CJ Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I've been thinking of getting one of these to help me while away some time whilst I'm on the road to getting better but as usual, I'm confused. Argos are selling a cheap one on eBay (skyline freesat receiver) at just £49 and after checking out the freesat site it says that this will work if I connect to an existing sky satellite dish. The apartment block I live in has a communal feed from a rooftop sky dish and so I'm assuming it should then be plug and play - or am I talking tosh again? Also, my ex and sons currently have sky at their house with the main box in the lounge and one in my sons bedroom. He is going to Oz at the end of December and I could then have his box. Would that offer the same number of free channels or is that only set up for sky channels? Your anticipated help will be gratefully received. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I've been thinking of getting one of these to help me while away some time whilst I'm on the road to getting better but as usual, I'm confused. Argos are selling a cheap one on eBay (skyline freesat receiver) at just £49 and after checking out the freesat site it says that this will work if I connect to an existing sky satellite dish. The apartment block I live in has a communal feed from a rooftop sky dish and so I'm assuming it should then be plug and play - or am I talking tosh again? Also, my ex and sons currently have sky at their house with the main box in the lounge and one in my sons bedroom. He is going to Oz at the end of December and I could then have his box. Would that offer the same number of free channels or is that only set up for sky channels? Your anticipated help will be gratefully received. Your son's old box will work fine, there are a handfull of channels that wont show unless they are added manually as extra channels, due to the broadcast rights and EPG fee disputes between Sky and others, however once tuned manually, they can be viewed, but will not appear on the sky epg. I can tell you how to do this and let you have the relevent numbers to input, but it is only a few and the ones that spring to mind are Ch5 and five, but otherwise yes without a card the box will happilly show you all the freesat channels. The only downside I can see of using an old sky box for this is that all the sky channels will appear in the EPG, meaning that you will have a lot that will give the "pay us cash and we will send you a card" type of message. If you can live with that then go for the sky box. If your flat provides a Sky feed on it's distribution system then it should be just a case of connecting it to the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 Thank you for the reply. So, just to confirm I am reading this right, if I get his old sky box off him (actually not that old), take out the sky card and then connect to the communal sky feed it will automatically pick up the 150 or so freesat channels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Thank you for the reply. So, just to confirm I am reading this right, if I get his old sky box off him (actually not that old), take out the sky card and then connect to the communal sky feed it will automatically pick up the 150 or so freesat channels? Yes. There are a couple of channels that will not appear until you add them manually, and even then, they will not appear in the EPG, but can be accessed and viewed by a couple of simple button pushes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 Well, after all that, I just spoke to my ex (who, by the way, is also my best friend) and she informs me that she has already nabbed the spare sky box to use in her bedroom. So, now I'm on the lookout for a cheapish freesat box again. I'm thinking the one I mentioned earlier would do the trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Yes, they are all pretty much of a muchness in that price range. You could pick up an old Skybox for peanuts most likely if you wanted to take the cheapest route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 Well, that didn't work out as planned. I live in a block if flats (not all of the block, just one flat) and they are all served by a communal sky dish. Being a technical numpty I had assumed that if I plugged my receiver in then I would get godzillions of lovely free HD channels but the reality is otherwise and I've ended up with about 58 channels - 20 of which are variants of regional BBC 1 and ITV! In fact, I get more "watchable" channels on my freeview thingy. Needless to say I've contacted Argos online (I bought it from their eBay site) to ask to return it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Well, that didn't work out as planned. I live in a block if flats (not all of the block, just one flat) and they are all served by a communal sky dish. Being a technical numpty I had assumed that if I plugged my receiver in then I would get godzillions of lovely free HD channels but the reality is otherwise and I've ended up with about 58 channels - 20 of which are variants of regional BBC 1 and ITV! In fact, I get more "watchable" channels on my freeview thingy. Needless to say I've contacted Argos online (I bought it from their eBay site) to ask to return it. I am afraid you wont get any HD channels on the cheapie receivers. But if you buy a HD Freesat receiver you will get BBC1, BBC HD, ITV, CH4, NHK World all in HD, At present there are around 75 channels on freesat not including regional variations and not including HD channels. Take a look at freesat.co.uk Here's the link and then once here click on download the complete channel list. http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels Also, the fact you got the regional variants suggests that you didnt have a true freesat receiver, more like a FTA receiver, did you get the freesat EPG to show once it was working? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 I'm not sure what epg is! It is all boxed up again now as Argos have agreed to refund me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham S Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I have both a freesat box (in the bedroom) and a sky+ box in the kitchen. The sky box is as you were mentioning, without a card. The number of channels on it is minimal. We didn't even get ITV1 on there until I programmed the channel in manually. It doesn't do channels live Dave etc. Literally, 1-5, ITV 2, 3, 4 etc, the BBC channels and thats pretty much it No HD channels. The freesat has a bigger choice, and would have the free HD channels if I'd got the HD box. Still thinking about getting one! If you are still interested in a freesat box i'm sure we could come to a good deal for the one I got now, good excuse for me to go get an HD one. Also, the one I have was from Argos, and cost £30. The HD version was £70 I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 You just need to do a forced download, without a card the bitmaps are never updated as an automatic process. Remove the power from the box, hold the back up button in (on the box, not the remote) and then while the button is being pressed restore the power and keep your finger on the button until all the lights on the front come on. Depending on the software version you may or may not get a message on the screen telling you that an update is happening. But do not remove power or dish feed until all the lights have gone out and the process is over or your box will become virtual scrap. Even when this is complete you are not going to see Dave in the clear or HD channels though, but all the rest will be available. I have both a freesat box (in the bedroom) and a sky+ box in the kitchen. The sky box is as you were mentioning, without a card. The number of channels on it is minimal. We didn't even get ITV1 on there until I programmed the channel in manually. It doesn't do channels live Dave etc. Literally, 1-5, ITV 2, 3, 4 etc, the BBC channels and thats pretty much it No HD channels. The freesat has a bigger choice, and would have the free HD channels if I'd got the HD box. Still thinking about getting one! If you are still interested in a freesat box i'm sure we could come to a good deal for the one I got now, good excuse for me to go get an HD one. Also, the one I have was from Argos, and cost £30. The HD version was £70 I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham S Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Doing it now! got a message up on the screen saying it may take up to 10 mins. Does it matter that it's not plugged into the phone line though? Sorry to go off topic Col! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 No doesn't matter at all. Good luck Oh also you will need to add ch5 and five as extra channels. There are guides how to do that if you google it, but if not let me know and will post the frequencies and symbol rates tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Doing it now! got a message up on the screen saying it may take up to 10 mins. Does it matter that it's not plugged into the phone line though? Sorry to go off topic Col! No problem at all. I'm very interested in all this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l33wgn Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Hey col I have a solution but will have to pm you buddy I may not have explained very well but it is incredibably easy to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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