Which Satellite?

Irishgoatman

I've had a quick look for an answer but too many threads to go through!.


Simple question: I'm about to be given a Sky and a Sky+ box.
Can one or both of these boxes be connected to my dish, which is pointing at Astra2 sat. or will I have to re-position the dish to another satellite ?.

Many thanks in advance.:)

lucernarian

Either/or will work fine with the dish as it is. I.e.it will pick up the FTA channels from Astra 2, including the BBCs and ITV/C4. What dish the box is pointed at won't make a difference as the sky boxes can tune in channels from any broadcasting satellite it is pointed to using the "other channels" feature.

But, if you want recording (and live pause) functions on the sky+ box then you'll need two cables going from the sky+ box to the dish. The other sky box if it's to be used along with the sky+ box will also need its own cable.

Some older dishes will have one output and will need a part on the dish swapped for this: e.g. http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/LNB_Quad__for_Sky_Minidish.html

once you can get to the dish easily enough, installing an LNB with 4 outputs is easy.

Otherwise it's just a case of bringing two cables down to the sky+ box and another for the other sky box if you use that too. You can't just use a splitter for one cable coming from a satellite dish unfortunately.

Irishgoatman

Thanks To Be Confirmed,

I've got 4 outputs on the lnb so I'm o.k in that respect.

Please don't get me started on recording!. At the moment I've got 3 DVD recorders connected and 1 that I'm just using as a player, plus the fact that my T.V has a built-in recorder for the digital tuner when the switch over happens, and then I'll figure out which cable goes where and which remote control controls which box and why don't I just forget it and go out for some guinness!!!.:D

But in the mean time I'll save your message for future reference so many thanks.
Irishgoatman (Dave)

lucernarian

Irishgoatman wrote: »

Thanks To Be Confirmed,

I've got 4 outputs on the lnb so I'm o.k in that respect.

Please don't get me started on recording!. At the moment I've got 3 DVD recorders connected and 1 that I'm just using as a player, plus the fact that my T.V has a built-in recorder for the digital tuner when the switch over happens, and then I'll figure out which cable goes where and which remote control controls which box and why don't I just forget it and go out for some guinness!!!.:D

But in the mean time I'll save your message for future reference so many thanks.
Irishgoatman (Dave)

No worries, I made a couple of corrections to that post to make it a little clearer. Another important thing I should mention is that the Sky+ box will not have recording features or live pause unless you have a sky subscription active!

So there's little point in connecting up the sky+ box with 2 cables if you're sticking with free-to-air. The other sky box would still need its own dedicated cable if also used.

Irishgoatman

Thanks, your first posting was clear to me.

Ta.

Irishgoatman

Hi,
I've connected the sky+hd box up in place of my generic (Aldi) box, which I'm moving into another room, but for some reason can't receive ITV or CH4 as free to air stations! all other stations no problem. Can anyone help me please.
I'm hoping that To Be Confirmed will have the answer.

Thanks.

John mac

Irishgoatman wrote: »

Hi,
I've connected the sky+hd box up in place of my generic (Aldi) box, which I'm moving into another room, but for some reason can't receive ITV or CH4 as free to air stations! all other stations no problem. Can anyone help me please.
I'm hoping that To Be Confirmed will have the answer.

Thanks.

you need to add them to other channels.

settings here

Irishgoatman

Thanks John mac,

Just had a look at those instructions!. Wish my computor was near the T.V. and sat box. Looks as though I'll have to do a print out to follow that lot.

Again, many thanks.

Irishgoatman

More help needed.

I've followed the instructions that John mac directed me to in order to get UTV.
All that happens is that I completely lose the satellite signal as soon as the freequency/station is found and the only thing to do then is to power off, power on and start again. Just seems to lock the box?. Other ITV's are listed in Other Channels and they work fine. It just will not accept any of the stations shown when frequency 10906 is entered. Have tried 3 or 4 times to make sure that I was doing it right but no success.

Advice please.

Irishgoatman

Forgot to add that at one time I reconnected my other box and all UTV type and other U.K. f.t.a. stations O.K.

John mac

the newer hd boxes do not default to the London they stay on the irish one,

the older box will show them as the defaut epg is the uk /london one .

Irishgoatman

Got it at last!!!!

What a palaver, suffice it to say , not as straight foreward as it looks.
If anyone needs to know tell me and I'll post it, otherwise many thanks for the help.

John mac

Irishgoatman wrote: »

Got it at last!!!!

What a palaver, suffice it to say , not as straight foreward as it looks.
If anyone needs to know tell me and I'll post it, otherwise many thanks for the help.

go on and tell us. tell us..

Irishgoatman

O.K.

Go through the procedure as per the link you gave me. No problem.

Then what I was doing was moving back up to "Other Channels" and clicking on the station that I had added, and this wasn't just UTV, when I did this the mini TV displayed a message saying "No signal detected" and everything just froze. I then had to power off, power on (back to stand by) then wait for the box to reset itself before switching it on. When it was switched back on and I again moved to "Other channels", lo and behold, the channels I had added had gone!.
After going round in circles and pulling my hair out for an hour or so I discovered that if after adding the new channels I just switched off and powered off, when everything came back to life, the new channels were there in "Other channels" and working fine.

I didn't see this in the instructions so maybe it's just my box, although I don't see why it should be so.

All working now.

Irishgoatman

Having read my own posting I can see how it's the same as downloading a new prog for the computer insofar as you need, most times, to re-boot in order for the computer to recognise that something has been added.

Didn't think of it in those terms at the time.