SATELLITE ASSISTANCE PLEASE

SPARTAN33

Hope all you out there can assist me. My wife and recently moved into a place down the country, we didnt want to go with sky becasue of the price, so we got a guy from chorus ntl out to do a test. He went up on the ladder with the aerial and siad the signal strength is not high enough to get chorus. So that was a big blow, the previous owners must have had sky because the dish is out the back still mounted on the wall. But internally I can sky see any cables or anything for it, would they have run the cable down the wall cavity to the tv aerial socket box?. They obviuosly took the skybox with them but left the dish, I havent been up the attic yet to see where the cable from the dish is going. So at present we just have the irish channels and a poor reception due to the rabbitts ear aerial. Theres no hope for an outdoor aerial beacuse the house is timber frame and the chimney is not strong enought to support it well thats what the chorus guy told us. Can I get freesat set up with the existing sky dish?, is there any other equipment i need?. any help with this is very much appreciated,

yours in hope

qhe0i9zvfgdou8

First of all I wouldn't consider sky any more expensive than chorus and a much better service.

Provided your dish is properly aligned and your lnb is ok all you need do is buy a sky box and connect it up. This will give you all the FTV channels BBC's,ITV's etc without subscription. If however you need RTE TG4 and TV3 you will need a skycard and subscription. Hope this helps.

SPARTAN33

many thanks for your reply sudsandsurf, does that mean then i can just plug a cable into the tv wall mount socket located beside the power sockets, would the cable from the dish be connected to the tv wall aerial socket? and can i get the irish channels with a splitter and have the tv aerial in the attic? any advice on this?

tomslick

You should be ok to plug in to the outlet but some of the plates have electronics in them stopping the supply to the dish. If this is the case you can always bypass this. You can't put an aerial down the same cable as a dish as the dish has 18/12v dc supply on it.

SPARTAN33

thanks for your reply tomslick, how can i get this freesat working do i have to go up into the attic, the tv socket cover is just like the fitting on the back of a tv rf in out that type normal coax lead type, do i have to take the socket cover off or chage it? and when the previous owenrs had a skybox would it have been plugged into that tv socket or can you get them wireless?.

Cuchulain

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

thanks for your reply tomslick, how can i get this freesat working do i have to go up into the attic, the tv socket cover is just like the fitting on the back of a tv rf in out that type normal coax lead type, do i have to take the socket cover off or chage it? and when the previous owenrs had a skybox would it have been plugged into that tv socket or can you get them wireless?.

A long as the cable from that socket is still connected to the LNB on the dish then your sorted.

1) You'll need to get a cable from that TV socket to your Sky box. The connector used is called an F Connector.
http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/F_coaxial_connector_Screw_on___4_pack_.html

2) You'll need to put your rabbits ears into your RF IN on your Sky Box. If you have a spare cable coming from the attic then you could locate the rabbits ears there.

SPARTAN33

Thanks cuchulain

can i connect the F- connector into the wall socket then? and i have also borught i freeview digibox from the uk will it work with that or does it have to be a sat box?

snaps

Freeview is only available in the UK (Through an aerial). You can get a a FTA satellite reciever instead of a sky box and just plug that into your dish. Possibly a better way of getting the free UK channels than a sky box as you can have the channels in the order you want and its more flexible in ways of tuning reception etc.

SPARTAN33

thanks for the reply snaps, does anyone know what the best freesat box is out there is and what kind of price are they? and can i use it with the sky dish that is left on my house from the previous owners, and can you get living and mtv? with freesat the wife loves those channels, the sooner i get it up and running the better as my wife is getting bored of just having 4 channels!!!!!!!!!!

snaps

Ive just started a thread asking about FTA recievers. Many available on the internet for under 50e from germany.

Sam Radford

tomslick wrote: »

You can't put an aerial down the same cable as a dish as the dish has 18/12v dc supply on it.

Yes you can: http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/combiners.htm

Sam Radford

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

does anyone know what the best freesat box is out there is and what kind of price are they?

Probably the Humax FOXSAT-HDR PVR which is due to be released tomorrow or next week at about 260 GBP plus carriage and VAT.

No, you can't get UK Living or MTV as they are encrypted. You would need a Sky Digibox and subscription card.

qhe0i9zvfgdou8

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

can you get living and mtv? with freesat the wife loves those channels

You wont be able to watch Living or mtv without a subscription to Sky. There are however other music channels that are FTA so these can be viewed on a skybox without a card or any FTA box.

The Cush

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

... guy from chorus ntl out to do a test.
... because the dish is out the back still mounted on the wall.
... cable down the wall cavity to the tv aerial socket box?.
...Theres no hope for an outdoor aerial beacuse the house is timber frame and the chimney is not strong enought to support it well thats what the chorus guy told us.
Can I get freesat set up with the existing sky dish?, is there any other equipment i need?. any help with this is very much appreciated,

yours in hope

What did the guy from chorus think your chimney was built with? paper? where was he going to install the MMDS antenna?
You appear to live in a block built house with internal wood frame with a satellite dish mounted on the wall and a regular concrete block chimney (is the chimney in a state of disrepair?)

To get the Irish channels arrange for a local installer to install an external aerial attached to the chimney or external wall (check the yellow pages) or an attic installation if you live in a strong signal area. He should be able to advise you about combining the terrestrial and satellite feeds in the attic and the wallplate setup behind your tv.
(Check out this recent thread about combining terrestrial tv and satellite)

If you dont want the Sky subscription service a FTA (free-to-air) or freesat or Sat4Free satellite receiver is your best option.
The FTA receivers may be available locally or online, freesat receivers receivers are available online from Irish or British retailers or across the border in NI.
The Humax FOXSAT-HDR PVR (freesat) as mentioned by Sam Radford above has just launched in the UK for £300 but will require a second cable from your dish to the tv point and a possible LNB upgrade to your dish.

Irish online stores worth a try are http://www.freesat.ie/ and http://www.satellite.ie/; UK stores http://www.satbuyer.co.uk/index.html, http://www.spectrum-skytv.co.uk/, http://www.satcure.co.uk/ to name but a few.

SPARTAN33

Thanks for reply The Cush, its a superwarm house so timber frame but its not a real chimney its a mock chimney, he said the single wasnt strong enough for mmds. He said the aerial would have to go on the highest point on the house and the chimney in windy condtions the aerial would just blow off and maybe damage the chimney, other houses in the estate i havent seen any with an aerial chimney, the wall plate sockets just have fittings for tv can see one with sat fitting, so would they have just pugged the sat cable into the tv socket on the wall plate box?.

The Cush

Thanks for reply The Cush, its a superwarm house so timber frame but its not a real chimney its a mock chimney, he said the single wasnt strong enough for mmds. He said the aerial would have to go on the highest point on the house and the chimney in windy condtions the aerial would just blow off and maybe damage the chimney, other houses in the estate i havent seen any with an aerial chimney, the wall plate sockets just have fittings for tv can see one with sat fitting, so would they have just pugged the sat cable into the tv socket on the wall plate box?.
Yesterday 02:08

OK, I understand the situation with the chimney.
As your satellite dish is mounted on the external wall there should be no problem mounting an (terrestrial) aerial on the wall, height (i.e. line of sight) is not as important as with an MMDS aerial - again check with a local installer.
The coax wallplate was probably fitted during house build and the Sky installer probably reused the TV wallplate (coax) for the Sky install, satellite installations normally use F-connectors. The only way to check it out is to attach a satellite receiver, but your best bet is to talk to a local installer.