danmusefan
Novice Member
Hi everyone.
I am new to this site so please forgive me if this question has already been asked/answered (I have trawled through this forum extensively but so far haven't found the answer to my question). Also please bear with me while I go through the background - I am including it in order to give my issue as much context and clarity as possible and to hopefully make it easier for someone to answer it, but my question itself is actually at the end of the post.
I live in a rented flat which has a single-feed satellite plate on the wall, which I have used since 2012 as a Sky subscriber with no major issues. Since 2014 I have been using Sky's 2TB box. The satellite feed in the lounge is the only one in the flat and therefore I have always run my box in single-feed mode, as when I initially became a Sky customer the engineer informed me that this was my best option as I was using a communal dish.
In March 2015, my girlfriend moved in with me (woo hoo, etc etc). Predictably, this has led to more so-called viewing clashes, and although I never really missed the dual-feed functionality when I was living on my own, it would now be useful to be able to record two programmes simultaneously, watch one live while recording another, etc - eg. make full use of the box's dual-feed capability.
I have recently tried to deal with this myself by purchasing relatively inexpensive satellite signal booster & splitter connectors from Amazon (both were non-powered), only to discover that the picture breaks up on many channels, or when certain combinations of channels are viewed/recorded, meaning that dual-feed mode can apparently not be relied upon in my case (as, to be fair, the Sky engineer suggested back in 2012).
So my question is - as I am using a communal dish, is the idea of splitting & boosting the signal in order to utilisise dual-feed mode a fruitless exercise, and one which I should give up on? Or is there a way - perhaps by puchasing a more expensive mains-powered signal booster/splitter - to achieve my goal?
Many thanks in advance, Dan.
I am new to this site so please forgive me if this question has already been asked/answered (I have trawled through this forum extensively but so far haven't found the answer to my question). Also please bear with me while I go through the background - I am including it in order to give my issue as much context and clarity as possible and to hopefully make it easier for someone to answer it, but my question itself is actually at the end of the post.
I live in a rented flat which has a single-feed satellite plate on the wall, which I have used since 2012 as a Sky subscriber with no major issues. Since 2014 I have been using Sky's 2TB box. The satellite feed in the lounge is the only one in the flat and therefore I have always run my box in single-feed mode, as when I initially became a Sky customer the engineer informed me that this was my best option as I was using a communal dish.
In March 2015, my girlfriend moved in with me (woo hoo, etc etc). Predictably, this has led to more so-called viewing clashes, and although I never really missed the dual-feed functionality when I was living on my own, it would now be useful to be able to record two programmes simultaneously, watch one live while recording another, etc - eg. make full use of the box's dual-feed capability.
I have recently tried to deal with this myself by purchasing relatively inexpensive satellite signal booster & splitter connectors from Amazon (both were non-powered), only to discover that the picture breaks up on many channels, or when certain combinations of channels are viewed/recorded, meaning that dual-feed mode can apparently not be relied upon in my case (as, to be fair, the Sky engineer suggested back in 2012).
So my question is - as I am using a communal dish, is the idea of splitting & boosting the signal in order to utilisise dual-feed mode a fruitless exercise, and one which I should give up on? Or is there a way - perhaps by puchasing a more expensive mains-powered signal booster/splitter - to achieve my goal?
Many thanks in advance, Dan.