Sky - Pay Once Watch Forever - My Blog

peter_the_piper

Lets see if I've got this right if thats ok? Satellite dish with quad lnb. One cable to sky box in sitting room. Second cable to second box in another room. I presume I would have to get a second box courtesy ebay etc and ask sky to sell me a card for the box, can't see them giving one for free.

gjchester

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Lets see if I've got this right if thats ok? Satellite dish with quad lnb. One cable to sky box in sitting room. Second cable to second box in another room. I presume I would have to get a second box courtesy ebay etc and ask sky to sell me a card for the box, can't see them giving one for free.

Yep correct. Although you may get charged extra for feeds to other rooms, depending on the installer. it may also be worth getting figure 8 double cable to the two rooms in case you buy a recorder in the future.

You only need a Sky card to see some channels (C4, C5, Fiver, Five US and Sky three) We have an old sky box with no card in the spare room and it does for the bulk of the time, if we need the ones not on Sky we use the main Freesat system, or the NTL box gets plugged back in..

You could ask on Freecycle, many people may have Sky Plus or Sky HD and have a spare, or ask the Sky installer, he may have one from another job he'll pass on to save a trip to the dump to get rid of it.

The other option is a reciever with a PVR either built in or as an option in case you want to use that.

NonGeographicalMan

macman wrote: »

You need a cable for each channel

That is to say you need a cable for each channel you want to view or record at the same time.

A Sky+ or Sky HD box needs two cables so you can watch one channel and record another or record two channels at once if you are not viewing tv live.

Apart from Sky+ and Sky HD that require you to pay a subscription to record (even the free BBC HD and ITV HD channels) you could also at some point replace your basic Sky Pay Once Watch Forever box with a BBC/ITV Freesat HD PVR recorder box if you get the Sky installer to install a dish with a Quad LNB and double cable to your basic Sky Pay Once Watch Forever box.

For the time being the second cable feed would be unused but would then come in to use if you replaced it with a Freesat HD PVR.

See https://www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=products.Products&type_id=3&PHPSESSID=14kqj1cdfq96jvbohet6c22fb4

Inactive

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Lets see if I've got this right if thats ok? Satellite dish with quad lnb. One cable to sky box in sitting room. Second cable to second box in another room. I presume I would have to get a second box courtesy ebay etc and ask sky to sell me a card for the box, can't see them giving one for free.

Summed it up nicely..

macman

If you wanted Freesat with HD reception, does that still only need one feed if you don't have a PVR or requirement for a second room or box. i.e, does the HD alone require a second feed?
Or for example, if you fitted a Foxsat HDR box, you would still only need a twin LNB, one for viewing, one for recording, regardless of whether it's on an HD channel or not?

NonGeographicalMan

macman wrote: »

If you wanted Freesat with HD reception, does that still only need one feed if you don't have a PVR or requirement for a second room or box. i.e, does the HD alone require a second feed?

Yes a plain Freesat box without recording only needs a single LNB.

Or for example, if you fitted a Foxsat HDR box, you would still only need a twin LNB, one for viewing, one for recording, regardless of whether it's on an HD channel or not?

Yes you only need a twin LNB but typically Quad LNBs cost the same money and are much more widely available in the UK so you may as well fit a Quad LNB even if two sockets on it remain unused for the time being.

You can also operate a Foxsat HDR with only one LNB but then won't be able to handle viewing one channel and recording another or recording two channels at the same time. Which is one of the main points of getting a twin tuner hard drive PVR in the first place......................

Inactive

macman wrote: »

If you wanted Freesat with HD reception, does that still only need one feed if you don't have a PVR or requirement for a second room or box. i.e, does the HD alone require a second feed?
Or for example, if you fitted a Foxsat HDR box, you would still only need a twin LNB, one for viewing, one for recording, regardless of whether it's on an HD channel or not?

Basically the HD section only requires a single LNB as does SD, so one feed will work, the second feed from the LNB is only required for an additional receiver, or a seconf feed for a PVR.


As others have said, a Quad LNB costs less than a Twin LNB, so it makes sense to use a Quad LNB, which leaves spare capacity to future proof.

peter_the_piper

Fitter came, on time, plied with coffee. Fitted quad lnb and 2 runs of twin cable for free, (cable to phone omitted but as Im not going to download films its not a problem). I expect the fact that he played bowls with my son helped a bit. Biggest problem is sorting otu which channels will be left if/when we cancel the 4 packs.

macman

So normally would they would just supply a single LNB with POWF?
And which Sky box do you get with this package-does it vary?
Just trying to get some background as my MIL is interested in getting this installed, as can't get Freeview until late 2011.

The_One_2

I think there obliged to fit the minimum necessary to run the service and in the case of the POWF deal a single LNB, but if you tell the engineer you'll pay him for quad LNB with 2 feeds/cables as a private matter, he'll probably quite happily do it.

As for the sky box, i got a brand new white Thomson one like this

macman wrote: »

So normally would they would just supply a single LNB with POWF?
And which Sky box do you get with this package-does it vary?
Just trying to get some background as my MIL is interested in getting this installed, as can't get Freeview until late 2011.