Satellite TV receivers and all that stuff

[milanbenes]

Experts a few questions:

1, In my attic there is
a, cable coming from a satellite dish
b, cable coming from digital tv antenna
c, cable going down to the living room

Question, can the satellite cable and digital tv cables be joined somehow to send everything downstairs in one cable ?

Can I put decoders in the attic and daisy chain the satellite dish and decoder into the digital tv decoder and then to the cable to the living room ?

If it is possible how can we change the channels ?


Are there any books are websites on this stuff ?

And then what about internet tv ?

And then the astra dish as well, and then there are cables 2x cat5 and 2x coax in all rooms, how to distribute this stuff round the house




Milan.

anybody know any good sources of info to get started in this area ?

someone said I need a satellite multiswitch ?

[zeitghost]

Dunno, mate.

It sounds to me like you haven't put enough cables in the walls...

And all coax is not created equal... especially satellite coax... I do hope you've got the stuff with the copper screening foil and braid, not that horrid copper braid with aluminium foil stuff...

That's a real "Oh Dear(tm)"...

So you've got

1 generic satellite dish.

1 Astra satellite dish (presumably for 28E which is where the Sky stuff comes from)

1 generic digital terrestrial aerial suitable for your location.

Two coax feeds from the loft to the rest of the house.

Is that right?

[milanbenes]

from the attic:

1 generic satellite dish with quad lnb.

1 generic digital terrestrial aerial suitable for your location.

1 coax, (the good coax cable) going from the loft to each room



from outside the back of the house:

1 Astra satellite dish (presumably for 28E which is where the Sky stuff comes from)

1 coax, (the good coax cable) going from the loft to each room



from under the stairs:

1 x telecom adsl input

2 x cat5 going to each room



now how to connect it all together and get a million channels anywhere in the house


seems like I need a satellite multiswitch up in the attic to get the quad lnb distributed to the coax cables for the rooms - but how to link into this the terrestial digital dv cable =




Milan in confused mode.


p.s. rome wasn't built in a day, so I guess we just gotta work it out step by step

[zeitghost]

Well if you are using a quad lnb, then I think that the magic switch won't do the business.

What they use with magic switches is a quattro lnb (this means that the lnb has separate outputs for Lowfrequency Horizontal polarisation, LF Vertical, High frequency Horizontal, HF Vertical).

Then the output of each separate magic switch is taken to a coax downlead to the room. The settop box then controls the magic switch as if it was an ordinary lnb (which is what the box thinks it is).

This is getting a tad expensive, Milan...

I'm not convinced you can use a diplexer to combine the satellite signal with the digital terrestrial signal, but I am open to correction.

I've seen an lnb with a terrestrial aerial input connector on it, but dunno how it works.

[milanbenes]

thanks Zeit,

wrong words, it is a quattro lnb

seems I needs one of these bad boyz...

http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/multiswitch.htm

and if I get the 9 in 12 out then I can run the terrestial digital antenna and the local satellite quattro lnb and the astra quattro lnb into the one magic switch and then out to all the rooms

you agree ?

Milan in I ain't got a fecking clue what I am talking about mode.

[KathyWoolfe]

Why don't you phone up Jodrell Bank and ask them what they do

[zeitghost]

thanks Zeit,

wrong words, it is a quattro lnb

seems I needs one of these bad boyz...

http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/multiswitch.htm

and if I get the 9 in 12 out then I can run the terrestial digital antenna and the local satellite quattro lnb and the astra quattro lnb into the one magic switch and then out to all the rooms

you agree ?

Milan in I ain't got a fliping clue what I am talking about mode.

Looks reasonable to me, however, do bear in mind IANASI (I am not a satellite installer... this advice is worth what you paid for it... etc.).

Note that your sky box doesn't do DISEQC as mentioned... expensive stuff this non run of the mill satellite gear...

I wonder how it figures out how to switch between satellite 1, satellite 2 & terrestrial.

[Zorba]

Do you want to have fully controllable satellite for each room i.e. potentially different channel for each room? If so, you're looking at a receiver per room.

You've got loads of questions there but I haven't got time today - I might come back to this thread tomorrow. Most of those multi box thingies come at a cost of signal strength.

Have you considered a Slingbox or two, since you have Cat5 all over the place?

And weirdly enough I can see Jodrell Bank from here.

[scooterscot]

Experts a few questions:

Question, can the satellite cable and digital tv cables be joined somehow to send everything downstairs in one cable ?

Perhaps but not simotaniously, as the satellite cable operates at Ghz frequencies and the Digital TV UHF, meaning you'd have to have a cable that could handle both. The dielectric (the stuff between the conductive core of the cable and the conductive sheath) allowing maximum performance would be physically different.

Can I put decoders in the attic and daisy chain the satellite dish and decoder into the digital tv decoder and then to the cable to the living room ?

Assuming multiple decoders you also have multiple LNB's, no reason why not. There must be a box out there that allows you to switch between them.

If it is possible how can we change the channels ?

With another remote control of which you've probably got plently

Are there any books are websites on this stuff ?

On how to much more TV than you have time for?

And then what about internet tv ?

I use the slingbox when I'm not in the UK it's OK. But that's not really yout question. I don't think the bandwidth is such that the quality would match would you currently receive through satellite.

And then the astra dish as well, and then there are cables 2x cat5 and 2x coax in all rooms, how to distribute this stuff round the house

You would need to transmit digitally to optimise quality if using cat5, analogue if coax

someone said I need a satellite multiswitch ?

You need more than that my friend - try dating direct

[threaded]

Yes

Research a guy called Steve Ciacia (pron. SeeArSeeEr) who did a column in Byte magazine. He did a wonderful little video concentrator. I built one years ago, upgrades along the way notwithstanding, it's still going strong.