splitter or similar for sky box

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sputnik707

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#240802 26-Sep-2018 15:58

We have just built a new house, with main tv in living room which has sky box. I had them pre wire for sky throughout the house plus RJ45 points all over. The sparky has not yet patched things together at the comms board but will be coming back.

My question is we were going to do a sky multi room and have a tv/sky in kitchen, but i decided I didn't want the sky box in there (the tv in kitchen is bad enough as far as I'm concerned!). Can we have some kind of splitter from main sky box that will send signal either via cables already in or wirelessly? If so what do people recommend? Don't need to change channels just view what's on main tv. prefer something simple and cost effective that I can do myself. Main tv is about 4-5m away but behind a wall. Both tvs are new and HD.

Thanks in advance.

1 | 2

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2096954 26-Sep-2018 16:04

If you have a direct CAT6 between both locations (not through a switch) all you'd need is something like this. That partclar one will do IR passthrough too so you could take the remote into the kitchen should you want to. I'm unsure how those HDMI over CAT6 extenders behave when connected through a patch panel, never had a chance to test it.

Otherwise you could look at getting a 2 way HDMI splitter & running HDMI cable through the walls - you can get nice keystone HDMI jacks these days.

sputnik707

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2096966 26-Sep-2018 16:13

Thanks for the quick reply. We have prewired cat 6, at the moment its all in a star wiring configuation back to central comms box in garage. Would that work ? Cat 6 outlets at each tv. The sparky still has to do something with patching modem and the stuff in the comms box that I don't really understand... they have bascially prewired cat 6 but not done the stuff in comms box except plugging in the wifi.

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2096971 26-Sep-2018 16:16

Well, as long as you have at least two CAT6 runs to the TV (one for the HDMI over CAT6, one for internet connectivity at the TV location) in theory it should work. If you only have one CAT6 at the TV location, well that's a shame, you might be forced to use any devices there on the wireless.

You would just need to patch the cable from the TV and the cable from the kitchen together in the comms cabinet.

I have never tested a HDMI over CAT6 kit running through a patch panel or joiners. I assume it should work - hopefully someone here may have tried this before, or is in a situation where they can try it and see if it works.

Those HDMI over CAT6 extenders don't use the 'network', it is an actual physical electrical connection between the sender and the receiver, so will not work through a modem/switch. Hope that makes sense?

sputnik707

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2096975 26-Sep-2018 16:28

Thanks, yes makes sense, so basically patching the 2 tvs together via the cat 6 in the comms box. Will it work that way as comments on the PBTech site say it doesn't work through switch?

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2096978 26-Sep-2018 16:30

As stated, it won't work through a switch. In theory it should if patched straight through but I can't confirm that.

sputnik707

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2097257 27-Sep-2018 10:05

Ok so it looks like wireless might be best option, anyone have recommendations, so far everything I have looked at seems pricey, i'd like to keep price to around $200. Everything I have seen seems to be $500. Doesn't need to be HD, SD fine.

Spyware

3761 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2097323 27-Sep-2018 11:20

You mean the worst option.

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trig42

5809 posts

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#2097333 27-Sep-2018 11:27

Those HDMI over Cat6 devices should work OK through your patch panel, so long as the patch panel is cabled nicely (not untwisted for ages before being punched down).

Or, if the walls are still off, run an HDMI cable between the two locations.

How many runs of Cat6 do you have going between the main TV and patch panel (and between patch panel and kitchen TV)?

If I were recabling, I'd have a minimum of 4 between main TV and patch panel, and two everywhere else.

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
8846 posts

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Subscriber

#2097414 27-Sep-2018 11:56

For the past three years we have used one of these

https://www.iogear.com/product/GW3DHDKIT/

to get a Sky signal from a downstairs Sky box to a TV upstairs - in a situation where it is physically impossible to run any cable. Works perfectly - same Sky signal on two TVs at the same time.

Sky HDMI goes into the transmitter and pass-through goes to the downstairs TV. HDMI signal with 5.1 audio get transmitted upstairs. LED extender on the receiver upstairs sends Sky remote control signals back downstairs so you can control all Sky functions from upstairs (and/or downstairs).

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Suckerpunch

124 posts

Master Geek

#2097506 27-Sep-2018 13:45

Refer to the second page on this doc.

https://mmnzassets.objects-us-west-1.dream.io/downloads/custom/flow-diagram-installations.pdf

You need a modulator which converts the video signal output from the sky box to RF, and then feed it back into the RF connection into whichever room.

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek

#2097689 27-Sep-2018 19:10

trig42:

Those HDMI over Cat6 devices should work OK through your patch panel, so long as the patch panel is cabled nicely (not untwisted for ages before being punched down).

I have 3 of these running from an HDMI splitter. They work well, there is no quality loss, I would reccomend them as a relatively cheap and easy way to do what you need, with good quality picture. Occasionaly there is a sync/stutter issue like once every two months or so, I just power cycle the device and it fixes it. A note though I could not get mine to work with the IR and mySky, ended up getting a Harmony remote and use the app to control when downstairs.

richms

28168 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2097716 27-Sep-2018 19:37

Ive found the HDMI over cat5 boxes fine, but the HDMI over IP ones like linked to be total trash, Cant coexist on a lan with data, despite only being well under 100 megabit because its all broadcast traffic so even the switches start to freeze up when they are plugged in, killing all VLANs on them, and the frame rate at the output is not the same as the input so there are judders and stutters all over the place. If your putting sky thru them it will be even worse since they output at 60Hz only from my testing. Putting 60Hz stuff thru them there was at least one skipped frame or something every few seconds.

As for going thru a patch panel, I found that killed the low cost HDMI over cat boxes I had with 1080P, but 1080i and 720p was ok. In the end I got 2 pairs and had a short HDMI cable in the patch area. Was planning to get a splitter to make it go to other places but it ended up easier to get more NVR's as I was using it to send camera outputs around the house. The other option I used to get some upstairs was HDMI to 3GSDI converters, but this changes the colourspace and seems to do that 4:2:0 colourmode that makes things look ugly for PC use. Again, would be fine for sky as that will already be low res colour and have the limited range colours since its broadcast TV. If you have disused coax cable then F to BNC adapters worked flawlessly on about 15m of coax for me with the SDI converters.

Richard rich.ms