Using PVR with Sky/Virgin connection.

loofer

A mate had Sky TV a few years back but cancelled it.

He'd been with them for quite for years and they let him keep the box, nott sure if that's normal. He's obvoiuosly still got the dish connected. He gets all freeview channels through the SKY Box plus some more like asian/indian channels which are free (even though there's no subscription to SKY) which is what his family mainly watches. It's been like this for several years.

He's thinking of buying a PVR HDD with HD etc and twin tuner. It's gona look silly having both boxes.

Can he connect the PVR to his sky connection and still recieve the same channels etc?

EDIT: Can the same be done with a FREESAT PVR box, to recieve the free sky channels and also Freesat channels? I'm assuming the Dish would have to be realigned or tuned

penrhyn

First off you don't get freeview channels off Sky.
What you get is a selection of free to air satellite channels, Sky call this Freesat from Sky.
I'm assuming you mean a Freeview PVR, for this to work you need a decent Aerial as freeview is terrestrial.
You can use a Freesat PVR box with a Sky dish, no realignment is necessary as both Sky and Freesat use the same group of satellites.

Your post mentions Virgin, if you mean cable then non of the above are compatable as you would need a cable box, or a virgin V+ if PVR functions are wanted.

loofer

penrhyn wrote: »

First off you don't get freeview channels off Sky.
What you get is a selection of free to air satellite channels, Sky call this Freesat from Sky.
I'm assuming you mean a Freeview PVR, for this to work you need a decent Aerial as freeview is terrestrial.
You can use a Freesat PVR box with a Sky dish, no realignment is necessary as both Sky and Freesat use the same group of satellites.

Your post mentions Virgin, if you mean cable then non of the above are compatable as you would need a cable box, or a virgin V+ if PVR functions are wanted.

Thanks for that.
I only mentioned Virgin as well just incase it helped anybody else that might have Virgin instead of Sky, but as you've stated it's not compatible.

Thanks for explaining the Freeview vs Free to air on Sky. You obviously understood what I meant.

I'm being a bit naive here, when you say a 'decent aerial' is needed for Freeview PVR I'm assuming you mean the one on the roof? Does that mean I couldn't really connect it to SKY dih as it doesn't use that at all?

Finally, with the FreeSat PVR, because it uses same sattelites as Sky will it also pick up the same group of Free to air sky channels such as those aisan/bollywood ones?

Basically, I'm recommendeding to him, if it's even possible, to do away with Sky box, but he has the new benefit of
Freesat Channels in HD
HDD with ability to record

and keep existing benefits of the asian channels that aired free on SKY

Thanks in advance

penrhyn

You are correct you cannot connect a dish to a Freeview box.
Digital terrestrial (Freeview) is at present transmited on low power which is why a decent, outdoor aerial, is normally needed.

Freesat Channels:
http://www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=whatson.Main
Freesat from Sky Channels:
http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/freesat-how-it-compares.aspx
Freeview (Terrestrial)

http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/Channels

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

Your mates' family won't get the Asian/Indian channels on Freeview or Freesat, only on FreesatfromSky.

Another option, though not really cost effective, is to get a second hand Sky+ box.
He could then pay Sky £10/month to use the PVR functions, or take their cheapest package at £16.50/month and the PVR functions are included in the price.

loofer

Phantom_Flan_Flinger wrote: »

Another option, though not really cost effective, is to get a second hand Sky+ box.
He could then pay Sky £10/month to use the PVR functions, or take their cheapest package at £16.50/month and the PVR functions are included in the price.

Thanks.

I thought the functions were part of the SKy+HD box itself, or do they need enabling as part of this subscription with Sky?

Why wouldn't the functions such as recording on to HDD or recieving (and displaying) BBC HD work without paying a subcription to Sky?

missile

The functionality is controlled by Sky. Sky+HD recording and playback will not work without a Sky card enabled by a signal from them.