Another 'Sky plus - one feed - flat/apartment' thread

[chriiiiiiiis]

Hello.

I'm about to have Sky Plus fitted in an apartment which only has one feed. I know I won't b able to use all of it's features - but what exactly will/won't I be able to do?

Thanks very much.

[satelliteman]

Welcome,

In simple terms, you'll be unable to record one program and watch another as this requires the two feeds.

[chriiiiiiiis]

If I'm at work, and I want to record something, do I have to set Sky to on the channel that I want to record or will it automatically flick over?

Can I pause/rewind something while I'm watching it?

If I have a 1 hour program set to record on BBC1 at 7pm, and want to set something to record on BBC2 at 8pm, will it record both?

Also, do you know what this is (pic attached) hiding in my electric cupboard?

Genuintely appreciate your help.

[PaulR]

It's a signal splitter. Normally used for splitting a strong TV signal to feed two TV sets.

If someone has fitted it to try get two satellite feeds for a $ly + box from one satellite feed then it ain't gonna work properly!

I don't have a $ly + box so can't answer the other questions.

[Zorba]

Originally Posted by chriiiiiiiis If I'm at work, and I want to record something, do I have to set Sky to on the channel that I want to record or will it automatically flick over? Can I pause/rewind something while I'm watching it? If I have a 1 hour program set to record on BBC1 at 7pm, and want to set something to record on BBC2 at 8pm, will it record both? .

No, if you leave it on bbc1 to record, and you set the planner to record bbc2 later, it will not record anything because it expects input 2 to go to bbc2. Input 1 will stay on bbc1.
I know the normal sky receiver has an autoview feature which will change channels when the selected program starts but I dont think the sky plus box has this.
The live pause and rewind should work.

[chriiiiiiiis]

Thanks for your replies.

I had a look under the faceplate earlier, and found a loose cable. Could that be a second feed?

[satelliteman]

Ah bingo, looks promising but might also be an un-terminated RF feed to another room in the flat. Some sparks wire that way. Check for additional points in the bedrooms.

[chriiiiiiiis]

No other points in the flat.

If I mention this to the installer when he visits next week, will he check to see if it's live/works? Or is that out of his remit?

[satelliteman]

Might possibly be the connection to the splitter shown in the above post Chris but yes, the installer should be able to see if it's live.

[ste_eck]

How old is the flat? If brand new there's a good chance the extra cable may be fed from the multiswitch. If a few years old its likely a single cable was dropped to each flat from the multiswitch. This is a 'problem' on the majority of existing IRS systems, the 2nd feed was not envisaged (i.e. before sky+).

If you only have a single feed then you will need either get an extra cable fed in, if this is practible/possible, or you can use a stacker/destacker to combine 2 if feeds into 1 then split back to 2 at the back of your stb for input to both feeds.

You may also have a problem in that the existing multiswitch has no free outputs for you to tap into. So you will need then to replace the multiswitch or cascade another multiswitch inline.

If you have to start messing with the existing IRS system then its going to cost a fair bit to enable Sky+

[satelliteman]

Originally Posted by ste_eck You may also have a problem in that the existing multiswitch has no free outputs for you to tap into. So you will need then to replace the multiswitch or cascade another multiswitch inline.

Unless you go 'SCR / Smart Splitter' route of course

[chriiiiiiiis]

Thanks.

Chris... still trying to decipher your post.

[ste_eck]

Unless you go 'SCR / Smart Splitter' route of course

Agreed, very nice looking piece of kit.

The SCR device though for Sky+ is only compatible with Pace PVR V3 TDS470N and TDS470NB 08/05/2007 01/12//2008.