Does anyone have one of these TV sockets?

[Simon Ferrol]

I live in a high rise council flat and I have this socket with four connectors (SAT1, SAT2, TV and Radio) as per picture:

I asked the company dealing with the electrical maintenance for the building and they told me that the TV socket is for terrestrial TV and SAT1 and SAT2 are for satellite TV, but they couldn't tell me the difference between SAT 1 and 2. They also told me that the satellite should work but it was installed many years ago and most residents use broadband to watch TV (how they can afford terabytes of data is beyond my comprehension as we are all underclass old gits in here).

They said that I can connect a Freeview box to the TV socket and any satellite boxes that support Astra to any of the SAT sockets.

But I have googled around and it looks like Astra is no longer working, or am I completely wrong? Or have they told me porkies?

I don't have a TV set but I have a laptop. I wonder if I could connect a USB dongle to any on the sockets from the laptop and then watch TV with vlc.

I know that there are cheap USB dongles for Freeview but are there any for Astra, assuming it is still working?

I feel stupid for asking these questions but I haven't had a TV set for more than 20 years.

SF

[David]

Cross posted to uk.tech.digital-tv which may be a better group for this question.

HTH

Dave R

[Jeff Gaines]

Can't advise on the socket but most broadband packages nowadays include unlimited data so price perhaps not such an issue? I have a Freeview aerial and a dish for Freesat but nowadays I stream all my radio and most of my TV.

[SteveW]

It is a multiplexed socket. There will be two cables behind it, one carrying Satellite 1, TV and Radio (the socket splits them out) and the other just carrying Satellite 2.

Most broadband packages don't have any limit on data use anymore, just limits on speed - and you don't need a lot of speed for TV.

Freeview is broadcast terrestrially, Freesat is still broadcast from Astra 2 - we use on our satellite boxes.

Yes. Look for USB DVB-S2 sticks, dongles or tuners - there are loads on Amazon.

Although a cheap second-hand TV with built-in Freeview or Freesat might be less hassle.

[Woody]

The plate will be fed by three cables, one feeds the TV and FM outlets, the other two feed (independently) the S1 and S2 outlets.

Sky boxes normally had two feeds from the dish so that two programmes can be recorded at once, or so that you can watch one feed and record from the other. It does not matter which way around they are used or connected.

You can connect your Freeview TV to the TV outlet and your radio to the FM outlet - assuming the provider has wired both as they should be both TV and radio will work.

Looking at the picture it does suggest that there may have been water ingress which has caused tarnishing of the sockets. There is no voltage of any type on the four outlets so you can detach the socket plate from the wall, make sure all internal connections are good and clean, and give the four outlets a good rub over with very fine wire wool. Then blow the remnant wool dust out of the connections to avoid an possibility of minor short circuits.

Sky now feed TV via broadband so the S1 and S2 are superfluous, but you can if you wish still use the TV and FM outlets. In the halfway house Sky fed both sockets from the dish but using a wideband LNB (the box on the end of the dish stalk). With the appropriate Sky box you could watch or record a larger number of programmes simultaneously but I'm not sure if such boxes are still available. (I would guess they may be as many rural users will not have access to broadband at sufficient speed.)

HTH

[David Woolley]

There is probably no static difference. That generation of of satellite system used signalling from the TV to select subsets of the satellite channels based on polarisation, and, I seem to recall, frequency range. With the terrestrial TV socket, you can, with the right equipment, connect multiple receivers, but, for the satellite system, each connected TV needs its own socket. (Behind the scene, there are probably cables for all four combinations of frequency an polarisation.)

I don't know if it is still working, but what matters is not the actual satellite, but where it is in the sky, i.e. to where the dish is pointing. That shouldn't have changed, for the satellites primarily serving the UK English language market. Note that there are actually clusters of satellites, so you may get signals from more than one.

At best, you will only be able to view free to air signals, and probably not those that are encrypted (e.g. because they share with a satellite that is used by Sky - I'm not sure if that is currently an issue).

[Woody]

The plate will be fed by three cables, one feeds the TV and FM outlets, the other two feed (independently) the S1 and S2 outlets.

Sky boxes normally had two feeds from the dish so that two programmes can be recorded at once, or so that you can watch one feed and record from the other. It does not matter which way around they are used or connected.

You can connect your Freeview TV to the TV outlet and your radio to the FM outlet - assuming the provider has wired both as they should be both TV and radio will work.

Looking at the picture it does suggest that there may have been water ingress which has caused tarnishing of the sockets. There is no voltage of any type on the four outlets so you can detach the socket plate from the wall, make sure all internal connections are good and clean, and give the four outlets a good rub over with very fine wire wool. Then blow the remnant wool dust out of the connections to avoid an possibility of minor short circuits. You can of course replace the socket plate completely. Homebase are doing so excess plates at around a tenner.

Sky now feed TV via broadband so the S1 and S2 are superfluous, but you can if you wish still use the TV and FM outlets. In the halfway house Sky fed both sockets from the dish but using a wideband LNB (the box on the end of the dish stalk). With the appropriate Sky box you could watch or record a larger number of programmes simultaneously but I'm not sure if such boxes are still available. (I would guess they may be as many rural users will not have access to broadband at sufficient speed.)

HTH

[Andy Burns]

Normally would be for a dual tuner STB, you only need to use one of them for a single tuner.

I might be worth trying to find at least one resident who does use satellite, if you plan on doing the same.

Astra satellite is basically Sky and FreeSat in the UK, still working.

I have a hauppaugue PCI tuner, they do USB versions.

Or for terrestrial

[David Wade]

They mean fixed broadband, not mobile data. Although "3" have unlimited from £11/month special offer, GiffGaff £25/month. Broadband is cheap compared to a SatTV package.

Whats a "Freeview box". As far as I know all TVs come with FreeView, just plug it in and go. You say you don't have a TV but often folks are upgrading so ask on Freecycle / Freegle / Facebook swap pages.

Why would you want Astra? There is virtually nothing on Satellite thats free that is not on Freeview. If the Sat system hasn't been updated recently it probably won't work as you need HD and the older concentrator/distribution systems

Plenty on E-Bay usually with a TV application so you don't need VLC but I haven't tried any recently.

Pointless, as I said nothing on there thats free thats not on FreeView

DW

[Simon Ferrol]

Thank you all for your replies. I have a better understanding of the topic now.

SF

[Andy Burns]

To a first approximation, "all" satellite TV in the UK, is from Astra satellites (sky, freesat, other free services) at 28.2E, you can't pay Astra to receive it though.

Correct, there may be the odd minority channel that's on one but not the other.

Not true, the dish, LNB, distribution amps and cabling for SD and HD are no different, only the receiver needs to be upgraded to receive HD, or even UHD (though there are no longer any UHD streams on Astra).

[Theo]

I think there's a difference in that regional variations are all carried on Freesat but only the local muxes on Freeview. eg if you want to watch Reporting Scotland but you live in Cornwall, you can tune to the Scottish BBC2, but if you are on Freeview they only have BBC South West.

Probably less of an issue now so much is available on iPlayer, but I think some like to get 'their' local news when living elsewhere, or their aerial points to a transmitter in the 'wrong' area.

There's also foreign language channels, not sure what's on Astra versus other satellites. Neighbours used to have a giant dish to receive Polish TV

- not sure if that's a different satellite or the same but with a beam not focused on the UK.

Theo

[The Natural Philosopher]

I still have a PCI satellite card. Used to watch freesat and free to air sky. More selection than freeview.

I am fairly sure USB DVB-S dongles are available and many players support them

[The Natural Philosopher]

I didnt find it so back when I was using it. There was a little more on Freesat under different channel names

[alan_m]

Assuming that it's not wired for sky Q its just two independent outputs from an LNB or some form of distribution box. Many satellite boxes require more than one satellite input to be able to watch one channel whilst recording another

Sky and Freeview use the Astra satellites. The Astra satellites at 28.2 East are working.

[NY]

I use a PCTV 491e DVB-S2/USB tuner and a Hauppauge WinTV Dual DVB-T2/USB tuner on my Raspberry Pi with TVHeadend software. Works a treat!

I could in theory use a second 491e, but of the two that I bought, one has older firmware which is supported and the other has newer firmware which is not. The newer one still works with PCTV's own software on Windows. However to use a second tuner, I'd need to disconnect the cable from the TV to drive the tuner.

[The Natural Philosopher]

AFAIK *all* of them do unless its on the same MUX.

The tv receiver sends signals up the coax to select the correct MUX frequency. The dish will have more than one low noise down converter in it and more than one coax going to it, although ISTR that someone developed a way to have more than one signal going down and up the coax after I played with it

[alan_m]

Boxes that support Unicable LNBs and have FBC tuner modules can receive multiple channels on different transponders (MUX) via a single cable from the LNB to a single input on the box.

Sky Q boxes have 12(?) tuners fed from two cables. Unicable II LNBs can typically feed 32 tuners via a single cable from the LNB.

[Woody]

There are four options for any single LNB - horizontal or vertical polarity, and low group or high group frequencies.

Can't remember which is which off hand, but one pair is selected by the presence or absence of a 22KHz audio tone on the cable, and the other pair are selected by the voltage going up the cable, 13V or 18V.

[Max Demian]

Sky Q boxes seem to have two satellite connections. How does this work as satellite signals have four flavours, with horizontal/vertical polarisation and high/low frequency ranges?