Question about Freesat HD from sky

[ejayben]

I used to have sky multiroom in the bedroom and still have the equipment in place.
My original plan was to get freeview hd for this room (mainly because I hadnt heard of Freesat at the time) but now I feel freesat hd from sky would be more convienient as the room doesnt have a coaxial socket.

From what I have read I will need an hd tv, a sky hd box and a sky freesat viewing card.

Q1. Do I need a sky freesat viewing card specifically for hd?

Q2. I currently have a basic sd package from sky. Will I be able to record on the sky freesat hd box?

Q3. Will I be able to watch any programs from Anytime on the hd box?

[Jameseh]

I think your getting Freesat (HD), the BBC/ITV service, mixed up with Freesat from Sky, the Sky service.

To answer the questions under the assumption you meant Freesat from Sky;

Q1. There are no HD channels on FSFS.
Q2. No, plus its the same box you own now (presumably Sky+HD) there is no such thing as a Freesat branded box from Sky.
Q3. You would no longer be a Sky (Digital) customer so you would have no access to any features apart from basic TV.

[Chris]

FreeSatFromSky (FSFS) is not very good IMO. The EPG contains all the channels Sky offers, making channel-hopping and navigation a pain; a Freesat box has only Freesat channels in its EPG, which of course includes HD channels, if you have a Freesat HD box. The number of HD channels is limited at present but should increase significantly over the next few months as there has just been a significant increase in satellite capacity for HD free-to-air transmission to the UK.

If you have a Freesat+HD box you can also hook it up to your router via ethernet and run BBC iPlayer on it - Sky boxes cannot do this, even if you're a paying subscriber.

[muppetman11]

FreeSatFromSky (FSFS) is not very good IMO. The EPG contains all the channels Sky offers, making channel-hopping and navigation a pain; a Freesat box has only Freesat channels in its EPG, which of course includes HD channels, if you have a Freesat HD box. The number of HD channels is limited at present but should increase significantly over the next few months as there has just been a significant increase in satellite capacity for HD free-to-air transmission to the UK.

If you have a Freesat+HD box you can also hook it up to your router via ethernet and run BBC iPlayer on it - Sky boxes cannot do this, even if you're a paying subscriber.

Agree on your points however freesat from Sky has more channels available , and PPV movies however I'm not sure a free customer can use them maybe you know.

[Chris]

It's supposed to be possible to get PPV events if you phone Sky with your credit card and smart card numbers. However the typical Freesat demographic consists of people who have never wanted to pay for their telly, or who used to pay for it and no longer want to. So the lack of paid content on branded Freesat compared to FSFS is unlikely to be a negative point to most users of free satellite.

Regarding the difference in channels, there are very few channels missing from the Freesat EPG that you might actually want to watch and most of those that are missing, are missing because of the lack of spot-beam capacity, which as we were discussing the other day has now been supplied by Astra 1N ... expect to see HD versions of all Five's channels on Freesat in the not-too-distant.

Any FTA channel that is not currently listed in the Freesat EPG can, if desired, be added manually in non-Freesat mode.

[v0id]

There' are 6 HD channels available on freesatfromsky (BBC, BBC1, ITV1, C4, C5, Luxury Life) You only need the viewing card for C4 and C5

Freesatfromsky provide their own HD box (with no PVR function) if you don't already have a sky+HD box.

You won't be a Sky subscriber (so no Skyplayer or SkyGo etc.)

It's all there on the website http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/ ;)

[Chris]

You need the viewing card for correct regional settings ... otherwise you get ITV1 London. I tried running my FSFS box without a viewing card a year or so back, when all the old ones expired and had to be replaced (FSFS users had to buy the replacement card). It very quickly became more trouble than it was worth, so I phoned up and paid up to get the new card.

[ejayben]

OK, reading back through my original post I see that I wasnt clear enough about my current sky situation.
I have a sky+ (not HD) box in my lounge, with a basic level subscription.
I used to subscribe to sky multiroom in the bedroom and hence still have a connection to the dish there.
I intend to install FSFS in the bedroom using a second hand sky+HD 500GB box.

Will I be able to record on this box?
If I cant then there is no point in getting a 500GB box

[Chris]

No, you won't - unless anything has changed recently, Sky will not let you record on an unsubscribed Sky+ box. You have to continue subscribing at £10 a month to get FSFS channels plus the ability to record them.

Don't waste your money on a 2nd hand Sky+ box when you can buy a brand new Freesat PVR that will record everything without any subscription payments to anyone.

[ejayben]

Thanks to everyone who posted here for your info.

I have now abandoned my idea of any kind of PVR in the bedroom. It just doesnt seem worth the extra investment.

I therefore started looking at the differences between bbc/itv Freesat HD and FSFS HD.

FSFS has more channels but a cluttered EPG and no iPlayer, none of which I am particularly bothered about.
Both systems can be obtained for similar prices 2nd hand.
The viewing cards are the same price.

Are there any other differences I am not aware of?

[Chris]

There is no viewing card for 'official' (BBC/ITV) Freesat. FSFS needs a viewing card that will require to be replaced periodically (I believe this may be a requirement of their licence to use the encryption tech that's on it), but not often and not at high cost.

There are very, very few channels missing from the Freesat EPG that you might actually want to watch, and most of those that are missing (the channels Five, for example) are only missing temporarily due to lack of available satellite spot-beam capacity. That limitation is being removed imminently by the commercial 'go live' of Astra 1N which has lots of spare UK-only beams to spare. Channels that want to broadcast free-to-air and have rights to show programming in the UK only, need to use these broadcast beams.

Almost everything else in the Sky EPG is utter garbage, but it is FTA garbage you can tune manually on the Freesat box if you really, badly want it. I have a Freesat box and a FSFS box and I much prefer the Freesat one because the EPG is uncluttered and you can actually use the channel + and - buttons on the remote without constantly hitting the blue 'subscribe now' nag screen.