Freeview card

Ludo

OK..possibly a silly question and one that has been asked before but I couldnt find an answer. I have an old sky box which I am not using. I am setting it up now to use as a FTA receiver in a spare room. I was wondering is there anyway of getting my hands on some kind of freeview card so that I get all the UK channels on the epg. Also is there any way to get access to Five and the ITV channels without tuning them in?
I remember a few years back I had a sky card that did all this for me (got off the interwebby thingy) but the system changed and it became useless after a year.

Any information anyone could provide would be much appreciated..or just tell me to feck off if this has all been done to death before

givecredit

Firstly, its not a freeview card. Freeview is a different type non satellite system. What you are looking for is a UK free to view card. Google SATONE. The card including delivery is e70 approx.

To get Channel five you need the card.(ftv card)(Free to view)
To get ITV, BBC3 AND 4 ETC. Make sure there is no irish sky card in box. Go to sky News, PRESS the red button, When the 8 screens appear, press backup. The epg should now be the UK epg with ITVS and BBCS. NO need for a card to get BBC and ITV.
aNOTHER WAY OF GETTING uk epg is simply powering off box without irish card inserted for 2 mins.

Free to View card will get you:

Channel 4
Channel 5
Sky3
Five us
Five Life
Channel 4+1hour(From Aug 20th)
Five Us + 1 hr (next few weeks, currently testing)
Five Life +1 Hr (next few weeks, currently testing)

Ludo

Nice one..thanks for the info.

givecredit

Your welcome. And just to confuse things, I see on the Satone site that the FTV Card you are looking for is called a "Freesat viewing card"

Ludo

Yep..found it. Will order one of those babies tomorrow once I verify that the actual box I have works when connected to the dish. It's been under the stairs for a couple of years now so things may be living in it

givecredit

You will probable have to do a forced software upgrade, since its been out of action for 2 years.

When you have all connected up and are sure you are getting a satellite signal, power off the box again. Switch off power at wall, press backup button on sky box, whilst keeping backup pressed, power up box at wall, ie turn on power at socket switch, When onscreen software upgrade message appears release the backup button, wait the required 10 mins. Everything should be fine then. If you do all this with no viewing card in, The epg should be the UK epg when you have software upgraded.

Happy Free Viewing!!

byte

Yep, good advice there.

Ludo

Could one of the nice Moderators maybe add this advice to one of the stickys. I read through them yesterday before posting and most of the information was from 2001 :eek:

Pal

http://www.freesatfromsky.com/
I already have digital satellite equipment - what else do I need?
All you need to get access to the free channels available on the digital satellite platform is a freesat viewing card which costs just £20.

Get somebody in the UK to buy a card for you. Much cheaper.

lucernarian

I'm probably an unusual case, but what do you do if you don't know anyone in the UK??

byte

Ludo wrote:

Could one of the nice Moderators maybe add this advice to one of the stickys. I read through them yesterday before posting and most of the information was from 2001 :eek:

Information already available on our Wiki

Dman001

Aren't the Sky cards owned by Sky though? How can companies like Satone sell them?

purplegeko

Pal wrote:

Get somebody in the UK to buy a card for you. Much cheaper.

So are they available in N. Ireland? or would you have to go to England etc?:rolleyes:

_Kaiser_

purplegeko wrote:

So are they available in N. Ireland? or would you have to go to England etc?:rolleyes:

No you can get them in NI too.. If you do, you'll get BBC1 and 2 NI and UTV on 101-103 (they all show on the 9xx EPG too though - prefer ITV London myself)

Ludo

ermmm...I had this all working with the English EPG. Then for some stupid reason I did a software upgrade. Now it is back on the Irish EPG (even though I dont have a card) and I cant get it back to the English one. Any ideas?

Thanks.