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Moving to a new build home
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We are moving into a new build home in a few weeks which has no aerial on the roof. There are TV points wired into almost all rooms.
If we had freesat installed would the dish be able to make use of TV points or is it like sky where you have to have the cabling running from the dish to the sky box?
Thanks in advance
If we had freesat installed would the dish be able to make use of TV points or is it like sky where you have to have the cabling running from the dish to the sky box?
Thanks in advance
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You will probably find all the cables just go up into the loft space, where they are left lying in coils on the floor to be connected to something.
IF they have used decent quality cable, then these could be used for a satellite feed. You would need to change the wall plate outlets to F connector types, and join onto the cable in the loft and feed it out to the satellite dish.
The big limitation might be if the builders only installed one cable to each room, in which case it's not much help if you want to use a PVR which really needs 2 feeds.
There are 2 sockets in the living room right next to each other but only one in the upstairs rooms. I took the plate off the wall and looked at the cable which was white. I was expecting brown if it was ordinary aerial wire.
Is there any sort of colour coding for distinguishing different types of aerial wires?
If it was ordinary aerial cable would that work or would it have to be proper satellite cable.
thanks
So you have 2 feeds to the living room so can have a sky+ or sky HD box there, but only 1 feed to the bedroom limits you to a standard sky box (or a sky+ and messing about with dummy recordings to make it work from 1 feed)
If you want a sat pvr on one feed in the bedroom, consider the freesat foxsat-hdr unlike the sky boxes you can use two tuners on one cable and also record for free.
I've had a look at the wiring and it's ordinary aerial wire so won't risk using it.
You would have thought they would have fitted proper satellite cable in a new build house especially when the terrestrial signals were switched off in this area months ago.
We were given permission to put up a freeview aerial but will have to find out about a dish.
Two houses 3 doors down have got sky dishes up so hopefully we won't have a problem.
thanks again.
Since I presume you will not be moving into a 'listed' building, it is quite unlikely that there will be any planning restrictions - and in my experience it is usually the landlords of such leasehold properties who police this rather than English Heritage. It will therefore probably only be a restrictive covenant which would affect your installation and, your builder is unlikely to refuse bearing in mind they have allowed dishes on other houses - or have not enforced their own covenants! You may well notice that virtually every social housing organisation (local Council or Housing Association) does not enforce the "two dishes per block" regulation
Well when we were shown around the house we were told that there was no aerial and we were not allowed to ever enter the loft or store things up there. Paid contractors would be allowed as they are insured...
I took some small step ladders up there today and had a look in the loft. There was a big aerial in there connected to plug sockets wired in to a booster box. I took photos but they are on my husband's phone.
We are going to buy a cheap freeview box tomorrow and take a portable TV up there to see if we can get a signal.
Thanks Ibear you have set my mind at rest.
Now it's one of those suck it and see moments.. if we can get a good enough picture we can delay getting freesat, if not we will have to fork out..
Thank you all
Sory, but what sort of builder is giving you advice that YOU are not allowed to enter YOUR own loft space.
I would tell him where to go with advice like that.
Not been able to access your own loft space seems a strange restriction as PD says.
Anyone can enter their own loft BUT when they fall through the ceiling, of cause it to collapse, it's 100% their responsibility as they were told not to enter the loft.
As long as you board it out properly it is as good for storage as any older property. Just don't stand directly on the insulation and you shouldn't fall through.
As long as the loft isn't jam packed with stuff I can't see it being a problem really.
Anyway I took a TV up there today and the cheapest Argos freeview box. I got a perfect signal at one of the lounge aerial sockets but none of the others would work. I kept getting no signal messages on all the rest which isn't a problem at the moment but will be later on when we get settled.
I will have to get in touch with the property manager to see if they are supposed to be wired up. I won't be holding out much hope though as he didn't know there was an aerial in the loft.
In post #14 you mentioned a "booser box" How many cables connected to that?
I would expect this to be a "distribution amplifier" with the aerial plugging directly into it, and then one output from it feeding each room with a tv aerial point.
Next time you go into the loft, have a look at this in detail. Look also for unconnected cables just left coiled up on the floor of the loft (though chances are they are buried under the loft insulation)
I guess most people overlook snagging their terrestrial distribution when there is no aerial at the other end of the system. I guess it's not an easy exercise.
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you... been busy packing. :eek:
The booster box has the aerial wire going into it and only 2 cables coming out of it. Even with the 2 I would have thought I should be able to get a signal on 2 of the sockets but can only get one.
I couldn't see if there were other cables laying around as I only had a small pair of step ladders and the loft insulation was about 2 foot deep around the loft hatch.
wgmorg and GaseousClay I have never heard of snagging. What is it exactly.
Thanks everyone.
From Freesat's site:
You'll need a satellite dish installed to access freesat. We only work with approved installers who meet industry standards, and who specialise in installing satellite dishes, freesat set top boxes, and freesat TVs. Call 0845 313 0051 for more information.
On the original Freesat question, where joining of cables was mentioned, you can't share cables for Freesat. Each run of cable must be dedicated to its own output on the LNB. So whilst you could join the cable, you can't split it and distribute it between tv's as you can with terrestrial.
On the subject of dishes, if there is a problem there are a wide range of less obvious dishes available such as see through dishes and dishes specifially disguised to match the brickwork etc although these do cost more and some (but not all - usually the small squarial type) don't receive as well so whether or not you can use them will depend on your exact location. Generally anything other than the very small flat dishes work as normal. Howwver, if there are covenants or its a cosnervation area, you will still need permisssion. You just stand more chance of getting it if yoyu can show that your dish has little or no visual impact. There's also the possibility of a dish down the garden as a last resort (most people put them down the bottom then grow a bush behind it so it can' be seen from the house).
On the subject of Freeview tv, it sounds as though there is a multiroom distribution splitter / booster in the loft and as though some of the outputs aren't working = definately something to get the builders to address even if you decide to use Freesat as you nver know when you might want to use Freeview and the next purchaser if you ever sell, will want working tv points anyway.
On the loft subject, if you've bought and not leased, I can't see how they can possibly restrict where you go in your own property. What you put up that affects the external appearance, yes, as thats a covenent to your neighbours, but not where you actually go inside.
Finally, if it is a booster, probably you're in a weak to medium signal area (having the aerial in the loft will cause significant losses causing a booster to maybe necessary in even a medium area. I'd advise you to check all of the tv points when working for signal strength and also to check the signal quality both on the tv's inbuilt meter and also visually in bad weather to see if the signal is robust enough to stand break up in poor weather conditions. Otherwise, sat maybe the way to go.
Cheers,
David.