How many boxes from one Sky dish

leesouth131

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First ever posting on here so hello everyone.

Currently have normal Sky at home. Due to incompetence at Sky we get all movies and sports for £20 (a mix up a few years ago and has continued since)

We will be moving house soon and we want to take the plunge to SkyHD (thus justifying the new HDreadyTV). To ensure i get new kit would i be best to cancel my current contract when ready to move and start again at the new address. At new house we want HD and Multiroom. Could i get the engineer to set up a third box (from my old house) to be used as a Freesat system in another room?

Cheers Guys
 
You can fit/have fitted a quad OR an octo lnb to your dish.

Sky boxes need 1 input
Sky+/HD boxes need 2 inputs

So you can have up to 8 normal Sky boxes or up to 4 Sky+/HD boxes (or any combination of up to 8 inputs) from 1 dish easily with an octo lnb (usually need "special request" to Sky) or for a standard HD installation they will fit a quad lnb which will give you 4 inputs.

I don't know whether you will be able to order your third (freeview) connection via Sky BUT most installers will put an extra cable into a third room for a small consideration.:cool:
 
GRRRRRR. Freeview is TERRESTRIAL and has a dfferent programm line up to Freesat From Sky.

BTW if I was getting all that for 20 quid I would not raise my head to where Sky could see it.
 
The small consideration worked a treat when I got sky+ installed:thumbsup:

freeview in the bedroom!
 
I think I'd have to slip my local Sky installer more than a tenner to get Freeview in the bedroom. He doesn't do aerials.
 
I know oct (8 output) LNB's exist. But according to sky site the options all add up to a quad output eg 4, eg a + plus 2 standard boxes, or 2 + boxes.

Would sky allow 4 cards and 4 + boxes, or 8 cards and 8 standard boxes ( thats a lot of phone line connections as well)???


Anyone doing this?
 
SamRadford said:
I think I'd have to slip my local Sky installer more than a tenner to get Freeview in the bedroom. He doesn't do aerials.

sarky bugger
 
LOL -- Look I'm repeating myself here a bit but most engineers (me included) are over the moon to make some extra money on an install (we only get on average ((as a sub contractor)) £26 for an install would you believe), £20 - £30 would almost guarantee you wiring up another digibox in order to get freesat on it.

If you are talking phone lines then that is a different matter as bare in mind BT charge £135 to fit an extension socket. On average we charge £40- £50 to fit a slave phone socket (wired into a master socket) so if you are thinking multi-room in the future then it is cheaper to fit phone extensions under your carpets.

Sky will only give you an Octo LNB if it is in their interest to do so, e.g. if you have 3 sky+ boxes or 5 standard digiboxes all running on multiroom cards. They will not give you it just because you want to use a number of freesat setups in your house.

Cheers, Franc
 
Octo lnb's are becoming available on e-bay now at around the £20 to £30 price range - I purchased one last week for £20.99 inc p&p with 10 m cable and six f connectors for free. So if Sky won't give you one get one off e-bay and ask the installer to use that instead of his quad.
 
I agree that i should not raise my head to Sky. I can't think of any other way to do what i want.

In our new house we want SkyHD in the main room. We have promised my son Sky in his bedroom so multi room is required. I thought the best way to get two new boxes would be to cancel and rejoin at the new address. Thus freeing up the old Sky box to be set up as Freesat in the kitchen.

Will i qualify for the latest special offers or will i miss out due to being an old customer. I live in a Telewest area so i guess that is a good negotiating tool.:smashin:

Any ideas on how i can keep my £20 situation would be greatly received.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
leesouth131 said:
Any ideas on how i can keep my £20 situation would be greatly received.

Thanks in advance guys.
best bet is to try and move the current sub up to HD by paying the £10 extra for HD and hope the eave your £20 standard sub alone then when they upgrade you to HD they can use the original package on a new box (i doubt you'll manage it tho mate)
 
davemurgatroyd2 said:
Octo lnb's are becoming available on e-bay now at around the £20 to £30 price range
I wondered how long it would take for Sky employees to start "borrowing" them! :cool:

Unfortunately I have a conscience so I wouldn't touch these suspect auctions with a barge pole.
 

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