Please help - big problem sending sky/tv to other rooms

[masonaa]

I've just moved house and inherited what looks like a sat cable link system from main tv/sky to 2 other rooms (bathroom where tv is in the wall so can't tell how it connects, though think there is a cable feed from sat box RF2 out, plus bedroom where plasma is wall mounted and can't see how cable arrangement works).

The cables coming in to main tv/sat box are:
2 sets of 2 cables...
Set 1 - one brown coaxial TV ariel, plus one black male sat type cable (currently not connected in my setup, and only spare connection is RF1 out on sky box)
Set 2 - one cable going to RF2 out on sky box (which makes tv in bathroom work when connected), with the other cable going to dish input on sky box.

My bathroom TV gets channels 1-5 only (no sky) and picture is fairly poor until external coaxial TV ariel is plugged in to Ariel In on sky box.

In the bedroom, I have 2 loose cables - 1 male and 1 female. There were apparently connected to a dvd player by previous owner allowing sky & tv to be piped to this room and dvds to be played. Everything is behind finished walls so can't see what's going on, but there is only one of these cables going into the wall mounted plasma as input.

Please help me get my bedroom tv working (basic 1-5 tv would be great, but really want to send sky to this room too, accepting can't change channel)!!! I would also love to be able to send the sky to my bathroom tv.

Previous owner reckons all I need to do is to buy a cheap dvd player for bedroom and plug in the 2 cables. What inputs/outputs would I need on DVD player? I also unplugged sky box whilst decorating and didn't take note of the cables and connections so may have it all wrong.

Many thanks!!
Alan

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Alan.

I'm going to have to think about this one!

[BGonaSTICK]

OK, here come the questions

Firstly, what type of satellite box do you have (Sky or Sky plus?) and do you have a subscription? Do you have Sky's multiroom option and a second Sky digibox anywhere?

Did you inherit the Sky box with the rest of the installation? Did the previous owner say what type of Sky setup he had, subscription type and whatnot?

Now, is the brown TV aerial cable what it appears? Can you trace it back outside and up to a TV aerial?
Let's assume for the moment that it is, and you can.

While you're out there, have a look at your satelite dish. Does it have one or two black cables coming from the LNB at the end of the dish boom? I'm going to guess two at this point.

Now, if you have two black leads coming from the dish LNB, try this:
Unplug the digibox from the mains. Unscrew the black cable in cableset 2 from the digibox Dish Input, but mark it with some tape first.
Connect instead, the black sat-type cable from cableset 1. Power up the box again. Can you still get satellite channels, and change between them freely? Power off, and swap back.

Originally Posted by masonaa

The cables coming in to main tv/sat box are:
2 sets of 2 cables...
Set 1 - one brown coaxial TV ariel, plus one black male sat type cable (currently not connected in my setup, and only spare connection is RF1 out on sky box)
Set 2 - one cable going to RF2 out on sky box (which makes tv in bathroom work when connected), with the other cable going to dish input on sky box.

Originally Posted by masonaa

My bathroom TV gets channels 1-5 only (no sky) and picture is fairly poor until external coaxial TV ariel is plugged in to Ariel In on sky box.

OK, that makes sense at this stage, and suggests that RF2 on the digibox is indeed connected to the bathroom TV, and that the brown TV aerial coax is a TV aerial : - just checking!

Originally Posted by masonaa

In the bedroom, I have 2 loose cables - 1 male and 1 female. There were apparently connected to a dvd player by previous owner allowing sky & tv to be piped to this room and dvds to be played. Everything is behind finished walls so can't see what's going on, but there is only one of these cables going into the wall mounted plasma as input.

Please help me get my bedroom tv working (basic 1-5 tv would be great, but really want to send sky to this room too, accepting can't change channel)!!! I would also love to be able to send the sky to my bathroom tv.

Are they both standard TV coaxial-type cables? If so, they are probably just an RF in and RF out lopopthough arrangement used, as you say with a DVD player which supports RF loopthrough. Get a M-F adapter and join them together, or connect an old VCR or something and see if you can get your bedroom TV working. Let us know what you get. If one of the two cables has an F connector (a sat cable) let us know before going any further.

Originally Posted by masonaa

Previous owner reckons all I need to do is to buy a cheap dvd player for bedroom and plug in the 2 cables. What inputs/outputs would I need on DVD player?

Yes, that sounds right. The DVD player must have RF in and RF out. That's all. I take it that you'll not be using SCART as you can't get to the back of either the bathroom or bedroom TV's?

I suspect (hope, for your sake ) that the output from RF2 of your digibox goes to an RF splitter/booster (which will be mains powered...) with one output going to your bathroom TV and the other output going to the bedroom, and just waiting to be plugged in.

Answer that lot, and we'll move onto the next stage

STICK

[masonaa]

thanks Stick, I'll check out your questions and assumptions and come back to you shortly
Alan

[masonaa]

ok, here goes answers to your questions...

1) I have a sky dish and panasonic sky digibox (inhertited) with no subscription. I will, however, be getting Sky HD installed with subscription in a few weeks time (still want to be able to watch tv & ideally sky in bathroom and bedroom as well as main lounge)
2) The brown coaxial cable is definitely TV ariel
3) My sat dish only has 1 cable coming from end of dish boom

I've now been able to work out that I have TV ariel and sky connection cable coming in. Added to that are 2 x satellite style cables - one feeds through to behind bathroom TV, the other goes behind walls/ceiling to my bedroom tv.

I've connected the spare male cable to RF1 on skybox which has given me channels 1-5 in my bedroom - exact same setup as bathroom with poor picture until TV ariel is connected to sky digibox. To get any picture at all, I connected the loose male and female cables together in the bedroom as I don't have a spare DVD or video. I've checked the connection types and they look like 'push on' F connectors with satelite type cable/ends.

I've also found a power switch saying "TV - leave on". Could this be the RF splitter/booster you mention?
You're also correct that I can't get to back of either TV to connect scart so want to make best of existing cabling arrangements.

Think I'm getting there!

So outstanding questions / issues are:
a) how do I transmit sky (free channels for now) pictures & sound to my bedroom and bathroom with this set-up?
b) do I still need a DVD player for bedroom with RF input and output to get this working best? ...or is this only required if I also want to watch DVDs in bedroom?
c) will anything change when I get sky HD installed?

thanks a million,
alan

[BGonaSTICK]

OK, I need to digest some of the detail, as having had a quick read, I think some of my assumptions regarding the cables you have at the digibox end were wrong.

Let's answer your final questions first, as that might have a bearing on what you decide to do.

Firstly, question b. Are the two cables you have free in the bedroom both TV aerial-style push-fit RF connections, one male and one female? If so, then you're correct. Just join them together, or run them into/out of a DVD player with RF loopthrough if you want DVD too. If that's not the case, are they the screw-on style 'F' connectors, like the one on the 'Dish In' connector on the digibox?

See pics attached.

Question c. Everything will change when you get Sky HD! The LNB on your dish will be changed. They will fit one with not one or even two outputs, but four!

Sky HD is the same as Sky plus in terms of dish connections. It has a twin tuner, so that you can watch one channel while recording another. The second pair of connections are there in case you want a second twin-tuner Plus or HD box in another room.

They will then (if you take that option) physically fit a second digibox, and run two new cables to it from the dish and charge you an extra subscription premium for what Sky calls 'Multiroom'. This is just like having two separate Sky installations. They are totally independent. They both have to be connected to the same phone line too

IIRC it's an extra £10 a month for the second digibox.

If you don't want that, then you should be able to distribute your standard Sky channels around the house as you are now, over RF. you can even control the digibox downstairs from the bedroom using a standard Sky remote with something called a Sky TV eye.

Have a look at this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...=SEO&U=strat15

Finally, make sure everything is connected. Brown aerial lead connected to RF/Aerial In on digibox, and both the bedroom and bathroom TV's connected to RF1 and 2. Picture quality OK on Ch 1-5 on both TV's? Now turn off the power socket marked 'TV - leave on' and tell me what happens to both TV pictures.

STICK

[masonaa]

Thanks Stick.
I'm not 100% sure of bedroom connection types - I think they are RF but have attached actual picture for you to check. There is a single white cable going into bedroom TV 'tuner' input - (bad) photo also attached as will have relevance for sky remote link.

I won't be going for multi-room so want to make best of the basic kit I will have.

Like the sound of the sky remote & link kit for bedroom but worried it won't connect as I only have access to the 2 x cables as per pictures and TV is wall mounted so couldn't really have anything hanging from aeriel input?

When I turn the "TV do not switch off" switch off when good picture quality in bedroom and bathroom TVs, nothing happens and no loss of picture quality! Can only assume this is a power only feed elsewhere in house - previously had a TV in kitchen through the wall where the grey power cable coming out the switch seems to head.

I know for sure that previous owner could pipe sky to bedroom and bathroom as he showed me this before we bought the place. I don't seem to be able to see any sky pictures, even when roatating through all of the inputs / channels on bedroom and bathroom TVs.[/img]

thanks again,
Alan

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Alan.

I'll take a good look this evening, as I have an appointment with some very large, very angry carp this afternoon

If I remember correctly, you can only get the sky output from the SCART sockets on the digibox - but don't panic, I'm pretty sure that if you employ a converter box (or an old VCR) you can pipe the resultant RF equivalent out to your TV's. I'll have a check/read up tonight and get back to you.

Maybe you could try it if you can borrow or steal an old VCR to test with.

Digibox - SCART - VCR - RF - TV

You surely can do this without paying for multiroom, and RF is the way to go

[BGonaSTICK]

OK, was a bit cream-crackered last light, but I've had a quick play this morning. I wanted to check this out myself before giving you any bum info, as I don't use RF, only SCART.

During my experiments, a first scan of the RF outs would only bring up terrestrial analogue, as you have. This didn't seem quite right though, contrary to my post above. Before I move onto how to sort that out, I then tried the VCR trick.

I took the TV out SCART from the digibox and ran it into the VCR AV1 input SCART and set the auto-tune process off on the VCR. The RF out connection from the VCR then produced a Sky output on the TV via it's Aerial in socket. Cool. I also tried this with the VCR SCART socket on the digibox. Also fine. For good measure, I also tested both using AV2 on the VCR. Still all OK.

Then I got to thinking about the RF outs on the digibox. Of course they should produce Sky output, but nothing on my TV.

I'm going to take a wild guess here and suggest that the digibox you're using now is not the same physical digibox that the previous owner had working. I guess he tweaked his.

Here's how I got the RF outs working on my digibox.

Press 'Services', and then, without pausing, press 4, 0, 1, select.

That brings up the installers menu. Select 4, the RF outputs item.

Now, alter the RF Channel number to a different value (I changed mine from 68 to 22), make sure the 'RF Outlet Power Supply' option is turned on (this is for use with the Sky remote eye device should you chose to use it) and then select the 'Save New Settings' option.

Try either RF1 or RF2 outlets again to one or the other of your remote TV's. Both RF1 and RF2 are on the same (new) channel. If it doesn't work, or you get a bum picture, change the RF channel on the digibox slightly until everything's OK.

The cable pictures you have attached (thanks - a picture's so much easier!) are indeed RF by the look of them, it's just that someone's used satellite-type F connectors as well. Not a problem. As I said before, you can either just join them as you have, or insert a DVD player as discussed above.

The 'TV - don't touch' thing must just be a mains power supply for the kitchen telly, so forget it. It looks like you don't have an amplifier installed anywhere. This will probably be OK if you just run one extra TV off RF1 and one off RF2.

To use the TV remote eyes, you have to use RF2. If you want to use this on more than one remote TV, then you should take the output from RF2 of the digibox, and run it through an amplifier/splitter box with at least two outputs, and that categorically states that it works with Sky's remote TV eyes. Most don't. The two outputs from that would then go to your two TV's.

The fitting of the remote eyes is purely a matter of whether it's practical or not, but you should just be able to insert it where you have the cable join, even though it's not right by the TV.

Have a look at the excellent range of stuff available from Satcure here:

http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page3.htm

Good luck Alan. Let us know how it goes.

STICK

[masonaa]

:clap:
Thanks Stick, you've cracked it now for me!

I switched RF channel to 21 on digibox (same one which I did inherit too) which gives good quality picture to bathroom TV but somehow only ok picture to bedroom - some lines etc in picture.

Any suggestions for how I can fix this...perhaps some sort of signal booster?
I'm not very technical as you can tell!

I owe you one Stick!
Also hoping still works with Sky HD via RF out?

cheers,
Alan