HD Freesat & Wii-HDMI

donny-gal

Just a couple of quick questions, hope this is the right place.

We have sky, but are considering HDFreesat for Office/Second Lounge/Spare Bedrrom call it what you will, if we get a dual LNB (I think that is what they are called) can we continue to have sky to the main TV, and take a cable to the other room and connect it to a HD Freesat box? If not is there a way?

If it is viable somehow, what is your recommendations regarding the HDSat Box?

Currently Sky togeher with terrestrial TV is available in that room via aerial cable transmitted from the back of the sky box, we need a new TV in there so if I cannot do anything to get HD Freesat in there, then there is no need for a superspec 32" LCD I beleive as if we got SkyHD, it would not re-transmit HD this way , so what is the best spec/value to look for?

Thanks
DG

gjchester

donny-gal wrote: »

Just a couple of quick questions, hope this is the right place.

We have sky, but are considering HDFreesat for Office/Second Lounge/Spare Bedrrom call it what you will, if we get a dual LNB (I think that is what they are called) can we continue to have sky to the main TV, and take a cable to the other room and connect it to a HD Freesat box? If not is there a way?

Correct.
However you may be as well getting a Quad LNB they are pretty much the same cost. You need 1 LNB output per reciever, if you want to record HD Freesat in either room you'll need two outputs for that too. Each reciever needs to have a cable to the LNB, you cannot put more than one satellite reciever on each cable (as you can with regular TV aerials). Quad LNB's can be got for under a tenner on Ebay, and remember you need cable and connectors as well.

donny-gal wrote: »

If it is viable somehow, what is your recommendations regarding the HDSat Box?

Depends what you want. Currently there is only one box on the market that can record HD TV and that has twin tuuners so you can record from two channels (hence my comment above) If you don't want to record it then there are 4 boxes on the market, however the Alba / Grundig / Goodmans boxes are apparantly made by the same company and your rebadged according to the end marketing department. So as the other company are Humax who are also the company who make the recorder you really have a choice of two.

Who's the best? Really thats down to p[ersonal preference and how much you want to spend. The Bush is around £120 the rest around the £150 mark. The recorder is £300 but out of stock everywhere at the moment (Early Jan 2009)

donny-gal wrote: »

Currently Sky togeher with terrestrial TV is available in that room via aerial cable transmitted from the back of the sky box, we need a new TV in there so if I cannot do anything to get HD Freesat in there, then there is no need for a superspec 32" LCD I beleive as if we got SkyHD, it would not re-transmit HD this way , so what is the best spec/value to look for?

If you upgra\de the LNB and put in the cabling you can get HD Freesat whereever the cable goes.

If you got Sky HD in the main room it will only send the HD signal to a TV connected to the Box (and I think it needs to be connected by a HDMI cable foro copy protection reasons, but I haven't got Sky HD to confirm that, it's jsut what a friend said). You could get a Panasonic TV (LG or Samsung are bringing out Freesat equipped tv's later in the year) with Freesat built in to replace it and tidy up the number of boxes you have, (or put it in the 2nd room) it really depends on if you want to record the signal, and get HD in both rooms.

Another option is Sky's Multi room, it's not that cheap, you'll need to pay intallation costs, buy a new Sky box and pay a monthly fee, but you'll be able to watch all your Sky channels in another room, the way you describe your current setup now and how you want to go, it sounds like you'd be limited to watching what the sky box in the main room is watching in the second room.

Inactive

Before you go and buy a Freesat Receiver, you need to ask yourself if it is worth it?

There is effectively only one part time HD channel ( BBC ), that seems to show the same repeats over and over.

BillScarab

Inactive wrote: »

Before you go and buy a Freesat Receiver, you need to ask yourself if it is worth it?

There is effectively only one part time HD channel ( BBC ), that seems to show the same repeats over and over.

You've forgotten that there is also ITV HD available on Freesat. In fact it's the only place you can get it at the moment.

Also presumbalythere will be more HD content in the future.

donny-gal

Thanks guys, definite food for thought there.

I did forget to say that I would probably move the wii into that room once we get a decent TV so the TV needs to be good enough for that, side question, currently I attach the wii via the white/red/yellow (component?) connections, what do I need to connect it HDMI and woudl it make it much better? The room is 12' (sorry still on old money) wide and it would be a straight across view.

That is the question, is it worth th expense of future proofing to a degree, or just get a lower spec but good TV and use it as we are, by which time when things have sorted we will know more of which way to go.

Just having one Sky station at once is not a problem to us, the PC is mine and Sky is DH's, I just have to sort out all the wiring. :rotfl:

DG

Inactive

BillScarab wrote: »

You've forgotten that there is also ITV HD available on Freesat. In fact it's the only place you can get it at the moment.

Also presumbalythere will be more HD content in the future.

I hadn't forgotten, I did say " effectively only one " because any HD content from ITV is so rare .. that it isn't worth mentioning.;)

donny-gal

Could anyone comment on the Wii - HDMI angle?

Thanks
DG

BillScarab

The Wii doesn;'t have HDMI output. the best is component but if you're using the cable that came with it you're not using component, you're using composite. The component cable has five connectors, two for audio and three for video. There is a noticable improvement in quality if you go from composite to component. Not a massive jump but definately noticable.

gjchester

Inactive wrote: »

Before you go and buy a Freesat Receiver, you need to ask yourself if it is worth it?

There is effectively only one part time HD channel ( BBC ), that seems to show the same repeats over and over.

Not going to dispute that too much, but bear in mind Freesat a similar range to Freeview so there are a lot of channels jsut not a lot of HD. Some of the BBC stuff is simulcasted with regular BBC1, and they are upping the output to 9 hours soon (it's currently 6).

Inactive

gjchester wrote: »

Not going to dispute that too much, but bear in mind Freesat a similar range to Freeview so there are a lot of channels jsut not a lot of HD..

Quite different to Freeview, no Dave ...No UK History, no Sky News, no Sky 3, plenty of other dross, most of which is on FreesatfromSky anyway.

I have Freeview, Freesat and FreesatfromSky, I prefer Freeview, of the three options.


So, as I said, Freesat has effectively one part time HD Channel ( BBC ) which shows mainly repeats, together with a cut down version of FreesatfromSky for SD material, all in all a waste of space.

BillScarab

Plus ITV HD. Not a major selling point perhaps but it's there.