750 TV channels
(and nothing worth watching on the telly!)

Updated January 2004

This page isnt only about analogue satellite, but it might give you some ideas on how to improve your Audio Visual set up to make it work better for you.

Spring 2003 and I spent a couple of weekends reorganising the AV sources round our house. At the time I had the following AV equipment in use:

Echostar IP3000VA analogue / digital satellite receiver.
Grundig 3000 Sky Digital receiver.
Philips DTT box (ex ITV Digital).
Panasonic video recorder.

AT the time, the Echostar was rigged onto a portable TV, and the Sky Digital receiver was wired onto the main TV. The ITV Digital DTT box was stored in a cupboard when the ITV Digital pay tv service went bust, but with the start of the FreeView service tests, I wanted to be able to watch the test transmissions, and pick up any DTT services which were not being transmitted on Sky.

I reckoned with a bit of careful planning and some extensive re-tuning of the rf outputs from all the equipment, I could vastly improve the flexibility of my AV system.

I wanted to fulfill as many of these aims as possible:

1)    All receivers had to output onto the main TV in the living room, and also onto the portable TV I use for my satellite reception.
2)    Any 2 receivers could be in use at any one time.
3)    I wanted to be able to record any source onto the video recorder.
4)    Improve reception on the TV in in the kitchen..
5)    Stereo audio outputs where practicable.

The TV aerial had to be connected since I wanted the DTT signals from the Selkirk TV transmitter passed up the chain.

Using SCART's onto the main TV was out because the TV is 10 years old, and doesnt handle SCART signals very well. Last time I tried it, I ended up with awful auto switching problems.... Therefore, I had to use the rf outputs on the receivers. This was complicated because of the number of channels already in use round here.

My local transmitter is Selkirk. It transmits the 5 main analogue stations on channels 52, 55, 59, 62, & 65.
It also transmits DTT signals on 53, 56, 57, 60, 63, & 66.

However, I also receive weak signals from the Galashiels relay transmitter, which transmits 4 channels on 41, 44, 47, & 68.

There are 3 main things to remember when setting up your receiving equipment using the rf outputs.

a)    You can't use a channel which already has a signal on it, or you end up with horrible interference.
b)    You can't use an adjacent channel to a strong signal.
c)    It is advised that you avoid channels +/- 5 & +/- 9 from a strong signal, as these are especially prone to causing interference. I dont know the technical reasons for this, but the information came from a specialist web site.

Therefore, the rf channels received on our TV aerial, along with the ones to avoid currently looks like this:

As you can see, of the 48 available TV channels, 21 are already taken by current channels, and 10 more are taken up by the +/- 5 or +/-9 rule. We are lucky round here in that all the TV channels from Selkirk are radiated up at the top half of the band. The relay at Galashiels radiates in the middle of the band, apart from BBC 1 which is stuck way up on Ch 68. I could probably eliminate the signals received from Galashiels if I put a more directional aerial up, but I was trying to spend as little as possible on getting everything working. I might have to put a new aerial up if I want to put many more receivers into the equation, as removing the Galashiels input from the TV aerial would free up another 10 channels for use.

The video player, and the Sky Digital receiver were sorted out first, since these were the most important. The rf output from the video was retuned to Ch 21, and that from the Sky Digital receiver was retuned to Ch 25. This worked fine, so the Echostar was put in as well. This was tuned to Ch 28. Careful checking of all the TV channels and other rf outputs showed no obvious interference on any signals, so the DTT box was put into the circuit, with its output on Ch 40.

Requirements 1 & 2

I had got the receiver rf outputs all re-tuned, now I had to get 2 TV's to see all the RF signals. Fortunately, the Sky Digital receiver has 2 rf outputs on it, which made the task fairly simple. However, the second rf output can have 12V flowing out of it. If you want to use this output like I did, ensure the voltage is turned off! (You need the hidden service menu which you get to through by using Services --> 4 --> 0 --> 1 --> Select. BE CAREFUL what you change in here).

The receivers were rigged up like this:

The 2 TV's were tuned in like this:

Requirement 3

Recording any source onto the video was the next objective. This was an easy one to fix, since all I needed to do was tune the video in to the rf signals. To keep everything simple, the video was tuned into everything the same way as the TV's - so if I want to record from the Echostar, its button 8 on the video . So far so good!

Requirement 4

I wanted to get a better TV signal onto the third TV, which is in the kitchen. Reception was very poor - there was only a small circular aerial on this TV, and this room is the wrong side of the house from the transmitter. This has been a long standing problem, with no obvious way to fix it without some unsightly cable runs. I couldnt use a Digisender, since the TV is so old it doesnt have a SCART socket. However, I'm not willing to replace it until it breaks down.

I was recently given a faulty 15 year old video recorder which didnt record any longer. The rf part of it works, and it has a single SCART socket on it....

So a Digisender receive unit was strung onto the SCART socket on the video, and the TV was tuned into the video output. The transmitter was on the Sky Digital box - my other half being much more interested in watching Sky 1 rather than German TV for some reason    ;-)  No problems with getting this video into my complicated system above - its never going to be used for anything more than getting a better picture on the ancient TV in the kitchen. 

Reception isnt perfect - the picture can break up when you wander round the kitchen, and putting the microwave on causes havoc with the signal - (because the tv sits directly on top of the microwave!)  Not ideal, but it is a LOT better than it was.

Requirement 5

I wanted stereo audio output from the satellite receivers. Both the receivers have phono sockets for stereo audio outputs, but my stereo only has 1 phono input. So the Sky Digital box was connected up to the phono input on the music centre. (Beginners guide to this here). I have a pair of wireless headphones, so I connected the base unit to the Echostar phono sockets. Now I can listen to the audio output from this satellite receiver in peace and quiet, and not disturb anyone else at the same time.

Final outcome

Success! All 5 requirements achieved at minimum cost and a couple of hours of my time. The only thing I have currently had to buy was a set of phono cables for the stereo audio off the Sky box. Although I had to buy a replacement Digisender receiver for the one I "borrowed" from the bedroom.

The set up isnt perfect, and I'll probably change some of the set up slightly once I've had everything up and running for a while. Im sure experts would disagree with the way I have done some of the setting up. However, the system works, and that's all I'm interested in.

At a rough guess, I now have somewhere around 750 TV channels to choose from on the main TV - and can record any of them too!      :-)

If you want to set your equipment up like this, you have to know what channels your TV signals are transmitting on. For this you have to know which transmitter you are on. Lists are available on the web.

For obvious reasons don't try changing anything unless you know exactly what you are doing. No blame accepted if you screw up the tuning of your TV and cant watch your favourite satellite channel !

July 2003 update.

Ive changed things slightly over the last couple of weeks. Ive put a TV card into my computer (a 30 quid Pinnacle PCTV Rage) so I needed an rf feed to the computer. For now, Ive just used a cheap Y-splitter on the output from the video recorder (this gives me all the terrestrial channels, the DTT box, the Echostar, and Sky satellite systems, plus the video on the computer).

The signal quality from the terrestrial channels isnt brilliant, although its ok just for experimenting with. Later in the year, I think I'll put a proper rf distribution amplifier system in place, although this will mean a complete strip down of all the cabling behind the tv.... A scary thought, its like a "rats nets" behind there!

January 2004 update.

Well I got rid of the DTT receiver, it was never used, so it was passed on to a work mate so he could have a few extra tv channels. The audio from the Sky Digibox is now piped into a Panasonic DVD / Home Theater System and Planet Rock sounds fantastic when I switch it through the HTS and crank up the volume :-)

I am about to make a start on tidying up the "rats nest" of cabling - I have successfully avoided it so far, but I have to do it now as we have had to buy a new telly and the back of the cabinet is a major disaster area at the moment...........

If you want more details on Piping TV Signals Around the House, buy Martin Pickering's eBook about the subject. Details here - and use the voucher form on the page, and you can get a small discount on the purchase too! Its a good read, and worth having.

If you want an easy way to work out which channels you need to avoid, use the Taboo Channel Guide. This is a very clever site which will calculate all the the channels you must avoid when retuning an AV system. The site is easy enough to use - but you must know your local transmitter site. The look of the site is a little out of date - it still refers to "OnDigital" which disappeared a good 2 years ago, but the charts work well enough.

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