Subscribe to Sky or purchase 'Free to Air' equipment

roughrider

I want to set my folks up with 'Free to air' tv. They live in Kerry.

What is the best option?

a) subscribe to Sky tv taking advantage of their "free" equipment and installation. Pay the monthly fee (€10.75) for 1 year. Then cancel and use a 'Free to view' card.

b) buy a free to air dish + receiver now. Costs about €300 from satellite.ie for equipment and installation.

Any thoughts?

Cal

Another option would be to get an old sky box on Ebay. Would be cheaper. I went that route for my parents and it is working fine.

Cal.

Ulsterman 1690

Pay the monthly fee (€10.75) for 1 year. Then cancel and use a 'Free to view' card.

Is the $10.75 not just for the first 3 months ? It sounds very cheap ?

Up here $ky were doing a £7.50/month deal before Christmas but it went up to £15 after the first 3 months

cgarvey

It was for the first 3 months. Right now, it's just for the first month (the 3 month offer was pre-christmas).

dabbler2004

how much does a 'free to view' card cost and what channels do you get?
thanks

roughrider

cgarvey wrote:

It was for the first 3 months. Right now, it's just for the first month (the 3 month offer was pre-christmas).

Just checked on sky.com and the current offer is €10.75 for first month and €21.50 thereafter. That's for the minimum 2 "entertainment mixes" + standard sky box.

So €250 approx for 1 year. Plus the cost of the free to view card (?).

byte

You'd get a FTV card through Sky (if you know someone with UK addy) for about 40eur. Otherwise, about 50-60eur through resellers.

pjq

I got a systen for friends online in Germany Set top box for €40 http://www.toci.de/xtcommerce/product_info.php/info/p9_ComAG-SL-35.html
Dish for €30 ( was €20 before) and a twin lnb for €17 ( if they want to invest €40- in a second box for another room) the single lnb is €6- . P&P was 20- without and €30- with a dish included. You need some German for this site , dont forget scart and wall mount , pay by standard EU transfer form at bank €0 .These are same make as Lidl products which I have found to be fine .
HM Sat are also good and much more English http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/en_index.es .
pjq

roughrider

pjq wrote:

I got a systen for friends online in Germany Set top box for €40 http://www.toci.de/xtcommerce/product_info.php/info/p9_ComAG-SL-35.html
Dish for €30 ( was €20 before) and a twin lnb for €17 ( if they want to invest €40- in a second box for another room) the single lnb is €6- . P&P was 20- without and €30- with a dish included. You need some German for this site , dont forget scart and wall mount , pay by standard EU transfer form at bank €0 .These are same make as Lidl products which I have found to be fine .
HM Sat are also good and much more English http://www.hm-sat-shop.de/en_index.es .
pjq

Thanks pjq - will investigate that.

I'm no going to bother with Sky. Would prefer to avoid giving money to Murdoch anyway.

Just need to find someone in Kerry that will do the installation.

watty

I could be cheaper to get Sky offer, cancel after year. No FTV card need to get same channels as FTA receiver. Interactive, EPG details and automatic tuning are missing on Free To Air.

FTV card adds ONLY C4, Five, Five US, Five Live and Sky3.
Cancelled Irish card may do Sky3 also.

Mandi

i've read the sticky regarding finding channels on fva sat but it didin't give the v-pids etc that my system asks for, i'm looking for ITV 2 CITV, ITV 4 and film 4 in particular. I've the other ITV channels but just can't get the above. Can anyone help??? Pretty Please:)

byte

Mandi wrote:

i've read the sticky regarding finding channels on fva sat but it didin't give the v-pids etc that my system asks for, i'm looking for ITV 2 CITV, ITV 4 and film 4 in particular. I've the other ITV channels but just can't get the above. Can anyone help??? Pretty Please:)

As said where you already asked this question, see
http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

fta keith

If you take out a sky subscription its for 13 months if you want to cancel it not 12 months as most persons think, I advise buy a default sky digital system for a once off fee as this more easy to do as most persons I know did the sky 12 months subscription but forgot to cancel it after the 12 months etc but only cancel it after almost 2 years which it wasn't value for money

Wombatman

Will a cancelled Irish card get you RTE1,RTE2,TV3 and TG4?
What channels will a cancelled Irish sky card get you that you can't get FTA?
I'm considering the same thing right now.

Way off topic.
Anyone ever upgrade firmware on a Strong STA4155?

fta keith

You will not get the Irish tv channels on a cancelled Irish sky card

cancelled Irish Sky card will only give you sky3, bbc1ni, bbc2 ni and fox news channel,

FTA tv channels include film4, some music tv channels and other news channels etc

if you take out the sky card and wait a few minutes you will get all the BBC/Itv digital tv channels on the default Sky EPG default which is about 30-40 decent digital tv channels without a sky subscription means no sky card in the sky digital receiver

get a outdoor tv aerial for the 4 irish tv channels

byte

Are you sure a cancelled card allows you to watch Fox News?

fta keith

Yes it does

then I took it the cancelled Irish sky card and destroyed it and bought a UK freesat sky card for channel4, five, sky3, fiveus, five life etc..........

kennyt

Hi

Sorry to ask such a general question, but i have looked through the threads without finding my answer.

I am considering setting up free to air at the minute and wanted to see if
it was handy enough to set up myself.

does anyone know if there are any instructions (eg. what direction to point the dish etc) available?

I know you need the following;

A satellite Dish

A Free To Air satellite receiver

An LNB

Is this all you need?

Thanks a lot for any help/advice.

Kenny

stanley1

fast delivery from this seller.

www.satellite.ie

kennyt

Thanks for the reply.

I have emailed satellite.ie but i don't think the install in westmeath, so i may have to purchase the equipment and do it myself.

any advice/guides would be appreciated.

Thanks again

kennyt

Thanks for the reply.

I have emailed satellite.ie but i don't think the install in westmeath, so i may have to purchase the equipment and do it myself.

any advice/guides would be appreciated.

Thanks again

pjq

kennyt,
Add cable , f connectors and a scart cable ( if not with STB) , search boards for "LIDL dish" and you will find plenty of tips for first timers .
A sat finder is helpful but not worth spending a packet on it .
pjq
PS my tip would be to look for a channel on 19e ( ARD or ZDF) first as 28e is harder to pinpoint , then move slightly to the east for 28e , Oh and do all of this on the ground , then repeat the excercise when you are up on the ladder.

Battery99

Can anybody tell me why RTE's are not broadcast free to view on satellite ??? . Or is there any plans out here for this to happen ??

fta keith wrote:

You will not get the Irish tv channels on a cancelled Irish sky card

cancelled Irish Sky card will only give you sky3, bbc1ni, bbc2 ni and fox news channel,

FTA tv channels include film4, some music tv channels and other news channels etc

if you take out the sky card and wait a few minutes you will get all the BBC/Itv digital tv channels on the default Sky EPG default which is about 30-40 decent digital tv channels without a sky subscription means no sky card in the sky digital receiver

get a outdoor tv aerial for the 4 irish tv channels

byte

Because they signed a contract with Sky, whereby they must be on a Sky subscription in return for free carriage on the Sky platform!

RTE will never be Free to Air on satellite, though Free to View could be an option, but I doubt they could ever afford to pay the money NDS would ask, so RTE would need to use a different encryption system that's not compatible with a Sky digibox.

mwrf

byte wrote:

Because they signed a contract with Sky, whereby they must be on a Sky subscription in return for free carriage on the Sky platform!

do you know when this contract runs out?