A first step towards satellite - newbie questions

summerdays

I want to leave NTL (I'm on their basic package) and move to free satellite - my questions are:

If I buy the satellite etc and have it installed what kind of maintenance or retuning might it require and how regularly?

I'm not sure I can live without channel 4...what are my options? I've seen some posts about sky boxes and cards but it's all a bit of a mystery to me...paying NTL the guts of €300 a year for channel 4 seems a bit steep though.

Any advice in non-tech English would be really appreciated Thanks

givecredit

The easiest route is to ask a local independent satellite installer to install a sky freesat system including Free to View card. This package including installation will cost you about E400. (Most installers now supply this system, you cannot get this system direct from sky if you live in ROI)

No retuning involved. You will have all the uk main 5 channels and many many more.

Of course there are cheaper ways to do this by sourcing the equipment yourself but the above is the most straight forward and you will immediately be in profit of circa Eur100 (Saving on you NTL Sub)

summerdays

Thanks give credit- is there a subscription to Sky involved in a package like that or is it a once off payment to the installer? and will that pack include the Irish channels as well or do I need a set of rabbit ears! and finally - any recommendations for an installer? Many thanks

givecredit

No Subscription involved. Once off fee. Yes to get Irish tv you will need Aerial. If you live in Dublin area you could look at getting the Irish Digital DTT for Irish Channels. See This:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054986157

As for installer look up the classified adds in your local free newspaper. They all usually advertise their services there.

Off Course you could contact Sky Direct and subscribe to sky for one year (Minimum contract) Subscribe to there 1 mix pack at E20 per month. e45 installation and free equipment. After year cancel having only paid E 285 in subscription and installation. At this stage you will have enjoyed skys 1 mix pack for 12 months and now go to Freesat. And in 12 months hopefully you will not require a Free to View card from uk as all UKs main 4 channels should be free to air including CH4 and hopefully CH5. (Free to air= No card required. Free to View = Card required) With this solution you will not need TV Aerial for 12 months.
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/ireland?CMP=KNC-ROISearch

wil

Currently Ch4 is not available on FTA systems but is likely to become so in 2008. With this in mind by far your cheapest DIY options would be

1 FTA system (FTA receiver plus dish) for 80 to 150 at lower end.
Main Drawbacks - no Ch4 (maybe) till 2008. May need occasional rescans if channels change. Limited epg

2 - Second hand Sky digibox (€50 to 100) plus dish etc (40 to 80approx)
No CH4 as before but full epg, automatcally updates channels

3 - S/H digibox and UK FTV card (£20 in UK supplied to UK address or €50 - 100 to ROI address)
Just as you want but you may not require card for CH4 in 2008. It will however give you Ch5.

As Ch4 is a priority for you a digibox is currently the only method of receiving on satellite and as givecredit said there are some suppliers who can do the full kit new with FTV card (one off payment) and no commitment to subscription to Sky. I am not sure if there are any Irish based suppliers that can officially supply FTV cards

Price ranges above are very approximate


Edit
And of course Givecredits recent Brainwave looks like a pretty cost effective route to go.

givecredit wrote:

Free installation and free equipment. After year cancel having only paid E 264 in subscription.

summerdays

Thanks for this - it's really helpful. This whole area is a minefield if you're technically challenged! I'm going to check out both options (signing up for a year to sky) and the independent installation - I can purchase a card and have it sent to an address in the UK no problem but I'm assuming it has to be sent to someone with an existing sky subscription in order to activate it? If so, that could be a bit tricky. Either way it's time to stop paying a monthly fee (for the long haul) to any one cable supplier so all of this feedback is terrific - many thanks.

edit: I see the Ireland section of the Sky website is down (or doesn't exist) at the moment...

givecredit

The Link above is working fine now.

Wil; Found out sky now charge E45 for installation and you can get a 1 mix for E20.

summerdays

I'm getting a 404 on Firefox but it looks fine on Explorer..

byte

The link works fine here on Firefox. Maybe refresh page a few times?

summerdays

One final question! I know it's possible to manually tune in ITV on the sky box - does anyone have instructions for how to do that? Many thanks

byte

summerdays wrote: »

One final question! I know it's possible to manually tune in ITV on the sky box - does anyone have instructions for how to do that? Many thanks

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055038749

Click that link, which is to a sticky thread at the top of this forum.

summerdays

Thanks for all the advice