Satellite options

Nigzcurran

Hi Im hoping you can help me out, am in the market for a new tv set up, have just got sky stream delivered and set up and it's terrible and not suitable. Next on the list was going to be to try sky q but I have an existing dish and saoirview aeriel from a few years ago when I was using a sab triple tuner and am thinking maybe I should just buy a new FTA box. Wife needs a record/catch up option for the likes of itv and I'd like to be able to connect my IPTV sub to the box if possible! Any suggestions/advice please?

Tango One

Zgemma h7s is a good starting place. I was pay tv my hold life but no going back after moving to FTA. The series link is probably not as good as a pay provider but I don't feel it was worth paying for that. You can mix iptv into the channel line up. Little bit of a learning curve but we'll worth it.

If you plan on Muiltple boxes worth considering a unicable lnb

Bellie1

Sky put a new dish up in early 2023. Should that work with a freesat box ? Don't want to buy a box online and find that need the cable/ dish changed as proprietary to Sky .

The Cush

SkyQ and standard Sky LNBs will work with this generation of Freesat boxes. The SkyQ wideband LNB will give the option for four tuners for watching/recording.

Bellie1

thanks so much for that I came across a YouTube video that says it wont. But you're saying that need to ensure that we get a new type of freesat box (4k?) as only these will work with the wideband lnb ?

The Cush

New Freesat boxes are all wideband LNB compatible plus legacy and SCR LNB compatible.

Older first generation boxes, available second hand, are only compatible with legacy LNBs.

Bellie1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121542518#Comment_121542518

Just onto a local satellite installer and he said the sky Q lnb isn't compatible with freesat boxes. I'm assuming this just means that he's installing older cheaper freesat boxes? I'm just too nervous to buy a box online to plug in in case doesn't work

Also he said that can't get a seperate saorview box that records and does EPG? I thought we could get this and just switch source on tv

Haven't watched ads in the last 20 years so can't imagine life with them

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121546781#Comment_121546781

The Sky Q lnb is wideband and may as well be proprietary as there are only sky q , and official Arris "freesat TM" boxes that can use it.

The problem on here and everywhere else is that freesat and FTA are used interchangeably and that is incorrect.

This is most likely the mistake your satellite installer is making, which is very common.

Freesat is an EPG service meant for the UK only , it needs a UK postcode to operate , and ARRIS is the only supplier of those "official" freesat boxes at the moment.

You can get them here , but they are not officially supposed to be sold here.

Combo FTA and Saorview boxes are available and most use the Enigma 2 system.

They require a dish with either legacy sky lnb outputs or unicable outputs.

If you have no intention of going back to sky , then you are better off having the dish swapped out.

Unicable is best and most widely compatible , and a box with FBC tuners gives you the same multiple tuner functionality of Sky Q and is the more open system.

If what you have is sky Q gear , then they most likely want it back anyways.

Bellie1

I was confused myself. I thought freesat was the only option that allowed EPG and recording . I thought that was the main difference between Freeview and freesat. Must do more googling and get my head around it.

Sky will want the box back but doubt they're going to call to remove the dish?

Gerry Wicklow

FreeView is the UK terrestrial service using a conventional aerial similar to Saorview. Free-To-Air (FTA) satellite are channels that are not encrypted and are available to any suitable dish and box. FreeSat is proprietary software that gives a 7day EPG and automatic tuning for some of the FTA channels. Some lesser channels and +1s might be free but not always on the FreeSat EPG.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121546878#Comment_121546878

No. The dish is yours to keep, you will only need to return the box.

It will be useless for anything except an Arris Freesat 4K box unless you change the LNB though.

andy1249

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121547467#Comment_121547467

Just an FYI for everyone in general ......

Saor = Free in Irish , to paraphrase Michael Caine , " Not a lot of people know that ! " , that should.

byte

There are still basic Manhattan Freesat (SX model) boxes available on the market, which is probably what the installer was thinking of. They don't record any content.

These don't work with Sky Q LNB's unlike the newer Arris Freesat 4K recorders, as mentioned.