Freesat Questions

RATM

Saw over in another thread that its possible to get Freesat in Ireland- I never knew this and a friend is quite interested.
So Im trying to get this straight- all I need is one of these Free Sat boxes from eBay ( approx €30) plug in my cables and tune it in and I will get 15-20 (mainly english) channels? Is that correct?I don't need a satellite outside or anything?

Also my mates building is wired for Sky only- it is not connected to Sky at the moment. Will I have to call Sky out and pay the €80 installation fee- if so am I obliged to sign up to one of their contracts? Or can I just get them to connect it and then use the freesat box instead of their service?

homer911

Freesat is a Satellite service (the clue is in the name). You need a dish and a freesat box. There are about 140 English channels on freesat.

Alternatively you can use any free to air satellite box - you wont get the extended freesat EPG, but will pick up almost all the same stations..

RATM

Does EPG mean Electronic Programme Guide? As in the menu that tells you whats on now and next, etc?
So am I right to say a free to air satellite box will get him 100+ channels without having to use a satellite dish? Because his apartment block doesn't allow them anyway so he cant get one....

Any ideas does he have to get Sky out to connect it first or is the free to air satellite box just 'plug and play' per se?

watty

If you have really "sky" then that is from a satellite Dish and LNB outdoors somewhere. Or else it's a private cable system.

If your apartment Cable point is fed from a dish there is no install for Sky or FTA/Freesat, just connect the box to wall outlet and SCART to TV set.

Sky simply means a Sky box and subscription and card.

A sky box with out a card essentially gets the free channels.

I'd not buy a Satellite receiver on eBay unless you are expert and looking for something special.

FTA boxes need to be manually "scanned" to find channels when they move or at install time and only tell you "now & next" program"

The Sky & Freesat (NOT freeview) have at least a week of EPG (Electronic Program guide). Most satellite channels don't use traditional Teletext. They use a different system of text with pictures in it. Only the Freesat & Sky boxes support both these features. The FTA boxes don't.

Satellites are indeed outdoors. They are in a ring every 2 or 3 degrees apart (though some positions might have 5 or more satellites, and some none) about 45,000km above the Equator.

The thing outside the building is a dish.

You'll pay 45 Euro to 450 Euro locally in Ireland for a Satellite receiver depeding on features.

You may have to pay your management company an annual or monthly fee to connect your wall points to the main dish distribution system.

If your Apartment system is a cable TV system that simply has Sky channels, then a Satellite receiver is no use. If it uses genuine Sky Digiboxes, then any Satellite receiver including a Sky Digibox with no subscription and no card will work.

There are also a few HD channels free. They require an HD Freesat receiver. They will display downscalled on a regular TV if you what to get HD receiver now and HD TV later.

A satellite receiver with built in recording (HDD aka PVR) costs more and needs two satellite feed cables/wall points. Spliting a single wall out won't work. The Sky+ recorder won't record or play previous recordings without a subscrption. A Freesat will. The playback *IS* live quality and you can "pause" live TV if the door/phone/toilet/toast/kettle happens.


There are over 200 free TV and over 70 free radio. About 45 of the Free TV you might actually watch. All BBC radio, RTE radio, BBC/ITV/C4 and Five TV.

200motels

RATM wrote: »

Does EPG mean Electronic Programme Guide? As in the menu that tells you whats on now and next, etc?
So am I right to say a free to air satellite box will get him 100+ channels without having to use a satellite dish? Because his apartment block doesn't allow them anyway so he cant get one....

Any ideas does he have to get Sky out to connect it first or is the free to air satellite box just 'plug and play' per se?

You need a satellite dish for a satellite box, I don't want to sound smart but the words satellite box will need you know the answer a satellite dish how else is it going to pick up the channels.

RATM

Okay, okay Im not very smart I now realise that a satellite reciever box is useless without a dish somewhere.

Watty thanks a million for the plethora of information, very useful.

I'll have to find out the exact system my mates apartment block operates on. I know for a fact its not NTL/Chorus because he rang them before and they said no-go.

A neighbour of his has Sky but the management company said that no dishes are allowed- thats why I was confused as to how his neighbour is getting Sky (I mean actual Sky not just Sky channels) without having a dish. Now he may well have the dish hidden somewhere ( hardly likely, they are pretty obvious ) or the building has some sort of central recieving dish from which the whole building is cable wired and a box is needed to decipher the signals. At least thats what Im presuming unless anyone knows that I could be missing a trick?
Anyway if thats the case then I can just buy one of these boxes and it should be good to go once it is manually tuned?

Rick_

A dish doesn't have to be on the wall though, you can get dishes that are disguised in plastic boxes designed to look like big plant pots or outside lights that you can set on your balcony of your apartment or the bottom of your garden on the floor and they will receive the channels just the same as there is a dish hidden inside them. Maybe your friend is using one of those as the tenency agreement states 'no dishes' but this techincallyisn't a dish per say and it isn't screwed onto a wall and damaging it. It's a freestanding device that can be moved whenever necessary.