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citroennut

hi all,
i have a skybox to add to the 'van and have been told an a/b switch is the way to go but on them is cable/sat. it is as if for two inputs and one output, do they work in reverse?
thanks
simon

HarleyDave

Just to clarify things Citroennut

You are adding a Sky box to your curent installation which presumably already has a freeview (or whatever it's called for free to air sat programming) box?

If so - Why??

Isn't everything you already get on freeview going to be available on Sky??

Or are you adding a second skybox? (perhaps to use in the bedroom)

If so - again - Why?

Can't you have remote control extended to the first box? - and what about card swapping - or will you have 2 cards too???

I is confused

Cheers

Dave

citroennut

hi dave,
i currently have a free to air sat box but cannot get ch 4 or 5 so am adding skybox but at the moment need to disconnect the sat lead to free box and fit to sky box and it is a pita, so thought lead into a/b switch and then select which box signal goes to.

cheers
simon

HarleyDave

Hi Simon

Maybe I don't quite get it, but, won't you get everything on the sky box (and then some) that you currently get on the FTA digi box?

So why would you need the second box?

I know I must be missing something basic here

Cheers

Dave

TRAVELSAT

Hi there,

Main purpose of the A/B switch is to allow one satellite dish and to split the signal input into either of two receivers by pressing either button..

I'm taking it that you have one european satellite receiver that picks up Astra1, Astra2 and Hotbird a multi satellite receiver, and now a sky receiver that allows you to watch CH4 and CH5 with the card???

The cable from the dish into the input then make up two fly leads to go to each of the receivers...

Cheers Martyn (travelsat)

teemyob

Hello Simon,

Do you have a Sky subscription and will you be using the Sky Box from your house?

Trev.

Snelly · Eastern Rally Co-ordinator

Hi

Bear with me...

To have two sly boxes from one LNB you HAVE to have a twin output lnb. This is because some channels are transmitted on horizontal and others on vertical. So if you split one LNB in two and one box is watching a horizontal channel, the other box will only be able to watch horizontal channels too, stopping you watching all the channels transmitted on vertical polarity. With a twin LNB, its like having two LNB's in one, enabling the two outputs to watch different polarity channels (gives you the full range of channels on both boxes).

If you have two sly boxes, you will need two cards to watch subscriber channels. One thing you can do is get a twin lnb on your existing dish and run the extra cable to another box, such as the BBC freesat HD service that requires no subscription. Currently the only BBC HD box available is the Humax Foxsat, which retails at £150 (if you can get one at the mo, they are selling out fast). You could also get a FTA (free to air) box, relatively inexpensive, but restricted as to what you can watch. There are also boxes such as the dreambox, which acts like a FTA (free to air) box, but can also take a subscriber card to watch subscription channels.

If I can be of any further help, just yell!

silversurfa

Answer No, you can not receive from One Lnb and run 2 receivers, sat tv is not the same as terestrial tv , you need a twin Lnb to run 2 feeds to 2 receivers. channel 4 has currently been going out free as ch 8350. but if you buy a sky fta card you will get 4/5 =25£

legend654

I think the answer to your question might be simple. Your FTA should have a LNB in and an LNB out socket. If so just connect the LNB in on the SLY box to the LNB out of the FTA box. This is how I have wired my Oyster so that when you want to watch either through SLY or Dreambox the other channels you can.

Guy

GerryD

Why not get the humax freesat box, then when Five have sorted their contractual issues with Sky you will be able to get all of them. Last time I tried I got 957 channels on the Humax box.
Gerry