Changing from Sky to FreeSat/FreeToAir/Sat4Free

Old_-_School

I was looking to change from Sky (non-subscription) to one of the non-subscription Satellite dishes. Most are charging about €250 but should it be cheaper if you have Sky already?
Was half thinking of doing it myself. Would having Sky dish already there make it easier? How do you know the exact point to point the satellite dish?

Bubonic

If all you are looking for are normal fta channels you will get them all on 28.2
which is what your current dish is pointed at.

The easist way, if you know someone in the UK, is to order a freesat from Sky card, which costs £20 once off. But will need a DTT aerial to get the irish channels I think.

gtg60

If you already have Sky all you need do is buy the box and connect it in place of your existing Sky box, that's about 5 mins work.

There's a large selection of cheap FTA boxes but go with Freesat if you want a 7 day EPG, here's a reasonable one for 80 Euro Grundig Freesat box

Tony

Yep excellent price there

gtg60 wrote: »

here's a reasonable one for 80 Euro Grundig Freesat box

Mike 1972

Bubonic wrote: »

The easist way, if you know someone in the UK, is to order a freesat from Sky card, which costs £20 .

If you can live without Sky 3/Five US/Fiver you dont even need the card

Unplug the Sky box remove the card and plug it back in again (without card)

If you want 7 day EPG's and wotnot go ahead and buy a freesat box and use it with your existing dish

decp

_http://www.techwatch.co.uk/forums/62177-how-to-make-s-y-box-fta-in-ireland.html

How to makee your S*Y box a FTA in Ireland .....

cc

or just save all the FTA channels into your favorites and keep using your existing box. If you do a search you'll find out how to get all the bbc's itv's etc to appear on the epg

Red Sleeping Beauty

cc wrote: »

or just save all the FTA channels into your favorites and keep using your existing box. If you do a search you'll find out how to get all the bbc's itv's etc to appear on the epg

You can't search for words with only three letters so BBC, ITV, EPG , FTA etc. aren't searchable.

cc

Alan Rouge wrote: »

You can't search for words with only three letters so BBC, ITV, EPG , FTA etc. aren't searchable.

what?! get a life please...i'm sure the OP knows lots of other words in the english langauge :rolleyes:

Red Sleeping Beauty

cc wrote: »

what?! get a life please...i'm sure the OP knows lots of other words in the english langauge :rolleyes:

No need for the agro.
What are you supposed to search for?

cc

ok i'll bite.

Boards search yields: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=9533137
Google search yields: http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enIE355IE356&q=sky+uk+epg+on+irish+sky+box&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryIE&aq=f&oq=

Capt'n Midnight

If you have a SKY Box then you can already get the Free To Air Channels at ZERO COST.


To get UK channels listed

Make sure card correctly inserted.
Go Sky News 501
Press interactive
Wait for it to load
REMOVE CARD.
Press Backup till interactive is exited.

hopefully this is enough channels

To return to Irish EPG simply remove and insert card properly. No "magic" sequence.

It takes a minute or so for an EPG to load. (searching for channels)




Some of the Free To View channels will need a new card, but that only applies to people with a UK sky card not to Irish sky cards.

Capt'n Midnight

Bubonic wrote: »

If all you are looking for are normal fta channels you will get them all on 28.2
which is what your current dish is pointed at.

The easist way, if you know someone in the UK, is to order a freesat from Sky card, which costs £20 once off. But will need a DTT aerial to get the irish channels I think.

http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/faqs-freesat.aspx - For UK TV license holders only
need UK Address and some serial numbers from menu on SKY box

Q: I already have Sky digital satellite equipment - what else do I need?

A: All you need to gain access to the free channels available on the digital satellite platform is a Freesat from Sky viewing card, which costs just £20. If you’d like to access the interactive services available, you’ll also need a working phone line. To purchase a viewing card please phone Sky on 08448 244 400.

https://mysky.sky.com/replacecard/get-a-card
This if you already have a UK card - the BLUE with the YELLOW house are expiring NOW - only needed for Sky3 / Fiver and a few other channels,

Irish Channels
DTT - unlikely for the Digital switch to happen fully before 2012 so no need to buy a new set top box anytime soon. You may need to get an aerial / tune your tv / video to get them,

And besides DTT will use the same aerial as normal TV unless they really take the p1ss on the channels / transmitter allocations. Also DTT is supposed to provide better picture quality so if you can get teletext and nicam stereo reliably you should be good to go if DTT happens here

BarryM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If you have a SKY Box then you can already get the Free To Air Channels at ZERO COST.

To get UK channels listed

Make sure card correctly inserted.
Go Sky News 501
Press interactive
Wait for it to load
REMOVE CARD.
Press Backup till interactive is exited.

hopefully this is enough channels

I have a card marked sky which I bought for a few bob using a friends address in London, in order, at the time, to get ITV and Ch4. I've been using it in boxes in Ireland and France. It is now popping up every so often saying I need to apply for a new one, but yer man has moved out of UK..... I looked at the sky site and they need an address, presumably a UK one.

I had a quick look at your solution, when you get the interactive menu you just leave it there and take out the card?? i.e. you don't need to select any of the options - sky active, etc. ?

To return to Irish EPG simply remove and insert card properly. No "magic" sequence.....

Some of the Free To View channels will need a new card, but that only applies to people with a UK sky card not to Irish sky cards.

I only want to be sure Ch4, E4, More 4 and BBC3/4 are there, will they be??

TIA, Barry

IrishHomer

Yes they will be there

BarryM

IrishHomer wrote: »

Yes they will be there

[The question was - "To return to Irish EPG simply remove and insert card properly. No "magic" sequence.....
Some of the Free To View channels will need a new card, but that only applies to people with a UK sky card not to Irish sky cards.


I only want to be sure Ch4, E4, More 4 and BBC3/4 are there, will they be??"]

Just today I switched on and I have no Ch4...... or ITV1, but have the others. Has there been a change??