Dish or aerial?

Turkey Machine · 02-05-2009, 02:44

In Lowestoft, we don't have cable, and are unlikely to unless Virgin can stump up a few (hundred) million pounds to lay the necessary conduits from Gorlestone / Yarmouth down the road to Lowestoft.

So for TV we're left with the option of Freeview on the fringes of the Tacolneston transmitter way out in Norfolk, or a satellite dish. Many houses in Lowestoft have a dish, but the Freeview reception is, for the most part, alright, when the seagulls don't disrupt it by flying onto the aerial! But a few friends of mine have suggested that I get a dish rather than an aerial for my room, and I don't know which one to go for!

Ideally I'd have both, and the tuner card for an HTPC to go with it, but that's for another day I guess. I'm leaning towards the dish, as there are lots of channels carried on it, and the signal's good in most weathers. The Freeview signal's unlikely to improve until the analogue switchoff in 2011 (at least that's what people say, I have no clue myself and am sceptical), so any aerial installed has ideally got to be a high-gain one to receive the weak-ish signal (50% strength, 90-something % quality at least according to my dad's Sagem PVR) from the transmitter.

Will the digital terrestrial signal strength improve when analogue's switched off? Can anybody in the area suggest which would be better to have at this stage?

I'm all for future-proofing, and that's what I'm trying to do, but splitting the signal from the current aerial's also only going to make things worse at the moment.

**Chris** · 02-05-2009, 07:48

Get Freesat. Freeview is a lame duck IMO, as it will never be able to offer a full HD service (and you would need to buy another STB to receive Freeview HD even when it is launched). Also if you are relying on a local relay transmitter for Freeview, it will not ever broadcast all the Freeview muxes, even when its signal strength improves post-analogue switch-off.

Freesat is available to you now, will give you a perfect, stable signal now, can offer you HD capability now, and has ethernet support built in (iPlayer near-VOD coming later this year).

---------- Post added at 07:48 ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 ----------

Plenty of interesting info here: www.joinfreesat.co.uk

Kymmy · 02-05-2009, 08:38

Totally agree with Chris here that FREESAT is the way to go...

Even if you don't have a HD TV you can get a lot cheaper non-HD system with a dish and then later on just upgrade the box and not the dish..

also might be handy for them to install a quad LNB at the time for when freesat PVR functions get a lot better

**Chris** · 02-05-2009, 10:25

Freesat already has one PVR on the market with two more due during this year. They require dual LNBs, same as Sky+ does. What 'better' did you have in mind? Are there triple or quad-tuner STBs out there somewhere?

That said, when I get round to swapping my LNB I'll be putting in a quad as an absolute minimum, so I have the ability to run cables to whichever rooms in the house I may choose to put a TV in in the future. Actually I'd be more likely to go for an octo ...

Kymmy · 02-05-2009, 14:54

Better as in more room to upgrade later on to multiple systems ') you can be sure that in the future someone might want two PVR boxes in the same house (each requires a dual LNB) and as a quad is only a bit dearer than a dual it would save changing it later on

Plus I should have typed OPTIONS...instead of FUNCTIONS

nodrogd · 02-05-2009, 21:04

The Freeview signal "should" improve after switchover, but transmission powers will be constrained to stop interference with our european neigbours. I've noticed the ITU have allocated four UHF frequencies for a proposed relay in Lowestoft. One of these will be a sell off channel for non DTT use, so this relay will only transmit the three PSB mux.

Turkey Machine · 03-05-2009, 16:17

So dish definitely the way forward then! Best go find out how much it'll cost to put one up the front of the house with a quad-LNB then.

barby81 · 03-05-2009, 20:30

FreeSat is great but more expensive than Freeview boxes.

Does anyone know if there are any channels on freeview that are are missing from FreeSat??

Turkey Machine · 03-05-2009, 20:50

Virgin 1 certainly, but Freesat also has a couple +1's that Freeview doesn't.

**Chris** · 03-05-2009, 23:39

Virgin 1, Dave and UKTV History are missing from Freesat. But then, Freeview is entirely missing HD, and what's more Freeview will never be capable of delivering a full HD service. So long term, Freesat is going to be the primary choice for free-to-air TV in the UK. You might as well get on board now.

nodrogd · 04-05-2009, 10:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by barby81

FreeSat is great but more expensive than Freeview boxes.

Does anyone know if there are any channels on freeview that are are missing from FreeSat??

Yes, Sky 3 and Sky Sports News are missing. These are however available on the Sky version of freesat, along with Sky News.

**Chris** · 04-05-2009, 10:14

You can manually tune a Freesat box to get Sky News if you really want it. However there's a big problem with "FreesatfromSky" boxes compared to proper Freesat ones. The Sky EPG is still present in full, loaded with all the channels you don't get and don't want. Sat installers who put in FTA systems have hated this for years, especially when they have to explain to some of their customers why it is that all the channels they don't get are still listed. They are loving Freesat for this reason. The EPG by definition only includes channels you can actually watch.

Turkey Machine · 04-05-2009, 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

You can manually tune a Freesat box to get Sky News if you really want it. However there's a big problem with "FreesatfromSky" boxes compared to proper Freesat ones. The Sky EPG is still present in full, loaded with all the channels you don't get and don't want. Sat installers who put in FTA systems have hated this for years, especially when they have to explain to some of their customers why it is that all the channels they don't get are still listed. They are loving Freesat for this reason. The EPG by definition only includes channels you can actually watch.

By that reason I could complain to Virgin about their EPG, which does much the same for M (i.e Free-to-view) package holders.

Looking round, I see that installation for a dish and quad-LNB will cost around £100 where I live. That too much to have a dish installed and aligned, a couple of wires put to a node in the bedroom, and the quad-LNB installed?

**Chris** · 04-05-2009, 20:31

That price is about right.

You could complain to Virgin about them loading their EPG with channels you're not subscribed to, but it wouldn't make any difference. They do it for the same reason Sky do it - to show you what you're missing, in the hope they can persuade you to 'upgrade'.

The beauty of proper Freesat is that nobody is trying to sell you anything. You buy your box, you tune it in. Same as TV always used to be, and as a matter of fact still the same way most people in the UK want it.

LondonRoad · 04-05-2009, 20:46

I've no intention of moving from VM at the moment but I may make use of my old Sky dish in the future.

I was wondering if Freesat was as vulnerable to weather conditions as Sky? I would have thought it would be.