Can I get free to air box and use my old sky sattelite?

mprop

Hi,

I have moved into a new house, the previous tenant had Sky installed. The cabels are still here in all of the rooms. Rather than going on an expensive Sky subscription I was thinking of going for one of the free to air things.

CAn I buy one of these boxes and just connect it to the cabels that are in the sitting room etc? Do I need to do anything else?

Would anyone be able to recommend a box?

Badgermonkey

Go with a Freesat box, not free to air.

Simply plug your sky cable into a Freesat box, enter a UK postcode and you'll have a great selection of channels gratis.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Go for a HD box such as these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-Digital-Satellite-Set-Top/dp/B00264GX40/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1295213857&sr=8-4

Or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sagemcom-Satellite-Digital-Receiver-freesat/dp/B002XSKSHM/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1295213899&sr=1-3

Should you wish to have a box with a recording function (similar to Sky+ to pause, rewind live TV etc.) you'll need to spend more.

This also requires 2 cable feeds from your dish to the Freesat box.

Shop around, Amazon not necessarily the cheapest.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-FOXSAT-HDR-Freesat-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001L5YU36/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1295214080&sr=1-1

bud1970

if the dish and cables are still there, then yes you can connect a fta box up to it. you will only have a limited amount of channels, tho...if there is a multi output lnb on the dish then you can connect more than one sky box up to it......HTH

mprop

Badgermonkey wrote: »

Go with a Freesat box, not free to air.

Simply plug your sky cable into a Freesat box, enter a UK postcode and you'll have a great selection of channels gratis.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Go for a HD box such as these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-Digital-Satellite-Set-Top/dp/B00264GX40/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1295213857&sr=8-4

Or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sagemcom-Satellite-Digital-Receiver-freesat/dp/B002XSKSHM/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1295213899&sr=1-3

Thats fantastic. I usually just find myself watching rte 1 & 2, BBC etc as all of the other channels just seem to show 2 & 1/2 men and scrubs. Will I get BBC 1,2 & RTE 1, 2 & TV3 with these?

jjbiker

Badgermonkey wrote: »

Go with a Freesat box, not free to air.

Simply plug your sky cable into a Freesat box, enter a UK postcode and you'll have a great selection of channels gratis.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Go for a HD box such as these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-Digital-Satellite-Set-Top/dp/B00264GX40/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1295213857&sr=8-4

Or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sagemcom-Satellite-Digital-Receiver-freesat/dp/B002XSKSHM/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1295213899&sr=1-3

Should you wish to have a box with a recording function (similar to Sky+ to pause, rewind live TV etc.) you'll need to spend more.

This also requires 2 cable feeds from your dish to the Freesat box.

Shop around, Amazon not necessarily the cheapest.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-FOXSAT-HDR-Freesat-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001L5YU36/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1295214080&sr=1-1

Hi,
I'm curious to know what extra channels you'd get on freesat as opposed to free to air? I have free to air and its seems to have all the channels that the freesat guide lists.
Free to air boxes can be bought for as little as €40 now a days, I picked up a Fortec star in Maplin for €39 a few months back.
Free to air along with an mpeg4 tv for the "irish 4" does me just fine and keeps €30 in my pocket rather than the Murdock empire!!

Johnmb

mprop wrote: »

Thats fantastic. I usually just find myself watching rte 1 & 2, BBC etc as all of the other channels just seem to show 2 & 1/2 men and scrubs. Will I get BBC 1,2 & RTE 1, 2 & TV3 with these?

The Irish channels are not available on that satellite, but you will be likely to pick them up via DTT if your TV is compatible, if not you can get a set top box. All the BBC channels are available via the satellite, as are all the non-HD ITV channels (ITV1 HD is available). The non-HD Channel 4, E4, More 4 and Film 4, as well as Channel 5 are also available, along with all their +1 channels. There are about 140 channels that you'll get for free, about 40 of which might be worth having.

Johnmb

jjbiker wrote: »

Hi,
I'm curious to know what extra channels you'd get on freesat as opposed to free to air? I have free to air and its seems to have all the channels that the freesat guide lists.
Free to air boxes can be bought for as little as €40 now a days, I picked up a Fortec star in Maplin for €39 a few months back.
Free to air along with an mpeg4 tv for the "irish 4" does me just fine and keeps €30 in my pocket rather than the Murdock empire!!

You get the same channels on Freesat as FTA, it is just the organisation of them that is different. Freesat offers red button features, 7 day EPG, and if its a Freesat (HD)+ box, series link, none of which are offered by standard FTA boxes.

Badgermonkey

mprop wrote: »

Thats fantastic. I usually just find myself watching rte 1 & 2, BBC etc as all of the other channels just seem to show 2 & 1/2 men and scrubs. Will I get BBC 1,2 & RTE 1, 2 & TV3 with these?

You will get all BBC 1,2,3,4, BBC 1 HD and BBC HD & BBC News
Also all Ch 4, E4, More 4, Film 4.

See the Freesat site for a full channel listing.

You won't get Irish Terrestrial as they are only available via satellite with a sky subscription.

They will be available late spring via satellite for free apparently but you'll need additional hardware.

watty

Easier and cheaper to use an aerial for Irish Digital
http://www.saortv.info/channels/uk-televison/
http://www.techtir.ie/saortv/freesat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-to-air_channels_in_the_UK
Unless you want Sky Sport, then a "Freesat HD" box is a good purchase for UK Tv.

Badgermonkey

You'll be forever retuning channels also with a FTA box when they change transponder frequencies.

You'll see many posts here along the lines of 'where have all my BBCs/ITVs gone etc etc'

Freesat boxes automatically track these changes and adjust accordingly, meaning you never lose channels.

STB

Transponder changes are not regular on 28.2 and if there are changes you just scan the frequency in and add it to your favourite list and delete the old channel on a HD FTA Combo box.

As already discussed the Freesat Box will not allow you receive the Irish DTT Channels Terrestrially (RTE1, 2, TV3 3e, Tg4, RTE news Now) in addition to the UK HD and normal channels that you receive off Freesat. The following will, all in one channel list which you can customise, the operation is seemless. You get 7 day epg for DTT and Now/Next for Satellite stations.

http://satellite.ie/acatalog/Free_to_air_HD_Satellite_and_Terrestrial_Digital_Ferguson_HD_Ariva_Combo_Box.html

And you can record to a USB drive via the USB port. Handy for getting away from restricted Sky boxes and having the Irish stations as well.

tmcw

STB wrote: »

Transponder changes are not regular on 28.2 and if there are changes you just scan the frequency in and add it to your favourite list and delete the old channel on a HD FTA Combo box.

It's all relative I suppose.

Compared to 19E and 13E, changes on 28E are quite frequent.