Freesat installation

Contessa

If I have a satellite dish installed can I use an old Sky set top box and card (someone has offered to give me their old one) to watch Freesat TV (not Sky)
I hope to move next year so I don't want to change my old TV yet so won't be able to get HD.
Or, would I be better getting a new aerial and Freeview box?
Thanks for any information.

Robert2009

If you have a Sky box and card you will get Sky.

If you have a freesat box you will get freesat.

If you have a freeview box and aerial pointed at a freeview transmitter you will get freeview.

You will, of course, also need a TV set.

Rob

Contessa

Thanks, I do have a TV!
The card is old and I do not have, nor want, a Sky subscription.
So, as well as buying the dish I'll need something like a Humax box?

tbonesteak

Hi Contessa

You can always try the old sky box/viewing card first you might be lucky enough to receive the non subscription channels.

If that doesn't work you can buy a freesat card from sky for £20 call them on 08448 244 400.

Or third option is shelling out £240 for a humax box, which includes HD if you have an HD tv? I'm sure you do have some sort of TV

Tom

googler

If you have the dish, the box, but the card has expired and you don't want a new subscription, you should be able to receive all the Free-to-View (FTV) or Free-to-Air (FTA) channels through the Sky box.

I stopped paying a subscription to them a year or so ago, left the card in, and it's still working fine for the free channels. Maybe not exactly the same channels as Freeview, but mostly the same.

I can't recall the differences between FTA and FTV but somewhere like www.digitalspy.co.uk will have forums with a list of what's included and the differences in these classifications.

ckerrd

If you have a dish and a sky box without a card you can watch the free to air channels.

FTA - no card needed
FTV - card required

Contessa

Thanks for your helpful replies. I'll try the box and card first. There seems so little worth watching these days that I want to spend as little as possible, and when I move I may have more options available.

googler

My post above assumes your friend owns the Sky box.

I bought mine as a reconditioned box from an independent retailer, not from Sky themselves, and for a while had my viewing card on a 'subscription only' (card only) basis.

If the box is/was leased from Sky, they may want it back ....

Pokerlad

googler wrote: »

My post above assumes your friend owns the Sky box.

I bought mine as a reconditioned box from an independent retailer, not from Sky themselves, and for a while had my viewing card on a 'subscription only' (card only) basis.

If the box is/was leased from Sky, they may want it back ....

Sky dont lease/rent boxes. The customer always owns them.

will-in-estoril

Contessa wrote: »

Thanks for your helpful replies. I'll try the box and card first. There seems so little worth watching these days that I want to spend as little as possible, and when I move I may have more options available.

The card, which regionalises the EPG, may well have gone to sleep if the digibox has been disconnected for a couple of weeks or more. However, it will wake up (usually within a few hours or overnight) once the receiver is reconnected. This will only affect the 'FIVE' bouquet of channels, $ky 3 and a limited number of ITV1 regions.

Contessa

This is really strange! I've tried several times to retune the freeview box after switchover. This evening I disconnected it as it was no use-don't know why, but on a whim, decided to reconnect everything again. I turned it on and it immediately retuned. It works! Apart from BBC 1 which keeps freezing and breaking up.