Getting around the multiroom

[nickc25]

Hi
I have sky+ HD in my living room and paying for movies, sports etc basically everything apart from ESPN and Porn lol

I want to use it upstairs but sky charge £15 per month or whatever it is.

I have seen adverts in the paper people offering to put the cable in for upstairs viewing but do I still have to pay for multiroom?

I was thinking of either taking the sky+ box upstairs and plugging it in etc when I go to bed so I can watch

or

Buying a 2nd sky+ box for £60 or so on ebay and having it turned off during the day but then at night just taking the viewing card from downstairs and putting it in the upstairs box.

Would that work?

I realise I would not be able to watch both boxes at the same time (although maybe for FTA channels if someone could confirm?) but just wondering if this was at all possible?

Thanks

[Rick]

So long as you have a feed from the dish, you can move the box no problem and it will work fine. Just don't forget to turn it off before you start unplugging things.

If you buy a second box, you will be able to watch any of the FTA channels on it regardless of what the box downstairs is doing. Though you can't move the card as they are paired to the reciever.

Have you considered a video sender, or even running a cable from the box downstairs to the tv upstairs. With either solution it's possible to have full functionality of the reciever, but obvioulsy whatever channel the box is on wil be displayed on both tv's, and your limited to SD on the upstairs TV.

[nickc25]

Hi
Cheers for the reply. I have one of those magic eye things but the quality is terrible. My house is not very good for even my wifi so this sender thing is pretty blocky etc with poor signal.

The other issue is wanting to be able to watch HD quality as I have a large HD Tv in my bedroom which is only a few inches smaller than the living room.

Currently I have a cable box in the bedroom but the channels are not on, even E4...

So the best bet for me seems to be to get a cable installed and move the box every night?

Or are you saying about the Viewing card could I phone sky and tell them about the box or can it only be paired with 1 box at a time? So at the moment I wouldnt be able to for example get a 2nd box and watch sky sports HD on it because the card is paired with the downstairs box? Cheers

[Rick]

The card can only be paired to one reciever at a time. So i guess you are stuck with either paying for multiroom, or getting another feed installed and moving the box

[charlie1966]

If you want HD signal upstairs but don't want to pay for multiroom then I see 2 options.
1. Split the HD signal and run a HDMI cable to the bedroom. Note that HDMI cables of longer runs than 15mtrs may suffer signal loss and you might need to include a repeater. You can still use the magic eye to send the remote signal back to the receiver.
2. There are now available wireless HD senders, but as you have some issues with sending wireless signals around the house this may not be a solution. Also these senders are expensive. I have never used them so I don't know how good they are. Here is a link to one model. The Air HD | Wireless HDMI | Wireless HD | Wireless HDMI Transmitter

Neither option is particularly cheep but then if you want a HD signal in the second room then you are going to have to invest.

[nickc25]

Originally Posted by charlie1966

If you want HD signal upstairs but don't want to pay for multiroom then I see 2 options.
1. Split the HD signal and run a HDMI cable to the bedroom. Note that HDMI cables of longer runs than 15mtrs may suffer signal loss and you might need to include a repeater. You can still use the magic eye to send the remote signal back to the receiver.
2. There are now available wireless HD senders, but as you have some issues with sending wireless signals around the house this may not be a solution. Also these senders are expensive. I have never used them so I don't know how good they are. Here is a link to one model. The Air HD | Wireless HDMI | Wireless HD | Wireless HDMI Transmitter

Neither option is particularly cheep but then if you want a HD signal in the second room then you are going to have to invest.

That AIR HD thing isnt as expensive as some of the others I have seen at around £600 or so, problem is I cannot find any reviews for it.

When I say bad wireless signal, on this current magic eye thing it is a poor picture quality, but it may be the product because it was not expensive.

I have 50mb internet connection but when I go downstairs it goes down to about 20mb, my house is made of stone and metal mesh (I think that is whats inside), when the VM person came years ago he said it is common in these type of houses for poor wireless signal etc.

I think Ill either move the box around or get one of these wireless things if I can find reviews or one from the UK..

Cheers

[madrat]

You can use the card in any box without pairing it but you wont be able to watch the movies or sports channels, all other channels will work.

[Rick]

Originally Posted by madrat

You can use the card in any box without pairing it but you wont be able to watch the movies or sports channels, all other channels will work.

That has been known to screw up the pairing info on the card, and can render the card useless in any box. Sometimes they can be re-paired but other times the card will need to be replaced.

The old blue cards used to be fine to switch, but the new white ones are more fickle.

[madrat]

Mine gets swapped nearly every weekend and several times a week, not had a problem yet.

[charlie1966]

Another option occurred to me is to run HDMI over CAT5 cable. You will still need a HDMI splitter at the HD box, but the cable is easier to deal with than running a long HDMI cable. Also HDMI over CAT5 can run for a lot longer distances.
Something like http://www.pixels.uk.com/products/DataBay/HDMI_E102/HDMI-E102.htm?gclid=CJey0bm-_KMCFQX92AodSWAZIg