What to do with my old sky+ box??

minxtress

I have just upgraded to sky HD and have the sky+ box left hanging round, I dont particularly want to pay an extra £10 a month for multi room, is there anyway to put it in my daughters bedroom and just get the basic freeview channels on it? If so can anyone guide me through how to do it.....simple terms lol, im not very technically minded!
Thanks

macman

You can't get Freeview from a satellite dish, Freeview is a terrestial platform. You can get the Sky FTA channels, but you will need an additional feed from the dish to your daughter's room. Assuming that you already have a quad LNB, no change at the dish is required, just the additional cabling.

spike7451

All you need is a length of CT100 or equivelent cable & two F Connectors for each end of the cable.Connect one end to one of the free feeds on the LNB fitted to the dish arm & run the other end to your daughters room & the old box.
Simples!

minxtress

do I need a spare sky viewing card to be able to do this?
Thanks

Brian_The_Lion

minxtress wrote: »

do I need a spare sky viewing card to be able to do this?
Thanks

No... and as it is your old box the EPG should be reasonably up to date with the channels list, so if you try and view say sky movies without the card it will probably just come up with "please insert viewing card"...

just a case of making note of what channels you can view and away you go...

Shimrod

minxtress wrote: »

do I need a spare sky viewing card to be able to do this?
Thanks

For nearly all of the 'free' channels you won't need a viewing card. There are a few exceptions, one of which is Channel 5 - it's something to do with the broadcasting licence on the sky platform.

You can get a 'freesat from sky' card to get access to the missing channels - it is a oneoff fee of £20, but apart from Channel 5 it is literally only 3 or 4 others. I've had a quick look but can't find anything to state what they are.

lucylucky

Shimrod wrote: »

For nearly all of the 'free' channels you won't need a viewing card. There are a few exceptions, one of which is Channel 5 - it's something to do with the broadcasting licence on the sky platform.

You can get a 'freesat from sky' card to get access to the missing channels - it is a oneoff fee of £20, but apart from Channel 5 it is literally only 3 or 4 others. I've had a quick look but can't find anything to state what they are.

You don't need a card for Ch5 - although it doesn't appear on the EPG, you do have to add it as one of the "other channels"

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

Shimrod wrote: »

....but apart from Channel 5 it is literally only 3 or 4 others. I've had a quick look but can't find anything to state what they are.

FIVER, FIVEUS and Sky3.

parallax_20

If you get a good terrestrial reception in your home, I would recommend just getting a normal freeview STB. Theres much less hassle involved and you probably wouldn't want to be drilling holes in the wall to get the new cable to your daughters room from the Sat dish outside. If you are going to paying Sky £20 for the Freesat card, that in itself is the price of a freeview box! Personally I wouldn't bother with freesat unless it utilises existing cabling in the house as there are better alternatives out there.

macman

parallax_20 wrote: »

If you get a good terrestrial reception in your home, I would recommend just getting a normal freeview STB. Theres much less hassle involved and you probably wouldn't want to be drilling holes in the wall to get the new cable to your daughters room from the Sat dish outside. If you are going to paying Sky £20 for the Freesat card, that in itself is the price of a freeview box! Personally I wouldn't bother with freesat unless it utilises existing cabling in the house as there are better alternatives out there.

But the OP is then going to have to drill holes anyway to connect an external aerial to get a decent Freeview signal?

parallax_20

macman wrote: »

But the OP is then going to have to drill holes anyway to connect an external aerial to get a decent Freeview signal?

Not necessarily.

I don't know what the OP's home is like, so can't comment. I can get a signal in my home that will pickup freeview either from an indoor aerial or using the built-in TV sockets in the rooms linked to the aerial in the roof. Both require no additional drilling.