[nickane]

About 4 months ago I got Sky HD and whilst I was warned over the phone that living in a flat meant I might have one feed which meant "I might not be able to record 2 programs at once" - quite possibly the biggest understatement a salesperson has ever uttered to me. It seems that the only device that might ease my woes is a priority switch and all the threads on the subject mention only the Globalcom SPS 1.

This device is sold out everywhere, and the few places where it isn't chose to decide it was after I'd bought one and given them my credit card details. Does anyone know of another such device or where I can still get the Global one? I'm on a pretty tight budget (got the sky box on a friends and family deal) and would rather not spend much more than the £10-20 that the SPS1 was once going for, but at this point I'm so sick of failed recordings (and the lack of a "disable secondary input" option in the menu) that I'd probably pay much more if I had to...

[Habu-SR71]

I have one sitting in a black plastic bin bag doing nothing with all of my other bits at least it was last time i looked, i used it a few years back the only problem is I'm a banned trader so i cant sell it via this website all i can suggest is for your to ask permission if i can sell it to you via a moderator.

Bit daft i know but if it helps you out thats what we are here for right!.

Best Regards.

[simon194]

The SPS 1 is probably not the best solution because it will only allow you to watch/record broadcasts that are on transponders with the same polarity. You couldn't, for example, watch Sky 1HD and record something on BBC HD because the respective transpnders have differednt polarities.

This is a much better solution but it is more expensive.

[nickane]

Hi, thanks for the replies. Sorry to not have answered earlier. Habu, I am indeed interested in purchasing your SPS-1. Do you have a paypal account? Do you mind me asking why you were banned?

Simon, just how much more does that SCR-MDU-Kit device cost? It looks like a lot more than I could really justify spending given that I got Sky HD on a friends and family deal, but I'm interested all the same as I guess I could sell it when I sell my HD box at the end of the year.

[wbabbington]

How does the SCR-MDU work? Been looking for a solution to the flat problem for a while and up to now been told that the only solution was a stacker destacker install. Which is £150+

[logiciel]

How often do you want to record two programmes at the same time?

[wbabbington]

Originally Posted by hhatkin

How often do you want to record two prorammes at the same time?

With what my missus forces me to watch, loads!

[Smurkenstein]

Originally Posted by simon194

This is a much better solution but it is more expensive.

I must get one of these...does anyone know where?

[logiciel]

Originally Posted by wbabbington

With what my missus forces me to watch, loads!

Understood

[Playalistic]

Originally Posted by Smurkenstein

I must get one of these...does anyone know where?

Global Communications - Distributors

[sizedoesmatter]

So would this take one satellite cable feed from the lnb & split it?

[davemurgatroyd2]

Originally Posted by simon194

The SPS 1 is probably not the best solution because it will only allow you to watch/record broadcasts that are on transponders with the same polarity. You couldn't, for example, watch Sky 1HD and record something on BBC HD because the respective transpnders have differednt polarities.

This is a much better solution but it is more expensive.

Hardly capable of fitting in most of these cases. It requires four outputs from the multiswitch and is fitted in the same location, you then need appropriate splitters/distribution units in the flat as well as the highest quality connecting cable between the two units. Most communal installations will not have the required three extra spare outputs from the existing multiswitch and cabling quality would be very questionable on an existing installation. These are basically a four inout and output version of the two input/output stacker/destacker units

See here for a more detailed idea of what is required
http://www.globalinvacom.com/products/pdfs/SCR_iss3.pdf

[davemurgatroyd2]

Originally Posted by sizedoesmatter

So would this take one satellite cable feed from the lnb & split it?

No it requires four feeds from an lnb or multiswitch, so really is absolutely useless for what most of you are looking for, unless your communal system has spare outlets on its existing multiswitch and you are willing to pay whoever installed/owns the system to connect it up (and possibly extra rental for the three extra feeds). Even then there is no guarantee that your existing cabling is of a good enough quality to cope with this system.

[Smurkenstein]

So, is there any foolproof way of splitting a LNB signal for + functionality?

[davemurgatroyd2]

Originally Posted by Smurkenstein

So, is there any foolproof way of splitting a LNB signal for + functionality?

None whatsoever other than the methods above but they require multiple inputs into the one cable. If there was an easy foolproof way do you not think that Sky would have used it and saved a fortune in multiple output lnbs and cabling.

There is an easy way of getting limited reliable recording on a Sky+ or Sky HD on a single input

All you need to do is connect the single cable to input 1 and set a manual recording on a channel you never watch lasting 24 hours repeated daily which will always fail but take virtually zero hard disk space. (Ro set Manual recording - "Services" "Manual Recording"). Delete these failed recordings when the next dummy starts.

This works because input 1 is the channel normally used for viewing (from switch on with nothing recording) and input 2 is normally used for the first scheduled recording. If an input is already in use the box will automatically switch to the other input for whatever it wants to do. Because the dummy manual recording is already telling the box that it is already using input 2, anything else will happen on input 1. With this setup you can do any one of three things
1 Watch one channel.
2 Record one channel (either timed via Planner or by pressing Record whilst viewing).
3 Record one channel and watch a previous recording.

[nickane]

Cheers for your help, Dave.

£150 sounds a bit steep. I had already heard of the stacker/destacker option (didn't realize that that's what this was) and it seems a lot of hassle for me to go thru for a sky contract and tenancy that both need renewing in 9 months' time. Hopefully, someone else in the thread can make use of, but like Davemurgatroyd said, a great many installs can't handle that much bandwidth down one line.

The principle reason why I want the SPS1 is because that manual recording method isn't working for me. You can't set a recording to be on all the time, you can only set it daily for almost the whole day. Except that since the start time can't equal the end time, there is a minute in which the sky box can choose for no apparent reason to switch the input that it records from (and believe me, it does this all too often, probably 1 in 3 days). The manual recording also seems to delete itself quite often (possibly because flatmates of mine choose to delete it when prompted by reminders, cos they don't understand what's going on altho we've discussed it at length).

The dummy recording per recording (setting up a recording to fail just before what u want to record) system works better but it's a lot more hassle.

If there was just an option in the menu to disable the input (which no one explained to me that there wasn't until i was having SKY installed!!!!), life would be a lot easier, but for now, I need an SPS-1. I get tons of failed recordings and longsince regret shelling out for HD (of the 3 months I've had it, my box hasn't worked for 1 of them).