Household FTA system questions

The biggest problem I see with your plan is using a magic eye to change channels, I ditched Sky a couple of years ago and went to Freesat and the magic eye's no longer work as the freesat boxes have a missing connection compared to the sky ones and afaik its the same with the fta boxes. You would be better putting the fta boxes in each room along with the tv and also get HD versions and connect using HDMI where possible. I have not been able to pipe freesat around the house as i had with Sky as my set up is a 4way lnb with two feeds going to the freesat recorder in the living room. It used to then use the RF out (missing connection) on the sky box to send it to a distribution amplifier in the loft which also had an aerial connected, which sent it to the other rooms (2 bedrooms & kitchen) the magic eye allowed the change of channel, but now as it goes only to the living room and not the amplifier I can only get freeview in the other rooms.

I could put a fta box in each room and run a cable from the lnb but I cant be bothered (read lazy bugger!)

Thanks John.

There is a different type of eye for FTA. I have one in the Motorhome. The sky eye is no good for the FTA system.

Good call on the hdmi. I hadn't thought about that. I assume the sat cable from the box to screen would not be as good a quality.

We have the roof space amp/box for sky in the present house so maybe I should do a similar system again.

I am one of the unfortunate souls who's eyesight is such that I really cant see a lot of difference in HD, but saying that I dont have a blueray. so cant give a full answer to the quality over cable to HDMI, cable would though loose signal as it uses an analogue signal compared to the digital of HDMI.

You will need a HD box to receive the HD channels and also some of them only have a HDMI output, no scart or RF.

As bob says what about a wireless method of sending the feed, although that would mean having to watch the same thing on all the other tv's.

Is the house you are moving to a new build? As this would allow the cables to be put in place prior to you moving in and save you a lot of time and hassle.

LOL. Have you seen the price of Hdmi cable?

Unlikely to be a new build. Still need to find a house.

Looks like it will need to be the same type of system we use now.

I just hate bloody boxes sitting around.

Any TV less than 32" it is pointless having HD, so in Marks scenario would a bedroom TV be over 32"?

I know to toshiba do a 42" with everything built in, the only problem is it isn't advertised as such, you have to look at the back of them to find it with the f type screw on fitting.

Easy option is run 4 cables to a multiswitch in the loft also feed a terrestrial signal to the multiswitch then all feeds will have Sat and freeview options, I you require several feeds down the existing single cable then fit a scr compatable multiswitch it will allow up to 3 satellite feeds and terrestrial down a single cable, sky type remote sensors can be used to control any thing that has a infared control, there are units that will allow control. The options are many and varied, HD can be sent through coax cable, cat 5 or even cordless. When you get your house it will dictate the best option as every solution is different. Good luck with the house hunt, good time to buy!