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freesat+ and sky+ off one satellite dish


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Old 09-04-2010, 16:45
sandrak
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I have sky+ on subscription in the lounge and a basic sky box in my sons room that i ceased to pay subscription on a while ago which he now gets the free channels on. If he wants to record from the freesat channels and buys say a Humax Foxsat HDR will that work? Any advice appreciated!!
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Old 09-04-2010, 16:50
Andrue
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I have sky+ on subscription in the lounge and a basic sky box in my sons room that i ceased to pay subscription on a while ago which he now gets the free channels on. If he wants to record from the freesat channels and buys say a Humax Foxsat HDR will that work? Any advice appreciated!!
Should do.

There is no technical reason why a dish can't serve both boxes. In fact for 99% of channels that are common between the two services it's the same signal being decoded.

The only stumbling block is the number of connections on what's called the 'LNB'. This is the small box mounted on the arm sticking out of the dish. Ideally a Sky +, Sky HD or the Foxsat HDR should have two inputs which means if you have both you need four outputs from the LNB.

In theory if you have Sky+ then you're sorted as most if not all installations use what is called a 'quad' LNB that has four outputs. In point of fact the above boxes can get by on just one input but it gimps them somewhat as it means they can only watch/record one channel at a time. In any case there are such things as octo LNBs and they are easy to replace.

Bottom line:Should be no problem for you at all but ideally you want to run a second cable to the new machine to get the best out of it. That would lead to four cables leaving your dish - two to your Sky+ and the other two to your son's Foxsat.
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Old 09-04-2010, 17:33
sandrak
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Thats brilliant thanks alot for the swift reply ...... didnt want to spend £250 on something that wouldnt work!!
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Old 09-04-2010, 17:39
Nigel Goodwin
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Thats brilliant thanks alot for the swift reply ...... didnt want to spend £250 on something that wouldnt work!!
It's a VERY common use for Freesat, lot's of people have Sky+ or Sky HD in the main room, then Freesat or Freesat+ in another room. Same signals, same satellites, same dish - Freesat is basically just an alternative EPG to the Sky one.

As Andrue said, you really need to run an extra lead from the LNB, you need two for a recorder - if you're only currently using three leads, there will be a spare output on the LNB.
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Old 12-04-2010, 12:39
finbaar
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Yep not a problem. I had this set up until I ditched $ky (now just use the + box as a free receiver so only need three rather than four feeds)
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Old 13-04-2010, 20:07
drevil666
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they both run off a double cable (commonly known as shotgun) so a quad lnb should do the trick I would think - I run Humax HDR (2 cables) & two single cable $ky boxes off of my quad lnb - pretty cheap on Flea Bay
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