Apartment Living

Agent Smith

OK, here's my Predicament


I have a southern facing Apartment, and Would like to be able to avoid getting UPC for cable tv.


I'm not allowed erect a satellite dish on the wall, however i have an idea regarding getting TV.


1. If i can get it directed propperly. can the sky signal go threw a balcony window? (plain glass)

John mac

think so, if you can hide it on the balcony it may give better results.

there are quite a few threads on here about how to do it and other options.

Apogee

Yes, as long as the glass isn't metal-lined and/or the angle between the dish and glass isn't too acute.

There was a nice photo of a dish on a thread here, but the link seems to be broken. This is a similar idea.


An offset dish can be easily hidden away since the 'viewing angle' is higher than what you might think:


Or even mounted horizontally:

Hylus83

Have you checked whether your apartment is already wired up (or plans to be wired up) for Sky's shared dish system? (http://www.sky.com/ireland/boxes/skyinyourapartment/)

They only require at least 3 residents to register their interest and they'll contact your managememt agency. Of course it's also worth raising the request with your managememt agency yourself as well citing superior HD services & allowing residents to have a choice of TV providers rather than one cable company monopolising the complex.

That's what I did & in fairness, they listened & are wiring it up this week for all residents who want to avail of it in my block in D6.

Bye bye UPC & your poor offering of HD channels

STB

Hylus83 wrote: »

Have you checked whether your apartment is already wired up (or plans to be wired up) for Sky's shared dish system? (http://www.sky.com/ireland/boxes/skyinyourapartment/)

They only require at least 3 residents to register their interest and they'll contact your managememt agency. Of course it's also worth raising the request with your managememt agency yourself as well citing superior HD services & allowing residents to have a choice of TV providers rather than one cable company monopolising the complex.

That's what I did & in fairness, they listened & are wiring it up this week for all residents who want to avail of it in my block in D6.

Bye bye UPC & your poor offering of HD channels

So now you have a duoploy ? Why didnt you get an independent sat installer to provide the communal dish and wiring ?

Then you would have had free (including HD) feeds to those apartments.

Hylus83

STB wrote: »

So now you have a duoploy ? Why didnt you get an independent sat installer to provide the communal dish and wiring ?

Then you would have had free (including HD) feeds to those apartments.

Because I wanted sky - but there's nothing stopping residents from connecting a freesat box to the satellite cables that feed each apartment (or at least I don't think there is) either way - it's better than having no choice of alternative provider.

STB

Hylus83 wrote: »

Because I wanted sky - but there's nothing stopping residents from connecting a freesat box to the satellite cables that feed each apartment (or at least I don't think there is) either way - it's better than having no choice of alternative provider.

You do realise Sky is a business. They will only allow those who pay use the shared dish, hence my original comment about an independent installer not SKY. Then the decision to join sky becomes an individual one.

I posted on this before as I had similar problems.

Hylus83

STB wrote: »

You do realise Sky is a business. They will only allow those who pay use the shared dish, hence my original comment about an independent installer not SKY. Then the decision to join sky becomes an individual one.

I posted on this before as I had similar problems.

I think the managememt agency may have got an independent installer actually because when I rang the number on the leaflets that were put in everyone's letter box, it wasn't sky who picked up the phone it was just some local business who carry out such installations - a re-seller possibly? They told me to ring them when i was ready to order & not sky's ordering hotline. Also, when I rang up sky about it, they had no record of the complex being wired.

Will let you know how it all plays out. I'm curious as to how they'll feed each apartment with the satellite signal - I hope they don't disrupt / use the existing UPC cable points which feed the apartment because I have really fast broadband with UPC which I won't want to loose if they do.

STB

Hylus83 wrote: »

I think the managememt agency may have got an independent installer actually because when I rang the number on the leaflets that were put in everyone's letter box, it wasn't sky who picked up the phone it was just some local business who carry out such installations - a re-seller possibly? They told me to ring them when i was ready to order & not sky's ordering hotline. Also, when I rang up sky about it, they had no record of the complex being wired.

Will let you know how it all plays out. I'm curious as to how they'll feed each apartment with the satellite signal - I hope they don't disrupt / use the existing UPC cable points which feed the apartment because I have really fast broadband with UPC which I won't want to loose if they do.

If you have 10 minutes on your hands.

Tv points in general are wired for TV. Its about pleasing everybody. So TV cable points should be used for Free Sat/Terrestrial TV and after that people individually can use these to connect to more services such as sky with just a sky box.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056130592

As you will see, it does cheese off certain posters on boards. See can you spot the UPC man......
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056058447

Apogee

Apogee wrote: »

=
There was a nice photo of a dish on a thread here, but the link seems to be broken.

Got it!

The photo shows both how the dish will work behind glass and also, because of the high viewing angle, can be neatly hidden away.

STB

The cactus has to go though.

tmcw

Apogee wrote: »

....
Or even mounted horizontally:

I was thinking about making some type of temporary stand for a dish, and through google came across some plans on an RV site for making one out of plumbing pipes. Nearly all the designs showed the dish on it's back like in the photo above.

Is there a reduction in the signal strength using the dish like this? I'm sure it probably doesn't make much of a difference for the stronger sats, but maybe for the harder-to-get ones? I've always imagined that with the dish more perpendicular to the waves coming in, that the dish would gather more of the signal, or is it a matter of if the total surface of the dish is exposed to the waves, they're going to get directed to the LNB anyway?

I'm highly tempted to try this! If only I had a dish knocking about...

Apogee

tmcw wrote: »

Is there a reduction in the signal strength using the dish like this? I'm sure it probably doesn't make much of a difference for the stronger sats, but maybe for the harder-to-get ones?

No reduction in signal strength. However, as the LNBF is now pointing towards the ground, it may pick up more thermal noise, depending on how well the feedhorn matches the dish. But the impact should be small or negligible.

tmcw

Thanks Apogee, I might do some experiments first with a bean-bag, see if the dish I'm planning on using will get the sats I'm likely to be seeking. All going well, might give the plumbers-pipe stand a go, should be cheap, and won't go rusty. Less prone to the wind too, I imagine.