Have your say & ask the experts

I am getting a standard Sky+ installation for one room, but would like it in two room on two seperate TV's The house has 3 aerial points hardwired, how can I add in myself additional boxes for the second room after the initial installation using a separately bought used decoder? In other words how do I conect a second box to the dish myself;  or can only the sky engineer do this?

 

If you want the same channels on the second box you will need a multiroom sub and sky would do this for you.

To DIY install a STB.
You would need to run sat grade cable to the lnb.
You would need to check if you have any spare outputs on the lnb that you currently have.
The lnb is the bit that the cables connect to up on the dish.
Sky prefer this to be one continous cable so not sure about using any points already in place.

As you are getting Sky+ the standard install will be a quad lnb so after using 2 outputs for your sky+ you will have 2 available to use.

Is there any reason why you don't want sky to do this?

No reason other than cost. I presume from what you are saying that one box then can operate two TV sets in different rooms, but multiroom is a higher subscription cost presumably.

With one subscription you can run one box.
The channels that you subscribe to can be distributed via RF to as many TV's as you want, but the box will only output the currently selected channel.
So what I am saying is that if Sky1 is tuned on the box all outputs will get this.
You cannot view different channels at the same time from the same box.

I did not know why you wanted a second box?

This can only show channels that it is subscribed to.
It will not show you the same channels as the other box unless it is in a multiroom agreement.
So with no multiroom you would only get FTA channels.
Also the viewing cards are paired to the box so swapping them about is not a practicle option.

I simply want the same channels on two seprate TV's. If I wanted to be able to view different channels on the two sets in different rooms I understand that I would need a multiroom subscription. My question wasnt very clear, in the original post, all I want to be able to do is add a second TV set to the same box output. Is this possible using the existing sockets in the house, or will it require the second TV set to be connected directly the sky box by running a second cable between the two (which given it will be in a diferent room is completely impractical)

Using RF 2 output on the Sky+ using RF cable to your existing RF distribution will distributed the RF picture whereever you want it.

Add a magic eye and you can control the Sky+ from where the magic eye is fitted to the RF signal.
This would usually be in the RF cable at the back of the TV.
You would need to check that any junctions in the RF would bridge the 6v that the magic eye needs to work from the Sky+.
Many distribution systems will distrupt the 6v so you have to check if they are compatible with a magic eye.

The power output for RF2 is enabled via the engineers menu on the Sky+.
In this scenario you do not need a second box.
All output is via RF, so is RF quality and only mono.
If this is what you want it is as easy as that.

Is it really impossible to run a composite cable to the other room? You are likely to be dis-satisfied with the RF picture. We have our single SKY HD box wired to 5 TV's. 2 on HDMI, 1 composite and 2 RF via the distribution box. The RF pictures are only tolerable on the small screens upstairs where sound is not important either. 

Though of course if you run a composite cable, you'll have to run audio, too...

digigriffin:

Using RF 2 output on the Sky+ using RF cable to your existing RF distribution will distributed the RF picture whereever you want it.

Add a magic eye and you can control the Sky+ from where the magic eye is fitted to the RF signal.
This would usually be in the RF cable at the back of the TV.
You would need to check that any junctions in the RF would bridge the 6v that the magic eye needs to work from the Sky+.
Many distribution systems will distrupt the 6v so you have to check if they are compatible with a magic eye.

If the distribution amp doesn't allow DC pass-through then the OP could always add an By-pass kit such as this!If a magic eye is only required on one tv set,

Andrew Everard:

Though of course if you run a composite cable, you'll have to run audio, too...

True. And also true if you run coaxial cable because the RF output carries only mono audio - unless you are happy with mono.

Best picture and sound quality would be provided by a (flat ribbon?) Scart cable carrying RGB and stereo (up to 30 metres). S-Video cable would be a reasonable compromise.

Or you can use a CAT5 cable system.