sky dish only - any options for its use?

sweety

New house has come with a dish - problem being there is no box or receiver. Is there any way of using the dish at all ie with an old set box etc? Have got freeview box already, so thinking really of maybe a maplins caravan kit so i can get some foreign channels for free??

Any ideas would be great, as im not techie enough to know what to do!!!

Many thanks

sweety

xxxx

confused31_2

you can use it wth a freesat box, or a sky box, thing is if you use a sky box certain channels will not work unless you have a card get a freesat box and it will work a treat.

As for foreign channels i dont think you will get many on a sky dish as they are quite small.

one of these will do

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5321557/c_1/1|cat_12108813|Digital+boxes+and+services|12108960/Trail/searchtext%3EFREESAT.htm

If you have got a high definition tv get the hd version.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5321564/c_1/1|cat_12108813|Digital+boxes+and+services|12108960/Trail/searchtext%3EFREESAT.htm

spakkker

Look here - http://www.screwfix.com/prods/80878&cm_mmc=Campaign-_-E09W02-_-B1-_-SatelliteKit?source=aw
Seem to complain the mount is flimsy and no meter but you have your sky dish already! You may wonder how you have survived so long without 400+ junk channels! but there are a few decent channels and my (different) box lets me store favourites so you don't have to wade through the lot, plus digital radio I'd guess

Fifer

This sort of thing?

Shytalker

Here's one for 'Sweety'. You can easily get subscription-free TV using the satellite dish and it needn't cost very much. It will be pointing the right way because all of the free-to-air UK stations are on the same satellite as the Sky channels.

I recommend the Humax Foxsat box which costs nearly the same everywhere - £145 to £150. You just plug the satellite cable F-plug into the back, connect the box to your TV and away you go.

There are cheaper boxes for perhaps £60 but I wanted to try out High Definition on my new TV set. The Foxsat does this and there is an HDMI cable included in the box, which you need for HDTV.

The 'Freesat' channels are the officially promoted ones which are automatically scanned when you first plug in the box. These support extra features like the red button but there are a lot more channels out there which are not designated as 'Freesat'.

Have a look at http://www.freesat.co.uk/ to see what is on (the website has a technical fault which crashes the Opera web browser).

For non-Freesat channels, some cheaper boxes have trouble scanning them or even finding them. A Goodmans box I saw needs technical details to be inputted to receive them and that is beyond most people. The Humax Foxsat scans them in easily ('manual scan'), after which the 'non-Freesat' mode becomes available from the setup menu. It is much easier to do than it sounds.

By the way, I found a really good listings website http://www.zingzing.co.uk/ with categories for Freeview (- digital terrestrial TV) and Freesat (- digital satellite TV) and HD on satellite. Here is a list of all the channels coming from the satellite: http://www.flysat.com/28east.php

If you do as I did, you will probably love the BBC HD channel. Hope all this helps you.

Shytalker

Again for 'Sweety'. I forgot your bit about foreign TV when I did that last post. If you just want to see a variety of foreign channels from the satellite dish, it would need to be swung a few degrees to the Hotbird 13E satellite for the biggest choice.

I started playing with satellite TV with this kit from Maplin: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737 and became hooked. Of course you don't need to buy a dish, just the satellite receiver box.
Maplin has general purpose satellite receiver boxes which will have most foreign channels pre-installed.

It is not all that difficult to re-align a satellite dish with a suitable meter and a short length of cable but it might depend on how easy it is to get at the dish, what tools you have and how stuck or rusty the nuts have become.

Have a look at Dishpointer to see where to point it: http://www.dishpointer.com/

Sorry I went on a bit too much.

Eviledna

Panasonic Freesat Telly

almillar

Absolute cheapest way is to get a Sky box. See if any friends have a spare one, for example if they've upgraded to plus or HD, and just plug it in. Even this will get you a stack of channels, and this include loads of foreign ones. Or you can have one for under £20 off eBay. Next cheapest is to then put a Sky viewing card in. Any old one will do, but if you can't get one, Sky will sell you one for £20. This will let you see the encrypted Free To Air (FTA) channels. Next in line then would be a Freesat box (£50), Freesat HD box (£100), and FreesatHD recorder (£290).

M4RKM

you have 2 real choices for free british tv channels, which are freesatfromsky or freesat..

the latter has more choices of what your boxes can do, and you can get PVR's, or get High Definition, at the cost of the box only.

If you decide you want to get a sky branded box, you need a one off payment to get a card, that will give you channel 5, but you already have that on freeview.

also with a sky box, you will some foreign language channels, and i'm not sure if you have any of them on freesatHD

if you have an LCD tv, go for freesat HD, and you'll get BBC HD, and the occasional programme from ITV in HD as well..