Newbie Freesat question

snowblind

Hey
I'm living in Portobello, Dublin and have no experience in setting up satellite receivers and find the sea of information here quite a big step to be honest. So if someone would be able to answer some simple questions, I'd be very thankful.

I started renting this house, and there is a dish outside, with a cable (housed cable that is exposed at the end with a connection that is like a threaded nut, is this a "component" connection?) coming up from beneath the carpet in the sitting room. The dish's receiver (or what do you call the component that receives the information) is a Grundig Digital LNB.

So, will I be able to receive UK Freesat, and will I be able to receive it in HD? Do I only need a receiver box for it, and what would be the cheapest possible option? I'm not a huge tv addict and am looking mostly for being able to watch World Cup in HD (BBC HD) and to be able to view BBC 4 and such channels. I'm also quite broke.

Thanks!

snowblind

Just measured the dish, it's 60cm top to bottom edge (slightly elliptical), one of those meshed ones. If it makes any difference.

Finne1993

snowblind wrote: »

Just measured the dish, it's 60cm top to bottom edge (slightly elliptical), one of those meshed ones. If it makes any difference.

Its a sky minidish you have then and the connection you refer to is an 'F' connector which screws onto the LNB in socket on a satellite receiver. You're ready to go so all you need is a Freesat HD box and if you're not worried about recording programmes, a regular Freesat HD box can be bought from satellite.ie or tvtrade.ie for around €140 or if you intend travelling north Argos in Newry currently have Bush HD boxes in stock for £68stg.

snowblind

Finne1993 wrote: »

Its a sky minidish you have then and the connection you refer to is an 'F' connector which screws onto the LNB in socket on a satellite receiver. You're ready to go so all you need is a Freesat HD box and if you're not worried about recording programmes, a regular Freesat HD box can be bought from satellite.ie or tvtrade.ie for around €140 or if you intend travelling north Argos in Newry currently have Bush HD boxes in stock for £68stg.

Thanks for the reply
Seems like this would be the best deal unless going north
http://satellite.ie/acatalog/High_Definition_Free_to_Air_HD_Satellite_receiver_from_Ferguson_Ariva_100E.html

would a dish / LNB like mine really be able to receive the HD channel without dropping data?

Finne1993

snowblind wrote: »

Thanks for the reply
Seems like this would be the best deal unless going north
http://satellite.ie/acatalog/High_Definition_Free_to_Air_HD_Satellite_receiver_from_Ferguson_Ariva_100E.html

would a dish / LNB like mine really be able to receive the HD channel without dropping data?

Yes, once the dish is aligned properly and I'd assume it is as the previous occupants obviously had sky or a FTA set up unless they were foreigners picking up channels from hotbird but you'd be unlucky if that was the case. The official freesat box might be a better option for you seeing that you're not familiar with setting up satellite receivers as you have to manually tune in the channels on that FTA box and scroll down through tons of useless channels

snowblind

Finne1993 wrote: »

Yes, once the dish is aligned properly and I'd assume it is as the previous occupants obviously had sky or a FTA set up unless they were foreigners picking up channels from hotbird but you'd be unlucky if that was the case. The official freesat box might be a better option for you seeing that you're not familiar with setting up satellite receivers as you have to manually tune in the channels on that FTA box and scroll down through tons of useless channels

Yeah the previous tenants were Irish so if it's left by them and hasn't moved it should be good I guess. The FTA box looks like better specced and cheaper, isn't the tuning automatic and you just skip the channels that would require decryption etc?
So is the EPG for Freesat channels the only difference? The Ferguson has USB connection as well and is 50€ cheaper. And the Freesat doesn't even seem to have all the free to air channels. Hmm....

pa990

the freesat box wont give you all the fta channels, but it is sooo much easier to use.

full 7/8 day epg
auto updates of channels when they change freq/transponder.


and you can always put the freesat box into non freesat mode and use it as a regular fta box.

freesat+ with recording facility is fantastic (needs two feds from the dish, as with all pvr's to have full functionality)

snowblind

Yeah well the recording ones are super expensive, Ferguson can record through usb, and it has EPG as well, don't know if it works as well as the Freesat branded ones EPG though. I don't really mind even if it doesn't, I can check that stuff through the internet anyways. The price point and USB recording + playback just make a lot of sense to me.

pa990

snowblind wrote: »

Yeah well the recording ones are super expensive, Ferguson can record through usb, and it has EPG as well, don't know if it works as well as the Freesat branded ones EPG though. I don't really mind even if it doesn't, I can check that stuff through the internet anyways. The price point and USB recording + playback just make a lot of sense to me.

the ferguson box might only have now/next epg data
that is a pain when trying to schedule recordings.. believe me ,, the freesat box is super easy.

i have an sl65 box gathering dust.. a FTA box was great as a novelty starting off.. but fta box's can be a pain unless you are an enthusiast who is willing to put the time in to update the channel line up, and re-tune existing channels and add new ones.

my advice is to do a little research, ask on this forum and others..

there is no point in spending money on a fta box, only to be unhappy with it and replacing with a freesat box down the line.


7 day epg,
series link recording,
recording two channels at once,
auto updates,
very simple to use.

the choice is yours

snowblind

pa990 wrote: »

the ferguson box might only have now/next epg data
that is a pain when trying to schedule recordings.. believe me ,, the freesat box is super easy.

i have an sl65 box gathering dust.. a FTA box was great as a novelty starting off.. but fta box's can be a pain unless you are an enthusiast who is willing to put the time in to update the channel line up, and re-tune existing channels and add new ones.

my advice is to do a little research, ask on this forum and others..

there is no point in spending money on a fta box, only to be unhappy with it and replacing with a freesat box down the line.


7 day epg,
series link recording,
recording two channels at once,
auto updates,
very simple to use.

the choice is yours

Those are all good points, but I'm not really looking forward to recording anything. I'm sure if I just update my channel lists once in a while I'll be happy enough. I'll usually either know exactly what i'll be watching because I've heard of a good thing coming up or I'll be just surfing. There's not really gona be shows I'll have to watch on the reg. My folks back in Finland used to have analog satellite receivers and used to dabble with them. Can't really remember any major difficulties in updating channel lists.

I see why the Freesat would appeal to lots of users, but it is more expensive, and my TV watching is lightweight and different than most others. At the moment I have no channels but get all the shows I need from the internet. The fergusons LAN & USB connections will be great with this as well.

Maybe there's something about updating the channels and the difficulty of it I don't get. I mean, you'll just re-check the channels and update favourites list where applicable, right?

pa990

in order to update, you need to rescan,
That will mean you will have to go thru the process of reorganising all the channells again.. It can be a pain in the ärse.

I started off with a regular fta box, which was fine.. But then progressed onto a freesat box.. Also fine. But found that i missed a lot of programmes due to shift work.
I've since got a freesat+ box and never looked back.. But then, i don't have a great broadband connection, so downloading shows isn't an option for me.