From a "technically challenged" member

Woody60

Here's the question:
I moved into a flat 2 years ago which had a communal satellite aerial and there was there already an old Amstrad Sky Box with a card in it which enabled me to pick up all the free channels (including Sky News).
I now am moving to a house which already has a dish satellite installed.
But now I am confused: do I need to get a Free To Air decoder, a Freesat decoder, or maybe a Sky Box with relevant card?
What I want to be able to do is to easily watch any of the free channels without a lot of technical know-how being needed (Sky News would be good to have but not essential).
Can someone enlighten me about the best way to go? (and would I be able to buy a decoder on EBay from the UK and expect it to work in Ireland)
[deleted incorrectly included broken image links with cert errors: Watty]

Tony

Buy a UK Freesat box and add sky news manually

byte

Yeah, I'd agree with Tony.

Also, as long as it's a "Freesat" branded box, it'll work here (assuming dish is aimed at Astra2/Eurobird constellation).

ynotdu

I just got the following message when I clicked on this thread(never happened before on any thread on boards.ie before?

To help protect your security,Internet Explorer has blocked this website from displaying content with security certifcate errors???????

watty

Yes. some strange content (adserver claiming to localhost.localdomain with expired cert).

I Deleted the "broken" content on Woodies post

Woody60

Thanks guys for the advice.
Any ideas about those strange messages?

thebullkf

Tony wrote: »

Buy a UK Freesat box and add sky news manually

hi tony,
you seemto be the man when it comes to all things tv..
just a quick question... i have bog standard cable tv,was gonna get cheapest sky package for my young son-(all cartoon channels) and nat. geo. stations.-also to improve my reception.
heres the crux- was told informally that those freeview boxes access those stations??
BUT-is it illegal? don.t wanna get banned from boards discussing this but genuinely haven't a clue
if it is forget about it-(apologies mod)
if not which is the best?
what stations can i get (Legally)
is it worth it asopposed to getting sat dish?
funds tight at the moment socheapest option is my best bet.
thanks in advance.

thebullkf

keep getting pop upblocker on this thread...anyone else?

Tony

You can see the channels available on freesat on this page http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/What_s_on_free_to_air_.html

Hope this helps

thebullkf wrote: »

hi tony,
you seemto be the man when it comes to all things tv..
just a quick question... i have bog standard cable tv,was gonna get cheapest sky package for my young son-(all cartoon channels) and nat. geo. stations.-also to improve my reception.
heres the crux- was told informally that those freeview boxes access those stations??
BUT-is it illegal? don.t wanna get banned from boards discussing this but genuinely haven't a clue
if it is forget about it-(apologies mod)
if not which is the best?
what stations can i get (Legally)
is it worth it asopposed to getting sat dish?
funds tight at the moment socheapest option is my best bet.
thanks in advance.

thebullkf

thanks tony

darklordsbane

Hi guys
Also any cheap sat box from lidl or whoever will do the same job, If you want hd buy an proper sat receiver, remember before you buy a receiver, you wont get irish channels on satellite unless you pay sky, you can get irish digital tv through a terrestrial aerial but you will need a MPEG 4 hd receiver which are pricey, but better than freesat boxes, if your getting into proper sat stuff get a motor as well.
best of luck D

Kristopherus

thebullkf wrote: »

keep getting pop upblocker on this thread...anyone else?

Yep, getting the same now.:mad:

byte

thebullkf wrote: »

keep getting pop upblocker on this thread...anyone else?

I'm hoping it's gone now. It was the link in the OP's post. While it was removed from the OP's post, it was still in the quote made by Tony (which I hve now deleted).

I had to start up Internet Explorer *shudder* to figure out what you guys were on about, as I hadn't got the same pop-ups on Firefox

thebullkf

darklordsbane wrote: »

Hi guys
Also any cheap sat box from lidl or whoever will do the same job, If you want hd buy an proper sat receiver, remember before you buy a receiver, you wont get irish channels on satellite unless you pay sky, you can get irish digital tv through a terrestrial aerial but you will need a MPEG 4 hd receiver which are pricey, but better than freesat boxes, if your getting into proper sat stuff get a motor as well.
best of luck D

thanks ...motor?

sorry:o.....bit of limited info on my side...have since been offered a free sat receiver(nearly certain it was one used to access illegal tv but is now no good)...would this work i wonder??
havent accepted as im not sure its legal(also don't wanna discuss this for fear of excommunication-sorry mod;))

all i want really are toons for the little fella and educational -all disc/nat geographic..
i mean if its gratis and legal...

byte

If the box is for cable TV, it will NOT be discussed here.

If it requires a dish, then chat away.

You're not going to find NatGeo or Discovery channels on Freesat

darklordsbane

hi thebullkf

byte is right you wont get what you want from free sat.
ask tony for a price to sort you out, or soar tv in kildare, for a motorised system
you would need a motor to drive the dish from one sat to another,
An mpeg 4 hd receiver ( technomate 6900 hd super is very good but expensive) soar tv sell cheaper ones (search this forum under tech, sat and terrestrial for reviews)
a large dish (the bigger the better) you need planning permission for a dish bigger than 1 meter on your house but can go bigger if hidden in say back garden, unless your looking for very weak sat signals a 1 meter will do the job.
there is lots of ways to get certain channels on foriegn satellites but you cannot discuss that here ask your sat supplier about it,
shop around it's a buyers market and cash will always be king, you would be surprised by how much cash you will save by hard haggling face to face is always better,
check what the price is in uk and add about 25% for postage and exchange rate and you should be close enough, at least thats what I do and it works, you probabley wont match the uk price exactly but you will get close, remember the irish guy has to import as well.
proper hd tv should be viewed through a hdmi cable not a scart lead.
if you dont have a hd tv it will still allow you to watch hd tv stations but it willl not have the so called wow factor
best of luck
D

thebullkf

byte wrote: »

If the box is for cable TV, it will NOT be discussed here.

If it requires a dish, then chat away.

You're not going to find NatGeo or Discovery channels on Freesat

ok sorry. :o:o:o:o:o

Tony

thebullkf wrote: »

thanks tony

My pleasure

thebullkf

darklordsbane wrote: »

hi thebullkf

byte is right you wont get what you want from free sat.
ask tony for a price to sort you out, or soar tv in kildare, for a motorised system
you would need a motor to drive the dish from one sat to another,
An mpeg 4 hd receiver ( technomate 6900 hd super is very good but expensive) soar tv sell cheaper ones (search this forum under tech, sat and terrestrial for reviews)
a large dish (the bigger the better) you need planning permission for a dish bigger than 1 meter on your house but can go bigger if hidden in say back garden, unless your looking for very weak sat signals a 1 meter will do the job.
there is lots of ways to get certain channels on foriegn satellites but you cannot discuss that here ask your sat supplier about it,
shop around it's a buyers market and cash will always be king, you would be surprised by how much cash you will save by hard haggling face to face is always better,
check what the price is in uk and add about 25% for postage and exchange rate and you should be close enough, at least thats what I do and it works, you probabley wont match the uk price exactly but you will get close, remember the irish guy has to import as well.
proper hd tv should be viewed through a hdmi cable not a scart lead.
if you dont have a hd tv it will still allow you to watch hd tv stations but it willl not have the so called wow factor
best of luck
D

thanks a lot you've been more than helpful,much appreciated.;););)