hi folks,a few years ago we had a sky system and we were disapointed with the content for the price so we kept it until the contract expired,sold the box for a few pints and we still have the dish and all the cabling so our question is what options are open to us to reconnect,not neccesarily to sky but what would we need for say freesat,we have freeview ,are they the same,thanks in advance
Too late now, but I would have kept the system and just replaced the viewing card whenever it expired. Had to do this myself recently - the card had been in use for at least 5 years. With the $ky hardware you can watch all the Free-to-View (viewing card needed) and Free-to-Air channels at no cost. I was given the hardware by friends who were emigrating, so the recent viewing card purchase was my first expense.
Now you do not have the $ky box, I believe you can buy a FreeSat box and simply connect that in its place (confirmation along soon). The advantage of this is that you will get the HD channels for free (HD channels on $ky are paid service only). If you want FreeSat Plus for recording/delayed playback etc, I believe that you will need a dish with dual (or more) outputs.
Finally if you want FreeView, you will need a suitable aerial and either a set-top-box, or a TV with built-in Freeview.
Where do you live Bob? I have a Topfield dual channel non HD recorder box, though to use it to its full extent would require a dual LNB, which I also have. If you live near enough to North Staffordshire and can come to pick it up you would be most welcome. It is in my attic taking up space, so I would like it to have a good home!
One that has two outputs, so you can send a signal to boxes in two different rooms, or send two channels to the same box if you want to watch one channel and record a different channel simultaneously.
Not bothered replacing our similarly aged "Freesat from Sky" card. Still does the regionalisation and decodes the FTV channels. You do get a nag screen popup if you leave the card in but you don't need to do that for the FTA channels.
If Sky do disable the regionalsation I'll just get dual Rx Freesat HDD/DVD recorder.
Yep. Might need a minor dish tweak depending on how well it was intially aimed on installation.
If you have HD capable Freesat box and HD display.
Simples: Go to Argos and buy a Freesat box 50 or 60 quid for non-HD. Assuming your dish and cabling is OK that is all you need.
You'll pay more for an HD receiver (~£125) and more still for an HDR with integral hard disk recorder (~£250). beware though for the HDR you really need a dual LNB which may involve a dish upgrade. Given this is uk.d-i-y that should be no problem.
I have the Humax Foxsat HDR and am very impressed.
...and if the above does not work out, go to Argos again and ask for your money back.
Notice that all the freeview/freesat device Argos sell are marked with a little dagger symbol, their small print states they are excluded from the 30 day money back guarantee.
Argos's own "rules" cannot of course supersede Consumer Law so you would still have the right to return the item under the DSR but presumably it would need to be returned to where it was despatched from and not a store .
Secondhand SKY digiboxes seem readily available for Free via Freecycle/Freegle - if my local groups are anything to go by or just start asking all your friends etc.
Not the same, there is (almost) the same plus many +1 one hour channels and very many more which are not on Freeview. Depending upon how you might like to count them around 200 extra channels free to air.
I have a Fortec Star Passion + HD receiver which I can thoroughly recommend.
Any idea what kids channels there are? We could dump sky and their ridiculously overpriced subscription if we could find something to keep the kids happy.
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