TV distribution around the house - again

Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all the odds, we
actually like all the decor as it is and will not be looking to redecorate
anywhere for a good long while yet, so running new coax around the place is
a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a 'behind-the-set'
aerial distribution amplifier that basically looks like a 13A plug with an
aerial input and two outputs. The current setup is a terrestrial aerial
feeds into our Sky+ box, RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to
the TV, RF2 is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal for a Sky
"magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go downstairs to change the Sky
channel. Anyone recommend a replacement that will allow us to use a magic
eye and second remote upstairs?

Thanks

On Jan 25, 1:04*pm, "Dave" wrote:
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all the odds, we
actually like all the decor as it is and will not be looking to redecorate
anywhere for a good long while yet, so running new coax around the place is
a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a 'behind-the-set'
aerial distribution amplifier that basically looks like a 13A plug with an
aerial input and two outputs. The current setup is a terrestrial aerial
feeds into our Sky+ box, RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to
the TV, RF2 is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal for a Sky
"magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go downstairs to change the Sky
channel. Anyone recommend a replacement that will allow us to use a magic
eye and second remote upstairs?

Thanks

It would be interesting -- nay essential -- to know how the one cable
going 'all round the house' is connected to all the rooms.

Bill

" wrote in message
...
On Jan 25, 1:04 pm, "Dave" wrote:
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all the odds,
we
actually like all the decor as it is and will not be looking to
redecorate
anywhere for a good long while yet, so running new coax around the place
is
a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a
'behind-the-set'
aerial distribution amplifier that basically looks like a 13A plug with
an
aerial input and two outputs. The current setup is a terrestrial aerial
feeds into our Sky+ box, RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on
to
the TV, RF2 is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal for a Sky
"magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go downstairs to change the
Sky
channel. Anyone recommend a replacement that will allow us to use a magic
eye and second remote upstairs?

Thanks

It would be interesting -- nay essential -- to know how the one cable
going 'all round the house' is connected to all the rooms.



The old ring main technique, much used by electricians and would be aerial
system installers!

wrote:
On Jan 25, 1:04 pm, "Dave" wrote:
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all the
odds, we actually like all the decor as it is and will not be
looking to redecorate anywhere for a good long while yet, so running
new coax around the place is a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a
'behind-the-set' aerial distribution amplifier that basically looks
like a 13A plug with an aerial input and two outputs. The current
setup is a terrestrial aerial feeds into our Sky+ box, RF1 is taken
to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to the TV, RF2 is taken to the
input of the amp and then a single coax goes around the house to
feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal for a
Sky "magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go downstairs to
change the Sky channel. Anyone recommend a replacement that will
allow us to use a magic eye and second remote upstairs?

Thanks

It would be interesting -- nay essential -- to know how the one cable
going 'all round the house' is connected to all the rooms.

Bill

Hi Bill and thanks for your interest. A quick furtle about with a
screwdriver and continuity tester shows me that a coax leaves the
distribution amp, goes out through the wall and up, to re-enter the house
under the floorboards in the front bedroom and then goes to a flush mounted
socket on the far wall. A second piece of coax leaves from that socket and
goes into the back bedroom socket, and from there a third piece of coax
dives down into the kitchen etc., etc.

All in all, there's seven TV aerial sockets around the house that seem to be
wired in a radial fashion, ie, from one to another, to another, to another,
ending at the seventh. We've got three TVs (lounge, kitchen and bedroom) and
two DVD/HDD recorders (lounge and bedroom).

Hope that helps, and thanks again.

Dave

I don't intend to comment upon the suitability of your RF
distribution system, except to say that you should be using an
aerial distribution amplifier with multiple outlets, to provide a
separate feed to every RF socket in the house.

If you connect multiple RF sockets to a single output from the
amplifier, you will dilute the signal that each TV receives.
That will affect picture quality. Furthermore, TV-Link magic
eyes are temperamental, and require a good and unbroken
connection, all the way back to the satellite receiver. I doubt
whether a "shared" RF cable would meet the criteria.

Having made those points, the TV-Link magic eye will not work
until you turn on the RF Outlet Power Supply to RF2 of your Sky
receiver (unless you are using a new-type distribution amplifier
with its own power supply). You will find full instructions with
the TV Link magic eye. Have you enabled the Power Supply on your
Sky receiver?

Then, there are two other things that will almost certainly
prevent the output voltage from reaching the TV Link magic eye -
and can block the return signal to your Sky receiver.

1. Your existing RF amplifier / distributor. You must either
replace that amplifier with a different model that is compatible
with TV Link - or purchase and fit a "bypass kit", which fits on
each side of the amplifier (such as the one at
www.tvlink.co.uk/bypass.htm).

2. If the aerial face-plates in your other rooms have separate
VHF/UHF sockets that are fed from a single RF lead, then they
will probably be incompatible with TV Link. Remove each one and
check for electronic components behind the face-plate. If you
see resistors or capacitors, then the socket will almost
certainly obstruct the output voltage from the Sky receiver (and
the red neon indicator on the TV Link will not come on). One
solution is to replace those sockets that you intend to use with
a magic eye. You could use basic sockets (with no electronic
components) or a compatible type, such as the one at
www.tvlink.co.uk/wallplate.htm.



"Dave" wrote in message
...
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all
the odds, we actually like all the decor as it is and will not
be looking to redecorate anywhere for a good long while yet, so
running new coax around the place is a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a
'behind-the-set' aerial distribution amplifier that basically
looks like a 13A plug with an aerial input and two outputs. The
current setup is a terrestrial aerial feeds into our Sky+ box,
RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to the TV, RF2
is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal
for a Sky "magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go
downstairs to change the Sky channel. Anyone recommend a
replacement that will allow us to use a magic eye and second
remote upstairs?

Thanks

On Jan 25, 2:29*pm, "Dave" wrote:
wrote:
Hi Bill and thanks for your interest. A quick furtle about with a
screwdriver and continuity tester shows me that a coax leaves the
distribution amp, goes out through the wall and up, to re-enter the house
under the floorboards in the front bedroom and then goes to a flush mounted
socket on the far wall. A second piece of coax leaves from that socket and
goes into the back bedroom socket, and from there a third piece of coax
dives down into the kitchen etc., etc.

All in all, there's seven TV aerial sockets around the house that seem to be
wired in a radial fashion, ie, from one to another, to another, to another,
ending at the seventh. We've got three TVs (lounge, kitchen and bedroom) and
two DVD/HDD recorders (lounge and bedroom).

Hope that helps, and thanks again.

This isn't radial, it's 'daisy-chain'. Just a semantic point! The
arrangement is so far away from any correct way of doing it that I
can't really advise you. It's very surprising if it works from the
point of view of decent picture quality, and there are lots of
possible reasons why a Sky remote eye wouldn't work -- too numerous
for me to list. If you called any decent installer out to this he
would say that the only thing to do would be to start again and run
separate cables from each TV outlet to a common point. At that point
an amplifier with 'remote eye passthough' would be fitted.

Others will no doubt suggest a various measures which might the remote
eyes work, but the thing will always be unreliable and unpredictable,
so personally if I were you I wouldn't waste my time -- I'd start from
scratch and install a proper system.

Bill

"Ivan" wrote in message om...


" wrote in message
...
On Jan 25, 1:04 pm, "Dave" wrote:
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all the odds, we
actually like all the decor as it is and will not be looking to redecorate
anywhere for a good long while yet, so running new coax around the place is
a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a 'behind-the-set'
aerial distribution amplifier that basically looks like a 13A plug with an
aerial input and two outputs. The current setup is a terrestrial aerial
feeds into our Sky+ box, RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to
the TV, RF2 is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal for a Sky
"magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go downstairs to change the Sky
channel. Anyone recommend a replacement that will allow us to use a magic
eye and second remote upstairs?

Thanks

It would be interesting -- nay essential -- to know how the one cable
going 'all round the house' is connected to all the rooms.



The old ring main technique, much used by electricians and would be aerial system installers!


Don't forget there is (or was) a legitimate version of this technique using faceplates
with built in attenuated tap-offs.

Don't forget to wire a 75R resistor across the last one.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

wrote:
On Jan 25, 2:29 pm, "Dave" wrote:
wrote:
Hi Bill and thanks for your interest. A quick furtle about with a
screwdriver and continuity tester shows me that a coax leaves the
distribution amp, goes out through the wall and up, to re-enter the
house under the floorboards in the front bedroom and then goes to a
flush mounted socket on the far wall. A second piece of coax leaves
from that socket and goes into the back bedroom socket, and from
there a third piece of coax dives down into the kitchen etc., etc.

All in all, there's seven TV aerial sockets around the house that
seem to be wired in a radial fashion, ie, from one to another, to
another, to another, ending at the seventh. We've got three TVs
(lounge, kitchen and bedroom) and two DVD/HDD recorders (lounge and
bedroom).

Hope that helps, and thanks again.

This isn't radial, it's 'daisy-chain'. Just a semantic point! The
arrangement is so far away from any correct way of doing it that I
can't really advise you. It's very surprising if it works from the
point of view of decent picture quality, and there are lots of
possible reasons why a Sky remote eye wouldn't work -- too numerous
for me to list. If you called any decent installer out to this he
would say that the only thing to do would be to start again and run
separate cables from each TV outlet to a common point. At that point
an amplifier with 'remote eye passthough' would be fitted.

Others will no doubt suggest a various measures which might the remote
eyes work, but the thing will always be unreliable and unpredictable,
so personally if I were you I wouldn't waste my time -- I'd start from
scratch and install a proper system.

Thanks for that Bill. Unfortunately (as far as this is concerned anyway)
it's going to be at least a couple of years before any redecorating needs to
be done, so no chance of taking a hammer and chisel to anything yet.
Picture-quality-wise, worst case scenario is/was two TVs on and the two
DVD/HDD recorders actually recording - and everything seems to be fine, no
problems at all. Maybe it shouldn't work, but it is - except for the sky
remote eye :-)

Cheers anyway mate.

Bob Lucas wrote:
I don't intend to comment upon the suitability of your RF
distribution system, except to say that you should be using an
aerial distribution amplifier with multiple outlets, to provide a
separate feed to every RF socket in the house.

That's what I'll eventually do Bob but as I said, the decor is actually
really good and to our taste so it'll be at least a couple of years (if not
longer) before I can start running new coax everywhere.

If you connect multiple RF sockets to a single output from the
amplifier, you will dilute the signal that each TV receives.
That will affect picture quality.

We've had two TVs on and the two DVD/HDD recorders actually recording, all
at the same time, and see no change in picture quality from just a single TV
on its own. We're honestly happy with it all apart from having to go
downstairs to change the Sky channel. The distribution amp is, according to
the previous owners of the house, about 10 or 12 years old and is not marked
as "suitable for use with Sky remote eyes", which I believe some modern ones
are.

Furthermore, TV-Link magic
eyes are temperamental, and require a good and unbroken
connection, all the way back to the satellite receiver. I doubt
whether a "shared" RF cable would meet the criteria.

You may well be right there Bob but, if a suitable new amp can be had for
about, say, 20 quid, I'd have a punt on it.

Having made those points, the TV-Link magic eye will not work
until you turn on the RF Outlet Power Supply to RF2 of your Sky
receiver (unless you are using a new-type distribution amplifier
with its own power supply). You will find full instructions with
the TV Link magic eye. Have you enabled the Power Supply on your
Sky receiver?

Yes

Then, there are two other things that will almost certainly
prevent the output voltage from reaching the TV Link magic eye -
and can block the return signal to your Sky receiver.

1. Your existing RF amplifier / distributor. You must either
replace that amplifier with a different model that is compatible
with TV Link

Which is why I was asking for recommendations. I'm willing to throw about 20
quid at it as an experiment

- or purchase and fit a "bypass kit", which fits on
each side of the amplifier (such as the one at
www.tvlink.co.uk/bypass.htm).

Ah, that may well be worth a go :-)

2. If the aerial face-plates in your other rooms have separate
VHF/UHF sockets

No, they're just a single faceplate with a single coax socket

that are fed from a single RF lead, then they
will probably be incompatible with TV Link. Remove each one and
check for electronic components behind the face-plate.

No caps/resistors or components of any kind on any of them.

If you
see resistors or capacitors, then the socket will almost
certainly obstruct the output voltage from the Sky receiver (and
the red neon indicator on the TV Link will not come on). One
solution is to replace those sockets that you intend to use with
a magic eye. You could use basic sockets (with no electronic
components) or a compatible type, such as the one at
www.tvlink.co.uk/wallplate.htm.

Thanks for your reply Bob.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all
the odds, we actually like all the decor as it is and will not
be looking to redecorate anywhere for a good long while yet, so
running new coax around the place is a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a
'behind-the-set' aerial distribution amplifier that basically
looks like a 13A plug with an aerial input and two outputs. The
current setup is a terrestrial aerial feeds into our Sky+ box,
RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to the TV, RF2
is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal
for a Sky "magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go
downstairs to change the Sky channel. Anyone recommend a
replacement that will allow us to use a magic eye and second
remote upstairs?

Thanks

"Dave" wrote in message
news
Bob Lucas wrote:
I don't intend to comment upon the suitability of your RF
distribution system, except to say that you should be using an
aerial distribution amplifier with multiple outlets, to provide a
separate feed to every RF socket in the house.

That's what I'll eventually do Bob but as I said, the decor is actually
really good and to our taste so it'll be at least a couple of years (if
not longer) before I can start running new coax everywhere.

If you connect multiple RF sockets to a single output from the
amplifier, you will dilute the signal that each TV receives.
That will affect picture quality.

We've had two TVs on and the two DVD/HDD recorders actually recording, all
at the same time, and see no change in picture quality from just a single
TV on its own. We're honestly happy with it all apart from having to go
downstairs to change the Sky channel. The distribution amp is, according
to the previous owners of the house, about 10 or 12 years old and is not
marked as "suitable for use with Sky remote eyes", which I believe some
modern ones are.

Furthermore, TV-Link magic
eyes are temperamental, and require a good and unbroken
connection, all the way back to the satellite receiver. I doubt
whether a "shared" RF cable would meet the criteria.

You may well be right there Bob but, if a suitable new amp can be had for
about, say, 20 quid, I'd have a punt on it.

Having made those points, the TV-Link magic eye will not work
until you turn on the RF Outlet Power Supply to RF2 of your Sky
receiver (unless you are using a new-type distribution amplifier
with its own power supply). You will find full instructions with
the TV Link magic eye. Have you enabled the Power Supply on your
Sky receiver?

Yes

Then, there are two other things that will almost certainly
prevent the output voltage from reaching the TV Link magic eye -
and can block the return signal to your Sky receiver.

1. Your existing RF amplifier / distributor. You must either
replace that amplifier with a different model that is compatible
with TV Link

Which is why I was asking for recommendations. I'm willing to throw about
20 quid at it as an experiment

- or purchase and fit a "bypass kit", which fits on
each side of the amplifier (such as the one at
www.tvlink.co.uk/bypass.htm).

Ah, that may well be worth a go :-)

2. If the aerial face-plates in your other rooms have separate
VHF/UHF sockets

No, they're just a single faceplate with a single coax socket

that are fed from a single RF lead, then they
will probably be incompatible with TV Link. Remove each one and
check for electronic components behind the face-plate.

No caps/resistors or components of any kind on any of them.

If you
see resistors or capacitors, then the socket will almost
certainly obstruct the output voltage from the Sky receiver (and
the red neon indicator on the TV Link will not come on). One
solution is to replace those sockets that you intend to use with
a magic eye. You could use basic sockets (with no electronic
components) or a compatible type, such as the one at
www.tvlink.co.uk/wallplate.htm.

Thanks for your reply Bob.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Couple of months ago we moved into this house and, against all
the odds, we actually like all the decor as it is and will not
be looking to redecorate anywhere for a good long while yet, so
running new coax around the place is a no-no for now.

Previous owners used (and left in place, so we now use) a
'behind-the-set' aerial distribution amplifier that basically
looks like a 13A plug with an aerial input and two outputs. The
current setup is a terrestrial aerial feeds into our Sky+ box,
RF1 is taken to an adjascent DVD recorder and on to the TV, RF2
is taken to the input of the amp and then a single coax goes
around the house to feed an aerial socket in every room.

It seems to work alright except that it won't pass the signal
for a Sky "magic eye" thingy, meaning that we have to go
downstairs to change the Sky channel. Anyone recommend a
replacement that will allow us to use a magic eye and second
remote upstairs?


You obviously know what you're doing, but it's maybe worth a mention, you
have got the power to RF2 switched on in the engineers menu have you? an
easy way to check is to plug the eye into the RF 2 outlet and the led should
illuminate, if it does then maybe you can try it in wall outlet 1,2,3 etc
and figure out where the break is.