Freesat from Sky - question

alexbryan

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with this question.

I've just been given a Sky + box which I've plugged into the existing sky dish a previous occupier of my flat had had installed. I was intending to buy the Freesat from Sky viewing card for £25, but it turns out I can view a load of the channels without needing a viewing card in the box at all, e.g. BBC HD, E4, etc. So my question is, what's the point in buying a Freesat from Sky viewing card if I can already get the channels without it? Does the card change the channel list in the EPG to only show the freesat channels or something?

penrhyn

There are a few channels that are free to view but are encrypted, not sure which ones, but I seem to remember that More4 was one of them.
You'll have to do a trawl of the channels to see if the ones you cant get are worth the price of the viewing card.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

The full FreesatFromSky list is here.

It's been a while since I checked. It used to be that you wouldn't get FIVE, FIVER, FIVEUSA and Sky 3. I don't know if this still applies now the other FIVE channels have been rebranded and Sky 3 has gone.
The card does regionalise your BBC and ITV channels, but if the above doesn't bother you, then there's no need for the card.

davemurgatroyd

The last list of FTV channels on FreesatFromSky was Channel 5HD, Sony TV, Sony TV+1, Sony Movies, Sony Movies +1, Motors TV, Viva, LFC TV, Pick TV and Pick TV+1 (although the last two are FTA not requiring a crad at present).

vale46_2

as Dave says the card will give you those ^ extra channels to view and if you get a card in your name / address it will give you local listings for your area
at 101 - 103

for me with my card i get BBC1 Yorks & ITV Yorks regional news at 6.30pm etc

without a card in the box you get the default regions like BBC1 London at 101
if you dont fancy those extra few channels and regional listings dont bother with a card

jackieb

I've just ordered a Humax freesat recorder for my Mum. Will she need to buy a card from Sky as she won't be using her Sky+ box ( I know she could have just used her old Sky box but she records a lot of programmes and she wouldn't have managed to do that unless she paid Sky 10.50 a month for the recording facilities.)

jackieb

I don't even know if there's a slot for a card in the Humax box as it hasn't arrived yet, so this question may be pointless!

penrhyn

Pointless it is.:D You have to realise that Freesat, is NOT the same as Freesat from Sky.
Freesat is a completely different entity the only thing it share with Sky is it uses the same satellite.
http://www.freesat.co.uk/

penrhyn

Meadows wrote: »

Why not just connect the cable from the Satellite directly into the TV to received Freesat programmes?

This is what we do, not sure how many channels there are but most are rubbish anyway so we seldom view via Satellite unless we want to watch something in HD.

Because most people don't have a Television with a Digital Satellite Tuner.

Meadows

opps deleted my comment as I re read the op's question and he was saying the same thing.

xbrenx

Phantom_Flan_Flinger wrote: »

The full FreesatFromSky list is here.

Gutted that DAVE is not on that list. That's one channel that gets a lot of viewing here and I'm trying so hard to reduce my Sky outgoings. I was going to pay the £175 for a shiny new box and installation.
Oh well, back to the drawing board...