Am i asking too much?

[bends]

i have just added a dm800 to a mates house. he currently has sky+. i removed the second feed from the skybox and connected to DM input, then took the output (loop thru) of DM back to the skybox 2nd feed. idea being that sky box would continue to function as before, with benefit of new DM!!
however i have lost BBC HD & BBC1 HD on DM?? if i disconnect the cable from the DM loop then they come back up immediately.
prior to this, I also set the sky box to record a channel then changed to watch another. worked ok for a while then got the "lost signal" message.
Can anyone explain this behaviour, should what i am trying work?

cheers

[Lewiscc]

hi bends ...... not sure what caused the problem that you're describing but a loop through would probably limit the sky+ box... as only the tp selected on the dm would be available . would be best to change the lnb on the dish to allow a completely seperate feed for the dreambox.

[davvo]

both boxes have to be on the same band
the lnb has 4 bands
high-horizontal low-horizontal
low-vertical high-vertical
put both boxes on a channel that uses high-horizontal
and the picture will clear
put both boxes on different channels with different bands
and you will get no signal on just one box

[bends]

thanks for your responses.
@ Lewiscc, i agree about running another cable, but not really an option in this house. My plan was really to allow my mate to have what he had before PLUS the dm800. he's a bit of a technophobe, so i wanted to allow him the option to switch back to his original setup without needing to do anything!

@Davvo. eh!?!?
why is that? does make sense though cos initially it worked on the sky box (recording plus watch another) then went to dreambox and changed channels there. this seems to have stopped BBC HD on the DM AND screwed the 2nd channel on the sky box (recording carried on ok).
so are you saying that the dm800 doesnt simply loop the cable through to the output, without going through the tuner? alternatively, could i put a Y connector to split to the sky and dm off the second feed?

I'm only interested here, just my own curiosity. my mate is happy having sky on one feed and dm800 on the other, he can record on sky and watch another channel on the dm(or vice versa) so same effect.

If you can be bothered to explain in any more detail then i'd be happy to read but dont stress, as i said, my mate is happy!

cheers

[davvo]

sky on one feed and dm800 on the other feed
works ok

but now you have lost your 2nd sky feed

so now you try and loop from dm out to sky in

thats where the problem starts

a single port from any lnb can only be on one band at a time
you cant watch Channels with vertical polarisation and low band on 1 box

and then watch Channels with vertical polarisation and high band on the other box from the same port of that lnb

both boxes have to be on the same band or you will get no signal from 1 box

each port from an lnb cant do 2 different polarisations ie: H/V LOW HIGH at the same time


you will have the same problems with a splitter when both boxes are on

solution

you can buy one of these (see pic)
the feed from the lnb to IN and then feed the DM and sky box from the 2 outputs
then switch one box completely off to watch the other
that way you wont be swapping cables over all the time

this will allow him the option to switch back to his original setup without needing to do anything!
apart from switching the DM OFF

these splitters are a tenner in maplins (piss takers)
or 2 quid on ebay

[bends]

thanks again for the reply davvo. i get it now - but i didnt know that, so cheers!
my mate has reported another problem...
since the initial problem the setup has been left as: 1 cable to sky input #1 and the other to dm, - no loopthrough cable.
new problem is that the sky box states that sat signal has been lost and box needs rebooting. a reboot fixes it. this happened 2 days after install of dm and reoccurred 24 hours later (not since - yet). i assume that this will continue to happen, but i have no idea why, i've no experience of sky boxes!
any ideas what could be causing this? does the sky box do this if it notices the 2nd feed isnt connected? guessing here