More Questions on Free to Air Satellite

kickinthenads

Hi all,

Apologies for another thread on this subject matter. I have read though a lot of the previous threads and just want to be clear in my own head on some things or I'll be battered by the wife and family for cancelling my Sky subscription! I plan to get a good setup to get as many free channels as possible like. But the beauty of Sky is its ease of use and I want to get as close t that as possible.

1. Can my old Sky equipment (Dish and HD boxes) be used?
2. Should I get a HD Combo Box or a Saorview box?
3. Are there good fitters in and around the Navan area?

Hope this makes sense! Thanks in advance for the advice.

Gerry Wicklow

1. Your existing dish will work for Free To Air (FTA) satellite. Take the card out of your Sky box to see what that will give you. You wont be able to record or access existing recordings on your Sky box.
2. A Saorview box will only give you the Irish channels unless you are near the border or parts of the East coast. You will probably still need some sort of satellite box for the UK channels. A combo box means no switching between sources to go from Saorview to satellite and you can build your own favourites list of channels.

kickinthenads

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

1. Your existing dish will work for Free To Air (FTA) satellite. Take the card out of your Sky box to see what that will give you. You wont be able to record or access existing recordings on your Sky box.
2. A Saorview box will only give you the Irish channels unless you are near the border or parts of the East coast. You will probably still need some sort of satellite box for the UK channels. A combo box means no switching between sources to go from Saorview to satellite and you can build your own favourites list of channels.

Cheers Gerry,

I like the sound of the combo box and been able to build a favourites list. Would you have any recommendations on a good box? Do these Combo box have a PVR facility? At least now I know that I can eliminate the cost of getting a new satellite.

Gerry Wicklow

A popular one is the Amiko Alien 2, which has two satellite tuners and one terrestrial. This means you can record two satellite channels while watching a terrestrial or watch a satellite while recording another satellite and terrestrial. They record to an external HDD plugged in the back. Although tricky to set up, they are very powerful and versatile once running. There are several threads in the terrestrial section of boards and loads of helpful members to guide you.

kickinthenads

Thanks Gerry, appreciate you taking the time to reply. All looks good and plenty of further reading. Would you recommend doing a DI, would I get away with that? Or would you think paying the few quid and getting the right people to install it? I forgot to mention that I need to get an arial as we never go one when we moved into the house.

thanks

DriversEd

just a question, if you don;t mind me hijacking the thread.
buts whats the difference, if there is one, between freesat and freeview?

Gerry Wicklow

FreeSat as the name implies uses a satellite dish and box. Freesat is essentially software that gives a 7 day EPG, automatic tuning and Red button functions on Free to Air (FTA) satellite signals. A basic FTA box will only have now/next EPG and manual tuning.
FreeView is the UK terrestrial system, similar to Saorview, using an aerial. It can only be received near the border or parts of the East coast. There are also differences in the channel line ups of the two systems.
Unlike terrestrial, satellite will give you the UK channels throughout the country.

winston_1

kickinthenads wrote: »

At least now I know that I can eliminate the cost of getting a new satellite.

Just a well, satellites cost billions, then there is the launch cost!

kickinthenads

winston_1 wrote: »

Just a well, satellites cost billions, then there is the launch cost!

True and ya just can't rely on decent launches these days!