advice on sky + box bought second hand- what cables etc do i need?

[foxy1]

hello - i am with sky and have a normal digibox. I have just bought a second hand sky + box on ebay and want to know what if any extra cables i need. i know i am supposed to ring sky to get them to pair the box to the viewing card. thank you

You will need a sky installer (or independant) aerial installer to come and change your dish and route an extra cable to teh box (you need 2 cables to come from the dish to use the + functions).

hi there - thanks for your reply. why do we need to change dish? thank you

You don't need to change the dish - you just need to adapt the dish.

The pointy out thing on the dish is called a LNB (I think). Most dishes are installed with a single output LNB installed - which means you have 1 wire coming out of teh dish and into teh back of you Sky box. When you upgrade to Sky+ you need 2 signals - because the Sky needs one and the + needs another (so you can record one program and watch another). This means you need 2 wires to come out of your dish, which means you need a quad LNB istalling so that you can have up to 4 wires coming from the dish.

I think that you can theoreticaly install the quad LNB yourself if you are prepared to get up a ladder and wire it in. If you search ebay you can buy the kit to do it for about £15 - for example.

You will be able to watch sky even with a Sky+ box with a single LNB dish - you just won't be able to record (whilst watching another chanel.. the pause and rewind functions may work).

The other possibility is that you already have a quad LNB (probably only likely if someone has previously had Sky+ installed or used multiroom at that address). this is a quad LNB - which is on teh sticking out hing on teh dish. If there are 4 pins coming out o the bottom you will just need to run the cable down to teh lounge. link{http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.satcure.co.uk/accs/skylnb/DishView.jpg&imgr efurl=www.satcure.co.uk/accs/skylnb.htm&usg=__Tlo2-GkP_LNaNixHdcVM9lskFQM=&h=464&w=432&sz=16& hl=en&start=4&sig2=Ca4Dltwu4mMt5tAqngnqAQ&tbnid=9JKqTVaBu-qytM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3 Dsky%2Bdish%2BLNB%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den&ei=EGrWSb-iJpLLjAfErvTwDg his is a single LNB dish. It only has 1 prong where the cable is connected in teh picture.

OK - screwed the links.

This is a quad LNB which you need. It has 4 prongs coming out of it. You can see them from the ground.

here.

This is a single LNB. There is only a single prong on teh stincking out bit - where the cable is attatched.

here

are you not cheaper (and safer) just phoning sky and upgrading??

As an earlier poster said you will need a quad LNB which allows you to have 2 feeds into the sky box This is one for the channel you are watching and one for the spare one if you wnat to recod a different channel. (it actually has 4 which would give you 2 spare if you want to keep using your old sky box as well for multi room).
You will also need this new cable fed down to the new sky + box.
Depending on where your satellite dish is you could possibly do it your self although if it involves roof and ladders etc you might be better off getting a local independant satellite installer to do it for you. I think it would be about £30 for the LNB and cable is about £3 per meter plus their time costs.
You will also need a sky + card from sky and this will need to be paired with the box. I expect the installer could also do this for you if you aren't able to do it yourself.