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Freesat
Ninehigh - 25/8/10 at 02:29 PM

Anyone got freesat? Did you have to move the dish? We've got one that's been fitted by the sky people and I'm considering putting freesat forward to missus to save money.

Thanks for all your replies in advance cos I'll forget!

Vindi_andy - 25/8/10 at 02:37 PM

AFAIK the freesat sginal comes from the same sattelite as the sky transmissions

Jasper - 25/8/10 at 02:39 PM

Just unplug the Sky box and plug in the Freesat box, job done.

McLannahan - 25/8/10 at 02:50 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
Just unplug the Sky box and plug in the Freesat box, job done.


Yup, just that simple.

AdamR - 25/8/10 at 03:03 PM

Yes, I've got it. No need to move dish, as said above.

The HD content is great, but there needs to be more of it. Some HD channels are only available on Sky or cable.

Humbug - 25/8/10 at 03:26 PM

slightly O/T (but only slightly)... has anyone installed a twin (or quad) LNB on an existing dish so you can link several Sky/Freesat boxes to the dish? How easy/difficult was it?

big_wasa - 25/8/10 at 03:31 PM

I had a quad lnb put on yesterday. The guy just uncliped it and cliped a new one on.

He checked the position with a meter but didnt move the dish at all.

After he left I ran a lead into the kids room and one into ours

a4gom - 25/8/10 at 03:48 PM

I have a sky box which I receive all their free to air channels on, do you get any more channels with freesat? can you get Dave?

RazMan - 25/8/10 at 03:48 PM

If you've already got Sky, just ask them for a Freesat downgrade and you don't have to buy anything.

Vindi_andy - 25/8/10 at 03:57 PM

slightly OT but i wish I could get our fresat system to work. put the dish up but cant get it to pick up the sattelite

loggyboy - 25/8/10 at 03:57 PM

quote:
Originally posted by RazMan
If you've already got Sky, just ask them for a Freesat downgrade and you don't have to buy anything.


Freeview via sky is differnt to Freesat IIRC.

I had a sky plus install which had a quad LNB, so 2 connects were spare, I ran an extra cable to my pana tv with freesat built in and had instant access including HD. I even feel the SD channels look better than sky.

The only benfit with freesat over freeview WAS the HD option, which is now also available via freeview. I think Freesat will eventually become the betamax of the free tv options. But as my TV had it built in, I thought id wire it in anyway.

[Edited on 25/8/10 by loggyboy]

hobbsy - 25/8/10 at 05:09 PM

Freesat is nothing non standard or special. Pretty much any digital sat receiver can pickup thr channels and iirc there is a secret menu on the sky boxes that let you add custom channels? Might be wrong on that as I don't have one.

Humbug - 25/8/10 at 05:36 PM

"Freesat from Sky" is different from normal Freesat. The Sky one is the normal box with the pay to watch channels removed, but some channels (e.g. 5 for Neighbours fans ) are still scrambled so you need a viewing card. My old Sky card worked for about a year then I had to pay £20 for another one to continue to be able to watch 5, etc.

The non-Sky one doesn't have exactly the same channel list.

btw, Freesat seems like a good option if, like me, you are not in a good reception area. On terrestrial TV several of the channels are not good and 5 is not available, and Freeview is not available yet.

Sky Freesat noting "#
Please note:

*You may need a viewing card to view some of these channels (this currently applies to some ITV1 regions, FIVE, FIVER, FIVE USA, Sky3, Liverpool FC TV and VIVA). These channels are not offered by Sky TV and their availability is outside of Sky's control. Sky will not be liable if they or any of their content is withdrawn or changed."

Normal Freesat

...or of course there is TV Catchup

Oss - 25/8/10 at 06:47 PM

I've got a quad LNB feeding the Humax FoxSat HDR (two inputs required). The HD is only 720p, but nice if you have the HDTV anyway. The Humax allows you to record the HD version if you select an SD programme which is also on HD. Series link etc. If you plug in a broadband connection it also links to iPlayer via the red button which is a good way to get iplayer on your normal TV with little effort.

You do get different channels, eg, no Dave or Virgin1, but loads of other (rubbish!) channels so you might want both Freeviewand Freesat.

I bought it due to channel 5 breaking up on terrestrial. I would recommend it.

David Jenkins - 25/8/10 at 06:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Vindi_andy
AFAIK the freesat sginal comes from the same sattelite as the sky transmissions


Same GROUP of satellites - there's a whole bunch of them in the same direction - Sky use one, Freesat use another (and I guess various other European countries use the rest,)

"Astra" satellites, I think they're called.


[Edited on 25/8/10 by David Jenkins]

Surrey Dave - 25/8/10 at 08:56 PM

Can you not buy Sky + box of fleabay and phone up and get your £20 free to view card registered to the box. And have the advantages of the Humax Freesat recorder for Locost rates!

splitrivet - 26/8/10 at 09:39 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Surrey Dave
Can you not buy Sky + box of fleabay and phone up and get your £20 free to view card registered to the box. And have the advantages of the Humax Freesat recorder for Locost rates!

I got a Sky+ box from ebay for an existing sky subscription. It was cheaper at the time than upgrading with Sky, but I had to tell Sky to get the + bit working.
I could be wrong but I dont think you can use it as a + box with free to air.
In saying that the Freesat boxes with HD are the best way of getting HD which as most people have a HD it would seem pointless not having one .
Cheers,
Bob
Bob

Ninehigh - 28/8/10 at 07:18 AM

Thanks for all the replies, but I've had a look at the channel list that freesat does and they don't really do anything I watch (mainly the discovery ones) so it's up to missus what we're doing now.

This has all come from telling Virgin we don't want to pay for the HD channels that we don't watch and can't tell apart from SD and they told us it'll be £5 a month for the box!