Goodbye SKY!

kerberos2506

I've only gone and done it, talked about it for months but officially today canceled my SKY.
As from what to do now is where I require some help.
I am losing all my SKY equipment, apart from the dish, I am sure that the freeview channels would suit me and my families everyday needs.
What would the great people of BOARD.IE recommend for me to achieve this( can I use my SKY dish to help with this.

Any help would be grateful.

decor58

kerberos2506 wrote:

Any help would be grateful.

If you have an SD Sky box by removing the sub card you will get the free to air channels, a HD box is not as straight forward, cards are available that will reassign the channels, giving you BBC1 on1 etc.
Other than that you could get a Freesat box, two types available, one bog standard, no record, about 100e +, or a recordable unit, like a HD Sky + box about 250e.
Saorview channels are not available on a sky dish, without a sub. If your TV is recent, chances are it has a Saorview tuner, but you will need an aerial.

Gerry Wicklow

If you are returning the box it's probably a Sky Q one. In that case you will probably have to change the LNB on the dish to suit non-sky Q boxes.
Also be careful of the terminology or you could end up with the wrong box. FreeView is the UK terrestrial system similar to Saorview and only available near the border or parts of the East coast using a conventional aerial. FreeSat refers to boxes using dedicated software that handles 7 day EPG, automatic tuning and things like Red Button functions. Freesat has most UK main channels except CH4 HD due to a dispute over fees. There are many other lesser channels freely available that are not on the Freesat system such as +1 channels.
Free To Air (FTA) boxes use the exact same satellite signals as Freesat but includes all unencrypted channels. Basic FTA boxes only have now/next EPGs and limited recording facilities. More elaborate linux enigma based boxes have full 7day EPG, series linking etc etc.
As mentioned, the Irish Saorview channels are not available for free on the satellite Sky use. You will need a conventional aerial for Saorview. A relatively new TV will have the required tuner built in and may even have basic recording functions. However many people find it awkward having to switch between inputs to go between Saorview and a satellite box. In this case the preferred option is to use a linux enigma combo box that combines both Saorview and satellite into one unit with a combined EPG etc. However combo boxes are not plug and play. There is a bit of a learning curve to get them working but the effort is well worthwhile if you are anyway computer literate.

NewClareman

kerberos2506 wrote: »

I've only gone and done it, talked about it for months but officially today canceled my SKY.
...
Any help would be grateful.

Hi kerberos,

We did that successfully, a few months ago, after several failed attempts. The sticking point was ease of use. My wife was used to Sky and wouldn't accept multiple boxes, or multiple key presses to move between Irish and UK stations.

I ended up customizing an existing solution to make it user friendly and simple to use. I have made it available for everyone to use and it is simple to set up. All you need to do is connect up satellite cables and a traditional aerial, copy my box settings to yours and you're good to go. It will probably require the Irish stations to be tuned in, just like any other box, or telly, and you're good to go.

If you already have Sky TV, not Sky Q, all you need for a decent TV service is:

• A replacement for the Sky Box, for just over €200, delivered.
• Install the more user-friendly software, a five minute job, and replace the Sky Box.

Cost €210 + a few bob to a “techie friend”, if needed.

To get all the features in shown in the thread you’ll still need broadband, just like with Sky. Any reasonable speed, say 8-10 Mb/s will be fine.

You may need to get a new LNB and/or TV Aerial installed, though many homes already have these.
Budget around €150, if your techie friend can’t help.

I'm happy to answer any questions, on the thread I linked to.

TallGlass

I would keep away from Sky Boxes to do the 'free' work, the UI is excellent however the way Sky have coded the box is a bit weird.

It assumes that you have all channels initially and then queries if you have them when you go to view the channel. So it's annoying that you don't just get a list of all the channels the card can view. Plus you'll need to get a card from Sky I think too, I got one one Amazon for 5£ not sure what it's done really!

Send a few quid on a decent box would be my comment here.