New home, help with home satellite distribution!

[Superhori]

Hi everyone!

I just moved into a new flat and was trying to work out what would be the best way to set my home satellite distribution. Some background of the flat first:

-The apartment has 2 cables running in - 1 cable with Sky satellite with terrestrial TV signals, and the other cable with Hotbird satellite and terrestrial tv signals.

-From the entry point of these 2 cables to the flat, the flat is pre-wired with numerous cable to different sockets around the house for TV and satellite. (please see diagram below - there are 8 separate cables in total)

My plan:

1)- I have Sky HD so was planning to somehow install this in the living room together with the normal terrestrial signals.

2) -I also have an Echostar receiver and would like to be able to watch hotbird in the living room.

3) -I want to connect TV link (for watching same sky channel in a different room) from the Sky HD box and wire the signals via the in-built wires to bedroom 1.

-Finally, if possible, I would also like hotbird signals to go into bedroom 1 (via existing cables) to be able to also watch hotbird in the bedroom.

**I am hoping to be able to do all the above using the pre-existing cables only without having to put any more wires**

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I have been thinking long and hard about this and think that at least parts 1,2 and 3 of my plan would be possible with existing wires. I dont know how I can split the signals from sky to the living room though as it is only 1 wire coming in - the apartment DOES say that it has provision for SKY HD or Sky + so theoretically, it must be possible but I dont know how.

Does anyone have any good ideas / suggestions as to how I should wire the distribution system?

Thanks!

Superhori

 

[rolfw]

For the two Astra 28.2 feeds, you will need to either utilise the Hotbird feed, or use a stacker/destacker on the existing Astra 28.2 feed and get the aerial contractor to make the head end connections, whic I assume are available, as they have said it is possible.

 

[Superhori]

Hi Rolf

Thanks for replying. I got in touch with the company that cabled the wires around the home - basically there are 2 cables coming into the house - 1) Sky and terrestrial signals down 1 cable, 2) Hotbird, Sky and terrestrial signals down another cable.

The way around it is to use cable no 1) as the main cable to distribute signal around the house using the loftbox and cable no 2) to go straight into as the second signal for Sky plus (or hotbird using Diseqc switch).

Now, I recently bought a piece of equipment by Global called Loftbox 8 way. I tried connecting cable no 1) Sky and terrestrial signal cable to the Sat In port. Unfortunately when I did this, the loftbox did send the satellite signal through to the living room (very low signal strength = 0, signal quality of around 40%) but did not distribute the normal terrestrial signals around the house including the living room. When I inserted the cable to the terrestrial in port of the loftbox, it distributed the terrestrial channels but not the satellite signal.

I presume to distribute both sky and terrestrial signals around the house, I would have to buy some form of splitter to "split" the terrestrial and satellite (Sky) signal from one another and feed each line into its respective inputs on the Loftbox (sat in and terrestrial in).

Problem is, I dont know if this would work and I also dont know what "splitter" i need to buy to achieve this. Furthermore, I dont know why the satellite signal is so low going to the living room as the signal if anything should be boosted as it is being amplified by the loftbox (but signal quality and strength is normal where it comes in before the loftbox).

Any ideas / comments?

Thanks!

Superhori

 

[spiney]

There is no need to "split" (ie, frequency separate) the mixed UHF tv and sat intermediate frequency signal, just feed the mixture straight through to all sockets, and the loftbox and global distribution amp should both be ok.

However, from what you say, it sounds as if the cables inside your flat might be the wrong sort, ie UHF only, not suitable for sat if distribution.

What are the strength and quality on the incomming feed, where it enters your flat?

Otherwise, NO cable is really designed for 0 - 3 Ghz! As Rolf says, you COULD use the stacker/de-stacker (note, this only works - if at all - on very high quality cable!), but it's much easier - and cheaper - if you 1st decide whether you want Astra2 or Hotbird in each room, then distribute the incomming feeds accordingly (or else, just have 2 cables into each room, that's effectively 2 independent distributions!).

 

[rolfw]

The Loftbox is designed to triplex the primary satellite input, UHF and VHF aerial inputs and send them to a single point in the main living room and both TV and satellite feeds are connected to the relevant inputs of the Sky digibox. Output 2 from the Sky digibox is then fed back to the Loftbox and distributes the Sky out put and terrestrial channels around the house.

 

[spiney]

Just to further add .....

If you DO use a stacker, then the 2 units should be directly connected, by good quality sat grade cable, note the signal will NOT pass through any amplifiers!

(the stacker works by ssb up-modulating the 2nd lnb input up to 2-3 Ghz, then back down again. Not only is this difficult to send along any coax, but the conversion process also ups the bit error rate, so you must have a low error rate (high quality) signal to start with!).

 

[Superhori]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies. It turned out that my loftbox was faulty so I got it exchanged.

I had the satellite company come and have a look at my system as the signals coming into the house was very low. They corrected the problem slightly by adding an inline signal amplifier which improved the signal strength a bit.

I am now having problems with the hotbird feed. As you may remember, I have 2 cables which run into my apartment - 1) Sky and terrestrial signal 2) Sky and Hotbird and terrestrial signal.

This second feed with Sky and hotbird, I put a splitter and have 1 cable going to Input 1 of the Sky HD box and the other cable going into my Echostar Hotbird receiver.

The Sky box works fine (signal strength is abour 25%, quality about 40%). The signal on the Echostar looks ok as well - Signal strength of 65% and quality of about the same. When I do the search for the channels, it only picks up around 500 or so channels on hotbird (and not the whole lot).

I personally feel that the receiver is picking up good signal strenth on the low band of hotbird but the high band signals coming into my apartment may be low therefore the receiver is not picking up any signals in the high band. Can this be possible?

How can I get around this problem? Do I have to get the technicians out again to have a look at this?

My other question is: Is it safe to add 2x inline amplifiers to strengthen a satellite signal? Although the 1x inline amplifier installed by the technician boosted the signal a bit, the signal strength in input 1 of Sky HD is only around 40% and input 2 is even lower at around 20%. Would it be ok to put another inline amplifier to boost this signal?

Last question - my Echostar LNB settings- I set the LNB settings as LNB type 1, Frequency low and high as universal, Diseqc as Diseqc 1...4, Diseqc port to 4, 0/12V control as on and LNB power as on. Is this the optimum / correct setting for my receiver? (I tested out other settings but it doesnt work).

Sorry that the questions are a bit long winded! Thanks for your help.

Superhori

 

[rolfw]

The Sky box does not relinquish control of the LNB when in standby, so will affect the scan by the Echostar.

 

[Superhori]

hmmm... how do i get around that then? Shall I use a Global SPS1 smart priority switch?

Mind you, even when I connect the cable directly to Echostar, I still dont get the whole lineup of channels on Hotbird...

 

[spiney]

Easiest thing is, disconnect the lnb feed to Sky digibox, then try the Echostar again, that will tell you! Should make a difference, as Rolf says, the Sky receiver - left in standby - will "force" lnb polarity selection, whatever the Echostar does.

If that's the actual problem, you could:

1) Unplug Digibox, to use Echostar.

or:

2) Leave Digibox on standby, but on a channel that's broadcast on lo band and vert polarity (I think that's right way round, if not somebody will soon say so!). Saves switching it back on later, but note it can't be used like this, eg you can't video record from it!