Sky + Freeview.

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Chainsaw

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#90638 26-Sep-2011 14:09

My neighbour bought a new 50" TV with freeview tuner. They complained the picture looked bad, and it did. Their aerial feed is via their Sky decoder, and older version I believe, a black one with only one output. So they were only getting SD signal on their TV.

They still have their analogue Sky aerial on the roof, presumably connected. The TV says it is not receiving a digital signal when I tried to tune the digital tuner.

I suggested an aerial splitter before the Sky decoder (one to the TV, one to the decoder), plus a new decoder (as they have more outputs) would solve it. Is that right? Is that the easiest solution?

CYaBro

3311 posts

Uber Geek

#525808 26-Sep-2011 14:13

Have you tried with the aerial feed directly to the TV to see if it can pick up Freeview|HD?
There isn't really any need for the aerial to go via the Sky box unless the RF out of the Sky box is also feeding another TV in the house somewhere.

Chainsaw

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#525817 26-Sep-2011 14:23

Yeah I'd have to get rid of the aerial from Sky to TV, but need an updated Sky box to do that as the old decoder only has RF out (from memory), so would just use AV leads of some sort from the new decoder. Actually maybe the Sky decoder does have AV out, but he's already got that going to his VCR, so we could go to the TV via the VCR I guess, but it adds pain to the process of watching Sky, and these are not techie people (I had to set their Sky box to 16:9 for them so they could at least see the picture properly).

Hadn't thought of just trying the aerial straight into the TV to start with, duh! But no reason it shouldn't go I spose. But still need a permanent solution. Sky should issue a new decoder free surely?

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#525820 26-Sep-2011 14:29

Chainsaw:
I suggested an aerial splitter before the Sky decoder (one to the TV, one to the decoder), plus a new decoder (as they have more outputs) would solve it. Is that right? Is that the easiest solution?

The splitter idea won't work because the input into the Sky box is from the satellite dish.

Try plugging the aerial directly into the TV.

Chainsaw

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#525833 26-Sep-2011 14:57

Right, but doesn't the feed from the dish come in an RF (if that's the right term) cable? I was thinking that the dish and UHF aerial signals would be combined into the one RF cable, but thinking about it, when they installed the dish they probably just left the UHF aerial disconnected. I'm sure mine at home is like that (neither of us have Mysky if that's relevant).

So plugging the RF cable directly into the TV would check this out - right, will try this tonight hopefully.

Thanks.

trig42

Banana?
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#525835 26-Sep-2011 15:09

What colour is his decoder?

Some of them have SCART connectors on the back, for which you can get a cable to plug into the AV inputs on the TV (negating the need for an RF cable between the SKY box and the TV).

The RF cable going INTO the SKY box with an F-Connector on the end (Screw-In type) will be a satellite cable and not connected to his UHF aerial (the old Sky aerial). You need to find the Aerial cable, which, as you say, could just have been left unplugged somewhere. If you can find this and then tune the Freeview channels it should be all good and he would be better off watching 1,2 and 3 on Freeview and the rest on AV1/2 from the Sky decoder.

Spyware

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#525836 26-Sep-2011 15:09

Typically if the L Band from the dish and UHF from an antenna are combined you would have a diplexor at both ends. At TV end the diplexor would have 2, dish/L band and aerial/UHF, outputs.

Spark FibreMAX using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+. UAP, UAP AC Pro, UAP AC Pro Mesh, Apple TV 4, Apple TV 4K, iPad Air 1, iPhone XR, VodaTV Gen 2. If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

Chainsaw

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#525849 26-Sep-2011 15:31

trig42: What colour is his decoder?

Some of them have SCART connectors on the back, for which you can get a cable to plug into the AV inputs on the TV (negating the need for an RF cable between the SKY box and the TV).

The RF cable going INTO the SKY box with an F-Connector on the end (Screw-In type) will be a satellite cable and not connected to his UHF aerial (the old Sky aerial). You need to find the Aerial cable, which, as you say, could just have been left unplugged somewhere. If you can find this and then tune the Freeview channels it should be all good and he would be better off watching 1,2 and 3 on Freeview and the rest on AV1/2 from the Sky decoder.

Black. No scart outs. I know as my one is silver with about 3 or 4 scart outs (scarts out?) on it. I'll have to check on the aerial thing, hopefully tonight.

Chainsaw

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#525850 26-Sep-2011 15:33

Spyware: Typically if the L Band from the dish and UHF from an antenna are combined you would have a diplexor at both ends. At TV end the diplexor would have 2, dish/L band and aerial/UHF, outputs.

Um... diplexor?
Yeah, I see I'm going to have to look at things closer, so far I've just looked over the back of the TV and Sky decoder on tippy-toes, maybe made some incorrect assumptions. Cheers.

richms

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#526118 27-Sep-2011 11:13

Typically when the sky installers were putting in digital to replace UHF they would remove the UHF cable and amplifier power supplies etc. Also if the antenna dates back to then its probably stuffed too.

Richard rich.ms

Chainsaw

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#526137 27-Sep-2011 11:46

Yeah had a closer look last night. The UHF cable was commandeered by the Sky guy for the dish signal, so no Freeview HD just yet until that's connected back down to the TV.

Thanks for the help.

Jaxson

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#526399 27-Sep-2011 18:30

Having the original aerial is a bonus though.

Just get some cable and tidy up the aerials connection terminal and it should be ok, at least to test your reception with etc.