Free channels with Sky Box

jrochie

hi guys,

a couple of friends of mine recently moved into a house. the owners have left their old sky box there and its all set up, just without a subscription. they have a few of the free to air channels, but I thought there was more than what they have. I've been looking into it for them but am kinda confused with the whole thing now.

Can anyone explain to me what they have to do to get all the free to air channels? I've seen something about buying a freesat card but I'm not sure if they need to change their receiver for this to work. also is there any way they can get rte1,2, tv3, tg4 and 3e on free to air? They don't have a aerial so can't get 1,2 & 3 that way, but I've seen conflicting info as to whether they are available on free to air.

I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give me,

thanks

sattv

You cannot get the RTE's without either a new television that has a built in saorview system in it. These are available from harvey normans or argos or curry's etc. On the sky box they have they should recieve all the bbc's itv's channel 4 and 5 etc free if it is connected correctly to the dish. These are broadcast free through astra 28. You can also scan and add channels through the menu on the box. If you check up lyngsat they will have the codes required. Regarding the rte's again if the tv is not compatable then you can get a saorview reciever and a aerial to recieve them. Hope this helps

rurs

Did the same for a friend of mine recently. Take the card out while the power is off, when it's powered up again, it should go to the UK EPG, with BBC1 at 101 etc. The channel line-up still includes all the subscription channels, but you can just flick through them to get to the FTA ones.

You can also add up to 50 channels as "Favourites" in the service menu, then use the blue button to select them, but it's not ideal, as you can't go backwards.

As regards the Irish channels, they are not available FTA on satellite. You may have read about Saorsat, which is the proposed fill-in service for Saorview. It's not live yet, and would need a new dish and receiver.

Only way to get them is with an aerial, try an indoor one at a window facing transmitter. (Look at neighbours aerials to get an idea of the direction).

Macer123

Hope no one minds if I hijack this thread.
I use an old sky + box in spare room (upgraded to HD on main TV) to pick up FTA channels. Everythings was working great, its not used regularly but I've noticed that BBC 1 & 2 are no longer on the programme guide. Have I done something to delete these are possibly other channels.
I have used my sky card in the box recently, could this have caused my problem when it was removed again. Thanks in advance.

John mac

plug it out and in again, (without a card in )
should reset the channels. (on the sky+ box in spare room)