Rescheduled Sky HD Install today Woo!

[accordfire]

I'm getting Sky HD today, if they don't manage to find another reason to wait until 4:30 to phone me and say they're not going to make it to do my install...as they did last Friday, after I spent half the day clearing the drive for the b******ds.

Even trying to convince them I was in a bungalow, and the total install was dish on wall, six feet of shotgun, four F connectors, and P off home. b******rds.

So. Having had the weekend to consider my pending HD, and having spent some of yesterday convincing their engineering "manager" that their screw up cost me big time, and that a free Sky Plus for the kitchen (which feeds all other rooms) would be in order - resulting in a total additional cable run of another fifteen feet along the same wall.

I've come to ponder on one question.

If Sky Plus/HD has two RF outputs on it, why can it not transmit one channel via RF1/Scart/HDMI and another channel via RF 2.

What's the point of the second RF output? I know RF 2 is switchable to power 9V also, for powered splitters etc., just not sure why a second RF since the standard box does everything on one RF out.

Anyone help me out with this?

Ta.

 

[Spudnik]

The RF2 out only puts out what the RF output puts out

Its was only ever designed to use as a second feed so that the main box could be watched in other rooms.

This was dreamt up in the days way before multiroom.

 

[accordfire]

The RF2 out only puts out what the RF output puts out

Its was only ever designed to use as a second feed so that the main box could be watched in other rooms.

This was dreamt up in the days way before multiroom.

That's pretty well what the Sky guy said too - cowboy! Talk about easy install - dish floor level one side of the wall, box the other, not much higher.

Apparently, and I can't so far find any confirmation info, Telephone masts interfere with High Def reception - anyone heard this?

Cheers.

 

[SimpleSimon]

No, but with the RF2. Like Jason said it's so you can run another feed somewhere else. I use mine with a sky magi eye to my bedroom. Which is great . Never heard of Telephone masts interfering with HD signal hope it's not true

 

[accordfire]

No, but with the RF2. Like Jason said it's so you can run another feed somewhere else. I use mine with a sky magi eye to my bedroom. Which is great . Never heard of Telephone masts interfering with HD signal hope it's not true

Not something I'd heard of before either - and suspecting the Sky Monkeys just wanted an easy install.

I'll be moving it anyway, as soon as the weather clears a bit - so will find out - but also because I'm ferked if I'm having two dishes on the house - especially since the one that went up ten years ago is in a lovely position, nicely out of sight from most angles, and literally only needed changing over to the new mesh and LNB.

Fortunately, they put a Quad LNB on the new dish, so it's just a case of running new CT100 and sticking the dish where I want it.

Come to think of it, even if mast interference is an issue, I can still shield it with the chimney the old dish is on, just by moving the bracket onto the side face.

Shame about the RF2 thing - but obvious I guess, since it would kill the Multi-room market in a heartbeat.

Ah well - not essential, just desirable.

 

[Sparky Ninja]

When my mum moved into her bungalow a couple of years ago, I had to arrange for sky to move my installation along with her (I pay for hers, wife and I pay for ours). So the contractor installing on behalf f sky didn't have a bracket to elevate the dish, and there was nowhere on the wall where the dish could be installed correctly. So he installed it saying to her there was no other way to do it, it was sitting on a tripod about 2 feet off the ground and it was right next to the front door so the signal was affected everytime someone came to the door.
I fixed it the next morning and was quite livid at the shear nerve of the guy thinking it would be acceptable and telling her it had to be that way. Unfortunatley for him, sky contacted me as a random survey on there installation and I let rip at them. He was ordered to return and correct it, not knowing I had fixed it, but I made sure I was there to express my opinion of him.

 

[accordfire]

When my mum moved into her bungalow a couple of years ago, I had to arrange for sky to move my installation along with her (I pay for hers, wife and I pay for ours). So the contractor installing on behalf f sky didn't have a bracket to elevate the dish, and there was nowhere on the wall where the dish could be installed correctly. So he installed it saying to her there was no other way to do it, it was sitting on a tripod about 2 feet off the ground and it was right next to the front door so the signal was affected everytime someone came to the door.
I fixed it the next morning and was quite livid at the shear nerve of the guy thinking it would be acceptable and telling her it had to be that way. Unfortunatley for him, sky contacted me as a random survey on there installation and I let rip at them. He was ordered to return and correct it, not knowing I had fixed it, but I made sure I was there to express my opinion of him.

Similar situation - it's a bungalow here, and the more I think about it, the more it's pi***g me off, and I'm sure it was just sheer laziness on the part of the installer - also bearing in mind that they've been letting a load of folks down with the weather, so have jobs to catch up too.

I will say this, though, I've just discovered that where they drilled the cable through at a height of about 4 inches off the ground, they haven't even bothered sealing the entry with silicon.

Why are these people allowed to get away with such rubbish work......I honestly think their "free" install will cost more than if they'd just dropped the boxes off and left me to it.

 

[topquark]

You can use Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com to see if any near objects are tall enough to interfere with the signal. Just select the astra sats at 28.2E and select the object line of sight checker. It will work out how tall the object would need to be before it interferes with the signal. No chance of any electrical interference from it though (if that's what they're suggesting).

 

[accordfire]

You can use Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com to see if any near objects are tall enough to interfere with the signal. Just select the astra sats at 28.2E and select the object line of sight checker. It will work out how tall the object would need to be before it interferes with the signal. No chance of any electrical interference from it though (if that's what they're suggesting).

Hi - yup, there's definitely clear line of sight all the way - it is electrical interference they're talking about.

Just not sure how it would be allowed to interfere with other broadcast signals myself, given that there's a fair bit of difference between GSM bandwidth and Sky.

 

[topquark]

Only time you'd get interference is if they don't have the cable properly shielded (ie it's incorrectly installed). The mobile frequencies are in the Mhz range the Sat Frequencies (before the LNB) are in the Ghz range (10.7-12.75Ghz). After the LNB it's around 950-2150Mhz so could get interference if the cable is poor quality or not properly shielded. Hope that helps.

 

[Shaun_84]

I work for a Sky business partner and there are some utter monkeys out there fitting sky. I mainly have to do rectification work which means I have to go and clear up the mess left behind by others.
Couple reasons why the work is so bad

Engineers and well and trully overloaded with work (not long ago I had to do an install day and got given 10 jobs with 9 of them in the AM timeband)

The consumables we get given are utter crap, cheapest cable, clips, drill bits you name it where they can save money they can.

The company works on figures alone not quality of work, if an engineer gets 40 jobs a week and completes 40 he is a good engineer, if he dosn't he is not. Because of this I find alot of guys just leave boxes with people and tell them someone will come back to fit it which is rubbish.

So called engineers are monkeys and exteamly lazy, I have never heard of interference from power lines and as for just affecting HD that is complete rubbish, HD is broadcast like the SD channels with basically more bandwith so thet can send more information (for example a SD transponder may have 10 channels a HD transponder the same size would only carry 2 or 3) Most engineers will not use their ladders they will make up stories such as your house needs a special heights team there is no such thing.

Anything else people want to know about Sky/freeview/freesat or general AV please ask and i'll try and help best I can.

Below is one of my favourite photos from work, went out to a service call last year and couldn't believe what I saw when I got there and this guy was classed as a good engineer lol