Sky, Virgin, Freeview- cable or aerial? Please explain but KIS!

catt_2

We were on Virgin Media via a cable connection.

It's quite costly but OH likes the sports channels. Then our TV broke down. After a week of paying rental for services we weren't getting, I'd had enough and phoned Virgin to cancel the contract. They have put us on a reduced package of phone & broadband only.

Today our new TV gets delivered and it's HD ready.

We want to get the freeview channels if at all possible. OH has noticed in recent weeks how much money we are saving not having the full Virgin package but he thinks he'll go back to it.

I need to know whether we could get Free HD channels (I think it's called Freeview or Freesat?) with a set-top box. We are in a block of flats with a communal shared TV aerial that's either on or in the roof. We also have a cable connection. We are not allowed to add satellite dishes or aerials of our own to the exterior of the flats.

Any ideas? I'm new to all this, so please KIS as I'm not a natural techie!

kiebee

Freesat does have free HD channels (2), but it is sattelite(uses a normal sky dish). Freeview uses the existing aerial but isn't in HD (yet).

Looks like Virgin Media is your only option. (It may be possible to have a satellite dish in the window in some cases)

Lilgurn_2

Not that i condone this in any way, but a friend of mine has a box (cost £150 about a year ago) which he simply connect to a cable split from his broadband. He used cables from maplins so it seems easy done. This got him all the channels for free I would imagine this to be illegal.

Please Note: MAPLINS in no way condones the use of their cables for illegal virgin media practises :P

M4RKM

unfortunately, HD channels are only available on the following platforms..

Sky+ HD (needs a satellite dish)
Freesat HD (needs a satellite dish)

and Virgin Media, you get BBC HD, and also loads of on demand HD things..

M