Diasy Chain Sky Boxes

[sikes]

Hi,

I am having a bit of trouble daisy chaining 8 sky boxes. I link one to the other via the rf out and rf in The problem arises when i have more that four daisy chained, the output on the box at the end is very poor and a lot of noise is present.

At the moment the atenna is not connected to the input so the channel isnt being used and i have swaped channels around to ensure this.

Am i missing something? Should it not just be a case of daisy chainging them? Has anyone successfully done this?

Cheers for any help

Simon

[Nick_UK]

Not really surprised - each box will amplify the noise generated by the previous one. You will also need to choose the output channels carefully (especially if you are also feeding terrestrial signals), because the output channels can and will interfere with each other.

[sikes]

would it be better to get some kind of combiner, so that i could daisy chain 3 then combine them? any other solutions?

cheers

[Andy3]

Sikes, I think your idea is best. Daisy-chaining 8 UHF modulators and tuners is a recipe for disaster, as the last one in the chain has to put up with 7 strong signals and all their (inevitable) mixing products. The final result is a mess. Even 3 is pushing it...

[SeanT]

daisy chain 5 and 3 and have an external tv tuner hooked to an rf modulator to select between the first 5

[vex]

The additional problem is that the tuners used in most set top boxes are double sideband modulators and as such will swamp the channels either side with additional noise.

The 'CHEAP' soluiton is to do as sugested, split the receivers in to two or three groups, combine them through a splitter and the repeat it, combining the output of the first splitters. NOTE: Make sure the splitters are resistive (common) and not directional (rare) as they will not pass a good signal when used as a combiner.

The 'PROFFESIONAL' solution would be to take the scart outputs from each of the receivers and pass them through a proffesional headend which will modulate them up to tv channels but in a very clean way, thus significantly reducing the noise and channel interferrence.

One other consideration is your Sky chargers, if it is a business install Sky have a completely different way of charging for thier channels than in a domestic system. Prices can be Very High!

Chris

[sikes]

cheers for the help. just wondering if a splitter is essentially the same as a combiner if i use the inputs as outputs and vice versa? The ones you will find at your local DIY store.

i cant find anything on the headband and i suppose it would be pricey, it is just for a home install.

Regards

[vex]

Yep, provided they are resistive then the outputs can be used as inputs and vice versa.

The Headend solution is a commercial solution and expencive, but TBH the only way to garentee quality for Hotels and the like.

Chris

[sikes]

cheers, i got combiners so off to have a lash at it now

will let u know how it goes

[ijd]

I just have to know, why link 8 sky boxes???

[chipray]

I would love to see OP's roof

[JayCee]

Originally Posted by chipray

I would love to see OP's roof

8 digiboxes could run of two dishes each fitted with a quad LNB.

[a.v.sat]

why not a octo on one dish,or one dish and a quatro to a multiswitch can feed 12 16 24 or more boxes

[ijd]

but why would you want to

[sikes]

its running off an octo dish, we cant get bbc etc in our area so this way we get 7 fta channels. there is 8 of us in the house and it only cost 300e so far!