Puling the wool over SKY’s eyes (legally)
So much choice in TV leads to so much cost on our bills!
If you’re paying for subscription TV there’s the televisual Catch 22 of loving the variety and range of viewing but having to pay through the nose for it. I don’t hear very often (not at all in fact) that customers don’t mind paying what seems to an obligatory incremental £5 every month for an extra essential cooking or shopping channel (or summat like that). What is especially galling, despite having to invest in a second mortgage that would support a small developing country, with SKY, Virgin Media, EE, TalkTalk etc., a request for an additional set-top box will mean even more money drained from the kids’ inheritance or college fund.
Home TV with the Magic Eye (the good old days!)
Up until recently, it used to be a fairly easy task of piping SKY from the receiver to other rooms. With the installation of a “magic eye” you could have all the functionality of the package and product you’d bought in ancillary rooms as you would have in the main room. Albeit a poorer quality image than the main TV as it was transmitted in analogue format. But SKY didn’t like this did they? They wanted you to have multi-room TV but on their terms, that is to BUY another bleedin’ receiver. So over time they have made it more and more difficult for their customers to have a “DIY” way of watching their product in other rooms with it culminating with SKY Q where a coax cable cannot be directly run from the receiver to other rooms. Well every problem has a solution!
A new solution to multiple room HD TV service
Not only with SKY but with ANY digi-receiver box there are products now available that distribute high quality high definition images (including4K) to any number of rooms. So you can plan and record a channel in your bedroom and watch it in the loft or in the summer house adjacent to your newly built tennis courts; just like the old Martini advert of anytime, anyplace, anywhere (think that reference will be lost on the millennials).
Such alchemy is called signal distribution through a HDMI cable extender. With the installation of two HDMI leads (good quality mind – 2.0) a small transmitter and receiver unit, IR sensors and a length of cat5e/6 cable perfect HD UHD and 4K images can be sent to TV’s around the house. What is so good about this rebuff to the main subscription players is that after the initial installation payment the product starts to pay for itself. Generally, the cost for a multi room device is between £10-£15 per month (plus VAT!). The extenders are not limited to TV set top boxes but can also be used in conjunction with DVD players and CCTV recorders.
Being the show-off I am I have an HDMI switch (matrix) which can combine up to 8 devices and send the images to any number of TV’s should I wish. I haven’t got 8 devices of course that would be too indulgent, but the facility is there if ever required.
I guess that as long as folks want to watch TV in the bath or in bed or in the summer house adjacent to the newly built tennis courts there is a means by which to do it. An expensive way but always a very good cheaper way too if you look hard enough in to it.
All part of the service
TV aerial installation, satellite services and home upgrades to enable 4k, UHD and sateillte delivery in your property is what we do. We are the leading independent satellite and aerial installation company so if you need an upgrade like this in your home, do contact us!
Steven Walker
Owner, AB Aerials - helping customers through the process of installing TV and radio aerials, satellite dishes and CCTV. AB Aerials has been trading for over 35 years so we must be doing something right. The secret is that we address customer fears. Connect with Steve on LinkedIn >>
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