Sky/Skyfreesat/Freesat

angelfairy

Hello all,

Looking for some assistance and if someone could help, that would be fantastic.

We currently have a subscriptionw with Sky and therefore have a Sky box (albeit an old chunky black one) and the Sky viewing card.

We are moving house and looking at our options. Unfortunatley the area we are moving too isn't cabled so choices are limited.

I have stumbled across skyfreesat /freesat.

The property we are moving to already receives Sky and therefore there is a dish there.

Are we able to receive skyfreesat by using the equipment that we already have? i.e. by simply moving it with us and plugging it in or do we need to purchase the bundle for £175.

Or .. do we buy a freesat box?

Sorry if these are all simple questions .. i just have no idea

Thanks

Hammyman

Yes you are. Just take your box and plug it in.

Inner_Zone

Assuming the dish and LNB at the new place are OK and correctly aligned you will get what you have at the moment. Unless you cancel your Sky subscription nothing will change.

If you cancel the subscription you will then get Freesat from Sky.

If you remove the card from the Sky box you would then get Freesat which is the same as Freesat from Sky less these channels:

Fiver, Fiver+1, Five US, Five US+1, Sky3, LFC TV, Viva.

However without a Sky card you may loose your regional BBC 1 and ITV 1 on 101 and 103 and Five might go from 105 though can be tuned in thorough other channels.

So you best option is probably to use what you have i.e box and card and decide whether or not you wish to continue subscribing.

angelfairy

Many thanks Hammyman and Inner Zone.

I think I'll just tell hubby to cancel the subscription we currently have, take the equipment with us and see what happens when we get in there.

almillar

Inner Zone's post is mostly accurate, but para 3 is not. A Sky box without a Sky card in it does not give you Freesat. A Freesat box gives you Freesat, which gives a better channel line-up. Freesat boxes plug into identical equipment to Sky boxes, so that option is always there if you decide you don't want to subscribe anymore.
Moving your Sky box (&card) is the cheapest option for the moment....

Inner_Zone

almillar wrote: »

Inner Zone's post is mostly accurate, but para 3 is not. A Sky box without a Sky card in it does not give you Freesat.

OK I should have said gives you the Freesat channels as Freesat is just an EPG as is Sky. I was trying not to confuse the situation.

almillar wrote: »

A Freesat box gives you Freesat, which gives a better channel line-up.

Care to elucidate? A Freesat box actually gives you less channels than Freesat from Sky as I pointed out above. And a correction Freesat from Sky would add Sky News, which is only available on a Freesat box in non Freesat mode.

davemurgatroyd

almillar wrote: »

Inner Zone's post is mostly accurate, but para 3 is not. A Sky box without a Sky card in it does not give you Freesat. A Freesat box gives you Freesat, which gives a better channel line-up. Freesat boxes plug into identical equipment to Sky boxes, so that option is always there if you decide you don't want to subscribe anymore.
Moving your Sky box (&card) is the cheapest option for the moment....

The only way in which freesat is a better channel line-up is that all the subscription channels do not appear on the EPG BUT it lacks many free channels on its EPG that are on the Sky EPG and with freesat these can only be viewed in "non freesat" mode. On a Sky box you can however set up a favourites list of up to 50 channels and view only those in the EPG.

ukcarper

davemurgatroyd wrote: »

T. On a Sky box you can however set up a favourites list of up to 50 channels and view only those in the EPG.

Is that possible on all sky boxes as I can't find a way to do it on my old amsrad box.

As for channel line up I think freesat from sky is better than freesat but a sky box without card is not as good as freesat.

davemurgatroyd

ukcarper wrote: »

Is that possible on all sky boxes as I can't find a way to do it on my old amsrad box.

As for channel line up I think freesat from sky is better than freesat but a sky box without card is not as good as freesat.

Yes I did it last week on an Amstrad DRX100 one of the very first Sky digiboxes from 1998, slow but still working perfectly. IIRC it was under "Services" "Favourite Channels" then highlight a channel press yellow to add it to your favourites, continue with next selection, when finished do not forget to press "Select" I think to make sure you save them. Then in your EPG main view just press "blue" to view the "Favourites EPG". Check on screen messages as this is from memory as I am using two HD boxes at present.

Apart from non regionalisation and lack of Five on the EPG (can be viewed under added "other channels") I still prefer the Sky EPG listings without a card as all FTA channels at present appear on it whereas freesat is missing a great deal of them - many of which are quite viewable. I actually bought one returned it twice for faulty boxes and kept the third working one for all of two weeks then sold it because of the lack of quite a few channels on the EPG that I watch occasionally - yes I could watch them in non-freesat mode but no info on what was on beyond now and next - to me a very big negative along with the lack of HD channels - two and a half against the four and a half on a Sky HD box bought second hand with a FreesatFromSky card for less cost.

fantacee

Can anyone confirm - if I cancel my subscription will my existing card still provide FsFs - I've been told I have to buy another card @£25, but have been reading that the existing one should downgrade.. tia

ukcarper

When I cancelled sky about 5 years ago my existing card worked up to this year when they were changed. I have now taken card out and have had to put my local itv channel and 5 on as other channels and they are not on epg. I have lost fiver, fiveusa and sky3.