What Extra View actually gives you
Extra View lets you link additional decoders to your primary decoder so that up to three televisions can watch different channels at the same time, all on one DStv subscription rather than several. MultiChoice charges an access fee per linked decoder, which is substantially less than a second full subscription. That is the entire value proposition, and it is why almost every family home we wire ends up with it.
Two conditions have to be met. The decoders must be linked on your account, and the physical installation has to support independent viewing — which means the dish and cabling must be able to deliver separate feeds to each decoder. That second part is where installations go wrong.
Explora versus Explora Ultra
Explora is the established DStv PVR: recording, pause and rewind of live television, catch-up content and a large internal drive. It does the core job well and remains very common in Simon's Town homes.
Explora Ultra adds streaming apps such as Netflix, Showmax and YouTube on the same box, a noticeably faster interface, and Bluetooth. If you want satellite and streaming through one remote and one HDMI input, Ultra is the reason to upgrade. If you only watch DStv content, classic Explora is not holding you back.
Worth knowing for coastal properties: Explora Ultra leans on your internet connection for the streaming side. If your line is slow or unstable, you get the DStv side working perfectly and a frustrating streaming experience. That is a connectivity issue rather than an installation issue, but it is better discussed before you buy the box.
Plan the points before anyone drills
The single most useful hour in a multi-room installation happens before any cable goes in. Walk the house and decide:
- Which rooms are genuinely viewing rooms. Lounge and main bedroom are almost always right. A second bedroom or a study is often a point that gets used for two months and then never again.
- Where the primary decoder lives. The primary carries the recordings and the account, so it belongs in the room that watches the most and records the most — usually the lounge.
- Where the TVs will physically sit, including whether they are wall-mounted. A wall-mounted TV needs the outlet placed behind the screen and the cable chased or trunked before mounting, not afterwards.
- Whether to run a spare. Adding a fourth cable run while the walls are already open costs very little. Adding it two years later costs a full callout.
Rule of thumb: decide the TV positions first, the decoder positions second, and the cable routes last. Installations that were planned in the other order are the ones with cable looping across a skirting board.
The cabling that makes or breaks it
Independent viewing needs independent feeds. A single-output LNB can only serve one tuner, so a genuine multi-room setup requires a dual or quad LNB on the dish, with a dedicated RG6 run from the dish to each decoder point. On the Explora, which uses more than one tuner, that means more than one cable to the primary decoder position.
What you cannot do is split a single satellite feed with an ordinary TV splitter and expect two decoders to work. It is the most common self-installed mistake we are called out to correct, and the symptom is maddening: one decoder works, the other loses signal whenever the first changes channel.
The rest is specification. Quality RG6, weatherproof compression connectors at the dish end, tidy dressed runs, and every external joint sealed — which on the False Bay coast is not optional. We cover why in our piece on salt air and coastal corrosion.
Three Simon's Town layouts and what they need
The stepped double-storey in Murdock Valley. Lounge downstairs, main bedroom upstairs, and often a difficult dish position because the building blocks its own north-eastern view. Usually solved with the dish on the upper gable or an outbuilding, a quad LNB, and vertical runs in the roof space rather than through the walls.
The historic cottage on or near the main road. Thick masonry walls, heritage considerations and no roof void worth speaking of. Here the routing plan matters more than the equipment: external runs kept low, discreet and properly clipped, entering the building at as few points as possible, each one sealed.
The open-plan Glencairn or Fish Hoek family home. The easiest of the three. Central roof space, straightforward runs, and the usual decision is simply whether to add a third point now or leave a draw wire for later.
What we see going wrong
- Single LNB, two decoders. Physically cannot deliver independent viewing. Needs a dual or quad LNB.
- Splitters on the satellite line. Causes intermittent signal loss that looks like a decoder fault.
- Undersized cable on long runs. Fine on installation day, marginal after two winters of coastal weather.
- Decoders never linked on the account. The hardware is right, the billing is not, and the extra decoder behaves like an unauthorised one.
- Primary decoder in the wrong room. Recordings end up on the box nobody uses.
Getting it installed
We handle the full job — dish and LNB specification, cable runs to each point, decoder linking and configuration, and a walkthrough of how recording and viewing work across the linked boxes. See Extra View installation for the service detail, or DStv installation and setup if you are starting from nothing.
Extra View installs start from R1,500 and Explora setups from R1,200, with equipment costs additional and an upfront quote before any work begins. If you are not sure how many points you need, say so when you call — it is a better conversation to have before the cable is in the wall.