Can I have more than one box?

November 28, 2008

Yes, of course you can  

BUT 

You will need to install a multi-output LNB on your dish (you’ve probably heard people talking about “quad LNBs”). The replacement of a single LNB with a multi-output one is straight swap.

Having installed the new LNB on your dish you then need to check the signal (See “how to fix your own dish”) then simply run cables from your new LNB to your boxes and your kids can watch Cbeebies while you watch the news. 

Why can I only 1 box on an LNB?  (a bit techi) 

At it’s most basic level it’s because the LNB is not a simple areal it actually does some quite clever things.The digibox and LNB should be regarded as the reciever because they inter-react with one another

 

The signal from the satellite is polarised, that is to say it is transmitted in either a horizontal or a vertical plane, this means that 2 different programs can be transmitted on very close frequencies on horizontally and the other vertically, thus making very efficient use of the available frequencies. This is why the skew angle of the LNB is important when you are installing your dish

The LNB can be switched by the digibox to receive either horizontal or vertical transmissions, to achieve this the digibox sends 13volts to the LNB to receive vertical transmissions and 18volts for Horizontal

 

The signal from the satellite is in 2 frequency bands, 10.7-11.8Ghz(Lo band) and 11.6-12.6Ghz(Hi band) the LNB switches to Hi Band when it receives a 22Khz frequency signal from the digibox….

 

So if you if you do connect 2 boxes to on LNB and select a program that transmits on  Hi band/vertical (22Khz/ 18volts from the box) on one, that is going to override any other selections on the other and in the worst case scenario if one box is trying to access a Hi Band/Horizontal channel(22Khz/13volts) and the other box is trying to access a LoBand/Vertical (0Khz/18volts) then neither box will get receive the correct signal

 

(Actually you can get multi-output LNBs which in effect have 2, 4, 8 or even 16 LNBs in one casing so you still have one box per individual LNB)

 

 

Written by Bart · Filed Under How-to | Leave a Comment 

Channel 5 is now available free

November 3, 2008

Adding “Five” to your Sky box

  • On the Sky box go to Services > System Setup > Add Channels

  • Enter the following details:
    • Frequency: 10773MHz (10.773GHz)
    • Polarity: Horizontal
    • Symbol rate: 22000 (22.0Mb)
    • FEC: 5/6
  • Go to Find Channels, highlight “Five”, and press the yellow button, then Select.
  • To view the channel go to Services > Other Channels, and select “Five”.

Adding “Five” to your French digibox

If you have a “brico” box, if it does “blind scans” then it’d be worth doing a complete scan as quite a few channels have moved in the last couple of months.

If your box does not do blind scans then you will have to create a new transponder with the details above and then scan that.

Written by Bart · Filed Under How-to | 7 Comments 

How to programme your Sky remote to work with your TV

November 2, 2008

The Sky remote can be programmed to opperate many TVs and it’s easy to do.

If you have a Sony TV, it should work automatically. Otherwise:

First turn on your TV and your Sky box. then on the remote control:

  1. Press the “interactive” button

  2. From the menu that now appears select option 5, “Customer Services”
  3. You now have to wait a few moments,
  4. When the menu appears scroll down and select option 5, “Programme Your Remote”
  5. Now follow the on screen intructions.

If your TV does not appear on the list, then it may be worth trying a few codes from the same manufacturer.

Written by Bart · Filed Under How-to | 2 Comments