Other Anyone got freesat?

Currently we have normal sky in the living room and I have one in my room (now not subscribed but the box and cable are still there) and we recently connected a digital ariel to recieve freeview but because we live at the bottom of a valley the number of channels is restricted.

I'm thinking of going for freesat HD, is it worth having?

I'm assuming I'd just be able to unplug the satellite cable from the sky box and plug it into the freesat box?

 

It is just as simple as connecting the freesat box to the sky line, no need to change the dish direction unless you want a different satellite.

But be warned: The channel choice on freesat is, well, a bit poor. it's getting better (when I had it originally they didn't have five) but it could do with the same channels as freeview for a start.

And there's only ITVHD and BBCHD, BBCHD has slim offerings IMO

 

You'll have to point it at whichever satellite handles freesat first of course (Astra probably).

 

It uses the same sattelite as Sky does.

 

If your not bothered about HD (and there is very little content at the moment). and still got a sky box then all you need is a free to air viewing card. you can use your old viweing card if you still have it or you can buy one from sky for a nominal fee (£30 I think) and then you'll get all the free channels.

 

This is certainly the way to go, there are so many more channels on it than freeview!

 

Hang on a mo.. you can use an old viewing card from Sky? I'm just wondering about setting up my old Sky box in the bedroom, but I'm not sure on the channels I'd receive free without a card. I'd assume 'not as many as if I had an old card in' - correct?

 

So how do I get my old viewing card to give me these channels? Currently I believe I cannot view any channel, the whole box is blocked off. (I'll have to go to the loft and find the cable and route it to my room to check).

 

My old housemate had an black skybox from and a sky card he bought from a second hand shop, it got loads of the free european channels aswell as the UK ones...

 

Without a card you'll get radio and bbc and that's about it. with a card you should get bbc itv channel 4, five (all the freeview stuff) etc etc. as well as some of the non subscription music channels and other random stuff.

If you've got an old card sky viewing card then it "should" work unless sky have specificly cancelled it. This is all of course assuming your old sky box and card are for sky digital not the really old analoge service.

If you get no channels not even BBC then I would guess there's a problem with the box or the dish.

 

Time to go into the furthest depths of the loft and find that piece of wire.

Spiders. :Shudders:

 

Reconnected my sky box (took a while to route the cable through the depths of the loft - it was in the furthest possible corner and it was a struggle to reach it!

I seem to have some of the freeview channels but I, to my surprise, can't even get Five (saying I need to subscribe to it), nor can I get Sky 3 both of which are available over freeview. The sky website here states I should get Five for free, doesn't mention Sky 3 though.

 

Is that with an old Sky card inserted? Or not?

 

Yes with an old one inserted. Anyhow I phoned up sky and bought a new free to air one for £20, should get it next week.

 

I was considering Freesat, as currently all I have is a crappy Freeview box. So does Freesat have fewer channels? It's a toss up between Freesat with an old Sky Minidish the previous tennants left behind, or getting a new ariel fitted so I can actually watch proper Freeview. Which would you recommend?

 

It's got more channels then freeview, but it doesn't have a lot of what I'd call the "good" freeview channels (fiveUS - I like House alright!)

 

We've got a Sky box where I live without a card in and you get some channels but not others - no Five, Dave or anytihng but you get E4, BBC4, etc.

Don't suppose anyone has a spare Sky card I can use to get more channels for a small postage fee?

 

Freeview is waaaay better than freesat IMO. However if you're in bad reception then freesat is all you've really got

Certainly it has huge channel choice...if you like shopping channels.

 

Apparently five is encrypted (Why? It's freely available over terristrial!) so an "inactive" Sky card will not get you Five or other blocked off channels.

Hopefully that £20 one off fee is worth it (way cheaper than buying a freesat box too).

 

Because terrestrial signals don't transmit across Europe, due to this reason certain channels won't allow satellite broadcast without encryption.