Distribution box recommendations

Hi,

I have been a long time lurker and have learnt a great deal from this group,
but I finally have a reason to abandon my Cloak of Invisibility.

I have recently added a satellite system, so it's time to upgrade the way I
distribute my TV, satellite and FM signals around the house and I hope
someone would be able to give me some guidance.

My needs are quite simple - I want all the signals combined on a single
cable to 6 rooms. On the face of it something like a SLX8L should do the
job, however I am sure there are some features that I am simply not aware of
that could be usefull...

So, suggestions for either good manufacturers to look at or, even better,
specific products would be appreciated.

Andy.

"Andy" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have been a long time lurker and have learnt a great deal from this
group, but I finally have a reason to abandon my Cloak of Invisibility.




No doubt Bill is preparing his "instruments" for the initiation ceremony.

--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

"Graham." wrote in message
...

"Andy" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have been a long time lurker and have learnt a great deal from this
group, but I finally have a reason to abandon my Cloak of Invisibility.




No doubt Bill is preparing his "instruments" for the initiation ceremony.


It's the 'Purging of the Devils' bit that some people don't appear to find
too attractive!



So


--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:59:18 +0100, "Andy"
wrote:

Hi,

I have been a long time lurker and have learnt a great deal from this group,
but I finally have a reason to abandon my Cloak of Invisibility.

I have recently added a satellite system, so it's time to upgrade the way I
distribute my TV, satellite and FM signals around the house and I hope
someone would be able to give me some guidance.

My needs are quite simple - I want all the signals combined on a single
cable to 6 rooms. On the face of it something like a SLX8L should do the
job, however I am sure there are some features that I am simply not aware of
that could be usefull...

So, suggestions for either good manufacturers to look at or, even better,
specific products would be appreciated.

Andy.

What you want is some kind of loft box. I am assuming that you only
have one sat digibox that will be pumped out to the other tellys and
may control it remotely using a 'magic eye' in each room. If you
want sat boxes in each room independently controlled, then you're
talking big bucks. Anyway, these loftboxes may be useful:

Global Communications 8-way loftbox
Labgear HDU681 8 way home didtribution unit

Both are available from CPC (www.cpc.co.uk)

Here's a slightly cheaper way that I did at my brothers. TV, FM & DAB
aerials into a tri-plexer, then down to the Sky box RF in. Out of Sky
box RF2 and back up into the loft to a Triax 'magic eye' compatible
amp. This amp is line-powered from the Sky box. Then 4 outputs from
the amp & down to all 4 rooms. Each room has a 'magic eye' for remote
Sky control. The triax amp & Triax 'magic eyes' are easily available
on ebay.

Marky P.

"Marky P" wrote in message
...

What you want is some kind of loft box. I am assuming that you only
have one sat digibox that will be pumped out to the other tellys and
may control it remotely using a 'magic eye' in each room. If you
want sat boxes in each room independently controlled, then you're
talking big bucks. Anyway, these loftboxes may be useful:

Global Communications 8-way loftbox
Labgear HDU681 8 way home didtribution unit

Both are available from CPC (www.cpc.co.uk)

Here's a slightly cheaper way that I did at my brothers. TV, FM & DAB
aerials into a tri-plexer, then down to the Sky box RF in. Out of Sky
box RF2 and back up into the loft to a Triax 'magic eye' compatible
amp. This amp is line-powered from the Sky box. Then 4 outputs from
the amp & down to all 4 rooms. Each room has a 'magic eye' for remote
Sky control. The triax amp & Triax 'magic eyes' are easily available
on ebay.

Marky P.


My intention is to keep everything simple. Sat receivers are so cheap these
days (e.g. Lidl!) that I expect to have 1 receiver per room. Having said
that, not every room will need to receive TV, FM and Sat, but the potential
to do so would be usefull.

As a temporary measure I will use a diplexer to add each LNB output to a
specific downlead, the TV/FM part being fed by a TV/FM distrubution amp.
Will this work OK? I am a bit concerned about attenuation of the signals...

From the above it is obvious that when I installed the TV/FM distribution I
didn't think about future expansion!

My impression is that the satellite signal is the most vulnerable. Is this
correct? If it is, I was thinking that each downlead could be supplied by
its own LNB output. Would this be possible with a loft box? Indeed, would
there be any benefit with this configuration?

I have the feeling that I have a steep learning curve ahead of me...

Andy.

Andy wrote:

As a temporary measure I will use a diplexer to add each LNB output to a
specific downlead, the TV/FM part being fed by a TV/FM distrubution amp.
Will this work OK? I am a bit concerned about attenuation of the signals...

What you have to be very concerned about in that situation is the
diplexer's isolation between the SAT input and the common output in the
UHF band. If the isolation is poor, signals at the top of the UHF band,
in particular, will be swamped by amplified wideband noise coming out of
the LNB. To achieve negligible degradation of UHF by LNB noise you need
around 50 dB isolation in the diplexer. An example of a suitable unit
is the Proception proCOM31VUS, although that's actually a triplexer with
separate Band II & UHF inputs.

My impression is that the satellite signal is the most vulnerable. Is this
correct?

It's vulnerable to reflections, so you need to pay attention to
impedance matching, but isn't particularly vulnerable to signal losses,
unless you have a particularly long LNB cable.

If it is, I was thinking that each downlead could be supplied by
its own LNB output. Would this be possible with a loft box? Indeed, would
there be any benefit with this configuration?

As you're talking about six satellite-IF-fed outputs (as opposed to
distributing the analogue UHF output of a 'master' satellite receiver,
you'll need a 6- or 8-way multiswitch fed from a quattro LNB (4 fixed
outputs). With the right choice of multiswitch this will also handle
the FM, Band III DAB and UHF bands. (IOW you need a little IRS
(integrated reception system).)

I have the feeling that I have a steep learning curve ahead of me...

You might be interested in R-Book 5 he
http://www.dtg.org.uk/publications/books/r_book5.pdf

and Bill's articles, he
http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/articles.html

--
Andy

Andy.

What you want is some kind of loft box. I am assuming that you only
have one sat digibox that will be pumped out to the other tellys and
may control it remotely using a 'magic eye' in each room. If you
want sat boxes in each room independently controlled, then you're
talking big bucks. Anyway, these loftboxes may be useful:

Global Communications 8-way loftbox
Labgear HDU681 8 way home didtribution unit

Both are available from CPC (www.cpc.co.uk)


An alternative loftbox is the Proception starbox:
http://www.tvaerials.com/product.aspx?productid=373, also comes as a 10
output version.

On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:59:45 +0100, Andy Wade
wrote:

Andy wrote:

As a temporary measure I will use a diplexer to add each LNB output to a
specific downlead, the TV/FM part being fed by a TV/FM distrubution amp.
Will this work OK? I am a bit concerned about attenuation of the signals...

What you have to be very concerned about in that situation is the
diplexer's isolation between the SAT input and the common output in the
UHF band. If the isolation is poor, signals at the top of the UHF band,
in particular, will be swamped by amplified wideband noise coming out of
the LNB. To achieve negligible degradation of UHF by LNB noise you need
around 50 dB isolation in the diplexer. An example of a suitable unit
is the Proception proCOM31VUS, although that's actually a triplexer with
separate Band II & UHF inputs.

My impression is that the satellite signal is the most vulnerable. Is this
correct?

It's vulnerable to reflections, so you need to pay attention to
impedance matching, but isn't particularly vulnerable to signal losses,
unless you have a particularly long LNB cable.

If it is, I was thinking that each downlead could be supplied by
its own LNB output. Would this be possible with a loft box? Indeed, would
there be any benefit with this configuration?

As you're talking about six satellite-IF-fed outputs (as opposed to
distributing the analogue UHF output of a 'master' satellite receiver,
you'll need a 6- or 8-way multiswitch fed from a quattro LNB (4 fixed
outputs). With the right choice of multiswitch this will also handle
the FM, Band III DAB and UHF bands. (IOW you need a little IRS
(integrated reception system).)

I have the feeling that I have a steep learning curve ahead of me...

You might be interested in R-Book 5 he
http://www.dtg.org.uk/publications/books/r_book5.pdf

and Bill's articles, he
http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/articles.html

The multiswitch way isn't cheap, but it's the only way I know of to
control 6 sat boxes independently. There's a 6-way Global
Communications multiswitch in the CPC catalogue that has 5 inputs (4
terrestrial, 1 sat) priced at £55.64 +vat. That may be all you need
with no additional amplification. Bill will know.

Marky P.

"Marky P" wrote in message
...
The multiswitch way isn't cheap, but it's the only way I know of to
control 6 sat boxes independently. There's a 6-way Global
Communications multiswitch in the CPC catalogue that has 5 inputs (4
terrestrial, 1 sat) priced at £55.64 +vat. That may be all you need
with no additional amplification. Bill will know.

Well yes, I agree with you Marky. I have stopped using Global switches
though, and changed to Antiference. This wasn't because I think Antiference
switches are particularly good.

It might be a good idea to buy a switch with spare outputs, because (a) you
might expand the system (b) faults often affect one port only, so . . .

Of course you need an LNB with four fixed outputs.

Bill

Just to understand this myself as I'm thinking about this in advance of
Freesat next year:

- a quattro LNB is needed (NOT a quad LNB)
- a multiswitch is required - with four inputs for the quattro LNB, and a
fifth for terrestrial signals
- a "combiner" (afraid I don't know the parlance) to combine UHF analogue/
DVB-T TV, FM, DAB etc to input to the multiswitch's fifth (the terrestrial)
input
- triplexing screened wallplates to separate the single downlead from each
multiswitch output
- healthy dose of knowledge of what you're doing...

Thus the "loftboxes" are something different as they only redistribute the
UHF output from a single satellite receiver in the system and rely on magic
eye devices on each TV, which is not what Andy is requiring. Can everyone
else confirm that it's a multiswitch, with a quattro LNB, the "combiner" and
triplexing wallplates (as well as a competent installation!) that's
required?

I'm rewiring the house at present and I'm not wanting to install something
that will not accommodate Freesat next year. Freeview does not accommodate
all my requirements as it will not be delivering HD any time soon and my
local transmitter's output is eclipsed by a gnat's fart from the moon. Am I
on the right track?

Basil