[Mr Thunder]

I have just inherited a Sky+ box and, as my regular Digibox was becoming unreliable, I swapped them over. Obviously I only have one LNB cable feeding this but it works OK and my Tivo controls it nicely so I have a reliable system once again.

Then the madness took hold and, despite having Tivo, I subscribed to the Sky+ system so I could record. What I can't do though, of course, is record two programmes at once (because of the single feed). Can my existing single feed be split ? Like you can do with a regular RF lead utlising a 'Y' junction piece ?! Maybe something a bit more elaborate is needed but any advice would be appreciated....

[Mr Thunder]

I've just found some threads I'd overlooked before posting and it seems maybe this can't be done due to Sky+ looking at different polarisations for different channels. Having said that, it seems a bit vague - does anyone have the definitive answer ?

It can be done, but you will need to upgrade your LNB on your dish to a quad LNB and you'll need a mux/demux box. It works as follows;

You replace the single cable LNB on your dish with a quad LNB which has 4 cable connectors. You connect two cables to the LNB which feed into the multiplexer box. You connect your existing single cable to the output of the multiplexer box. At the TV end, you connect the single cable to the de-multiplexor box and connect two cable from the box to your SKY +. I can't remember the exact details of the mux / demux boxes but they exist. To be honest, unless your cable run is v difficult to replace you're better off running an extra cable all the way from the dish to the SKy + or replacing the existing cable with "shotgun" cable which is two cables that have a total width the same as a single standard sky cable.

[triplea4uk]

Might aswell just get quad lnb and then run another cable to box its simple.

Only hard bits are when you replace the lnb it might be out of line and getting to the dish apart from them its easy.

[vex]

Personally stay very clear of Mux/DeMux systems or Stackers as they were called.

Just about every one I know of has been returned. The main problem is the cables can not cope with that type of signal at such a high frequency.

Originally Posted by tattyman

It can be done, but you will need to upgrade your LNB on your dish to a quad LNB and you'll need a mux/demux box. It works as follows;

You replace the single cable LNB on your dish with a quad LNB which has 4 cable connectors. You connect two cables to the LNB which feed into the multiplexer box. You connect your existing single cable to the output of the multiplexer box. At the TV end, you connect the single cable to the de-multiplexor box and connect two cable from the box to your SKY +. I can't remember the exact details of the mux / demux boxes but they exist. To be honest, unless your cable run is v difficult to replace you're better off running an extra cable all the way from the dish to the SKy + or replacing the existing cable with "shotgun" cable which is two cables that have a total width the same as a single standard sky cable.

[Mr Thunder]

Thanks for the replies, folks. I think I'll leave everything as it is - the cable to my Sky+ runs under carpets that are difficult to uplift and, at the end of the day, I only have installed the + box as it 'came my way' and my old regular Digibox was playing up a bit. Only after having done the swap did I think it might be nice to use the record feature as a back-up to Tivo. Hence my subscribing. If I find it's of no use I'll cancel the £10 a month and just use it as was.

Again, my appreciation for your deliberations....

[Mr Thunder]

I now have another question to ask all you Sky Plussers out there - does the device HAVE to have two LNB inputs connected to work correctly ? Mine only has the one and I am noticing some test recordings are just not working - they're marked in the Planner as 'failed'. Tivo is still turning channels over OK and working fine and no channels seem to be inactive (i.e. those on horizontal polarity OK and those on vertical not OK due to only one LNB socket being active)

Any thoughts, oh wise ones ?

[Nick_UK]

With only one LNB connected, you have to ensure that the Sky+ box is tuned to the channel that you want to record from, otherwise it will try to use LNB2 input (which has nothing connected to it) and it will fail.

[Mr Thunder]

Thanks greatly for this information. I have tried connecting up to LNB2 and I can't get a picture through at all. So, am I right in thinking that it's a bit pointless subscribing to the Sky+ service as it can't ever work on unattended recordings without BOTH of the LNB sockets being connected ? As I said before, I am connected to LNB1 at the moment and my Tivo seems to work OK with the box. Have I only really got a super-duper Digibox if I don't ever get both LNB1 and LNB2 connected up ????

[Nick_UK]

The box will only use LNB2 if the other input is already doing something, which will be never in your case, so you'll not get a picture from LNB2. A few people have reported success with unattended recordings with a single LNB input by setting up dummy recordings, so you force the box to use a certain input, but that's a lot of messing about, and since Sky are constantly updating the system, it's not guaranteed to work in the future. There is a "dish" available which looks more like a TV aerial than a dish, which you might have success in getting away with - I don't have any details of where to find it, but if you look back through this forum you will find it mentioned a couple of times in threads covering this subject.

[ih8modem]

If I understand correctly, LNB output 2 is used for the recording (as the box never switches over if you are watching something else).

LNB output 1 is used for the 'active' channel, and will also be used to record the second recording, if you have two active recordings at the same time?

Perhaps I should rather refer to the inputs on the box, not the outputs on the LNB.