Getting other tv's "plumbed" in

safara

Hi All,

We are getting ready to move into our new converted home. It currently has no sky or anything else installed. We live in a hilly area in Wales and Satellite TV is the only real option for TV.

I am going to get onto Sky to get us a dish and a Sky plus box etc. This will work great for the main TV.

But I want to have maybe 2 extra TV's in the building. What are my options?

Don't really want to pay for Sky multiroom. Is it possible to take a feed from the Sky box to get freeview or freesat to other TV's? So the other TV's can watch the free to air stuff, not just what is being watched on the main TV?

What's the best/cheapest way of sorting this out?

have looked into maybe doing it over broadband with BT vision or Virgin Media, but they are not available where we are and wont be for while.

Cheers

Safara

spike7451

No,you cannot take a feed from the Sky box to a freesat box & freeview will not work off a satalite dish feed.
Any connections to other freesat/sky boxes will have to be taken from the dish LNB & ran independently of each other.
Note tho that unless you buy the freesat boxes from Sky,they WILL NOT install any additional feeds or a quad (4) or octo (8) port LNB nor will they run any cabling.
Sky will only install the service you sign up for,so as you say you don't want to have multiroom,they will only install the dish & cabling for the one service,be it HD or standard.
They will also only install the cabling externally & will not run cabling thru walls/attics/underfloor ect.

spike7451

To add,the only way you can hook up a Sky box to a second TV is by TV link,be it wired or wireless however you would have to watch what is on the main TV.The only way you can watch different programmes is by having a terrestrial aerial either running to each tv individually or daisy chained via a wired or wireless TV link from the Sky box.

Nilrem

If you want, you should be able to hook up at least one other satellite box to the dish (if you make sure it's fitted with a quad lnb, 2 outputs will be used for the Sky box, leaving two for either a pair of freesat boxes, or a freesat box with recorder/dual tuner).
That way you've just got a one off charge to buy/fit the additional freesat boxes (iirc you can get them for about £50 each).

That does require a quad LNB on the dish (not sure if that's standard now, but if not, you may be able to ask the Sky installer to put a quad in it, otherwise the LNB is a relatively simple replacement.

About the only other option is to run either an aerial cable from the output on the Sky box to the other sets, or a Video sender, but both of those are limited to just showing what is seen on the Sky box on all the TV's.

[edit]spike replied whilst i was typing

safara

Thanks for the comments guys - food for thought. looks like we are going to have to think about Multiroom as no other options available

[Deleted User]

safara wrote: »

looks like we are going to have to think about Multiroom as no other options available

The option of Freesat will cost a whole lot less over time than a Multi-room installation even if you have to pay someone to wire up the box to the satellite dish.
Alternatively, have Sky fit the Multi-room and pay the monthly subscription until your contract expires. The Multi-room box will then automatically become a Freesat From Sky box.

spike7451

Or get Sky HD installed,that'll take care of 2 of the 4 dish feeds,buy 2 freesat boxes & a whack of cable & self install the freesat boxes yourself.

macman

Freesat is the obvious option, assuming that you are OK with receiving the subscription channels only on the main TV.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Don't Sky let you cancel Multiroom within a week or so if you change your mind?

You could order your Sky setup with two Multiroom subscriptions and then cancel within the period, leaving you with the two other TV's connected up.

spike7451

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Don't Sky let you cancel Multiroom within a week or so if you change your mind?

You could order your Sky setup with two Multiroom subscriptions and then cancel within the period, leaving you with the two other TV's connected up.

No,
They'd then either be de-installed by Sky,the boxes returned or the cost for install & boxes added to the customers bill.

safara

Many thanks for the info guys!

Am probably going to go for getting Sky multiroom installed - to get the LNB with 4 outputs and the cabling in to a room at each end of the house. Pay for it for a year, then cancel the multiroom after a year dropping the extra room down to Freesat.

Seems cheaper that way than spending £175 for freesat off the bat for the extra room.