My brother's sky plus box has died and he is thinking of going over to subscription free satellite TV using his existing mini-dish. I presume he'll want a Decoder/Recorded box and a satellite finder to position the dish. This might be a silly question but are all the subscription free ones "freestat" and get the same channels?
If he wants (some of) the features of Sky+ then yes.
Assuming the sky monkey that installed the dish got it aligned well it's shouldn't need adjustment.
Not quite sure I understand the question. "Freesat" is a brand name and EPG(*) system that carries a couple of hundred free satellite TV and radio channels. There are other free channels that are not part of the Freesat EPG system, most boxes can recieve them via another setting, possibly "Other Sat" or "Other Channels". There is normally only Now & Next information available for those.
(*) EPG - Electronic Programme Guide. The point and shoot menu system that allows you to browse what channels are available and what is on those channels to 7 days into the future. With a device capable of recording it will normally let you set a recording of a given programme.
We dumped Sky about 6 months ago and bought a Humax Foxsat box. Just plugged it into the old Sky dish and it worked. Dead easy to record from the on screen guide, one touch recording of prog being watched, wind back what you are watching. Only downside is the remote does not seem to have as good a range as the Sky one.
Mike
Have you removed BOTH film stickers? Mine works ok so I haven't looked but apparently there's another film on the inside of the display window.
I have now :-) Lets see how it works this evening!
Mike
Okay.
With "Other channels" on Freesat can you normally schedule recordings by time, like an old fashioned VCR?
Are there alternative brands of EPG? If so what are the names?
I wonder if I still have another layer lurking too... Will also check out tonight.
:¬)
Probably depends on the particular device. I have a few things in "Other Channels" that I watch on occasion(*) but haven't tried setting up a timer recording on one.
Sky. B-)
Donno about any others.
(*) The BBC/ITV "red button" feeds, the multiscreens and Sky News, which isn't in the Freesat EPG.
Chade expressed precisely :
Without touching the dish, just plugging in the coax to a new box, he will get an absolute mass of channels - but only those which are free to air. He will not be able to get any of the subscription channels, like most of the Sky ones, because they are scrambled. One having an hard disk will enable programs to be recorded, plus a live watched channel, can be effectively paused to answer the phone or etc..
If it's a Thomson Sky+ box it's probably the PSU that's failed with leaky capacitors. You can get a repair kit from Satcure for about a tenner. It's a fairly simple soldering job.
But if he decides to go Freesat, when he phones Sky to cancel they may well offer a free HD box. He'll have to sign up for the HD package for a year, but they might offer that free for 3 or 6 months too. The Retentions dept have a lot of discression.
Don't pass on your mobile number to them though, Rupert's not too interested at the moment.
HN
I du luv er bit of propper grammer...
Not often you see 'an hotel', 'an hard disk'..
Gives a warm nostalgic glow to the testicles.
It is only Usenet. I spent a few seconds typing and clicked send. The world will not collapse for the sake of a surplus 'n'.
PC Savvy? Use Window Media Center.
A low spec PC with a DVB-S card (or DVB-S2) will do everything a SKY+ box will do and more.
If you're prepared to tinker.
Or an Open Source solution like MythTV.
Apparently there's the open source MediaPortal for Windows
#Paul
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