I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17
and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?

Dave

"Dave" wrote in message
...
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic buy
and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17 and
upwards per month,

Do you mean the Freesat from Sky service? £150 odd up front and nothing
more to pay.?
My mum's got that (Terrestrial Freeview doesn't work for her postcode).
In my view, the only thing that's better than terrestrial digital is that
you get Al Jazeera channel but you don't get Dave.

OG wrote:

"Dave" wrote in message
...

I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic buy
and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17 and
upwards per month,


Do you mean the Freesat from Sky service? £150 odd up front and nothing
more to pay.?

Yes, that's what I after the info on, but sky look like being shy about
advertising it.

My mum's got that (Terrestrial Freeview doesn't work for her postcode).
In my view, the only thing that's better than terrestrial digital is that
you get Al Jazeera channel but you don't get Dave.

Wife wouldn't watch that, as it is too male for her.

Dave

In article ,
OG wrote:
Do you mean the Freesat from Sky service?

FreeSat is nothing to do with Sky. Quite the reverse, actually. It's run
by BBC and ITV.

--
*When cheese gets it's picture taken, what does it say?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
OG wrote:
Do you mean the Freesat from Sky service?

FreeSat is nothing to do with Sky. Quite the reverse, actually. It's run
by BBC and ITV.

There are two Sky Freesat and FreeSat.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
OG wrote:
Do you mean the Freesat from Sky service?

FreeSat is nothing to do with Sky. Quite the reverse, actually. It's run
by BBC and ITV.


No, "Freesat From Sky" was launched before "Freesat", so it
could be argued the BBC/ITV pinched the name from Sky.
--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Dave wrote:
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17
and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?


http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

We've had FreeSat-from-Sky for a few years now, as Freeview isn't
currently available to us.

Dave wrote:
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17
and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?

FreeSatfFomSky:

http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

Note this is not the same thing as FreeSat which offers a similar
lineoup but also some HD programming:

http://www.freesat.co.uk/



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

John Rumm wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay
£17 and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?

FreeSatfFomSky:

http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

Note this is not the same thing as FreeSat which offers a similar
lineoup but also some HD programming:

http://www.freesat.co.uk/




Curious.

Out of interest, has anyone any experience of Freesat and Freesat from
Sky?, I'd be curious (in passing only) as to the quality difference. I
know from my experience with Sky, that the quality of broadcasts often
leaves a lot to be desired (apparantly due to limited bandwidths, etc).

This might be a useful decision point for someone investigating free
satellite broadcasting.

In article ,
S Viemeister wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay
£17 and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about
the channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right
direction before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications
in this house?


http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

We've had FreeSat-from-Sky for a few years now, as Freeview isn't
currently available to us.

You can get *most* of the FTA channels without involving either Sky or
FreeSat.

--
*I'm not as think as you drunk I am.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Mike Dodd wrote:
Out of interest, has anyone any experience of Freesat and Freesat from
Sky?, I'd be curious (in passing only) as to the quality difference. I
know from my experience with Sky, that the quality of broadcasts often
leaves a lot to be desired (apparantly due to limited bandwidths, etc).

Sure it's not down to the quality of the programme being transmitted? Even
something that started out half decent - like a feature film - can suffer
from a poor transfer at some stage before transmission.

FreeView, on the other hand, does reduce the data rate on some channels.

This might be a useful decision point for someone investigating free
satellite broadcasting.

If you can DIY it's so cheap you can just see for yourself. A Lidl
satellite kit at about 60 quid gets most of the FTA stuff. And setting the
dish is easy.

--
*Geeks shall inherit the earth *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 20/09/2008 08:24, Mike Dodd wrote:

Out of interest, has anyone any experience of Freesat and Freesat from
Sky?, I'd be curious (in passing only) as to the quality difference.

The quality of the signals is identical, because both freesat and
freesatfrom sky receive from the same transponders on the same
satellites (might be a couple of exceptions to that e.g. C4)

freesat and freesat from sky do use different EPGs, and obviously you
can't receive encrypted or FTV channels on a freesat box, just FTA.

I've seen some people complaining that the freesat boxes are lower
quality, I don't know if they're right, but you can judge that for
yourself in the shop.

On 20/09/2008 09:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Sure it's not down to the quality of the programme being transmitted? Even
something that started out half decent - like a feature film - can suffer
from a poor transfer at some stage before transmission.

FreeView, on the other hand, does reduce the data rate on some channels.

Can be true in reverse too, to save bandwidth costs ITV channels are
transmitted at 544x576 on satellite, compared to 702x576 on freeview.

Andy Burns wrote:
On 20/09/2008 08:24, Mike Dodd wrote:

Out of interest, has anyone any experience of Freesat and Freesat from
Sky?, I'd be curious (in passing only) as to the quality difference.

The quality of the signals is identical, because both freesat and
freesatfrom sky receive from the same transponders on the same
satellites (might be a couple of exceptions to that e.g. C4)

freesat and freesat from sky do use different EPGs, and obviously you
can't receive encrypted or FTV channels on a freesat box, just FTA.

I've seen some people complaining that the freesat boxes are lower
quality, I don't know if they're right, but you can judge that for
yourself in the shop.

Freesat will be more attractive when the twin tuner PVRs come out as well...

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:28:41 +0100 someone who may be Dave
wrote this:-

I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17
and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?

To add to what the others have said.

1) Freesat from Sky and Freesat channels are broadcast from the same
group of satellites. In fact the BBC2 Scotland or whatever that you
see on both is exactly the same transmission from the same
satellite.

2) There is a third way of seeing the same programme, a standard FTA
(free to air) satellite receiver as one would buy on the mainland.

3) I assume that you don't have an existing dish pointing at the
Astra 2 group of satellites.

4) Freesat from Sky involves someone fitting the gubbins. With
Freesat you can either get someone to do all that, or you can just
buy the receiver and DIY the dish.

5) With a FTA receiver people generally buy all the gubbins and
install it themselves, though you can pay someone to do some or all
of it.

6) What you get depends on which of the three ways you have chosen.
Note that all three sorts of receiver can be used with the same
dish. Freesat from Sky has one particular electronic programme guide
(EPG). It tries to lock you into "Sky" channels, though there are
limited facilities to add some others. It has Channel 5.

7) Freesat has another particular EPG. There are facilities to add
"non-Freesat" channels. The receivers have an Ethernet socket, ready
for television on demand (not working at the moment). At the moment
Channel 5 is not on it, due to a contract they signed with Sky, but
the last I heard it should be there by Christmas.

8) FTA receivers will get any channel that Freesat receivers will
get. It is also much easier to view other channels. There are not a
lot of these, but what some like is to watch the local news for
other locations. This is easy on FTA, more difficult on the other
two. There is not a proper EPG on a FTA receiver, only now and next
information. Channel5 will appear at the same time as it does on
Freesat.

9) If you have a HD television then there are other considerations.
HD receivers cost more, but the pictures and sound are a great
improvement. The BBC do several hours an evening now and special
events on their HD channel (there is a programme guide for BBC HD on
the BBC web site). ITV HD is a rare event at the moment. It is not
available on Freesat from Sky, is available on Freesat and can be
picked up on some FTA receivers with a degree of difficulty ranging
from easy peasy to fairly hard, depending on model. Channel4 HD is
only available on Freesat from Sky, no idea if this will be on the
others soon or even later. Is it worth it at the moment? You have to
decide. HD signals use the same dish as SD (standard definition)
signals, so you can buy an SD receiver now and only have to change
the receiver to get HD in the future (assuming you have an HD
television) when things are a little more settled.

10) Which option you prefer is a matter of your personal
preferences. Time/skills to DIY against the cost of having someone
else do it.



--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:32:22 +0100 someone who may be David Hansen
wrote this:-

2) There is a third way of seeing the same programme, a standard FTA
(free to air) satellite receiver as one would buy on the mainland.

Forgot to add. These can be bought as kits from places like Maplin
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218642, or the bits
can be bought separately.

It is possible to sometimes buy satellite stuff more cheaply in
places like Lidl. The receivers from there are well worth looking
out for as they are good quality, as is the satellite in a suitcase
kit. The latter is also available all the time, for more money, from
Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:08:01 +0100 someone who may be Andy Burns
wrote this:-

I've seen some people complaining that the freesat boxes are lower
quality, I don't know if they're right, but you can judge that for
yourself in the shop.

There are only two manufactures of receivers at the moment. The
Bush, Grundig and Goodmans ones are the same thing inside different
boxes. The other manufacturer is Humax, who only make an HD one. The
quality is at least as good as the ones with a Sky badge on the
front, which isn't saying much.

By contrast there are many manufacturers of FTA receivers and one
can select from a far wider range of products with a far wider range
of quality.

Will more manufacturers take up Freesat? No idea. The UK now has two
non-standard EPG systems, Sky and Freesat. This strikes me as quite
mad given that there is a perfectly good standard EPG system
available, which many German channels use. Unless lots of people
adopt Freesat I doubt if many manufacturers will think it worthwhile
producing special software for the UK, especially as to get the
Freesat logo there are restrictions placed on the hardware and
software. Two examples of this are only having "Freesat channels" on
the main programme list and cutting off the YPbPr output on
some/many broadcasts for the most silly of reasons.



--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

On 20/09/2008 10:50, David Hansen wrote:

There are only two manufactures of receivers at the moment. The
Bush, Grundig and Goodmans ones are the same thing inside different
boxes. The other manufacturer is Humax, who only make an HD one. The
quality is at least as good as the ones with a Sky badge on the
front, which isn't saying much.

I saw some specific complaints (can't remember which make/model, look in
uk.tech.digital-tv if interested) that the chroma/lumi signals had been
decoded with a displacement between them, leading to colour fringes, and
were still the same on replaced boxes.

By contrast there are many manufacturers of FTA receivers and one
can select from a far wider range of products with a far wider range
of quality.

True, if you can live without a 7day EPG.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:06:43 +0100, wrote:

No, "Freesat From Sky" was launched before "Freesat", so it could be
argued the BBC/ITV pinched the name from Sky.

Freesat had already been trademarked by the BBC. That's why 'freesat
from sky' always includes the 'from sky' bit.

And Sky didn't want to buy the "Freesat" trademark when the BBC offered it
to them. I guess that is sensible as it keeps their brand name "Sky" in
the market place and makes it easier to distinguish between the (now) two
"freesat" services. Hum, that must be a mistake, marketing normally want
to confuse the consumer...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:32:22 +0100, David Hansen wrote:

To add to what the others have said.

1)
snip
10)

Yep all good accurate stuff. With one small additional option a Sky
digibox without a viewing card. Without a card you can't see the Free To
View Channels (FTV), of the main stream ones this currently means Channel
4(*) and five. All BBC and ITV channels are Free To Air (FTA) and don't
need a viewing card in a Sky digibox.

You can get a Sky digi box, dish, LNB and cable form many sources
(freecycle?) and DIY install. The card only can be obtained from Sky for
£20 one off. You don't have to spend £150 one off and let a Sky
installation cowboy knock great spalls off your brick work.

The other slight problem with not having a viewing card in Sky digibox is
that the regional varaiations default to London but if you place a card
from your area in the box it'll set the region correctly and remember it
until completely power cycled.

(*) Many (all?) of the other Channel 4 offerings are already FTA and I
expect Channel 4 itself to become FTA soonish.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:05:25 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:32:22 +0100, David Hansen wrote:

To add to what the others have said.

1)
snip
10)

Yep all good accurate stuff. With one small additional option a Sky
digibox without a viewing card. Without a card you can't see the Free To
View Channels (FTV), of the main stream ones this currently means Channel
4(*) and five. All BBC and ITV channels are Free To Air (FTA) and don't
need a viewing card in a Sky digibox.

You can get a Sky digi box, dish, LNB and cable form many sources
(freecycle?) and DIY install. The card only can be obtained from Sky for
£20 one off. You don't have to spend £150 one off and let a Sky
installation cowboy knock great spalls off your brick work.

The other slight problem with not having a viewing card in Sky digibox is
that the regional varaiations default to London but if you place a card
from your area in the box it'll set the region correctly and remember it
until completely power cycled.

(*) Many (all?) of the other Channel 4 offerings are already FTA and I
expect Channel 4 itself to become FTA soonish.

I have a Freesat From Sky card and when I remove it Ch5 is the one I
can't get .Ch4 IS available .

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:05:25 +0100 (BST) someone who may be "Dave
Liquorice" wrote this:-


Yep all good accurate stuff. With one small additional option a Sky
digibox without a viewing card. Without a card you can't see the Free To
View Channels (FTV), of the main stream ones this currently means Channel
4(*) and five.

The "Channel 4 stable" of channels was made free to air on the day
of the launch of Freesat. From memory it happened some time in
mid-morning. The exception is Channel 4 HD, which remains encrypted.

Channel 4 itself is not particularly obvious on a FTA receiver.
Unless they have changed things recently, instead of Channel 4 it is
identified as some four digit number. I have no intention of looking
that number up, anyone who needs to do so can do it. The other
channels of the "stable" do have a correct identification, E4+1 and
so on.



--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
S Viemeister wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay
£17 and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about
the channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right
direction before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications
in this house?


http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

We've had FreeSat-from-Sky for a few years now, as Freeview isn't
currently available to us.

You can get *most* of the FTA channels without involving either Sky or
FreeSat.


I looked into doing that - but I'm no good on tall ladders, and hiring
someone to do the installation would have been pricey, as the house is
in a fairly remote area. It was easier and cheaper to pay Sky the GBP
150, for the equipment, installation, and card.

"David Hansen" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:28:41 +0100 someone who may be Dave
wrote this:-

I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17
and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?

To add to what the others have said.

1) Freesat from Sky and Freesat channels are broadcast from the same
group of satellites. In fact the BBC2 Scotland or whatever that you
see on both is exactly the same transmission from the same
satellite.

2) There is a third way of seeing the same programme, a standard FTA
(free to air) satellite receiver as one would buy on the mainland.

3) I assume that you don't have an existing dish pointing at the
Astra 2 group of satellites.

4) Freesat from Sky involves someone fitting the gubbins. With
Freesat you can either get someone to do all that, or you can just
buy the receiver and DIY the dish.

5) With a FTA receiver people generally buy all the gubbins and
install it themselves, though you can pay someone to do some or all
of it.

6) What you get depends on which of the three ways you have chosen.
Note that all three sorts of receiver can be used with the same
dish. Freesat from Sky has one particular electronic programme guide
(EPG). It tries to lock you into "Sky" channels, though there are
limited facilities to add some others. It has Channel 5.

7) Freesat has another particular EPG. There are facilities to add
"non-Freesat" channels. The receivers have an Ethernet socket, ready
for television on demand (not working at the moment). At the moment
Channel 5 is not on it, due to a contract they signed with Sky, but
the last I heard it should be there by Christmas.

8) FTA receivers will get any channel that Freesat receivers will
get. It is also much easier to view other channels. There are not a
lot of these, but what some like is to watch the local news for
other locations. This is easy on FTA, more difficult on the other
two. There is not a proper EPG on a FTA receiver, only now and next
information. Channel5 will appear at the same time as it does on
Freesat.

9) If you have a HD television then there are other considerations.
HD receivers cost more, but the pictures and sound are a great
improvement. The BBC do several hours an evening now and special
events on their HD channel (there is a programme guide for BBC HD on
the BBC web site). ITV HD is a rare event at the moment. It is not
available on Freesat from Sky, is available on Freesat and can be
picked up on some FTA receivers with a degree of difficulty ranging
from easy peasy to fairly hard, depending on model. Channel4 HD is
only available on Freesat from Sky, no idea if this will be on the
others soon or even later. Is it worth it at the moment? You have to
decide. HD signals use the same dish as SD (standard definition)
signals, so you can buy an SD receiver now and only have to change
the receiver to get HD in the future (assuming you have an HD
television) when things are a little more settled.

10) Which option you prefer is a matter of your personal
preferences. Time/skills to DIY against the cost of having someone
else do it.

Remember FTA is free to air, i.e. not encrypted.
There are FTV free to view channels too, ATM ch5 is FTV.
You need the decoder to get the FTV channels, only available from sky.

You can buy used sky boxes, make sure they have a card if you want the FTV
channels.

S Viemeister wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
S Viemeister wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay
£17 and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about
the channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right
direction before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications
in this house?


http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

We've had FreeSat-from-Sky for a few years now, as Freeview isn't
currently available to us.

You can get *most* of the FTA channels without involving either Sky or
FreeSat.


I looked into doing that - but I'm no good on tall ladders, and hiring
someone to do the installation would have been pricey, as the house is
in a fairly remote area. It was easier and cheaper to pay Sky the GBP
150, for the equipment, installation, and card.

It doesn't actually have to be mounted high up. There is quite a lot
about this elsewhere, seems Sky installers try to fit quite low
specifically to avoid the H&S issues of doing so higher up.

Of course, you might not be happy with that, but the dish would be quite
content.

--
Rod

Hypothyroidism is a seriously debilitating condition with an insidious
onset.
Although common it frequently goes undiagnosed.
www.thyromind.info www.thyroiduk.org www.altsupportthyroid.org

In article ,
wrote:
I have a Freesat From Sky card and when I remove it Ch5 is the one I
can't get .Ch4 IS available .

IIRC, CH5 group have a contract with Sky for non terrestrial broadcast,
but this won't last forever.

--
*I finally got my head together, now my body is falling apart.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:01:07 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:
I have a Freesat From Sky card and when I remove it Ch5 is the one I
can't get .Ch4 IS available .

IIRC, CH5 group have a contract with Sky for non terrestrial broadcast,
but this won't last forever.

Yeah I think it's only a matter of time but what I replied to was
someone saying that neither Ch5 nor 4 are availabe FTV when in fact
it's just Ch 5 that is the one remaining channel .

On 20/09/2008 17:23, wrote:

Yeah I think it's only a matter of time but what I replied to was
someone saying that neither Ch5 nor 4 are availabe FTV when in fact
it's just Ch 5 that is the one remaining channel .

Out of the terrestrial channels yes, but e.g. Dave, Sky3, FiveLife/US,
and others are not FTA.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:28:59 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

On 20/09/2008 17:23, wrote:

Yeah I think it's only a matter of time but what I replied to was
someone saying that neither Ch5 nor 4 are availabe FTV when in fact
it's just Ch 5 that is the one remaining channel .

Out of the terrestrial channels yes, but e.g. Dave, Sky3, FiveLife/US,
and others are not FTA.

Yeah so what's that got to do with what I replied to .

On 20/09/2008 17:36, wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:28:59 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

Out of the terrestrial channels yes, but e.g. Dave, Sky3, FiveLife/US,
and others are not FTA.

Yeah so what's that got to do with what I replied to .

You claimed Five was "the one remaining channel" that is FTV, if we're
talking about the analogue terrestrial channels, your comment is
correct, but if e.g. we're talking about the channels available on
Freeview, it isn't; though AFAICT nobody has specified what set of
channels we *are* talking about.

I wasn't saying you were wrong, merely pointing out for others' benefit
that they might not (yet) receive all the channels they might expect on
freesat.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:15:11 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

On 20/09/2008 17:36, wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:28:59 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

Out of the terrestrial channels yes, but e.g. Dave, Sky3, FiveLife/US,
and others are not FTA.

Yeah so what's that got to do with what I replied to .

You claimed Five was "the one remaining channel" that is FTV, if we're
talking about the analogue terrestrial channels, your comment is
correct, but if e.g. we're talking about the channels available on
Freeview, it isn't; though AFAICT nobody has specified what set of
channels we *are* talking about.

I wasn't saying you were wrong, merely pointing out for others' benefit
that they might not (yet) receive all the channels they might expect on
freesat.
LOL...Ah now I see.Sorry for the confusion ..

John Rumm wrote:
Dave wrote:

I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay
£17 and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?


FreeSatfFomSky:

http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-tv-choice.aspx

Note this is not the same thing as FreeSat which offers a similar
lineoup but also some HD programming:

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Many thanks for that John.

Dave

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:17:38 +0100, wrote:

I have a Freesat From Sky card and when I remove it Ch5 is the one I
can't get .Ch4 IS available .

Oooo, wanders over to Sky box, tunes to Ch4 (104) and pulls card.
Continues to decode, Wh-hooo!.

*BUT* you still need the card if you have enabled parental access and the
programme being broadcast needs the PIN to view, like Lord of the Rings
that is on ATM. I guess if you disable parental access it won't need to
ask for the PIN and thus not need a card...

--
Cheers
Dave.

David Hansen wrote:

On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:28:41 +0100 someone who may be Dave
wrote this:-


I have just done a google to try and find out what channels the basic
buy and plug in sky box has on it. This is not the one that you pay £17
and upwards per month, but I can't seem to find anything about the
channel info. Can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction
before my wife makes a complete balls up of communications in this house?


To add to what the others have said.

1) Freesat from Sky and Freesat channels are broadcast from the same
group of satellites. In fact the BBC2 Scotland or whatever that you
see on both is exactly the same transmission from the same
satellite.

2) There is a third way of seeing the same programme, a standard FTA
(free to air) satellite receiver as one would buy on the mainland.

3) I assume that you don't have an existing dish pointing at the
Astra 2 group of satellites.

A dish, feed and wall mounted socket was supplied to us by mistake. All
it looks like I need is a satellite decoder box, am I right

Points 4 onwards snipped but printed.

Dave

David Hansen wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:32:22 +0100 someone who may be David Hansen
wrote this:-


2) There is a third way of seeing the same programme, a standard FTA
(free to air) satellite receiver as one would buy on the mainland.


Forgot to add. These can be bought as kits from places like Maplin
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218642, or the bits
can be bought separately.

It is possible to sometimes buy satellite stuff more cheaply in
places like Lidl. The receivers from there are well worth looking
out for as they are good quality, as is the satellite in a suitcase
kit. The latter is also available all the time, for more money, from
Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737.


Noted.

When I get my sight back I'll take a look.
many thanks

Dave

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:42:47 +0100, David Hansen wrote:

Channel 4 itself is not particularly obvious on a FTA receiver.
Unless they have changed things recently, instead of Channel 4 it is
identified as some four digit number.

It appears that Channel 4 (104 on Sky boxes) has gone FTA or at least the
Sky EPG now points to a FTA stream. Yes, there was a FTA stream available
via the "Other Channels" system on Sky boxes when 104 was FTV and that was
identfied by a 4 digit number only. See other post about a snag with using
a Sky box without a card.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:32:22 +0100, David Hansen wrote:


To add to what the others have said.

1)

snip

10)


Yep all good accurate stuff. With one small additional option a Sky
digibox without a viewing card. Without a card you can't see the Free To
View Channels (FTV), of the main stream ones this currently means Channel
4(*) and five. All BBC and ITV channels are Free To Air (FTA) and don't
need a viewing card in a Sky digibox.

You can get a Sky digi box, dish, LNB and cable form many sources
(freecycle?) and DIY install. The card only can be obtained from Sky for
£20 one off. You don't have to spend £150 one off and let a Sky
installation cowboy knock great spalls off your brick work.

The other slight problem with not having a viewing card in Sky digibox is
that the regional varaiations default to London but if you place a card
from your area in the box it'll set the region correctly and remember it
until completely power cycled.

(*) Many (all?) of the other Channel 4 offerings are already FTA and I
expect Channel 4 itself to become FTA soonish.

Noted and printed

Dave

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:39:10 -0400, S Viemeister wrote:

I looked into doing that - but I'm no good on tall ladders,

Dish doesn't have to high provided it can see the right bit of the sky it
can be at ground level but might need to keep vegetation in check in front
of it...

Ours is just out my arms reach so about 9' up, accessable only a few rungs
up a short ladder. It's deliberatly low, partly to shelter it from the
wind and partly so I can hit it with a stick to knock the ice off when
enough accumulates to stop the signal. Had to do that twice so far.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:09:33 +0100 (BST), Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:39:10 -0400, S Viemeister wrote:

I looked into doing that - but I'm no good on tall ladders,

Dish doesn't have to high provided it can see the right bit of the sky it
can be at ground level but might need to keep vegetation in check in front
of it...

Ours is just out my arms reach so about 9' up, accessable only a few rungs
up a short ladder. It's deliberatly low, partly to shelter it from the
wind and partly so I can hit it with a stick to knock the ice off when
enough accumulates to stop the signal. Had to do that twice so far.

I have a dish fixed to the chimney stack & had nothing but problems with it
if it was windy/rained/snowed, even crows perching on it! In the end I
fixed another dish to the fence in the rear garden. 1m off the ground, 20m
from the house in a nice secluded spot where it's not affected by the
elements or birdlife.

Don.

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:01:58 +0100, Dave wrote:

A dish, feed and wall mounted socket was supplied to us by mistake. All
it looks like I need is a satellite decoder box, am I right

A DSAT box of some sort, be that a Sky Digibox, a Freesat box or a generic
FTA box. A cable with F type connectors at each end to link the wall
socket to the DSAT box. A fully wired SCART cable to link the box to the
TV, so you can use RGB not baseband video and a TV (or monitor capable of
displaying standard TV frame and line rates) of course. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.