tegwin
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 10:55 AM |
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Freesat questions?....
Anyone tried Freesat?
We cant get digital TV where we live, but would be able to get Freesat...
Can I just buy a second hand dish and decoder box on wbay and plug it in or am I going to need a "Card" thing to make it work?
And another random question....If I buy a HD decoder/recorder....Can I export the recorded video files onto my PC? [I dont have an HD tv, but my PC
monitor is deffinately HD!]
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Would the last person who leaves the country please switch off the lights and close the door!
www.verticalhorizonsmedia.tv
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jabs
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 11:04 AM |
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By freesat do you mean the free channels via Sky. If so then yes you do need a card, either a sky one where the subscription has been stopped or a
'freeview' card from sky, think it costs about £15
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mookaloid
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 11:09 AM |
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I do this in my caravan.
I have a dish which I stick on the side of the van, a old sky box and I bought a freesky card which cost £10 (no subscription)
You need the card for ch4 and ch5.
Setting it up is easy as the SKY box has a built in signal strength meter.
A good site for instructions is here I know it says for caravans but the info is just as valid for
houses 
Cheers
Mark
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 11:17 AM |
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No - I think he means the BBC/ITV Freesat - carefully named to avoid confusion. 
I'm waiting for my sat box to arrive tomorrow, so I can probably answer a few questions.
First of all - no special card. You pay for the decoder box and sat dish installation, which is around £65 for standard definition, £150 for HD, and
£80 for the dish. If you already have a Sky Digital dish then you can use that instead (same satellite - Astra 2?).
Don't know about HD recording - I'll find out over the weekend!
I've cancelled my Sky contract as we hardly ever watch TV anyway, and I refuse to pay their premium rate to get HD. I also object to the
continual repeats, although that's down to the content providers rather than Sky. At least with Freesat I'll get a couple of HD channels
at no extra cost.
[Edited on 26/6/08 by David Jenkins]
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Peteff
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 11:18 AM |
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No sky
You can get freesat on other satellites.
[Edited on 26/6/08 by Peteff]
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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tegwin
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 11:20 AM |
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Yes, sorry...I do mean the Freesat from the BBC/ITV Seems to make a lot of sence to me!
Im sure installing a dish and box cant be that hard!...Im not paying some spanner monkey to do it for me Might have to make a signal finder, but
hey ho...
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Would the last person who leaves the country please switch off the lights and close the door!
www.verticalhorizonsmedia.tv
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 11:23 AM |
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Maplins sell a dish kit, or you could try here.
- the second place will also sell you an e-book telling you how to set up a dish!
The Freesat dish is a little larger than Sky's - I believe that they only wanted to push one size that would be OK for the whole of the UK (Sky
recommend bigger dishes for the north of Scotland, I believe).
ACTUALLY...
Just had a look at Maplins (odd, and expensive) and Satcure, and the £80 official install starts to look like a bargain!
[Edited on 26/6/08 by David Jenkins]
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westf27
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 12:25 PM |
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Lidls dish kit £60 ish
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saigonij
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 01:04 PM |
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if you already have a sky dish, you can use this and just plug it in to the back of the FreeSAT box.
All FreeSat is is an EPG that shows you all the Free-To-Air channels on the SKy transmittion.
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iank
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 01:09 PM |
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List of channels currently available on FreeSat
No Dave, but Men and Motors (which dropped off Freeview when they added some stupid shopping channel)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_channels_on_freesat
--
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
Anonymous
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stevebubs
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 01:24 PM |
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no card needed - just get a freesat box from Argos, etc.
Most of the places will sell you a dish + install for £80.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 01:26 PM |
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PS go to avforums - covered well there.
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D Beddows
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 03:08 PM |
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So why is this any better than freeview? (unless you can't get it obviously!) if anything you seem to get more channels on freeview - ok
perhaps not BBC HD but, from experience, having that doesn't really seem worth all the effort and cost - or am I missing something?
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stevebubs
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 03:46 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by D Beddows
So why is this any better than freeview? (unless you can't get it obviously!) if anything you seem to get more channels on freeview - ok
perhaps not BBC HD but, from experience, having that doesn't really seem worth all the effort and cost - or am I missing something?
1) HD availability
2) Coverage
That's it.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 03:49 PM |
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PS More channels will shift to freeview as they change transponder within the Astra cluster to one on Astra 1D.
Freesat has come about because 1D transponders are very focussed on the UK rather than europe in general. This gave the BBC enough leverage to enable
them to get Offcom to drop the requirement for them to encrypt their transmissions.
As they could drop the encryption this also meant they could drop Sky out of the loop...
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 03:50 PM |
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For many people, freeview transmitters will remain on lower power until the analogue ones are shut off. For example, my ITV channels occasionally get
very noisy, especially Channel 5. This is partly due to ITV cramming their wavelengths too. I'm less than 20 miles line-of-sight from the
nearest transmitter!
I already have a HD-capable TV and HDD recorder, so it seems a shame not to use them to their full capacity, albeit not a lot to start with.
Another reason is that the Sky box, made by Pace, is a total POS that cuts out for 10 minutes every time it overheats - I'm expecting/hoping for
better results from the Humax Freesat box when it arrives.
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eccsmk
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| posted on 26/6/08 at 04:11 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Yes, sorry...I do mean the Freesat from the BBC/ITV Seems to make a lot of sence to me!
Im sure installing a dish and box cant be that hard!...Im not paying some spanner monkey to do it for me Might have to make a signal finder, but
hey ho...
like this?
link to screwfix
[Edited on 26/6/08 by eccsmk]
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