Freeview from sky box ????

pippamannequin

Hi, Ive read before that you can get freeview through a sky box even though you arent subscribing to sky? Can anyone tell me if this is correct and how I would connect a sky box to receive freeview? We are due to move house soon and have cancelled sky, but still have a sky box and a sky plus box, would somebody please please help a non techie and tell me the best thing i can do here to save as much as possible and avoid buying freeview or connecting back up to sky?!! (While still keeping two teenage boys happy)!!Thankyou.

b33r

TBH the choice on sky freeview is pretty poor (click here for more info and channel listing) so I doubt you'll keep two teenage boys happy however I'll still answer your question...

Obviously you will need a dish at your new house, did you bring the dish and wires from your last place with you? If not you can pick parts up on ebay or shops like this or this pretty cheaply (BTW I in no way endorse those sites, they're just a couple I bookmarked when I was looking for a new remote and have never bought from them). However you will then need to do the install and set-up, can you or someone you know do that? (Don't take any risks on ladders btw )

Do you still have the cards from your boxes? If so, i believe they revert to freesat cards when you cancel your subscription however don't quote me on that and you will still need to ring sky and give them your new address. If you don't have your card's or they haven't/don't revert to freesat cards then you will have to ring sky and ask for a freesat card(s), i believe they charge you £20 each for them.

Another option is to start as if you had nothing by getting this from dixons for £75 quid and you get a box, dish and setup and a sky 'mix' free for 6 months, it's meant for new customers though so you might wanna sign up in your partners name or something.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: Oh if you want to use your normal sky box and the sky plus box remember you will need 2 viewing cards and also a quad LNB on your dish (basically 4 outputs, the normal box will need 1 and the plus box 2). If you go for the dixons pay once thing you could try and slip the sky guy a tenner to put a quad LNB on your dish instead as by default they only put a single one on however that'll depend on the guy, a safer thing would be to buy one and just ask him if he could fit it instead. You will still be responsible for running another cable for the other box though.

EDIT 2: If you are in an area which has good normal freeview reception, freeview is all you really want and you have a decent ariel I think the cheapest thing to do would be to buy a couple of freeview boxes, they can be picked up for less than £20 now.

Inactive

b33r wrote: »

Do you still have the cards from your boxes? If so, i believe they revert to freesat cards when you cancel your subscription however don't quote me on that. If you don't have your card's or they haven't reverted to freesat cards then you will have to ring sky and ask for a freesat card(s), i believe they charge you £20 each for them.

)

Card only required for Channel 4, all 5's and Sky 3, no card needed for other " free " channels.;)

b33r

Inactive wrote: »

Card only required for Channel 4, all 5's and Sky 3, no card needed for other " free " channels.;)

Cool, i didn't know that, tbh the choice on freesat is so poor you need all the channels you can get!! The one that shocks me is you don't get sky sports news on freesat but you do on normal freeview, how stupid is that?

I got the freesat offer from dixons when they first did the offer, still got a few months left of the free channel mixes and even though I said at the beginning I'll just keep it for freesat after I think I'm gonna just throw in the towel and start paying when it ends, I've enjoyed national Geographic and sky one too much lol. I imagine sky make a bit of a loss on the 75 quid thing but I can see why they do it, I've been sucked in!

pippamannequin

Thanks for your replies and advice. I think I'll go with new freeview boxes simply because i havent got the dish etc and it does sound a lot of hassle, both the boys have got ariel feeds into their bedrooms so £20 a piece and it's donr then, no more monthly subscription.
They will want some sort of sports though and ive heard the setanta sports is as good as sky sports and innexpensive (ie they could afford it out of their pocket money)!
Maybe it would be worth me selling the sky plus and sky box if it would cover the cost of a couple of freeview boxes?
Thanks again for your help

Poppycat

Next year BBC & ITV launch Freesat a free satellite service a one time cost of the box and installation is all that is needed (probably around the £200 mark). It may also carry HD which is a big bonus because freeview may not carry HD until the digital switch off which ends in 2012

Inactive

k60sav wrote: »

Thanks for your replies and advice. I think I'll go with new freeview boxes simply because i havent got the dish etc and it does sound a lot of hassle, both the boys have got ariel feeds into their bedrooms so £20 a piece and it's donr then, no more monthly subscription.
They will want some sort of sports though and ive heard the setanta sports is as good as sky sports and innexpensive (ie they could afford it out of their pocket money)!
Maybe it would be worth me selling the sky plus and sky box if it would cover the cost of a couple of freeview boxes?
Thanks again for your help

One slight problem there, to get Setanta Sport you need a Freeview Receiver with a card slot, you cannot get them for £20. each.

pippamannequin

Inactive wrote: »

One slight problem there, to get Setanta Sport you need a Freeview Receiver with a card slot, you cannot get them for £20. each.

Thankyou Ok Im glad you told me that, Ive had a look at argos and they do the box for setanta and includes one month free so im guessing this is the best bet as the main box then 2 cheap boxes for the boys! Still a lot cheaper than sky and just managed to sell my sky plus box to a friend for £60!!!! so all in all should be affordable!. Many thanks once again.

b33r

Inactive wrote: »

One slight problem there, to get Setanta Sport you need a Freeview Receiver with a card slot, you cannot get them for £20. each.

Very true but you can get a freeview box with a card slot for effectively £29 by getting this. I say effectively because that is £49.99 but when you take in to account that the setanta pack is £20.99 and that Sagem pack includes the same stuff, the box is only really costing £29 if you were going to buy the setanta pack anyway.

EDIT: Oh and you get months viewing too which is worth a tenner, but you get that with the normal setanta pack anyway so same maths applies.

atm_3

b33r wrote: »

TBH the choice on sky freeview is pretty poor (click here for more info and channel listing) so I doubt you'll keep two teenage boys happy however I'll still answer your question....

I thought there were only a few Freeview channels not available on Freesat. Like E4 and skysports news. Are there many others?

b33r

atm wrote: »

I thought there were only a few Freeview channels not available on Freesat. Like E4 and skysports news. Are there many others?

I don't think there are (m)any others missing but you can compare the channel listings here for freesat and here for freeview

I meant freeview in general really not having a fantastic choice but the freesat not having those 2 is annoying, they're two that I personally would miss if i went from normal freeview to freesat.