[Phunky Venom]

Right, I wander if any of you can help,

Im looking at buying myself the Humax HDR Freesat box for my room, so can receive HD Channels on my tele.

Now it says that you need to have a Sky dish fitted in order to receive, which I thought wouldnt be a problem, as I have the Sky Digital dish and although the Sky box is downstairs, I can get Sky upstairs through Analogue on my tv as I have the aerial that comes through the wall from the dish.

However, reading a review on the Humax it says that I just need to connect two cables from the Sky dish, any idea if my set up will work as it is? or am I going to need more cables/aerials fitted upstairs in my room or something?

Thanks guys,
Morgan

[limblee]

From the sounds of it, you have a the sky dish connected to the sky box downstairs, this then sends the signal through the aerial to several rooms in the house.

If this so, then you can not use this for freesat. You need two cables from the LNB of the sky dish (google it). Each cable is for a different tuner (watch one channel, recorder another). Check your sky dish's LNB to see if it is a single, double or quad (this is how many cables it id designed for). If it's single or double, see if you can replace it with a quad.

I hear that you can get cheapish quad LNB's off fleabay.

[fuzzlewoof]

You need to get an LNB with multiple outputs, they are only about £10 on ebay. The Humax HDR will need 2 leads and a standard Sky box one. Should be no need to move the dish.

[fernandez]

A separate feed from the LNB *must* be taken to the FreesatHD box - actually 2 feeds if you want to make use of all the funcions (record one, watch another etc).
If you only have a single output LNB this will need to be changed for a quad (4 output) type.
The feed from your Sky box to your room only feeds analogue RF *not* a digital satellite signal

Also see
Freesat - AVForums.com

[Phunky Venom]

Thankyou for the quick reply guys,
this all sounds more complicated than what I expected. Thats true, the feed is only analogue and not digital.

If I was to pay the extra for it to be fitted then, would they be able to do all thats needed for me?

[Geofbob]

You're possibly getting confused between the Humax Freesat box (costing around £150 at Argos) and the Humax Freesat recorder costing twice as much. The former The former should work off the same connection you currently have for your Sky box; but the latter needs a twin LNB & two feeds, same as Sky+.

But your arrangement upstairs isn't clear. How can you get Sky direct from the dish, without going through a box? If, in fact, the cable to your upstairs TV is from the Sky box downstairs, then you will need a twin LNB and another feed from the dish to your room to receive Freesat.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by Geofbob

You're possibly getting confused between the Humax Freesat box (costing around £150 at Argos) and the Humax Freesat recorder costing twice as much. The former The former should work off the same connection you currently have for your Sky box; but the latter needs a twin LNB & two feeds, same as Sky+.

But your arrangement upstairs isn't clear. How can you get Sky direct from the dish, without going through a box? If, in fact, the cable to your upstairs TV is from the Sky box downstairs, then you will need a twin LNB and another feed from the dish to your room to receive Freesat.

Twin lnb's are actually quite hard to get and believe it or not are more expensive than quads. You can't even get a twin for a Sky minidish. A quad is more versatile and cheaper

[suepabs]

I can't find how to start a new thread but I think mine is a similar question. I'm trying to follow all the techie talk and advice but I don't really understand so please bear with me.

I've always only had a main CRT TV and digibox (as I'd sooner poke my own eyes out than give Sky any of my hard earned dosh). Now I'm all 'newly technological' as I've just bought the Humax Foxsat HDR and had a satellite with quad LNB installed.

The PVR box is downstairs with the main tv. Is it possible to run a cable so I can also watch the freesat on the tv upstairs?

Cheers for any advice

[scribbler101]

Originally Posted by suepabs

I can't find how to start a new thread but I think mine is a similar question. I'm trying to follow all the techie talk and advice but I don't really understand so please bear with me.

I've always only had a main CRT TV and digibox (as I'd sooner poke my own eyes out than give Sky any of my hard earned dosh). Now I'm all 'newly technological' as I've just bought the Humax Foxsat HDR and had a satellite with quad LNB installed.

The PVR box is downstairs with the main tv. Is it possible to run a cable so I can also watch the freesat on the tv upstairs?

Cheers for any advice

BBC - Food - Recipes - Tarka dal

Sue

To post a new thread, go to the listing page above and click the eponymous box, left above the listing.

As your query is about SATellite TV, you are not in the right place anyway. Go up a step and down to the sat threads!

But I think the answer is "yes".

EDIT: And I think the link is wrong!
http://www.avforums.com/forums/freeview/

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by suepabs

I can't find how to start a new thread but I think mine is a similar question. I'm trying to follow all the techie talk and advice but I don't really understand so please bear with me.

I've always only had a main CRT TV and digibox (as I'd sooner poke my own eyes out than give Sky any of my hard earned dosh). Now I'm all 'newly technological' as I've just bought the Humax Foxsat HDR and had a satellite with quad LNB installed.

The PVR box is downstairs with the main tv. Is it possible to run a cable so I can also watch the freesat on the tv upstairs?

Cheers for any advice

The answer is yes and there a number of ways

The easiest is to use a wireless video sender. These have the advantage of sending stereo sound and also allow you to control the Foxsat remotely.
These come in 2 varieties, the cheaper ones work at 2.8Ghz, these tend to get interfered with other wireless devices like cordless phones or wifi routers. The more expensive ones use 5.8Ghz and by all reports work really well.

The other option is to convert the video/audio output to an analogue TV channel using a device called a modulator and send this over coax to the remote TV which can tune into this just like any other analogue TV station.
Many freeview stbs, Sky digiboxes and vcrs have a modulator built in. The Foxsat does not but you can easily add an external one.

Pros - reliable connection
Cons - Mono sound only, needs extra equipment to provide remote control of the foxsat

[suepabs]

Thanks for the info. The guy who installed it for me said as the Foxsat didn't have an RF modulator it couldn't be done so I'd also need a cheap box upstairs as well. I'll let him know what the experts say!

[suepabs]

Originally Posted by scribbler101

BBC - Food - Recipes - Tarka dal


EDIT: And I think the link is wrong!
Freeview - AVForums.com

Where did that come from ?!?!

[davemurgatroyd2]

Originally Posted by suepabs

Thanks for the info. The guy who installed it for me said as the Foxsat didn't have an RF modulator it couldn't be done so I'd also need a cheap box upstairs as well. I'll let him know what the experts say!

A cheap extra SD box upstairs at under £50 would probably not be much dearer than the WiFi sender and would allow watching of different channels upstairs and downstairs

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by davemurgatroyd2

A cheap extra SD box upstairs at under £50 would probably not be much dearer than the WiFi sender and would allow watching of different channels upstairs and downstairs

Agreed a modulator would cost about £25.00 but you would not be able to watch what you had recorded before, snuggled up in bed

[suepabs]

More food for thought thank you