Sky - couple of questions: linking to another room & recording

waterwatereverywhere

Hi

We have a Sky dish and ordinary Sky box to receive free channels - we don't subscribe.

We're hoping someone clever might be able to help. We rigged up a cable to take the channels from the main Sky box in to two extra rooms. Both rooms are receiving the picture fine. We use the "sky TV link extender" things so we can change channel and switch main box on and off in the extra rooms. But the extender will only work in one room. We were told we needed an amplifier with DC capability so have bought and plugged that in - still not working. The second extra room will only receive picture but not change channels. The light on the extender doesn't come on. Have tried swapping the extenders in each room around but same result so it's not a faulty link unit.

Pls does anyone have any ideas? We're flummoxed as if it takes the picture can't understand why the extender thingy shouldn't work to chg the channels.

UNRELATED Q - very occasionally we'd like to record programmes - we have an ancient video recorder - can we rig that up to work with the sky box so we can set it to record or won't that work? Can't afford a sub to Sky plus at the mo unfortunately.

Thanks in advance.

AdamBrunt

Can't answer the first question (though can't think of a reason as why one "magic eye" would work and the other one won't).

As for recording from the Sky box ... if you VCR has a SCART socket then just connect the VCR's SCART "in" to the Sky box's SCART "out". Switch the VCR to it's AV or AUX channel and you should see whatever channel the Sky box is on and then hit record

waterwatereverywhere

Thank you very much that's great to know - we don't have to move into the current technological age yet...

Would this work if we wanted to programme the video to record whilst we were out too, yonks ago we used to do this by typing in the reference number associated with the TV programme and then the recorder picks this up automatically - but as we don't have any TV aerial, just the Sky box, we're wondering if it would be that clever?!

AdamBrunt

Yes, if the VCR has timed recording capability then you can tell it to a do timed recording of the AUX channel in the same way as any other channel.

What you can't do IIRC is tell the Sky box to switch to a channel at a certain time so, before going out, you'd need to make sure the Sky box was on the channel you wanted to record.

will-in-estoril

The cable coming out of the amplifier box is not letting current flow through it. Two possible reasons:

1. The amplifier does not allow it. (Double check what you have been sold.)
2. You have poor connections: check your plugs and cables.

Always better to have separate boxes run off a quad LNB.

mackemdave

Have you tried swapping the tv's around in two spare rooms to see if its a TV related problem

waterwatereverywhere

Hi

Thanks for the extra replies. We have tried swapping the TVs and they each work in the upstairs location but not in the downstairs one.

We took advice and were definitely told the gadget we bought should do the job - it is a "Philex 4-way digital amplifier with digital bypass". It has 4 ports but we're just using two of them.

Have had another look at the aerial bits on the end of the cable and the connections seem good and tight with no stray copper strand bits. Can't understand it. We're getting good exercise running into the other room to change the channel but it would be nice to get it working properly!!

We can't get to the dish to run another wire as its location is too difficult so would like to sort it out this way if we possibly can.

Hopefully we've set it up correctly - we have the wire from the dish going straight into the back of the Sky box.. Then one cable runs from the RF2 port on the Sky box into the Philex thing - this for the upstairs TV which works fine. Then one more cable which goes from the Philex amplifier directly to the second downstairs TV, the one that isn't working.

Any more suggestions on what we can try next would be very gratefully received!

will-in-estoril

Try RF2 cable into Philex box, then two cables out, one to each TV.

waterwatereverywhere

Hi

I'm sorry, yes I'm an idiot. That's what I meant to say, the cable from RF2 on the box goes directly into the Philex amplifier. Then two separate cables run from the Philex amplifier, one to upstairs TV and the other to the downstairs TV. One cable/TV works fine but the other refuses to.

The picture/sound etc., on the second downstairs TV is perfect - just the Sky link won't work so we can't change channels. Main TV and upstairs TV both work fine and can change channels.... totally bizarre!

Kurtis_Blue

If there is not a huge cable run then its simply the connectors on the second room feed or dud eye.

will-in-estoril

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

If there is not a huge cable run then its simply the connectors on the second room feed or dud eye.

Agreed. Worthwhile switching over the outputs from the Philex to eliminate that too.