Can Sky satelite dish be used...?

SolarNexus

Can a Sky Digital satelite dish be used for free-to-air and free-to-view channels, if using non-sky-commissioned digital box?

The main reason I ask this is we cant get ITV or UTV on sky which is just plain stupid as we used to be able to get it using terestrial tv and there are some good shows on that (or so I am told).

Additionally, I would like to see whether it would be worthwhile setting up a system which did not require any subscriptions and whether I could get the 'important' channels like Discovery etc.

swoofer

yes, to get utv, itv u need a sky digibox and a sky ftv viewing card.

to get discovry u would need a lot of kit and cost would be more than getting a sky subscription.

i dont know where u are so cant say anymore.

gb--

SolarNexus

okaaaay....

it says where I am in my profile, "Dublin" - Ireland

I have sky digital atm, but cant recieve UTV/ITV - I have it tuned in but its disabled or something

swoofer

to get itv, ch4, u will need a uk sky ftv card. These will work in an irish sky box alongside an official sub but u will have to switch. In dublin can u not get these still on terrestial.

gb

dubmick

depends where you are in Dublin, I can get them in Balbriggan with an aerial.

Ulsterman 1690

Can a Sky Digital satelite dish be used for free-to-air and free-to-view channels, if using non-sky-commissioned digital box?

Free to air (BBC stuff/ News /Some music channels/ radio stations/ 57 other channels mostly crud)
yes
Free to view (UTV/ITV2/C4/C5)
No

the 'important' channels like Discovery etc

No

Irishstabber

What about Astra 19.2E?...could It pick up *some* channels?

byte

Astra has many channels, though most are German and other Euro countries. Only a few English-speaking channels like BBC World, CNN, EuroNews, and occasionally on Deutsche Welle.

swoofer

the sky digibox is c**p for sats other than 28%, it only has two symbol rates from what I can recall, 22000, 27500. if u really want to do a bit of sat chasing get a nokia 9600 with dvb2000 software and u will have great fun.
I am sure i have a spare one if u are intrested.

gb---

SolarNexus

GBCULLEN wrote:

the sky digibox is c**p for sats other than 28%, it only has two symbol rates from what I can recall, 22000, 27500. if u really want to do a bit of sat chasing get a nokia 9600 with dvb2000 software and u will have great fun.
I am sure i have a spare one if u are intrested.

gb---

your right about the sky digital dish limitations, though as I'm new to satelite tech' I have yet to truly "feel" the limitations, if you know what I mean.

I am at the moment looking for some, or rather "any" satelite equipment that would let me get into the swing of things, perhaps upgrading to more expensive equipment later if needs be. I started this thread to see if it was possible to use the current dish, or whether I would have to upgrade... I dont even know how Sky would feel about me using another dish or whether I could use another dish to replace the current dish that is at present rusting away.

gotta begin somewhere though..

L1011

SolarNexus wrote:

your right about the sky digital dish limitations, though as I'm new to satelite tech' I have yet to truly "feel" the limitations, if you know what I mean.

I am at the moment looking for some, or rather "any" satelite equipment that would let me get into the swing of things, perhaps upgrading to more expensive equipment later if needs be. I started this thread to see if it was possible to use the current dish, or whether I would have to upgrade... I dont even know how Sky would feel about me using another dish or whether I could use another dish to replace the current dish that is at present rusting away.

gotta begin somewhere though..

He's talking about limititations of a Sky -digibox- there, not the dish

The only limitations the dish have are its stupid shape and wrong feedhorn, so you can't replace the LNB cheaply, or with anything insane like 8-output LNB's. Other than that, a Sky dish can be used to pick up 28.2, 19.2 and probably even 16 and 13 without any real issues. They're just funny shaped 60cm dishs... (43cm in south of the UK)

SolarNexus

MYOB wrote:

He's talking about limititations of a Sky -digibox- there, not the dish

The only limitations the dish have are its stupid shape and wrong feedhorn, so you can't replace the LNB cheaply, or with anything insane like 8-output LNB's. Other than that, a Sky dish can be used to pick up 28.2, 19.2 and probably even 16 and 13 without any real issues. They're just funny shaped 60cm dishs... (43cm in south of the UK)

my bad, I too meant the digibox