My dad has decided tht he wants sky, but doesnt want the cable running through the living room. Theres no possibility of lifting the floor or moving the tv, which means i need to figure out some sort of streaming solution - this can be streaming the digital signal between the dish and the box, or possibly putting the box in the attic and streaming from the scart socket with readily available remote control links. Any solution needs to be stand-alone, no tv capture cards or anything like that.
Any ideas?
Putting the box in the attic...not a good idea in my opinion. My reasoning is that at times our box has played up a little and needs the occasional reset etc (power off...take card out...power on etc). Unless the attic is easily accessible, itll be a PITA when it needs a reset! (And in my experience they need it more than they should)
Attic = a cupboard, really. The house is a converted bungalow so the sky box would be more than likely in my parents bedroom.
you only need a compatible sky digi sender like this one
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44469&doy=7m3&C=SO&U=strat15
I used to have TV senders back in the day which just transmit a channel at a certain frequency and pass the sky remote signals back and forwards. Theyre pretty cheap and you can buy them everywhere.
Your tvs aerial can pick up the transmission and relay the control signals easy enough.
I have to wonder how hes picking up terrestrial tv though. Presumably he has a wall aerial connected at some point. That has a cable, so whats special about the sky cable?
Quote from: lacyou only need a compatible sky digi sender like this one
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44469&doy=7m3&C=SO&U=strat15
That will do the job BUT, If you have wifi in the house it will kill it. They run on the same frequency. Not to mention they are trypically omni directional and sensitive to things in their way.
I spent over an hour trying to figure out why my mates laptop wouldnt authenticate with an AP.
They should only be broadcasting on one channel and you should be able to switch them (or your wireless routers).
Cordless phones and a lot of other things use the same bandwidth - you just switch to a different channel leaving a 1 channel gap where possible.
Quote from: lacyou only need a compatible sky digi sender like this one
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44469&doy=7m3&C=SO&U=strat15
Looks pretty good - thanks for the link!
Quote from: SteveFI have to wonder how hes picking up terrestrial tv though. Presumably he has a wall aerial connected at some point. That has a cable, so whats special about the sky cable?
Yup, theres a normal antenna on the roof, with the cable inside the wall. However, i thought you needed a special cable for sky signals?
Youll definitely need another cable but they could drill the hole right next to the normal aerial point and come in behind the tv, etc.
Thats assuming the tv is next to an external wall. They probably wont chase it into the wall and plaster over it on an internal wall without some extra cash.
No, tv is against an interior wall. I dont think cutting into the wall is an option, too much decorating / hassle. It seems that maplin have a few options there, ill investigate into which is the best for the cash...
get a co-axial splitter.
sky wall socket -> skybox in front room
skybox output -> splitter (if required... as if you have scart already no need for splitter) -> tv and....
Terrestrial arial wall socket (assuming you have a wall socket in both the bedroom and the front room)
Tune upstairs tv to recieve the sky channel now being broadcast in the clear through your house.
I dont think thats a very good solution tbh... First, there is no tv / aerial in the bedroom upstairs, it goes directly from the roof down through the walls to the living room. Secondly, therell be a lot of loss in picture quality which would defeat the whole object... Spoke to my dad yesterday and told him that its doable, the best solution would probably be a high quality AV transmitter and receiver that plugs directly into the scart socket + any readily available remote repeater.
Quote from: CypherQuote from: lacyou only need a compatible sky digi sender like this one
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44469&doy=7m3&C=SO&U=strat15
That will do the job BUT, If you have wifi in the house it will kill it. They run on the same frequency. Not to mention they are trypically omni directional and sensitive to things in their way.
I spent over an hour trying to figure out why my mates laptop wouldnt authenticate with an AP.
the aerial used is omni but if you are technically incline you can just easily swap the aerial with a directional one to limit the signal propagation to certain areas only, although this will not necessarily eliminate signals around it, it will weaken it in some areas and other areas will have max signal and others will be dead spot.
can you not get a multiplexer of some kind and use the same cable
Quote from: MaldonadoI dont think thats a very good solution tbh... First, there is no tv / aerial in the bedroom upstairs, it goes directly from the roof down through the walls to the living room. Secondly, therell be a lot of loss in picture quality which would defeat the whole object... Spoke to my dad yesterday and told him that its doable, the best solution would probably be a high quality AV transmitter and receiver that plugs directly into the scart socket + any readily available remote repeater.
About the same loss that you suffer on your terrestrial pictures really. Perfectly watchable. If its HDTV then stop being a tight arse, pay for multiroom and let sky come out and sort it.
Went to maplins and got the guy there to recommend me something that looks like it will do the job.
Now does anyone know of anywhere that sells cheap sky digital dishes and boxes?
(Anyone who says Sky wil get slapped)