Sky TV/Freeview help

AdTheDJAdTheDJ Posts: 48
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I am currently with sky tv on a communal dish which always turns off so I hardly ever get to watch sky tv. Is there any other cable companys that dont use a satellite dish to watch tv and can anybody recommend one

Thanks

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  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    AdTheDJ wrote: »
    I am currently with sky tv on a communal dish which always turns off so I hardly ever get to watch sky tv. Is there any other cable companys that dont use a satellite dish to watch tv and can anybody recommend one

    Thanks

    You have

    Sky or Freesat via a dish (same one for either),

    Freeview via an aerial

    Virgin via cable from the street

    And any number of devices that can stream programmes over t'interweb, Such as Now TV. Amazon Fire TV, and various Android based boxes amongst others.

    So take you pick. Just depends on what sort of stuff you want to watch and how much you want to pay.
  • gdjman68wasdigigdjman68wasdigi Posts: 21,705
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    How does the dish turn off!
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    How does the dish turn off!

    It probably doesn't as it is entirely passive :)

    But the OP mentioned it is a communal system so it could be the distribution system feeding the individual homes that is going off.
  • Jimmy ConnorsJimmy Connors Posts: 117,375
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    AdTheDJ wrote: »
    I am currently with sky tv on a communal dish which always turns off so I hardly ever get to watch sky tv. Is there any other cable companys that dont use a satellite dish to watch tv and can anybody recommend one

    Thanks

    You should get hold of the people who are contracted to maintain the communal dish and its associated wiring and get them to sort the problem out.

    I use a communal dish and any problems are sorted out the same day.

    Saying that, it has never turned itself off.
  • HeartacheHeartache Posts: 4,299
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    AdTheDJ wrote: »
    I am currently with sky tv on a communal dish which always turns off so I hardly ever get to watch sky tv. Is there any other cable companys that dont use a satellite dish to watch tv and can anybody recommend one

    Thanks

    I have freeview which l watch via my TV ariel, and l have a ROKU box that l connect via my broadband and can get ITV hub channels , Channel 5, all the Channel 4 programmes on catch up and BBC i player.

    I pay monthly for NOW TV (entertainment pass £6.99) with this l get SKY 1, Sky Living, Sky Atlantic. Gold, Comedy Central, Sky Arts, ITV Encore, Fox, MTV, Discovery and National Geographic all live, and all of the available boxsets. and Netflix at £5.99 which is a huge amount of films and TV shows as boxsets. and there are hundreds of other internet channels l can download and store to my Roku account.

    NOW TV and Netflix can also be watched on other devices for no extra cost.

    NOW and Netflix are contract free.
  • Galaxy266Galaxy266 Posts: 7,049
    Forum Member
    chrisjr wrote: »
    It probably doesn't as it is entirely passive :)

    But the OP mentioned it is a communal system so it could be the distribution system feeding the individual homes that is going off.

    The dish is passive but the LNB (Low Noise Block) which is mounted at the centre of the dish isn't! It does contain some electronic circuitry, the power for which is fed from the satellite receiver via the same cable that the LNB sends the signals back to the receiver.

    It's possible to turn the LNB "Off" via the Sky Service Menu but I don't know how this would work with a communial dish, I'm not familiar with that set-up.

    You could always get your own satellite dish, OP, unless planning constraints would forbid you to do this.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Galaxy266 wrote: »
    The dish is passive but the LNB (Low Noise Block) which is mounted at the centre of the dish isn't! It does contain some electronic circuitry, the power for which is fed from the satellite receiver via the same cable that the LNB sends the signals back to the receiver.

    It's possible to turn the LNB "Off" via the Sky Service Menu but I don't know how this would work with a communial dish, I'm not familiar with that set-up.

    You could always get your own satellite dish, OP, unless planning constraints would forbid you to do this.

    In a communal system the LNB is powered and controlled by the distribution system. The control signals from the satellite receiver don't get anywhere near the LNB but tell the distribution system which set of signals to feed down the cable.

    It is possible that turning off the control signals from the receiver could cause the distribution system to kill the feed to that cable. But the distribution system should still work to feed other locations.

    It is possible that the OP is suffering from a dodgy cable affecting only their feed. If the entire system is going off then every other location served by the distribution unit should be going off as well. So might be worth asking other residents if they suffer intermittent satellite feeds as well.
  • MartinPickeringMartinPickering Posts: 3,711
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    Galaxy266 wrote: »
    The dish is passive but the LNB (Low Noise Block)

    Wrong. "Low Noise Block-downconverter".
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_downconverter
    and
    http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/lnb.htm
  • Galaxy266Galaxy266 Posts: 7,049
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    Yes, thanks Martin, we all know you're an authority on the subject!

    I was just trying to keep things simple.
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