FTA to SKY (also an NTL question)

Uthur

Hi folks, sorry if I sound thick - this stuff is all double-dutch to me.

I have one of those FTA dishes. I was thinking of getting
Sky - could they use the dish I have? I don't want to have 2 dishes :-)

It seems to pick up all the sky channels but they are obviously scrambled.
Do I just need one of Sky's boxes and a subscription?

Also I heard Sky need to connect their box to your phone line but
you can pay a one-off fee to avoid this if necessary. Is that correct
and how does that all work?

Question 2: I also have NTL Digital downstairs. It is acting up
since yesterday but NTL don't know what's wrong. Is anyone else
having problems like this in Dublin - I can't get rte1/2/TG4/TV3 but the
rest of the channels are fine. Weird, eh?

Many thanks for any answers!

watty

If you get BBC / ITV etc, yes the Sky box can connect instead. Unlike cable, you own the box and if you cancel you get all the channels your FTA receiver gets, (about 45 good ones and 70+ radio) but EPG for week and Interactive still work.

Yes. The sky box only uses phone for your interactive ordering of PPV etc.

Cable TV can indeed be strange. The new owners are upgrading the NTL & Chorus networks.

Uthur

Thanks for the help Watty.

I still don't quite get the phone thing - do I have to connect to the
phone line with SKY or will they let me away with it?

watty

You have to pay a once off extra to not connect to phone for ordinary Sky Digibox. Sky+ or Sky HD must be connected to phone for install.

A mirror sub (2nd box at only 15 Euro) must have both boxes connected to same phone line always.

Nuttzz

Uthur wrote:

Question 2: I also have NTL Digital downstairs. It is acting up
since yesterday but NTL don't know what's wrong. Is anyone else
having problems like this in Dublin - I can't get rte1/2/TG4/TV3 but the
rest of the channels are fine. Weird, eh?

Many thanks for any answers!

I find that it takes these channels 20-30 seconds to appear

Uthur

Is this a recent thing for you? Sometimes I can get them to come on
if I wait a few minutes (and sometimes not) . This only started recently
for me