What will be cheapest for me - Sky+, Tivo or something else

whiskywhisky

macman wrote: »

You won't need a new dish, if the existing LNB has a twin or quad outlet then you just need the additional cabling. If it's a single outlet, you'll need a new LNB and cabling.

Thanks - is it relatively easy to fit a new Lnb to a satelite? Am I right in assuming I will only need "handyman" skills and not anything techical?

There has been the mention of getting TiVo or Sky box, do they offer anything extra from buying a freesat? My point is that they cost £10 a month for cheapest package but if you spend around £200 you can get a freesat for life - which seems the best purchase?

macman

The cheapest Sky package is not £10, it's over £20 a month.
If you can get the channels you want on Freeview or Freesat, it's pointless to pay for a subscription.

neil201

whiskywhisky wrote: »

Thanks - is it relatively easy to fit a new Lnb to a satelite? Am I right in assuming I will only need "handyman" skills and not anything techical?

There has been the mention of getting TiVo or Sky box, do they offer anything extra from buying a freesat? My point is that they cost £10 a month for cheapest package but if you spend around £200 you can get a freesat for life - which seems the best purchase?

Your paying for the benefit of recording with Sky+ and as macman says, packages start from £20/mth which is a lot if not something you really want (only for recording). In that respect Freesat will have paid for itself within 10 or 11mths.

whiskywhisky

Seems an easy choice and that is to purchase a Freesat. Even if I have to fit another twin LNB and new cable to the relavant location, in the long term it is the money saver.

Thanks for the help, now for the awkard part (dish is on the roof ) of trying to determine whether our old satelite dish has a single or dual lnb.

neil201

Have a look at the dish outside and with good vision, if on the rooftop, you'll spot whether there's one or two cables coming out of the LNB (the bit on the end that points in to the parabolic dish itself). Alternatively you might be able to visually trace the cable run down the wall, twin feeds use a cable which has effectively two co-ax cables moulded together, a single feed will just be a black conventional single co-axial cable.

Amazon are one of the cheapest for the Humax Foxsat HDR's, can't post the link here as not been signed up long but if you have a look on their site and do a search for "Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB" you should find it.

whiskywhisky

Thanks on inspection does appear only 1 Cable from Lnb. As mentioned the dish has been installed at a very difficult to access point. I think the way to work on it will be to take it down.

macman

That doesn't mean that it isn't a twin or quad LNB. Look at the connectors on it. Got a pair of binoculars?

neil201

As macman says, you should also see what looks like a single cable but with two wires on it. It will be clear when it arrives in the living room where if a twin set up should break out to 2x 'F' type plugs.