Replacing one sky box with Freeview

I have an unusual situation I am encountering.

We currently have Sky multiroom set up in two living areas, and have built in freeview in a bedroom running from the same satellite.

I want to replace one of the multiroom boxes with Freeview. I have already cancelled the multiroom and the box is due back in a week or two.

I have bought a Dish TV S8100-ZC as my Freeview box (we don't get coverage other than Satellite.

I move the aerial and HDMI cables from my Sky Box to the Dish TV box, and all works well - for about 5 minutes, then the sky box in the other room loses it's signal The only way to get the signal back in the other room is to plug the aerial back into the sky box.

Then I find if I power off that sky box I lose signal to the other room as well, which was not happening before.

The bedroom never loses it's freeview coverage or signal while this is happening with Sky.

I think the aerial from the dish comes into a splitter which then goes off to all the rooms, so I can't understand why this is happening, but I need to know how to fix it before I send the multiroom box back, otherwise we won't have Sky in the room we want it in :)

All assistance very much appreciated

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Permalink Reply by willis on February 28, 2017 at 1:51

no problem as both units will be sending 18v through an internal diode which is handy if 1 unit gets turned off

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on February 28, 2017 at 9:18

Agreed, but still not good practice and not very useful if you want to change polarity of the LNB. At least one unit does need to power the LNB all the time.

willis said:

no problem as both units will be sending 18v through an internal diode which is handy if 1 unit gets turned off

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Permalink Reply by willis on March 1, 2017 at 2:06

should get a multiswitch then which will deal with polarity and tone from each cable

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Permalink Reply by Julie Jamieson on March 1, 2017 at 18:41

Hi Willis, I am not sure what you mean? Aren't freeview & Sky on the same polarity? I have also noticed my recordings are no longer working :(

willis said:

should get a multiswitch then which will deal with polarity and tone from each cable

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Permalink Reply by John Baird on March 1, 2017 at 20:44

You don't need a multiswitch for that , everything is on the same polarity

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Permalink Reply by Paul on March 1, 2017 at 21:14

The problem was introduced by swapping the sky receiver for the Dishtv S8100.

Stopping the S8100 from powering the LNB may fix the problem,assuming that the S8200 has a same setup turn the LNB power to OFF page 31 or 37 of the S8200 manuals.

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Permalink Reply by Robbo on August 23, 2017 at 11:54

To do a simple split for both freeview and Sky with a 2 way splitter - should I buy/use a splitter with power pass on only 1 port ( and connect that one to the Sky decoder to power the LNB) and the second non-power pass port over to the freeview box.? Does it matter if the splitter is power pass on all ports ?. I guess from reading that LNB power should be off on the Freeview box if I buy an all power-pass. In which case better just to buy the single port power-pass ?

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Permalink Reply by David Lipscombe on August 23, 2017 at 22:13

As robbo said get an all power pass splitter and it should work without any problem , as I a spllitter with 3in 4out [2sat 1aerial in] splitter next to the dish with a cable going to a single box and another cable going to a 1in 8out leading to 5 sat boxes including a sky box and I had no problems in the 5+ years it's been in operation . It also has been check out by the local techs and they have said it is o.k

Robbo said:

To do a simple split for both freeview and Sky with a 2 way splitter - should I buy/use a splitter with power pass on only 1 port ( and connect that one to the Sky decoder to power the LNB) and the second non-power pass port over to the freeview box.? Does it matter if the splitter is power pass on all ports ?. I guess from reading that LNB power should be off on the Freeview box if I buy an all power-pass. In which case better just to buy the single port power-pass ?