Digital TV Cost Cutting Article - Discuss What You've Been Offered

jammin_2

boybeck wrote: »

Don't you need a subscription for a SKY HD box to watch BBC HD? I thought you had to pay a subscription for a SKY PLus box to work.

Certainly not. BBC HD is FTA. Sky cannot charge for, or restrict access to, FTA channels on their digiboxes.

Regarding Sky+ recording facilities - you are correct, *at present* a Sky subscription is required in order for this to work. Alternatively you can have no subscription but pay them £10 a month for Sky+ recording facilities. So yes, in the case of free PVR facilities, the Freesat PVR / HD PVR boxes will have the edge over a cardless Sky+ or SkyHD box. Unless, of course, Sky drop their £10 month charge.

berneslai

Is anyone making any inroads into getting SkyHD at a reasonable price? I can't justify a large payment on a box + installation + extra subscription.

The best deal I've had is the box at £199 + £60 installation and that's only if I take out multiroom and HD subscriptions (extra £20 per month). That's a £500 outlay for the first year for only a handful of HD channels.

I would have thought that with the lack of HD channels (and no England in the European Championships over Summer) they'd be looking to shift these units as cheap as possible. Surely the uptake isn't that good?

alanandsue7383

BexTech wrote: »

NO, NO NO! You have it all wrong. Please don't mislead others!!!

You have confused yourself and you will confuse others with the incorrect information you post.

I don't know where you got your misinformation from, but it is so so wrong. Believe me, I know what I am talking about!

The FTV card from Sky gives you Ch4, Five, Five Life, Five US + associated +1 and Sky 3. All the other 200 or so channels are FREE TO AIR - They require no viewing card and will work on ANY digital satellite receiver.

For those who have a Sky box - take your viewing card out and see all those channels that broadcast FREE TO AIR. Then add on the Ch4, Five & Sky channels mentioned above and that's your FREE TO VIEW channels that require a FreeSatFromSky card or cancelled subscription card.

The new BBC/ITV Freesat service will NOT be on different frequencies.

The BBC channels will still be broadcast on the frequencies they are today, same with ITV, same with the 200 other Free To Air channels. You can use a Sky box, a £30 Free To Air satellite receiver from Lidl or Aldi or online, you can use the new BBC/ITV Freesat box, you can use the £60 / £70 Pace DS810XE (which offers HD). (I paid £60 for mine Brand-New, however as both Sky and BBC/ITV Freesat use proprietary EPG and not a standard open EPG, these boxes only have now/next info as the open EPG system isn't transmitted).

All the the BBC/ITV Freesat is is a new spec for the EPG system and for a different Interactive system. The reason is they don't want to pay to use the Sky EPG system and don't want to pay for Open TV Interactive.

BBC HD is already broadcast Free To Air - I know, I'm watching it on my Pace DS810XE HD satellite receiver and picking up Luxe TV HD and picking up around 200 Free To Air SD TV channels and 80+ radio stations.

There is not enough capacity on the SES Astra satellites and Eutelsat Eurobird satellites for these 200+ channels to broadcast twice, nor would they want to pay twice for capacity.Not when all that us happening is they remain all on the same frequency and the new BBC/ITV Freesat box is just like any other satellite box and picks up the Free To Air channels no problem.

ITV HD will be launching in the summer. This will be Free To Air, so any HD satellite receiver will pick it up, there won't be one frequency for Sky boxes and another for Freesat boxes, there is only one frequency and any box will pick it up if it's a HD box.

4HD is currently FTV (Free To View) that is there is no subscription, but you need a viewing card. Shortly 4HD will be switching from FTV to Free To Air (FTA) so any HD box will pick it up, again only one frequency.

Please don't be brainwashed into thinking Sky own any satellites or Sky control the channels on these satellites. These 200 or so FTA channels only pay Sky a small fee to be listed on a Sky box, Sky have no other involvement. These channels will also have to pay BBC/ITV Freesat to be listed on their EPG. On standard boxes there is no fee to pay as the box creates the EPG itself.

The only part you have got right is the £10 recording fee with Sky, which I have mentioned. You can have a Sky HD box and not pay a subscription and not pay a HD fee and you'll still receive all the free channels and the Free HD channels, however you won't be able to record. Similar with a Sky+ though without HD.

BBC/ITV Freesat will be bringing out a SD box, so just for the Free To Air channels (Yes, all the same channels as FreesatFromSky appart from the few FTV ones mentions above, though soon Channel 4 will be switching to FTA).

They will also have a SD PVR - this like Sky+ but without the £10 recording fee.

They will also have a HD PVR - like Sky HD but without the £10 recording fee.

BBC / ITV Freesat planned launch 1st week of May.

If someone already has a standard Sky box then for SD they have all the need for Freesat, I don't want the misinformation make them go out and buy a new box they don't need and will miss out on a couple of channels due to them being FTV and not FTA. A cancelled subscription card reverts to a FTV card - FTV giving the FTV channels mentioned above, the rest of the channels being FTA and requiring no card.

(Yes, I'm a satellite enthusiast since the mid 1980s).

Have a pop over to Digital Spy and we will tell you the same.

Hi,

Will the box that the BBC/ITV bring out (like sky+) be able to pause and rewined? Also have the abilaty to record a whole series?

We have a 'bush' freeview tunner which is pants and sometimes needs good weather to work o.k. plus we don't seem to get all the channels but the signal is over half way there?? We have a sky dish on our house (there when we moved in) what would recomend we do? We do like the Sky+ features as mentioned above but we don't want the monthly fees and contract.

Please help!

Thanks,
Sue

P.s-when is this freesat coming out? Or is it out already??

BexTech

alanandsue7383 wrote: »

Hi,

Will the box that the BBC/ITV bring out (like sky+) be able to pause and rewined? Also have the abilaty to record a whole series?

We have a 'bush' freeview tunner which is pants and sometimes needs good weather to work o.k. plus we don't seem to get all the channels but the signal is over half way there?? We have a sky dish on our house (there when we moved in) what would recomend we do? We do like the Sky+ features as mentioned above but we don't want the monthly fees and contract.

Please help!

Thanks,
Sue

P.s-when is this freesat coming out? Or is it out already??

The official launch date is 6 May, however Comet have been selling Freesat HD (Hi-Def) boxes since Friday, though they may have stopped and have to wait for official launch.

Argos have some listed on their site, but are waiting for official launch date. (Again no PVRs as they are not ready ready to ship).

That is for non-PVR boxes, the PVR version is not due until another month or two.

It will have series link, I would have thought it would be able to pause live TV, it's being made by Humax and will be HD too - it will work on HD and SD TVs.


As for your Freeview problem and not receiving some channels, it could be due to some multiplexes being slightly weaker or a couple of other reasons that mean you aren't quite getting the same signal across all multiplexes.

Multiplexes are a group of digital channels that are broadcast within the space of what could have (or later would have) been one analogue channel.

http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/dtt_channels.html has a list of the channels within a multiplex, means you lose all the channels in the multiplex if you have reception issues.

When analogue is switched off, the power for digital will be increased, as at the moment digital is only on very low power so as not to interfere with analogue. Some freeview boxes have more sensitive tuners (that's good) than others, really the signal should be at least 70% or more for a stable reception, though the signal meters on boxes are never that accurate.

The Sutton Coldfield transmitter for example transmits the analogue signals at 1,000 kiloWatts, whereas the digital channels are transmitted at just 10 kiloWatts.

beverley1296

Do sky still give free sky + if you ring up and threaten to cancel as my neighbour wants it.

alanandsue7383

Hi,:hello:

Thanks for your early reply!

Do you know much about Sky's freesat release? Would seem the best deal as I someone said in the forums that if you paid £10 a month you could include the sky+ system and it costs £150 for box, dish & installation. Do you know if Sky are bringing out a new box for freesat customers or would any box do?

Thanks again,
Sue

BexTech

alanandsue7383 wrote: »

Hi,:hello:

Thanks for your early reply!

Do you know much about Sky's freesat release? Would seem the best deal as I someone said in the forums that if you paid £10 a month you could include the sky+ system and it costs £150 for box, dish & installation. Do you know if Sky are bringing out a new box for freesat customers or would any box do?

Thanks again,
Sue

Any Sky box will do, Sky aren't making different boxes for FreesatFromSky compared to their subscription service.

Remember at the the £150 FreesatFromSky boxes are just standard (non-PVR - Not Sky+) boxes. If you want recording features you have to go for a Sky+ which means you'll have to source those yourself, you can get the £20 viewing from FreesatFromSky and pair it up) these aren't Hi-Def boxes either, plus you have to pay £10 per month for the recording feature.

The BBC/ITV Freesat boxes (BBC own the trade name Freesat) come in 3 varieties, an SD box, a HD box (received both SD & HD channels) and a HD-PVR (receives SD + HD channels are has recording facility).

With the BBC/ITV system you don't have to pay a fee for the recording function like you do with Sky's offering, so that's a £120 per year saving.

If you really wanted to go down the Sky route, you could go for the £75 offer (see Argos, Currys, Comet) where you pay £75 and get include the box, the install, the viewing card and 4 months subscription to 4 mixes, you can then cancel and you end up with FreesatFromSky, half the price of FreeSatFromSky and you get 4 months of a subscription.

At the moment I'd wait and see what Sky would do, as it seems silly not to go for the BBC/ITV Freesat system if you want recording facility where you have to pay Sky £10 per month for it and nothing with the BBC/ITV Freesat.

Yes, the BBC/ITV PVR is for Hi-Def channels too, however you don't have tp have a HD TV to use the box, it will work on a SD TV.

The only benefit of a Sky box would be if you decide you want to subscribe at some time.

littlemisscheap

berneslai wrote: »

Is anyone making any inroads into getting SkyHD at a reasonable price? I can't justify a large payment on a box + installation + extra subscription.

The best deal I've had is the box at £199 + £60 installation and that's only if I take out multiroom and HD subscriptions (extra £20 per month). That's a £500 outlay for the first year for only a handful of HD channels.

I would have thought that with the lack of HD channels (and no England in the European Championships over Summer) they'd be looking to shift these units as cheap as possible. Surely the uptake isn't that good?

At present, if you are a new customer...then you can get Sky HD installed at £30 + whatever package you choose - no need for multiroom. NB not easily advertised so you hv to ask else you may well get ripped for as much as you part with.

BexTech

littlemisscheap wrote: »

At present, if you are a new customer...then you can get Sky HD installed at £30 + whatever package you choose - no need for multiroom. NB not easily advertised so you hv to ask else you may well get ripped for as much as you part with.

If you can find a local ASA (Authorised Sky Agent) or maybe not that local, it's just a phone call, you have for a while been able to get Sky HD for £149 + install.

mandy2901

HIya we currently have virgin media but are moving to a non cable area, found a company (digitalworld) through ebay and spoke with Martin from there this morning, He is quoting £64 upfront payment for 1 sky +box and 1 standard box including install but when i spoke with sky they are £99 plus £30 install online or £149 plus £30 install over the phn!! Told them am a new customer planning to take out movies and multiroom but they just say that if i choose to go with a cheaper service then thats up to me but any problems dont call them!! The ebay shop still offer the same 12 m warranty as sky do and they then contact sky to send out your viewing cards so still is with sky?!

What else are my options as freeview or bt vision dont appear to have many channels.

As a side point i have old boxes from my old address/name and there is already a dish on the new house but prev girl has cut the cables inside?.

Also sorry to sound dim but whats freesat?