SKY HD with one cable? - Sky+ HD

rhicks · 24-04-2006, 15:19

I recently had to chuck my SKY+ box in the cupboard because in my new apartment I can only get one cable from the dish into the back of the decoder. SKY+ wont run properly with one cable coming in but I was hoping the maybe the new SKY HD might be able to deal with this in some way. Of course I fully understand that one wouldn't be able to record more than one prog at a time.

I'm hoping SKY will recognise the amount of people using their services in apartments, most of which can't have two cables at once due to the shared use of the dish.

Thanks in advance, Rob

andysiddell · 24-04-2006, 15:45

Just a thought, but wouldn't it be nice if they designed the boxes with an option in the setup menu asking 1 or 2 inputs, and then functioning accordingly. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to do? Come on Sky!

sky engineer 1 · 24-04-2006, 16:32

You would be surprised by the ammount of install`s that have not gone ahead because of the one feed problem in these new builds, it`s all down to lazy building contractors that can`t be arsed with doing there research.
I`m affraid your going to be stuck with just the old system
as there is no way what so ever to split the feeds,
And the problems going to get worse soon as sky are going to be introducing a octo lmb (8 feeds)
The only thing i can suggest as i always do is get in touch with the building contractors and have a word
hope they can help you out some how

Automan · 24-04-2006, 17:28

Rob,
I would assume it would give you the same functions as a normal single lnb digibox but would be able to yield an HD picture on a suitable TV.

No Sky+ Functions

Automan.

cwhitehe · 24-04-2006, 18:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by andysiddell

Just a thought, but wouldn't it be nice if they designed the boxes with an option in the setup menu asking 1 or 2 inputs, and then functioning accordingly. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to do? Come on Sky!

I could not agreed more. Surely they could make it so people with just one feed could record one channel. I fully understand that I would not be able to change channels while it was recording, but this functionality would be as good as me recording a Freeview channel from my decoder that is built into my telly, but Sky of course!

It would also surely be possible to record one channel while watching a program previously recorded as this is coming off the hard disk, not a second feed.

Just these two features would be great for me.

rhicks · 24-04-2006, 19:18

Thanks to all for replying. It seems I'm not alone here with my issue with the Sky+ and HD kit. Such a quick fix for Sky and they would have thousands of extra customers. As I don't have cable access in my apartment I guess if I want Sky+ I need to move house.

On the point by Automan, I tried running the Sky+ box with only the one cable feed. The box would only record if the box was already tuned into the right channel. However sometimes it seemed to work. The box basically got confused. For this reason I don't think I'll be getting in the HD version just in case.

Thanks again all for taking the time to reply

Rob

sky engineer 1 · 24-04-2006, 19:32

Hence the 2 feed`s from the dish, sky + need`s the 2 feed`s for the 2 tuners it has in it so you can watch one while recording the other
1 feed and your in trouble

<Finch> · 24-04-2006, 19:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by sky engineer 1

Hence the 2 feed`s from the dish, sky + need`s the 2 feed`s for the 2 tuners it has in it so you can watch one while recording the other
1 feed and your in trouble

But a software fix could sort that, hardware wouldn't need touching.

sky engineer 1 · 24-04-2006, 19:45

I give up lol

ozsat · 25-04-2006, 16:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by <Finch>

But a software fix could sort that, hardware wouldn't need touching.

An LNB feed can only be in one one polarity and one frequency band at a time. A twin-LNB has two seperate feeds - which is required for two tuners.

No amount of software fiddles with the Sky+ software will resolve that issue.

You could get a cable splitter installed at the Sky+ box - but most of your recordings will then fail.

If you are watch an 11GHz H channel - then anything in 11GHz V, 12GHz H and 12GHz V will fail - and so on.

consciouspnm · 25-04-2006, 16:58

I think his point was that a software update so that you could tell the sky box you only had one cable would be appreciated by a lot of people.

Most people know that with only one feed you can only tune to one channel, but with one feed you should be able to either record a programme, view a programme or record and view a pre-recorded programme.

Or the Sky+ box should be able to work out the second channel is not locked and therefore not try and use it.

<Finch> · 25-04-2006, 18:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozsat

An LNB feed can only be in one one polarity and one frequency band at a time. A twin-LNB has two seperate feeds - which is required for two tuners.

No amount of software fiddles with the Sky+ software will resolve that issue.

You could get a cable splitter installed at the Sky+ box - but most of your recordings will then fail.

If you are watch an 11GHz H channel - then anything in 11GHz V, 12GHz H and 12GHz V will fail - and so on.

No but a software fix can make it so it can record from the 1 feed and watch the 1 feed.

allyballybee · 24-05-2006, 14:25

According to the sky technical department, you can still have sky hd with one feed. it just means you will not have the facility to record one programme while you are watching another. you can apparently only record the side you are watching.sky tech 08705-800-800 or 08702-435-000

shudson · 25-05-2006, 09:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by allyballybee

According to the sky technical department, you can still have sky hd with one feed. it just means you will not have the facility to record one programme while you are watching another. you can apparently only record the side you are watching.sky tech 08705-800-800 or 08702-435-000

I confirm the above and with the SKY+ box you could record different channels if say you went away for the weekend by moving the cable to the other connection and putting box in standby. I ahve done this many times and works fine.

I am in the same boat and working on acquiring another feed in my flat..... I hope that the HD box works the same way as the SD box so at least I can watch HD in the meantime !!

lfc-news · 25-05-2006, 10:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by shudson

I am in the same boat and working on acquiring another feed in my flat..... I hope that the HD box works the same way as the SD box so at least I can watch HD in the meantime !!

Good luck! I'm in the same boat too!! Just hope I can get that second feed into my flat before the Sky installer comes round - as apparantley according to Sky CS "he will look at the set up and just walk away..."

Micko2005 · 19-07-2006, 11:02

I have had all the same problems as mentioned. I e-mailed and rang Sky many times over this issue, they are now not even replying to my e-mails!!! Great customer service, NOT!

A simple, very simple, software update as suggested earlier would be fantastic, to allow the setting of 1 or 2 LNB inputs. Then the box would change channel for you for recording whilst you are out. That is all it needs to do, change channel automatically, just like the old sky boxes did with the A symbol in the red circle. Everybody, me included would be happy!!

I can not get SKy HD, been told lots of times now, however, my local Sat installer tells me that in August he will be allowed to start installing HD systems himself, and will be more than happy to plug one into my single output feed for me. So there is a small amount of hope on the horizon!

Does anyone know of a cheat around to get the boxes to change channel for recording on 1 LNB?

infiniteloop · 19-07-2006, 11:08

what about the old "put a sneaky dish on the balcony" for the second feed? I'd definitely be trying that.

Micko2005 · 19-07-2006, 11:25

Nice idea second dish, I have a ground floor flat unfortunately on the street facing the away from Astra

Would have loved to have tried it though.

deesee · 19-07-2006, 16:03

I allways thought you could record on sky+ with one feed, it just meant that you had to watch something you had already recorded earlier, and you could record whilst you were at work or overnight that would be better than no sky+ at all, or have i got it all wrong again.

deesee · 19-07-2006, 16:05

Bye the way, why the need to swap the feed into the other input.

infiniteloop · 19-07-2006, 17:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micko2005

Nice idea second dish, I have a ground floor flat unfortunately on the street facing the away from Astra

Would have loved to have tried it though.

Some guys I know have even got dishes behind glass in the spare room!

ralferoo · 20-07-2006, 08:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by deesee

Bye the way, why the need to swap the feed into the other input.

Haven't had the need to try this, but from what I understand, the box will usually show the program from input 1 and record from input 2. When recording two programs at once, if input 2 is used, it will use input 1, forcing display to change channel at that point (although obviously you can manually change to the other channel). Then if the recording on input 2 stops, then display will continue on input 2 whilst the box continues recording on input 1. I suspect when changing channels after both recordings have stopped would swap back to input 1.

henryv · 21-07-2006, 06:56

What are the 8 feeds for?
Are you saying 8 wires from dish to box?

Henry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sky engineer 1

You would be surprised by the ammount of install`s that have not gone ahead because of the one feed problem in these new builds, it`s all down to lazy building contractors that can`t be arsed with doing there research.
I`m affraid your going to be stuck with just the old system
as there is no way what so ever to split the feeds,
And the problems going to get worse soon as sky are going to be introducing a octo lmb (8 feeds)
The only thing i can suggest as i always do is get in touch with the building contractors and have a word
hope they can help you out some how

deesee · 21-07-2006, 11:04

You need one feed for each standard sky box, two feeds for every sky+ or sky hd box that you use, those of us with sky+ and sky hd need four feeds , thus a quad lnb is enough for our needs.

Alex Oughton · 21-07-2006, 11:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by infiniteloop

Some guys I know have even got dishes behind glass in the spare room!

I have that in my parents' house.

www.oughton.me.uk/sky shows my setup. It's quite out of date now, and now it doesn't look quite so ridiculous, as we use a proper tripod (at last).

24-04-2006, 15:19	#1
rhicks Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2	SKY HD with one cable? I recently had to chuck my SKY+ box in the cupboard because in my new apartment I can only get one cable from the dish into the back of the decoder. SKY+ wont run properly with one cable coming in but I was hoping the maybe the new SKY HD might be able to deal with this in some way. Of course I fully understand that one wouldn't be able to record more than one prog at a time. I'm hoping SKY will recognise the amount of people using their services in apartments, most of which can't have two cables at once due to the shared use of the dish. Thanks in advance, Rob

24-04-2006, 16:32	#3
sky engineer 1 Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 69	Gutted for you You would be surprised by the ammount of install`s that have not gone ahead because of the one feed problem in these new builds, it`s all down to lazy building contractors that can`t be arsed with doing there research. I`m affraid your going to be stuck with just the old system as there is no way what so ever to split the feeds, And the problems going to get worse soon as sky are going to be introducing a octo lmb (8 feeds) The only thing i can suggest as i always do is get in touch with the building contractors and have a word hope they can help you out some how

24-04-2006, 19:18	#6
rhicks Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2	Thank you Thanks to all for replying. It seems I'm not alone here with my issue with the Sky+ and HD kit. Such a quick fix for Sky and they would have thousands of extra customers. As I don't have cable access in my apartment I guess if I want Sky+ I need to move house. On the point by Automan, I tried running the Sky+ box with only the one cable feed. The box would only record if the box was already tuned into the right channel. However sometimes it seemed to work. The box basically got confused. For this reason I don't think I'll be getting in the HD version just in case. Thanks again all for taking the time to reply Rob

24-05-2006, 14:25	#13
allyballybee Forum Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 53	sky with one cable According to the sky technical department, you can still have sky hd with one feed. it just means you will not have the facility to record one programme while you are watching another. you can apparently only record the side you are watching.sky tech 08705-800-800 or 08702-435-000

24-04-2006, 15:45	#2
andysiddell Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Up North Services: LG 42 Plasma HD Sky+HD Freeview & A Good Old Tivo still going strong. Posts: 126	Just a thought, but wouldn't it be nice if they designed the boxes with an option in the setup menu asking 1 or 2 inputs, and then functioning accordingly. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to do? Come on Sky!

24-04-2006, 17:28	#4
Automan Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Gender: Male Location: South Coast, UK Services: FoxSat-HDR, TH-46PZ8BA, TX-SR806, BD-35 Posts: 4,181	Rob, I would assume it would give you the same functions as a normal single lnb digibox but would be able to yield an HD picture on a suitable TV. No Sky+ Functions Automan.

24-04-2006, 19:32	#7
sky engineer 1 Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 69	Hence the 2 feed`s from the dish, sky + need`s the 2 feed`s for the 2 tuners it has in it so you can watch one while recording the other 1 feed and your in trouble

24-04-2006, 19:45	#9
sky engineer 1 Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 69	I give up lol

25-04-2006, 16:58	#11
consciouspnm Forum Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Huddersfield Services: SKY+, 8Mb ADSL (but I only get 2Mb!) Posts: 58	I think his point was that a software update so that you could tell the sky box you only had one cable would be appreciated by a lot of people. Most people know that with only one feed you can only tune to one channel, but with one feed you should be able to either record a programme, view a programme or record and view a pre-recorded programme. Or the Sky+ box should be able to work out the second channel is not locked and therefore not try and use it.

19-07-2006, 11:02	#16
Micko2005 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 4	I have had all the same problems as mentioned. I e-mailed and rang Sky many times over this issue, they are now not even replying to my e-mails!!! Great customer service, NOT! A simple, very simple, software update as suggested earlier would be fantastic, to allow the setting of 1 or 2 LNB inputs. Then the box would change channel for you for recording whilst you are out. That is all it needs to do, change channel automatically, just like the old sky boxes did with the A symbol in the red circle. Everybody, me included would be happy!! I can not get SKy HD, been told lots of times now, however, my local Sat installer tells me that in August he will be allowed to start installing HD systems himself, and will be more than happy to plug one into my single output feed for me. So there is a small amount of hope on the horizon! Does anyone know of a cheat around to get the boxes to change channel for recording on 1 LNB?

19-07-2006, 11:08	#17
infiniteloop Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: London Services: Sky HD+Max Posts: 5,149	what about the old "put a sneaky dish on the balcony" for the second feed? I'd definitely be trying that.

19-07-2006, 11:25	#18
Micko2005 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 4	Nice idea second dish, I have a ground floor flat unfortunately on the street facing the away from Astra Would have loved to have tried it though.

19-07-2006, 16:03	#19
deesee Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: harrogate n`yorks Services: sky+ tivo itv digital -ic24 Posts: 764	I allways thought you could record on sky+ with one feed, it just meant that you had to watch something you had already recorded earlier, and you could record whilst you were at work or overnight that would be better than no sky+ at all, or have i got it all wrong again.

19-07-2006, 16:05	#20
deesee Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: harrogate n`yorks Services: sky+ tivo itv digital -ic24 Posts: 764	Bye the way, why the need to swap the feed into the other input.

21-07-2006, 11:04	#24
deesee Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: harrogate n`yorks Services: sky+ tivo itv digital -ic24 Posts: 764	You need one feed for each standard sky box, two feeds for every sky+ or sky hd box that you use, those of us with sky+ and sky hd need four feeds , thus a quad lnb is enough for our needs.