Free to air - worth getting a receiver?

Howitzer

Hi,

I have just moved into a house that has a satellite dish - but nothing else.
I heard that there are channels on free to air to be had.
All i need is a receiver I guess.

Is it worth the ~€100 to get a receiver? can anyone recommend one?
Will the lowest end cheapo one do the job?

Anyone know a link where i can get a list of the available channels?

Thanks.
All advice appreciated

Peanut

Yeah it's definitely worth it if you're not going to miss Sky or any of the other premium channels. You can get all the BBCs, ITVs, some news channels and a bunch of other stuff free to air. Not sure how up to date this list is, but everthing marked FTA here

watty

See also our own info in my sig The ICDG

Howitzer

so is a sky box and a card what I need to hunt for?
I wont miss out on anything by choosing sky box over any other box?

I guess second hand is the cheapest way to go

byte

A Sky box has the advantage of being able to tune itself, you never need to alter/tune channels as they appear or change freqs. The Skybox also allows for the usage of interactive services, such as BBCi, Sky News Active and digital Teletext on ITV, for example. You will also have the option of adding a "Freesat from Sky" card which will give you additional channels Channel 4, five, five US, five Life and Sky3.

The advantage of a FTA box, is that you can swap, chop and change channels as and how you want, something that is rather restricted on a Skybox. If you're going down the FTA box route, I recommend Technomate.

Note that a Freesat from Sky card will not work in a FTA box.

steveon

A sky box with a UK FTV card is great if u want the free channels and in addition CH4, CH5, and sky 3, but you cannot re-arrange the channels.

If your not too interested in ch4 etc a freeview satellite decoder I would whole handily recommend is a Technomate TM-1000D Super. They are extremely fast at changing channels and u can arrange the channels in any order you choose.

They are also software supported and come pre-loaded with games such as mrs.pacman which is great fun

Rippy

steveon wrote:

A sky box with a UK FTV card is great if u want the free channels and in addition CH4, CH5, and sky 3, but you cannot re-arrange the channels.

If your not too interested in ch4 etc a freeview satellite decoder I would whole handily recommend is a Technomate TM-1000D Super. They are extremely fast at changing channels and u can arrange the channels in any order you choose.

They are also software supported and come pre-loaded with games such as mrs.pacman which is great fun

Totally agree, TM -1000D is now the only FTA box I supply and install, have had 100% reliability, unlike other boxes I have tried. Picture quality in RGB is better than most too.

byte

I'm also exclusively supplying and installing The TM-1000D Super's. As said, a very reliable box, and great User Interface.

Tony

byte wrote:

I'm also exclusively supplying and installing The TM-1000D Super's. As said, a very reliable box, and great User Interface.

what do they retail at?

Joanamo

I also moved into a house with Sky dish but no receiver. If I get a FTA satellite receiver, will I need anything else to watch all the free Astra channels?

Thanks

J

Winters

Joanamo wrote:

I also moved into a house with Sky dish but no receiver. If I get a FTA satellite receiver, will I need anything else to watch all the free Astra channels?

Thanks

J

No. To recieve all the FTA channels all you will need is the dish and receiver.

MenloPete

Joanamo wrote:

I also moved into a house with Sky dish but no receiver. If I get a FTA satellite receiver, will I need anything else to watch all the free Astra channels?

Thanks

J

A television would be useful too...:D

Rippy

Tony wrote:

what do they retail at?

Signal Solutions retail price on TM1000D = €130

Tony

Thanks Rippy, are they pre programmed (ie channel list) for astra 2?

Rippy

Tony wrote:

Thanks Rippy, are they pre programmed (ie channel list) for astra 2?

I pre-program them myself, less than a minute using lap-top and null-modem cable.

byte

Or handier (if you intend selling them), if you've one set up and tuned, just connect the null modem cable from the tuned box to the untuned box, then go into menu and transfer the tuning data across. No PC required!

Tony

byte wrote:

Or handier (if you intend selling them), if you've one set up and tuned, just connect the null modem cable from the tuned box to the untuned box, then go into menu and transfer the tuning data across. No PC required!

Would be better if they came from the factory ready tuned though as the Ferguson does, cant understand why all manufacturers do not do this, its not like astra 2 was launched last week.

byte

True, though I'd still use the data cable, as that way, all boxes I install have the channels in the same order (I put the BBC's ITV etc at the top).

steveon

Problem with the manufacturer pre-programming an stb is that not every person would be happy with the way they are tuned, plus some channels shutdown so u could end end up worse off in the long run...I do as byte does program one and clone the channel order to each box after that.

Tony

steveon wrote:

Problem with the manufacturer pre-programming an stb is that not every person would be happy with the way they are tuned, plus some channels shutdown so u could end end up worse off in the long run...I do as byte does program one and clone the channel order to each box after that.

If they are not happy they can move them around, surely better then not programming at all. What happens if they don't like the way your channel order runs? They pre program for astra 1 and hotbird so why not astra 2. We send ferguson our own channel list and they make them to order dont know why others cant at least do a list with BBc ITV etc at the start. Byte I'll bet our list and yours look pretty much the same

Rippy

Like Byte and Steveon, I prefer my own list. I also have another full list for motorised installs. I remove all the other sats from 28E only installs to prevent customer confusion.

Tony

Fair enough but we also sell boxes without installs so getting them from manufacturer with our own list pre programmed saves a lot of time and ultimately keeps the cost down.