

[Ken77]

You can't, well you can but it won't work!
2 x sky boxes require two cables each back to the quad lnb on the dish. Run two even if they only have the single input non sky+ boxes as these are no longer supported / easily available. For more than two boxes you will need to use a magic switch

Thanks for post. For clarity when you say "on the dish" I assume you can take the direct feeds from the dish further done the cable run?
As the cable from the Satelitte comes with two cables which one of the two should I be splitting using the quad?

Thanks

 

[i=p/u]

if you have a quad lnb

 

[mhar]

The thing on the dish (the LNB) is controlled by either 13 or 17volts to control polaritv (vertical or horizontal) plus a tone to select either high or low band output. If you tried connecting two receivers to the one output on the LNB and one receiver was trying to tune to a channel requiring 13v and no tone for control but the other was supplying 18v and a tone then how would the lnb know which to respond to? It would have to act on the highest voltage and the tone therefore overriding the first receiver.
A sky plus receiver has two tuners (to watch one channel whilst recording another). Effectively it is two receivers in one each requiring it's own control of the lnb. Most lnb's you will see have four outputs, effectively four lnb's in one housing to get over this. In reality it is done by internal switching in the lnb but look at it as four in one housing.
Therefore each tuner requires it's own feed from the lnb hence why a sky plus / hd box requires two feeds from the lnb. Two boxes each requiring two feeds = four feeds from the lnb. Using a quad lnb you would be using all four outputs.You can get octo lnb's (8 outputs), any more then you require magic switches which have a similar switching mechanism to the lnbs.
There is a tv section to this forum.

 

[i=p/u]

triax multiswitch, a dude installed for 8 apparetments i seen this week, 1 dish for everyones sky plus, fm dab 24 outputs, seemed pretty straightforward

 

[oldtimer]

If you have a sky dish then you can have a single LNB or a quad LNB (or 4 way) Older Sky dishes may have a twin but these got phased out as it was better to have a single or a quad. So Sky+ is a 2 channel receiver hence why it need 2 cables going to the dish. My set up is Sky+ Sky multiroom and freesat on my main TV now if you are asking how come freesat is on the sky system well it aint Sky is on the Astra birds that does both ie the BBC 1 you get on Sky is the same as BBC 1 on the freesat plus remember a lot of channels are free Sky just includes these with their encrypted channels. Whats the point of Freesat then well you get all the BBC and ITV regions great for the footy when there is a game in England and not up here. Also if you want ITV BBC C4 C5 HD channels for free then you can buy a HD Freesat box and plug it into your Sky dish easy peasy

 

[MattMartin]

Very helpfull

 

[i=p/u]

is the magic switch the magic eye? as id call it, where you run it from the rf output on box or can you get a switch to control between two rooms, as in which room you want control of dish?.

i thought what ever is on in the main room you have to watch the same in different room, if you dont have multi room.???