Free to air on old sky box

Fern Bench

I have a question about satellite. I have an old sky Plus box and the internet told me that if I plug this in I will still get free to air channels. However when I plug this into my my satellite cables I get message saying no satellite signal received.

I don't currently have an active sky TV subscription, but should I be able to get live free to air TV? Thanks in advance.

sniperman

try switching round the cable wires coming into the box

Fern Bench

I tried this but no luck. When I plug a single cable into my smart TV I get sky News and a load of shopping and prayer channels. I was hoping to get the RTE channels with the sky box.

Atlantic Dawn

Was your previous system Sky Q?

b318isp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119804144#Comment_119804144

You won't get RTE or any Saorview channels in Ireland on FTA satellite.

Fern Bench

Yes it was sky Q, and they took back the sky Q box when I cancelled.

I take it then that the sky Plus box is useless so can you suggest a simple way of getting RTE? I have the RTE app but it won't play live TV. Would an antenna be the simplest option?

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119804180#Comment_119804180

Yes an internal antenna can work depending on how far you are from the nearest transmitter, it's by no means the best solution but I find it works fine for me. Your TV would need to support Saorview transmissions, almost anything sold in the last 10 years would have this capability built in. Here's one from Argos, they also have them in most Tesco stores...

https://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/9338924/Trail/searchtext%3EANTENNA.htm

Fern Bench

Thanks, I'll look into this option.

Fern Bench

I'm in a new build and have never used the aerial sockets in our house before, so far it's been satellite or streaming. I had a look in the attic, and I see a lot of coax cable endings. There's 3 sets of pairs taped together, all with snipped ends.

There's three tv points in our house. The main living room one has 3 wires coming in, 2 for dish and one for aerial. The other two TV points in the house just have a single aerial socket in the wall.

The cable ends in the attic will have to be stripped and fitted with connectors if I want to use an aerial. Is there any fast way of finding which wire goes to which room? And any idea why the cables are taped in pairs?

I only really want live TV in one room, not necessary in the others, but if I did, would I need an amplifier?

I know the simple answer would be to call the electrician who did the house but he's a hard man to get!

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119819702#Comment_119819702

Unknown why they were taped in pairs, doesn't really matter.

The quickest way to check which goes to which TV point would be to do closed loop continuity check if you have a multimeter handy. At the attic end of each cable strip back the plastic and join the core wire and braid together and at the TV point end check for continuity between the centre core of the socket and the outer shield, otherwise get a get an indoor aerial and connect each attic cable one at a time and check for a signal with a TV at the other end.

The use of an amp will depend on the signal strength received at the aerial. A passive splitter might work if signal strength is good enough, otherwise an amp will be required, you'll only know for sure once everything is up and running.

Fern Bench

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119820159#Comment_119820159

That's great, thanks a mill.

bronkobilly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119804180#Comment_119804180

u have to replace the skyQ lnb with a normal sky lnb or a universal lnb with an adaptor for the sky dish

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119804180#Comment_119804180

if you want to use the old Sky box an LNB swap will be required to a standard Sky quad LNB, alternatively you could use the current SkyQ wideband LNB with the new generation Arris Freesat receiver which allows you to watch/record up to 4 programmes simultaneously.