My Sky HDi tips and tricks for when the installer is here?

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Ultimate Geek

#216331 20-May-2009 14:14

Cyril,

Do you have your own forum or website?

Dingbatt

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#216356 20-May-2009 15:23

cyril7: Cool enjoy your new toy, for all its occasional lockups its a great product (and I dont work for Sky!).

A stacker is a frequency multiplexer, basically the IF from one orbital slot (say Optus D1) will be channeled in the IF from 950-1450MHz and the IF from the other slot from 1500-2100MHz, thus only one cable from the dish is needed assuming the stacker is mounted at the dish. The STB is simply needed to be told that so rather than sending a 22kHz tone it instead tunes to one if sector or the other.

Cheers

Cyril

So in terms of MySkyHDi, does that mean it wouldn't be able to access D1 and D3 at the same time if you had the arrangement with one cable and a stacker?
Incidentally it's not a problem for me as a second (or more) cable can easily be run in my house, but for those with pre-wired inaccessible cable they might want to give some thought to what will need to happen before the man with the drill turns up.

Edit: Has that latest software upgrade enabled copy protection across the board or is it on a film by film basis?

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cyril7

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#216365 20-May-2009 15:44

Zippity, lol, no I dont have my own forum, but I do have a website.

Dingbatt, with a stacker it will be possilbe to see both orbit locations on any tuner in a multiple tuner setup (ie HDi and/or multiple HDi's or standard STB'ss off one dish) via one coax run, this is the idea of the stacker, to allow two seperate IF sources to be distributed on one cable. I would expect stackers will be the norm for the hundreds of MDU's (apartment buidlings) around the country where only one backbone and horizontal feed has been allowed for, and I guess if the price is right it will also find its way into domestic homes where to add a 2nd feed is near on impossible or messy. I guess only Sky can tell you what they have in mind, however I am aware that a stacker is on the cards.

Cheers
Cyril

mike872c

28 posts

Geek

#216372 20-May-2009 15:56

Hi Cyril7, cheers for the fast response.

This means that DVB-S and DVB-T signals will be conbined (in the shed) and delivered by the one coax, correct. Also, it will need to be split for reasons stated to below.

Why can't the dish go on the house? - Because 1) the shed's mission control and 2) there will be another house being built on the property that will also have Sky Digi. I just don't want antenae poking out from all corners.

Question - what is D3?

There is already another RG6 cable run in the underground conduit if they insist

cyril7

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#216400 20-May-2009 17:09

Hi Mike, yes on rereading my post it was not clear, but yes you can diplex both LBand Satellite IF signals and V/UHF antenna signals onto the same coax using a diplexer like this, the installer should carry them in his van, you will require a secound one to split them out again at the other end.

Good you have done good forward planning by running two RG6 runs so there is no issue to reticulate the secound LBand IF feed from Optus D3 (this is a new sat to fly at 156E with Optus C1 that Sky will use for future expansion).

If the installer gets all upity and starts telling you the cable run is too long and too much loss then tell him to pack his bags and you will request another installer, 40m is not too long assuming you dont have another 40m or more inside the house to plumb.

Cheers
Cyril

mike872c

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#216555 21-May-2009 09:38

cyril7 - many thanks, I found your info very useful. It's good to know what I'm getting in to before diving in.

Dingbatt

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#216686 21-May-2009 15:08

Cyril--- (a bit OT I know but may help others with installation) At the moment the signal from my Sky dish also provides signal to MySkyHDi and Sky Pace STB, and to the freeview equipment. When a second cable is run from the lnb will it just be to MySky, or to the Pace STB as well? Or will I need a separate dish for freeview from then?

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cyril7

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#216704 21-May-2009 15:38

Hi, the new LNBs (which are still not seen) are understood to be full quad output (rather than Quattro) where all outputs can see either orbit location either polarity. Orbit location selected by 22kHz, polarity by supply volts in the normal manner.

Therefore one feed going to the current first IF input of a HDi will be presumed to be D1, (ie no STB shall supply 22kHz) and obviously only Hpol as no Vpol will ever be used. So The feed going to an HDi IF1 input can be split to other standard STBs and FreeView but also means they will only ever see D1. The 2nd feed from the dish would go to one of the other IF inputs of an HDi which be providing 22kHz, hence would have D3's IF on it, once again as I understand it D3 will have no Vpol services of use to Sky on it, only Hpol.

If and when Sky expand more than HD services onto D3 (who knows) then standard STBs will also want to have free access to either Orbit location, so either you run another run to one of the remaining two spare outputs of the LNB to the STB, or alternatively you install a 2xX multiswitch at a common point and connect two outputs from the quad output LNB to the input of the multiswitch and from the multiswitch outpus to each tuner (ie two on an HDi and one for each single tuner standard or freeview stb).

Cheers

Cyril

JimmyLizar

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Ultimate Geek

#216732 21-May-2009 16:45

I know Sky supply a telephone cable as part of the install. Do they supply the cable if the wall jack is RJ45 (as opposed to the standard BT wall jack) or do you have to supply yourself?

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cyril7

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#216815 21-May-2009 21:07

They will supply an RJ11 to RJ11, but never seen any other adaptors. All depends on the installer and how on to it they are, dont expect too much!.

Cyril

pjamieson

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Chorus

#217337 23-May-2009 22:51

Got the update Thurs morn (67.2.1.0.2.145) and it froze the box. No video output, although it seemed to respond to the remote. Rebooted, no problems so far, so fingers crossed, knock on wood etc etc...

manaia

272 posts

Ultimate Geek

#217349 24-May-2009 05:53

There is a problem with the current and previous versions (2.1.0.2 and 2.0.10) that, if it receives a software update while in standby, then the soft reboot after the download will cause the video output to be blanked until the box is fully rebooted. Because 2.1.0.2 has an important fix in it, it was put out with this, and it will be fixed in the next version.

Spong

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#217367 24-May-2009 10:43

If a MySky HDi box is left fully powered up 24/7 and not placed into standby when not needed, how long could we expect the HDD to last, running continuously? Since the box is owned by Sky, do we need to really need to be concerned? Will they maintain it free for life, even if we've paid $599 up front for the service?

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cyril7

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#217370 24-May-2009 10:46

Cannot comment on how it will last, most of us have PCs that run 24/7, some of them dont sleep the HDD yet they soldier on for years. As far as I know as long as you pay your sub, if the box fails for whatever reason (except deliberate damage) it will be maintained at no cost.

Cheers
Cyril

pjamieson

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Chorus

#217372 24-May-2009 10:52

Everythig still runs even though it is in standby (incl HDD), only the video output turns off in standby. Almost not worth it being off.

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