New Standard Sky Hd Box

steveon

Installed one of these today as part of a multiroom, very uninpressed as they dont have any RF outlet anymore, just a scart and a hdmi connection....

TouchingVirus

Will be insisting on the old type if our box has to go back to a service - we use the RF out to put Sky in the other rooms of the house

Marco85

getin two standard hd boxes installed on monday in bedrooms. what is rf outlet???

steveon

RF outlet is where u want to run a cable out of box to another room and use say a magic eye to enable you to change channels in another room. Has been standard feature on all sky boxes until now.

Although you can add this feature yourself it is quite expensive and so it has been a great way of being able to sell sky until now..

Marco85

cheers pal,wont affect me so wont complain about it! other than that what do u make of the boxes???

Cantona's Collars

Use video senders,however I read on digitalspy that there is a workaround.

I suppose Sky reckon if you have a HD box why would you need RF out for the worst possible picture from the box.A bit strange anyway considering Sky actually advertise Sky branded magic eyes and so many use them.

Sam the Aerialman

Is there still an RF1 to loop out a modulator? What exactly is the thinking apart from cost cutting in reducing a Sky HD box to a Freesat box - It is a benefit to offer the extra rooms through a by amp and the eyes. More money grabbing to push extra boxes and multiroom subscriptions no doubt.

kbell

Post i made on Zerk's thread..


Installed 3 of these this week so far.
Compact little unit,just a little bit bigger than a normal fta receiver.
No rf out, optical or audio.
Front panel has power, ch up and down, back up button only.
Call backs are faster as there's no channel scan, box calls back straight away after you've confirmed you're connected to dish etc....
Adding extra channels is a pain if you've become speedy on the menu on the current Sky+ HD. When you input your values, hit yellow and store, the menu reverts back to its default values and you have to input all the data again, instead of holding what you've just inputted so you just have to re enter the 5 digit sequence...
It comes with a normal Sky+ HD remote, colour coded HDMI lead and power supply.
As its using the HD remote, its going to be a pain for anyone that has or wants the Sky+HD and multi room box in one location as the remote signals will conflict and operate both boxes, if you're using them with remote extenders.

Sam the Aerialman

Curious now... Any pics?

kbell

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056199152

Cantona's Collars

Back of the new box.



Another view.



Compared to old standard box.

Sam the Aerialman

These boxes must run on single feed mode or have a single tuner? Assuming these bog standard boxes have no PVR function.

Seems strange Sky would push a limited FTA style box over the normal HD box with all the additional money making options. Maybe i've missed a market here...

Finne1993

I have a 8 way HDMI distribution unit in my own house for the SkyHD and have the RF signal which also includes all the analogue channels distributed to the 8 outputs with a magic eye on each, meaning I can watch the HD picture at each point and am also able to change the channels at each point. I've installed many systems like this and also systems with regular Sky+ with a scart RGB distribution unit.
It would be a shame if the long term plan was to do away with the RF2 output as its so so handy for set ups like this.

Sam the Aerialman

Finne1993 wrote: »

I have a 8 way HDMI distribution unit in my own house for the SkyHD and have the RF signal which also includes all the analogue channels distributed to the 8 outputs with a magic eye on each, meaning I can watch the HD picture at each point and am also able to change the channels at each point. I've installed many systems like this and also systems with regular Sky+ with a scart RGB distribution unit.
It would be a shame if the long term plan was to do away with the RF2 output as its so so handy for set ups like this.

My thinking is Sky want to push extra boxes and increase multiroom subscriptions. The issue is probably the cost of the modulator in the box, i remember talking with a chap from Freesat at the CAI conference about adding a modulator to a Freesat box to allow it to RF out. It was the difference of being competitive and manufacturing the boxes at a knock down price. It would seem Sky are trying to squeeze every drop out their margins...

watty

What the point of a Modulator in a box as additional HD box for another room?

I think with falling cost of Sat distribution and boxes, even for FTA, receiver at each Tv make more sense than poor quality SD (the modulators are poor compared to off air analogue), no HD and no Stereo and risk of interference (modulator uses up two channels and usually interference on a few more).

homer simpson

Well TBH it makes good business sense for sky to do this as the lose out on €15 per month of each person who use's the RF out (like me ) to direct / change channels in another room in the house. That being said they have most of the country over the barrel enough as it is but was kinda inevitable that they would do this at some stage.

watty

It's cheap enough to buy a "Freesat HD" box. No subscription and the highest watched pay Channels are less than 2% viewing time.