Freesat from Sky

[Valley_Blue]

Good afternoon!

I currently have run of the mill Sky in my living room.

I want to add Sky freesat up stairs. I would like to have a go at installing it myself.

Where do i get a quad lnb from? and are they easy to install?

And what type of cable do i use?

I'm assuming i need to get a Sky Freesat card and what would i be looking at price wise to buy the box and card for??

Quad LNB - online from Maplin or the like, or else go to B&Q. They have a whole aisle of self-install satellite stuff these days.

Cable - 'satellite grade coax' is the usual term. Technically the top-quality stuff is known as CT100.

Have a look here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Family.aspx?...601&worldid=-9

And don't bother with Freesat from Sky - get yourself a true Freesat box. If you've not heard of the Freesat service launched by the BBC and ITV, have a look at www.joinfreesat.co.uk for information and advice. Freesat boxes do not need cards from Sky or anyone else in order to work.

A very nice High-Def PVR for Freesat has just launched - and you don't need to pay a subscription in order to use the record function, unlike with Sky.

[Valley_Blue]

Thanks for the reply!

So i can run Freesat from BBC/ITV from my Sky Dish? Just by conecting the quad lnb to my dish and running the cable to a new set top box?

Hows does the quad lnb attach to the dish? is a push on fitting?

Yes, you can run a Freesat box from a Sky dish. The two services use the same satellites and mostly the same broadcasts from those satellites. I have run a Freesat box off my own Sky dish without any issues.

The connection between the dish and the LNB ... yes, with an adaptor clip. Original Sky minidishes apparently have a non-standard mount for the LNB. However Maplin sells the adaptor, and presumably other retailers do too.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=221062

[Matth]

At the moment, Five has gone to the other freesat, but Fiver and Five US are still stuck with the Sky freesat only.

Looking for other worthwhile channels:
Sky have a couple of film channels that the other freesat do not

The other freesat has Zone Horror, Sky appear not to.

Before deciding on BBC/ITV Freesat or Sky Freesat, or even Sky multiroom - extra subs, but you get your full channel packs on all multiroom boxes, have a glance at the channel lists for anything you really want.

If you are going to do it the no extra subs way, then:
1. you need a multi-output LNB - dual will drive one additional box, but for anything more, or an additional recording box with dual tuners, you would need a quad.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...%3EFREESAT.htm - Argos Quad LNB for Sky dishes, looks like the cable kit with it is only enough for a dual hookup.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-QUAD...1%7C240%3A1309 - Universal, claimed to fit sky dish and only £9.99

2. Buy a box, for BBC/ITV Freesat you would probably be buying at Argos or something.
£299 for a recorder (HD), £120-150 (HD), about £50 for standard def

For Sky Freesat, you would probably buy the box from Ebay, and if it has a matching card, that MAY work as a Sky freesat card, otherwise it's £20 for one from Sky.
Look up the model number of any box you are considering, several older models are notorious for power supply faults, failure to restart etc.

Originally Posted by Chris

Quad LNB - online from Maplin or the like, or else go to B&Q. They have a whole aisle of self-install satellite stuff these days.

Cable - 'satellite grade coax' is the usual term. Technically the top-quality stuff is known as CT100.

Have a look here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Family.aspx?...601&worldid=-9

And don't bother with Freesat from Sky - get yourself a true Freesat box. If you've not heard of the Freesat service launched by the BBC and ITV, have a look at www.joinfreesat.co.uk for information and advice. Freesat boxes do not need cards from Sky or anyone else in order to work.

A very nice High-Def PVR for Freesat has just launched - and you don't need to pay a subscription in order to use the record function, unlike with Sky.

do you have to point that to the same satellite? of are adjustments needed?

Originally Posted by David F

do you have to point that to the same satellite? of are adjustments needed?

No adjustments are needed Zing - Freesat and Sky both rely on the same satellites so a Sky dish is already pointing the right way for Freesat. The only complication might be if the position of the dish was disturbed while fixing the new LNB to it. However if the existing dish has been there a while and has survived the weather for any significant length of time, it would be unlikely to shift position, provided it's treated with respect.

---------- Post added at 10:06 ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 ----------

Originally Posted by Matth

At the moment, Five has gone to the other freesat, but Fiver and Five US are still stuck with the Sky freesat only.

Looking for other worthwhile channels:
Sky have a couple of film channels that the other freesat do not

The other freesat has Zone Horror, Sky appear not to.

Before deciding on BBC/ITV Freesat or Sky Freesat, or even Sky multiroom - extra subs, but you get your full channel packs on all multiroom boxes, have a glance at the channel lists for anything you really want.

I've always regarded the argument from channel quantity to be a bit of a red herring when comparing Freesat with FSFS (Freesatfromsky).

The discrepancies are mainly due to Sky demanding time to ensure Freesat's interactive streams don't screw up Sky's, seeing as the two services share the same picture broadcasts but rely on different interactive content. Freesat relies on Sky for a crucial part of the satellite uplink process so Sky is certainly entitled to make sure its own services are not at risk, however I'm personally dubious that they need quite so much time as they claim to check out each channel that applies to join the Freesat EPG before 'allowing' it.

Freesat launched with about 80 channels but there are now well over 100 and by early next year there will be virtually no difference between the free-to-air line up on a Freesat or FSFS box. The remaining differences will be where broadcast rights issues, or an existing encryption deal between a broadcaster and Sky, means a channel cannot go free-to-air and join the Freesat EPG. This is currently the situation with Fiver and FiveUS. Channel 5 is notorious in the industry for being a bit slow off the mark, but they have just managed to get their main channel onto Freesat so it's expected that the other two will be there eventually.

Incidentally, Zone Horror does show up on the FSFS EPG - I have a FSFS box here at home. Not that there's ever anything on that channel I want to watch ...

[GeoffW]

The other thing to think about might be to upgrade your existing Sky to Sky+. They change the LNB to a quad for Sky+. You could ask (and pay) them to run another cable to the upstairs while they are doing the Sky+ install.

[MojoUK]

Not sure if this is the right thread, so here we go. I've been told at work that if you get Sky Freesat, you don't need a BT line, it's only if you get full Sky package that you need to have a BT line, Freesat you don't. Is this correct? Thanks in advance.

A FreesatfromSky box does not have to be attached to a phone line. A regular subscription service Sky box does, for the first 12 months of the subscription, but it does not have to be a BT line. A Virgin Media landline will do.

[MojoUK]

Ok, cheers Chris.

[GeoffW]

I'm thinking of using my old Sky box to get Freesat Free to Air channels.

Can anyone confirm whether this will work without buying the £20 sky card? I'd understood the card is only required to decrypt a couple of FTV channels. So if I have no card can I still get BBC and ITV without getting prompted to insert my card the whole time.

[Kymmy]

Personally I use a non-SKY or FREESAT box, not bothered about HD...

The box has a cardslot so I can watch FTV and FTA.. The ONLY problem is that you can't activate a SKY FTV card in a non-sky box, but there's lots about already activated or just buy a cheapo box from a carboot/ebay and sell it on for the same price..

My DVB-S box though does have a few extra features which I suppose is why I have it instead of an easier to use freesat box and that is ethernet which I can stream media from the PC and also stream broadcasts to the PC.. Also I have twin (not dual) LNB's (used to have a motorised dish but it's too much of a pain) with the 2nd LNB pointing towards another sat (the box does disecQ switching or motorcontrol)

If though I was starting up and wanted an easy to use box it would be FREESAT, if though I already had a full Sky system and wanted to go FTV then I'd stick with the Sky system.. You could though run both if you so desired with a dual/quad LNB (depends on PVR or not)

---------- Post added at 11:12 ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 ----------

Originally Posted by GeoffW

I'm thinking of using my old Sky box to get Freesat Free to Air channels.

Can anyone confirm whether this will work without buying the £20 sky card? I'd understood the card is only required to decrypt a couple of FTV channels. So if I have no card can I still get BBC and ITV without getting prompted to insert my card the whole time.

The Sky FTV list is full accesable via the £20 card But suprised they're still selling them as the ONLY ones I believe are still encrypted are SKY3, Five Life (Fiver), Five US and Setanta Sports News (is that last one still running?), but a lot of channels which FREESAT uses are not programmed into a SKY box.. BUT depending on the box and the engineers menu there has been people who have manually programmed in the other channels BUT this is a long and thankless task and if the channels change they will not update. In the end Sky is fighting a losing battle with FTV and FREESAT will eventually win.

[GeoffW]

I'm tending towards spending the extra money and going for proper Freesat rather than FSFS, I just need basic TV in a bedroom. Just found this in Maplin for £35.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=229076

Still interested in what I'd see with no card in my old sky box, TV or constant prompting to insert my card.

[Kymmy]

Geoff, just be aware that the EPG might not work with FREESAT too well (if at all)

Had problems with mine but as mine is a linux firmware that has lots of user designed images it meant I could find one that had a EPG compatible..