Tech Queries

I have a 3 bedroom house and plan to get a DTH connection and get TVs in all the bedrooms. Is it possible to use the same dish antenna and DTH set top box for all the TVs? Or will I need to get multiple dish antennas and multiple set top boxes. Someone told me that it is possible to have a socket with wiring going to the other rooms, whereby I can use the same set top box in different rooms? Is it possible? -Harinathan K

For different rooms — you have to get different set top boxes. This is true for DTH providers ( TataSky, Dish TV, Airtel, Big TV etc) and of local cable providers too.

While it may be technically possible to split the signal coming from the set top box and distribute it to the other rooms, this is not a practical solution as all the TVs will have to watch the same channel at the same time. Plus, since you can only change channels using the set top box remote, if you are watching on a TV without the set top box, you can't change channels.

The upside is that many DTH providers provide a discount on multi room connections. For example — if you pay Rs 250 per month for the primary connection — each additional TV can be `100 per month. The package and number of channels you get will remain the same across all the TVs. You need not worry about the cost of the antenna or whether additional ones will be needed. The installation will be taken care of, you will have to buy the set top boxes and choose your package.

I read somewhere that you can boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive. Can you guide me how to go about this? — Manoj Nayak

First, make sure that you have at least a 4GB USB drive (8GB is better). It should be a good quality drive, with a good access speed.

Second — make sure that you have the Windows XP installation DVD.

Third — You need to install a free software called WintoFlash (Get it from http://wintoflash.com/download/en)

On a computer which already has Windows and a DVD drive, install WintoFlash and insert the XP DVD and the 4GB USB drive. WintoFlash will take the necessary files and put them in on the USB drive.

Finally, if not already done, you will have to enable the boot from USB option in the BIOS settings.

Check out the tutorials on the WintoFlash website (http://wintoflash.com/community/en) if you are not sure how to do this.