FreeSat HD/Sky confusion...

R_M_S

Does anyone have any experience of using FreeSat with a TV with a built in HD FreeSat tuner?

I am about to buy a TV with a built in FreeSat HD tuner. I want to cancel my current non-HD sky package, and move over to their FreeSatFromSky package as they pipe a lot more channels to you than the stand alone FreeSat service.

However, I want to know what HD channels I will get. The website freesatfromsky.co.uk states only BBC & one other I hadn't heard of (no ITV). Is this out of date???

I called FreeSatFromSky and was told I wouldn't get any HD channels on FreeSat anyway unless I upgraded my sky box to HD even though I was buying a TV with an integrated FreeSat HD tuner. They also said I would HAVE to have a Sky HD monthly subscription to get any HD service through FreeSatFromSky. So this means, there is no such thing as FREE HD channels through FreeSatFromSky. This can't be right surely???

The helpline contradicted the website...
Please help!

gjchester

R_M_S wrote: »

However, I want to know what HD channels I will get.

I called FreeSatFromSky and was told I wouldn't get any HD channels on FreeSat anyway unless I upgraded my sky box to HD even though I was buying a TV with an integrated FreeSat HD tuner. They also said I would HAVE to have a Sky HD monthly subscription to get any HD service through FreeSatFromSky. So this means, there is no such thing as FREE HD channels through FreeSatFromSky. This can't be right surely???

The helpline contradicted the website...
Please help!

We have a Panasonic with Freesat built in.

First remember that you need a feed to each reciever, The TV needs a feed from the Sat dish, and Sky HD will need two feeds from the dish. Check you have these, you cannot daisy chain Satellite disk feeds unless you want to reduct what you can recieve. Each tuner needs to control it's own reciever on the dish's LNB.


Freesat has BBC HD only. There is Luxe TV in HD but thats not worth watching. ITV simulcasts some shows in HD and you predd the red button to get them, it's not a seperate channel like the BBC.

FreesatFromSky is not Freesat it's Skys way of getting you to stay with them. The tuner in the Freesat TV can recieve the Sky channels but cannot decode them so will not be able to see them. To decode them you need a Sky HD box as they said, don't know about Sky subs as we don't have Sky, but it sounds right that you need a HD sub to use a Sky HD box.

Not sure if you are confusing Freesat (the public venture) and FreesatFromSky (the sky product) they are not the same thing. Skys naming is confusing, but the logic is once you have the box your more likely to upgrade to another product from Sky than not, and it also stops a complete loss to a Freesat, once the sky box is gone are you likely to get another in?

almillar

Freesat HD has nothing to do with Sky. You plug a cable from the satellite into your TV, enter your postcode, and you'll have BBC HD, ITV HD on freesat and also Luxe HD hidden away in non-Freesat mode. On your TV.
Freesat from Sky in your case will basically mean them cancelling your subscription and leaving you with your equipment. I'm not 100% certain on which HD channels you'll get on your Sky box...

gjchester

Brenda wrote: »

This is no longer true. Since 2 April, ITV1-HD has had a dedicated HD channel of its own on (real) FreeSat. This is in addition to the SD version of ITV1 on FreeSat's channel 103 and the continuing, if sporadic, availability of HD on that by using the Red Button.

Cool, the TV said new channels but I assumed one of the music channels had appeared / dissapearerd as usualy or something got renamed.

Brenda wrote: »

Sky+HD also broadcasts "Channel Four" in HD (on Sky's channel 140) – which (real) FreeSat, despite many promises, does not (and appears unlikely to do in the near future).

I understand Sky pay so much to C4 to get the HD version and that it's exclusuve to sky for the moment. I know it's been promised since laucnh but who knows when it will happen. (bit like ITV, that was promised for ages and looked unlikely now it's there...)