I've been using a IR to Radio type IR extender for a long time, but
it's a bit unreliable. I've been very impressed with the reliability
of Sky's own Magic Eye, which works through the TV aerial co-ax cable
instead of via radio. However, I was wondering if these work through
signal amplifiers?

My current situation is that I have the Sky TV UHF signal sent to a
signal amplifier, which then sends it up some very poor quality co-ax
that came with the house to the loft, where there is a 4-way signal
amplifier and splitter which distributes the signal to the 4 bedrooms.

Will the Sky Magic Eye work OK passing through these signal
amplifiers? Or will the amplifiers block the signal?

Can I have a Magic Eye in more than one room? Or are you limited to
just one?

--
Vincent

On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:12:58 +0100, Bob Latham
wrote:

I could understand this more if you were amplifying the aerial signal
prior to reaching the Sky box but going through two amplifiers after the
sky box is probably not the best idea. Surely it can't be that hard to
replace the poor coax for the feed to the loft?

I should explain... I'm using the signal amplifier's sort of
backwards. I don't use an aerial at all, as everything is done through
Sky, but the UHF signal coming out of the Sky box is extremely weak by
the time it gets to some of my TVs in other rooms.

To be clear... the Sky box is the source of the UHF signal that I'm
amplifying, not an aerial.

The way the house was wired up, is it has a TV aerial socket in every
bedroom, and the main room. All of those have a length of co-ax
connected to them that runs up the walls to the loft. So in the loft
there are 5 co-ax cables coming from the four TV aerial sockets in the
bedrooms and the one from the main room.

I have tried replacing the co-ax, but unfortunately it looks like
insulation was injected into the walls after the co-ax was added and
it's like they're all glued in. Also, I can't easily get new cables
down for the same reason.

Originally, I only had a TV in the main room and one bedroom. So I
just connected the "TV Out" from the Sky box into the aerial socket in
the main room, which then sends that signal up the wall to the loft. I
then connected that cable in the loft to one going to the bedroom, and
the then the aerial socket in the bedroom to the TV. I could then
watch Sky! However the signal was very weak. So, I added a signal
booster in the main room (e.g. Sky box TV out - Signal Booster -
Wall socket - up wall to loft - down wall to bedroom socket - TV).

That was fine. However when I got additional TVs in the other bedroom,
the signal was too weak again, so I got a 4-way splitter amplifier
which solved that problem too. The feed from the main room goes into
the input on the signal amplifier, and the four outputs feed the four
bedrooms.

Everything is fine, apart from changing channels. These IR to RF
extenders work OK in the rooms very close to the Sky box, but rarely
and intermittently in the other two rooms which are further away.
Hence thinking about Sky's magic eye, as it's hard wired.

Distribution amplifiers like this one
http://www.beststuff.co.uk/store/SLx...-Amplifier.htm
will work fine, not only passing the remote signals back from multiple
magic eyes but also supplying the DC to power the eyes. Look for the B
suffix as in SLx6B.

That's awesome, it sounds like exactly what I need. I can probably do
away with the signal amplifier in the main room - I've never tested it
without it. This could then send the signals to the various TVs in the
house from the loft, and the Sky Eye could pass through it back to the
Sky box.

I guess I could always buy a Sky Eye first, test it, and if it doesn't
work try that amplifier.

Thanks for your help! Much appreciated.

--
Vincent

I also noticed that Maplin sell these:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/digital-bypass-kit-33971

On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:23:44 +0100, Bob Latham
wrote:
You could probably use one of those to bypass your first amplifier if you
insist it is needed though to be honest, the signal from the rf2 on a sky
box is normally adequate to drive a distribution box in the loft. If it
isn't then you must have considerable loss in that coax going up to the
loft.

It makes only a tiny bit of difference, it's not worth it. Really it's
just there historically. I'd never tried it without it.

You might try running a length of new decent coax temporarily up the
stairs from the sky box to the loft to prove it.

In fact I've just done exactly this. I happened to have a 20 extension
meter lead.

The conclusion is that it definitely needs the amplifier in the loft,
even just for one TV, and it needs an additional amplifier in the
furthest bedroom from the amplifier - testing a different co-ax lead
here makes little difference, it's just the distance.

So it looks like I need one of those 6-way amplifiers you linked
previously, plus one of those bypasses from Maplin. plus some Sky
Eyes.

Thank you!

--
Vincent