Need quick help with distribution box in loft

[andrewtayloruk]

Hi,

I've got a new house which came installed with a loft distribution box for sending TV from the aerial to the wall-sockets.

I've got a last minute booking with Sky to install HD on wednesday and I want them to wire it to the box (which apparently they'll do).

So as there's no backing out at the last minute I want to be totally prepared, ie; just wire the LNB output to these two points and we're sorted.

I've just been in the loft and we've got a

Triax 110B Basic Domestic Distribution

These seem quite popular but I can't find a manual. I've not been able to get a local TV installer to come out in-time and the original company who installed the product wanted mega-bucks to install Sky.

Has anyone got a manual for one of these and can send me the information I need to get up and running, alternatively, any TV engineers who can do this in County Durham for less than my mortgage, please get in touch.

Really desperate to get sorted before Sky comes.

Thanks

Andrew

[hornydragon]

erm what teh big issue? no need for a manual you just let the sky man do it for you if he cant ne needs shooting may need a combiner or a new coax lead thats all.

Do you want to be able to change channel from bedrooms etc? if not then all you do is feed aerial into sky box and take RF feed from sky ox to aerial input on AMP job done for control (master bed normally) you just need a http://www.tvlink.co.uk/bypass.htm and one of these in the bedroom http://www.tvlink.co.uk/tvlink.htm

[andrewtayloruk]

I'm just concerned that even though I've checked with Sky, he's going to come and say; I'm not touching that, I'm justing going to drill a gopping great hole through your wall and make my life easier.

Am I being stupid?

Andrew

[hornydragon]

no but bung him £20 it is Xmas after all as long as you have Coax cable from Sky box to loft AMP we can talk you through the rest if needed

[andrewtayloruk]

Yeah, good idea, I'll bung him some cash.

Any idea how much Sky will charge me for a cancelled install if the guy can't be bribed. I've just had the lounge done, I'm not that bothered about Sky that I can live with a hole and a mass of wire. I'll pay the mega-bucks to the original company.

Thanks (again)

Andrew

[rich1231]

you know you wont get HD distributed by a loft box type setup dont you?

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by andrewtayloruk

I'll pay the mega-bucks to the original company.

they wont do much different you can expect 2-3 cables putthrough the wall from outside these should be only as long as they need to be and as unitrusive as possible the original installers should have provided for sky in the original install a cheap loft box and a bit of coax doesnt constitute an "installation" in my book.

[andrewtayloruk]

you know you wont get HD distrinbuted by a loft box type setup dont you?

No, I didn't. Care to expand?

Andrew

[rich1231]

By your description you intend to distribute the HD sig from a central place yes?

As in your HD box is in the loft or your HD box is next to a TV and the signal that comes from the dish is distributed to each TV point.


How had you imagined doing it?

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by andrewtayloruk

No, I didn't. Care to expand?

Andrew

the HD channels will be shown but downscaled to SD and distributed over RF the lowest form of video with mono sound if you want distributed HD it can be done but not by the original installers or the sky man (in my opinion distributed HD is possible but too expensive for the 6 extra channels ATM)

[louishm]

as hornydagon said you will only get true hd at the point where the sky is installed i.e living room. All other rooms going through the amp will not

[andrewtayloruk]

I'm not really bothered about the distribution aspect; I'm more concenered about a neat and tidy job. There's already wall-plates in place in my lounge that are connected to the distribution box in the loft.

I thought by using the distribution box in the loft, the Sky cable would run from the dish to the loft, then be hidden away until it popped out of the patch panel on the wall behind the TV, saves the Sky guy running metres of black cable around my house and drilling through my lovely painted walls.

However, if it won't do HD because it doesn't have the bandwidth, I'll have to live with cables and hope my Sky installer does a neat job without messing my paintwork up.

Thanks for the comments - saved me a mess on.

Andrew

[Tesla]

As long as you have decent coax (such as CT100 or WF100) in your walls then yes this can be done.

Not the way you have said- just f-barrel the LNB cables into the cables that run in the wall down to your living room (you will lose your terrestrial reception) and you need two coax feeds to use the recording features.

The Sky man may not want to touch this though, some of them are really knowledgeable and some are just plain stupid- same with any job really.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by andrewtayloruk

I'm not really bothered about the distribution aspect; I'm more concenered about a neat and tidy job. There's already wall-plates in place in my lounge that are connected to the distribution box in the loft.

I thought by using the distribution box in the loft, the Sky cable would run from the dish to the loft, then be hidden away until it popped out of the patch panel on the wall behind the TV, saves the Sky guy running metres of black cable around my house and drilling through my lovely painted walls.

However, if it won't do HD because it doesn't have the bandwidth, I'll have to live with cables and hope my Sky installer does a neat job without messing my paintwork up.

Thanks for the comments - saved me a mess on.

Andrew

right thats a different thing altogether Sky HD requires 2 Dish feeds to the BOX so thats 2 coax cables from loft to box the distribution can be sorted with some clever trickerier but not something your average sky installer can do I dont know anone local to you that i can reconmend but what you want may be possible if you have 2outputs on the wall plae or one input and one output you may be in luck

[andrewtayloruk]

Just a quick update, Sky has been and gone, took one look at the wall-plate and dismissed it as a bad idea. Ran an extremely neat job through an extremely small hole and went on his merry way.

Must admit, all the hassle we've had getting them to turn out, the engineer who came was a good bloke. Shame he can't answer the phones as well as install the kit.

Not even a smudge on the walls.

Thanks for all the help.

Andrew