Sky HD cabling and dish requirements question..

[DiscoStu]

Well I looked at the wall box downstairs in the communal entrance hall and I saw a black box with UHF/VHF amplifier and 4 cables (which look very much like standard analogue TV ariels sticking out of it). I doubt very much that this is anything at all to do with the Sky+ Satellite service that may or may not have been active in my current flat.

These suspected 3 x 'triplex' sockets in my main living room are probably somehow connected to this box but the question is do I have a dish upstairs ! I have no access to the roof so I guess it's Sky HD assesment engineer time.

It all sounds rather good this Sky HD, I am going to keep my Virgin media V+ service also which is a little overkill but hey... I am an international playboy.

What I am concerned about is how the hell are those wires in that black box downstairs getting to the socket faceplate (triplex), under floorboards and in the wall cavaties !, how the hell can someone thread all that lot and new wires without creating the mess of a life time.

Any opinions would be valuesd about Sky HD and experiences with Sky Satellite installation engineers.

I'd seriously suggest posting over at DigitalSpy. There's a lot of people there who know a great deal about satellite TV systems. It could save you a lot of hassle getting engineers out etc.

[eliquant]

Well I looked at the wall box downstairs in the communal entrance hall and I saw a black box with UHF/VHF amplifier and 4 cables (which look very much like standard analogue TV ariels sticking out of it). I doubt very much that this is anything at all to do with the Sky+ Satellite service that may or may not have been active in my current flat.

These suspected 3 x 'triplex' sockets in my main living room are probably somehow connected to this box but the question is do I have a dish upstairs ! I have no access to the roof so I guess it's Sky HD assesment engineer time.

It all sounds rather good this Sky HD, I am going to keep my Virgin media V+ service also which is a little overkill but hey... I am an international playboy.

What I am concerned about is how the hell are those wires in that black box downstairs getting to the socket faceplate (triplex), under floorboards and in the wall cavaties !, how the hell can someone thread all that lot and new wires without creating the mess of a life time.

Any opinions would be valuesd about Sky HD and experiences with Sky Satellite installation engineers.

[VectraMan]

I put our HD box in because I refused to pay SKY £60 to have somebody come round, unscrew the 2 cables from the Sky+ box and screw them into the back of the HD box. That is all you need to do if you already have Sky+

I did my Sky+ install myself. Just bought the box and quad LNB off ebay, and some dual cable online and ran it up to the dish. HD would be exactly the same if you only had a regular Sky install with a single LNB in the dish.

The installer will want a phone line, but you can unplug it as soon as he's gone (I think multiroom might be the exception to that).

400-odd channels, record two at once, or watch one and record another. It's great. Now if only there was something worth watching.

[scooby]

I put our HD box in because I refused to pay SKY £60 to have somebody come round, unscrew the 2 cables from the Sky+ box and screw them into the back of the HD box. That is all you need to do if you already have Sky+

thats exactly it! if you have, or some has had, Sky+ then you can have HD. it needs two feeds and is exactly the same as Sky+ in that way.

It is conencted to the phone line only for sending info about Pay Per View and bits, its not constant and will not affect your broadband or phoneline.

[BoredBloke]

I put our HD box in because I refused to pay SKY £60 to have somebody come round, unscrew the 2 cables from the Sky+ box and screw them into the back of the HD box. That is all you need to do if you already have Sky+

[Sausage Surprise]

For Sky+ and Sky HD you need a dual (2 cables) LNB, a quad (4 cables)LNB for multiroom. It's so you can record more than channel at a time, pause live TV etc (it caches what you are watching so you can also rewind live TV - it's dead clever!).

The phoneline connection should be filtered where your box connects to the socket (if you have broadband)

I have Sky HD and Multiroom and it's works brilliantly.

[DiscoStu]

hmmmm not sure really about this ... I'm terribly confused.

Anyone here use Sky HD ?

Is it worth dishing out all that money ?

I got Virgin V+ and its ok I guess but there is little HD content.

Honestly, once it's all installed and working it's brilliant.

Edit: And you'll find loads of help here.

[eliquant]

hmmmm not sure really about this ... I'm terribly confused.

Anyone here use Sky HD ?

Is it worth dishing out all that money ?

I got Virgin V+ and its ok I guess but there is little HD content.

[DiscoStu]

It's most likely that what you're describing is a tri-plexer socket. This is used when multiple signals (satellite feed, plus UHF for the TV Aerial and VHF for an FM/DAB radio) are sent down a single cable and split at the other end. If you have a look at the connectors on the socket, does one look like a screw type connector and the other two standard aerial sockets?

[Gonzo]

buuger the satellite socket holes didn't align properly in the e-mail above ...

mine are (which I've now found 3 of these socket types in my living room):

..........
............

I can't help but there are a couple of those in my flat and I have always wondered what they were for.

When you find out, let me know. Thanks.

[eliquant]

buuger the satellite socket holes didn't align properly in the e-mail above ...

mine are (which I've now found 3 of these socket types in my living room):

..........
............



the dual satellite point connection ones (an example on sky.com):

.. ........
.............


and the single satellite point connection (an example on sky.com)


....

[eliquant]

I've been looking around websites etc. exact information is sparse regarding what I need installed in order to get Sky HD (High Definition) into my flat.

I moved into my 1st floor London flat 1 year ago and saw that the previous occupant had left a Sky+ box around disgarded, in my main living room I have two sockets on seperate walls with 3 holes in triangular formation as below:

O
O O

Question is are these specially designed for Sky satallite connectivity ? Are they likely to be connected to a dish somewhere in our loft / roof hidden away (I cannot see anything on our communal roof).

I Also keep reading that a Sky HD Box will also need connection to a BT phone line, would this screw up by BT Yahoo Broadband if I attempt to use the two services simultaneously ?

The TV is actually on a seperate wall to the two (satelite?) socket and also to the BT phone socket, will Sky themselves do the internal flat cablelling to my TV or do I have to pay an independent ?

Also I keep reading about single LBN and dual LBN .. dunno what it related to is it the number of cables from the mini dish to your Satellite socket in one's flat ?

Finally I read that for full SKY HD functioanlity it is required that you to have a 'Dual Satellite point connection' faceplate on your wall with SAT 1 and SAT 2 connection holes .. rather like this below (which I don't seem to have) ...

O O

O O


Whereas according to Sky if you have a Single Satellite point connection then your "recording" of Sky HD will be limited and they had a diagram of this socket, how limited that would be, I don't know...:

O
O
O

The question is how easy would it be to convert the triangular sockets in my flat to Dual Satellite Sockets for Sky HD ?



Cheers, any advice given will make me sleep easier... thanks ...

Mr Clueless.