Distribute Sky, is a perfect picture possible?

[conroyster]

Hi,

I currently have a sky+ subscription down stairs in the living room. The aerial from the roof goes to the sky box, and the RF 1 and a scart connection go to the tv in the living room.

I purchased a distribution kit http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=223487 and have a cable from the sky box (rf2) to the distribution box. Then 3 individual cables from the distribution box to 3 televisions. All the tv's can control and view sky, but the signal quality is not great, and especially horrible on one of the televisions, which is the farest from the distribution box. The freeview and terrestrial channels on the televisions are significantly better quality.

My question is this, with the correct equipment should I be able to get perfect picture in the upstairs rooms or is that not possible?

If it was possible then what equipment would people suggest I look at.

I would appreciate any information.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Hi,

I currently have a sky+ subscription down stairs in the living room. The aerial from the roof goes to the sky box, and the RF 1 and a scart connection go to the tv in the living room.

I purchased a distribution kit http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=223487) and have a cable from the sky box (rf2) to the distribution box. Then 3 individual cables from the distribution box to 3 televisions. All the tv's can control and view sky, but the signal quality is not great, and especially horrible on one of the televisions, which is the farest from the distribution box. The freeview and terrestrial channels on the televisions are significantly better quality.

My question is this, with the correct equipment should I be able to get perfect picture in the upstairs rooms or is that not possible?

If it was possible then what equipment would people suggest I look at.

I would appreciate any information.

Yes is the short answer

Check all your connections, and ensure that the screen of the coax isnt touching the centre conductor, even one strand can knacker signals. bear in mind that the signal from the RF2 on the sky box is not as good a quality as the signal from the scart socket as it is a modulated signal ie just like a signal from an aerial. With careful installation the signal in other rooms can be excellent, the picture on the telly alongside me as I type this is fed in the same way as your set up and is first rate. If you can connect a TV directly to the RF2 outlet without going through the amp you will be able to see if that signal is OK (swap the aerial lead going to the main telly with a feed from RF2) I am assuming that you purchased A80HT from maplin

 

[Buzx1313]

yes a perfect pic is possible via a suitable amp..

check your connections on the coax cables, if a strand of the screen is touching the centre core then this will affect the picture

dont use the leads that come with the tv , the pre made ones, they are usually rubbish, make your up..

also is your booster a good make,

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Hi Buzx

If the OP bought the mentioned kit from maplin the amp is an SLX4B

 

[conroyster]

Hi, Thanks for the replies.

I will check the connections, thank you all for the advice and information. I was however under the impression that length of the cable will effect signal quality, the furthest length is between 15m-20m away for the amp.

PS. I have fixed the error to the link in my original post (did not realise the text would auto convert to a link). The amp is a SLX4B.

 

[OwainDIYer]

I was however under the impression that length of the cable will effect signal quality, the furthest length is between 15m-20m away for the amp.

It will, but it shouldn't degrade to unacceptable over that sort of distance.

 

[conroyster]

I have just redone the connections, but it has not made a difference. There is a deterioration the further away for the amp the tv is. Am I right in thinking this could be caused by a poor signal going to the amp?

We have had some bad weather over the last month and picture quality on the upstairs tvs deteriorated. The analog channels on the main tv, in the living room with the sky box, are awful and I have lost some on the freeview channels on the tv in this room.

Hope this is not too complicated or too vague.

 

[Buzx1313]

as suritsoff has said.. if the pic on your main tv is ok then the rest should be as well

try moving your tv at the furthest point to the point where sky comes in and see what the pic is like then..

is the cable of a reasonable quality??

try turning off the power to rf2 outlet .. this is via your sky menu..

is it only your furthest tv that is poor

 

[ChrisFrost]

I've installed a few TV/Sky distribution systems for my customer. The two things I found that affected picture most were cable quality and the Sky box RF channel.

Cable quality: A couple of properties I have done were new build homes. The builders installed basic TV coax. In both those homes I added extra TV points using a better grade of cable. The difference was noticable. The cheap coax made the pictures look a little dull and slightly noisy. The Maplin kit doesn't specify cable quality. I'd change it for something better - and not from Maplin unless you want to pay through the nose. A CT100 cable is good enough for TV distribution and much better than the cheap coax in budget aerial kits. WF100 is better still.

Sky box RF channel: It is possible to alter the channel that the Sky box uses for its output. Some channels give a better picture, some are worse. It depends on how close the current Sky RF channel is to the local TV channels. Try altering the Sky RF channel. Google for a How To if you need it.

 

[conroyster]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have altered the RF Channel, but that no joy, picture quality problems persist.

Here is a break down of the picture quality (PQ) for each of the TV's:

Living Room (with Sky Box):
- Sky channels (via SCART): excellent PQ
- Analogue channels: awful PQ
- Digital channels: excellent PQ, but some channels missing

1st Bedroom (closet to the amp):
- Sky channels: above average PQ, slightly grainy
- Analogue channels: excellent PQ
- Digital: excellent PQ

2nd Bedroom:
- Sky channels: ok PQ, grainy picture
- Analogue: above average PQ
- Digital: excellent

3rd Bedroom (furthest from amp)
- Sky channels: poor PQ, very grainy
- Analogue: ok PQ
- Digital: N/A


I will look into the cable quality, are there any suggestions on where I can source WF100 cable, I know Maplin are usually on the expensive side, but thanks for the heads up.

Also just out of interest if I was to upgrade to Sky HD, what cable would I be looking at to support HD quality around the house. From other posts people seem to be suggesting cat5. One final thing, is there a device that checks the signal strength on the coaxial cable?

Again the advice is much appreciated.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

You cannot have HD picture quality all over the house without having an HD box at those positions. As Chris said CT100 or WF100 (better) is the minimum quality of cable that you should consider using. Try here for it



http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CAPF100B.html

I would also consider swapping the cable from your aerial to the Tv to the better stuff and from your list of PQ at the main telly it seems that the signal level/quality from your aerial isnt quite right. Have read of this site

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/aerials.html

and possibly consider a log periodic aerial

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/onlineaerials.html#DMlog

which as you will be up the ladder changing the cable........

 

[conroyster]

Cheers for the information.

Regarding the link to the cable, where does it state that it is WF100? Excuse my ignorance.

For HD, I was under the impression, from other posts on this forum, that you could split and amplify the hdmi connection and distribute, with specialise equipment, the signal around the house. Is this not correct?

For the PQ on the main tv, this I believe deteriorated recently with the snow, although I do not usually watch the analog channels in the living room so I can't confirm this. I plan on having a professional check the aerial and outdoor cables, but a couple of months ago the PQ was excellent. I was not planning on changing the outdoor cables myself, just the indoor cables.

Do you think that a novice will be able to achieve excellent picture quality when distributing the sky signal inside the house? For example, if you are diligent and use good quality equipment should excellent results follow, or do you need specialist equipment and/or witchcraft/experience.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Cheers for the information.

Regarding the link to the cable, where does it state that it is WF100? Excuse my ignorance.

For HD, I was under the impression, from other posts on this forum, that you could split and amplify the hdmi connection and distribute, with specialise equipment, the signal around the house. Is this not correct?

For the PQ on the main tv, this I believe deteriorated recently with the snow, although I do not usually watch the analog channels in the living room so I can't confirm this. I plan on having a professional check the aerial and outdoor cables, but a couple of months ago the PQ was excellent. I was not planning on changing the outdoor cables myself, just the indoor cables.

Do you think that a novice will be able to achieve excellent picture quality when distributing the sky signal inside the house? For example, if you are diligent and use good quality equipment should excellent results follow, or do you need specialist equipment and/or witchcraft/experience.

The cable is PF100 which is equivalent to CT100.

With regard to HD throughout using HDMi I didnt realise that was what you meant, and yes it is possible but as with any signal to distribute succesfully you really need to amplify and then distribute. to supply all the tvs in the house with HDMI you will need a 4 way HDMI amplifier and will still need the maplin amp that you bought to enable the magic eyes to control the sky box

When you say that the analogue signal has got worse it will also mean that the freeview signal is at a lower level hence the missing channels.

Anovice can acheive what you want with as you say diligence / careful planning and good equipment. It isnt rocket science after all!

 

[cjacs]

Hi All,

I have a related problem I hope you can help me with. I currently have a sky plus box and an coax amplifier in the attick feeding every room in the house to a coax wall socket. This way we can get sky TV in every room. However, the problem I have is the remote IR devices dont always work which I expect is to do with interference.

To overcome this I purchased a nikkia A80HT amp from maplin as they have IR remotes included. However I now have 2 new problems:

1. The sky signal is perfect as before. but the terrestial channels are snowy.
2. The remote devices dont work at all (no lights no responce)

I have followed the instruction manual, but wondered if anyone else
had these problems. My old amp is still connected one cable running from that to my new set up. The A80HT instructions dont cover my situation exactly, but have tried different connections without success.

Anyone any ideas?

Many Thanks

Chris Anderson

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Hi All,

I have a related problem I hope you can help me with. I currently have a sky plus box and an coax amplifier in the attick feeding every room in the house to a coax wall socket. This way we can get sky TV in every room. However, the problem I have is the remote IR devices dont always work which I expect is to do with interference.

To overcome this I purchased a nikkia A80HT amp from maplin as they have IR remotes included. However I now have 2 new problems:

1. The sky signal is perfect as before. but the terrestial channels are snowy.
2. The remote devices dont work at all (no lights no responce)

I have followed the instruction manual, but wondered if anyone else
had these problems. My old amp is still connected one cable running from that to my new set up. The A80HT instructions dont cover my situation exactly, but have tried different connections without success.

Anyone any ideas?

Many Thanks

Chris Anderson

if the magic eyes dont work with the old amp check the connections on the wall plates (and all the coax plug connections) and if necessary put a connector on the end of the cable and try without the wall plate. are you sure that the old amp will pass the remote signal back through the amp itself as some wont, is the 9V output on the rf2 socket switched on. You state that you bought a nikkai amp from maplin but the product code that you stated A80HT is a kit with an SLX4B amp, if that is what you bought use that and take the old amp out of circuit

if you can post pictures of the set up amp etc that will help