sky hd with communal dish

tigga_1961

hi, ive read a lot about sky hd being incompatible with a communal dish, i lik in a flat but there is only me and neighbour downstairs here,can anyone advise what the pros and cons are of hd and would it work ok, the flat was only built last yr so not sure if it has 2 or 1 line feed help appreciated shall i take the plunge??:beer:

MFWannabe

Hi tigga
Do you know what Sky package your neighbour has? Might be worth asking if they have any problems.I should think it's quite a new dish with 2 feeds if the flats have only just been built. Give Sky a ring and they will advise you if there's any problems with HD connecting to the dish and if it should work ok.

Pros on Hd: Better picture quality; number of channels depends what package you have
Cons: Extra £10 a month for the HD pack. Can't think of any others

Hope this helps

spike7451

If the is only one feed you'll only be able to record/watch one channel.IIRC back to my Sky HD Installers course,if the feed has been inturupted & not one continuos run from the dish to the box,it may cause you picture problems on the HD channels.
HTH.

missile

I was advised that you can use HD on a communal dish and do not need anything special for HD, but as with Sky+ you do need two feeds to use all of the functionality.

I only have one sky socket in my flat which was build three years ago. The muppet who installed our communal dish wants £700 to upgrade. You may be fortunate that there is a spare port on the communal feed and it would be a simple job to run another cable.

Anyway, if you want sky HD simply make an application. The installers will tell you if any extra work is required

Bikertov

missile wrote: »

I was advised that you can use HD on a communal dish and do not need anything special for HD, but as with Sky+ you do need two feeds to use all of the functionality.

Sky+ needs TWO satellite feeds from the dish to work properly, one for each tuner. Otherwise, you can only watch or record one program at a time.

This is because, unlike a normal terestrial aerial, a dish can give out 4 different types of signal from the LNB (the big 'blob' in the middle of the dish that picks up the signal). These signal are high and low band, in both horizontal and vertical 'polarisation' (signal direction), and they are needed to access the full range of channels.

To be able to select the right channel from the full spectrum, the tuner needs to 'control' the LNB to select the correct one of the 4 settings. So twin tuners would each need to control a seperate LNB to each select the correct, seperate, signal over the full channel range.

Hence for Sky+ you need a 'twin' LNB, or for Sky+ and multiroom (or two Sky+) you need a 'quad' LNB.

For larger installations, eg in a block of flats, you have a special system using a 'quatro' LNB, which permanently gives out each of the 4 type of signal, and a 'multiswitch' splitter/amplifier that then distributes the feeds to each receiver, allowing each one to select the correct signal type.

So the long and short is that if the flats were not installed with a 'proper' distribution system, you will be limited to what / how many packages you can get.

But for Sky HD itself, a 'normal' feed would do, it is Sky+ which need two feeds.

timmmers

You need a SMATV system ..just like a hotel or college would have.
700 quid would seem quite a fair quote from your muppet if it serves enough flats with the channels you need. ...it's not a cheap game at all. If it's just two flats he's robbing you.
I've installed quite a few but never with Sky HD. Gave it up a few years back before that appaeared.

t