Freesat installation question?

O-JO-J Posts: 18,805
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Hi,

Thinking of buying a TV for my room, but the problem is, I don't have an antenna on the roof, so tv won't work upstairs.

I have Sky+HD which can pause, record, rewind etc, in the living room, so I have a Satellite,

If I buy a Freesat HD box, do I need another dish?

What else will they need to install?

Comments

  • WhatJoeThinksWhatJoeThinks Posts: 11,037
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    Is this any help?
  • jrajra Posts: 48,325
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    I believe you can get the Freesat channels with a correctly positioned Sky dish, provided you have the correct equipment of course.

    Sky do their own equivalent, but again, I believe most people buy their own equipment.

    Somebody will come along hopefully and confirm the above.

    http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home
  • WhatJoeThinksWhatJoeThinks Posts: 11,037
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    jra wrote: »
    I believe you can get the Freesat channels with a correctly positioned Sky dish, provided you have the correct equipment of course.

    Sky do their own equivalent, but again, I believe most people buy their own equipment.

    Somebody will come along hopefully and confirm the above.

    http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home

    BiB is definitely true. I'm watching Freesat through an old Sky dish as we speak.
  • O-JO-J Posts: 18,805
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    BiB is definitely true. I'm watching Freesat through an old Sky dish as we speak.

    Thanks both of you for the links, :)

    I suppose there is drilling to be done? I have such an awkward bedroom. hope it's not too costly.
  • Sunset DaleSunset Dale Posts: 1,732
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    Why can't you use an indoor aerial? :confused:
  • LostFoolLostFool Posts: 90,623
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    benbenalen wrote: »
    Thanks both of you for the links, :)

    I suppose there is drilling to be done? I have such an awkward bedroom. hope it's not too costly.

    It depends on where the bedroom is relative to the current dish position. I believe most dishes can have up to 4 different feeds coming off it.
  • SnrDevSnrDev Posts: 6,094
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    Freesat comes from the same sat that Sky comes from so if you're picking Sky up you'll pick up Freesat. In technical terms Sky and Freesat are different EPGs fed from the same signal.

    The dish will have something called an LNB which will have at least 2 cable feeds from it. One, or two depending on which Sky box you have, wil go the Sky box. The Sky box needs two to record one channel while you watch another so you'll need a spare if there are only two LNB feeds. If it has 4 you're quids in and just need to run another length of sat cable from the dish to your Freesat reciever. It may involve drilling one hole through your wall; it depends where the dish is and how easy it is to get to it and to get from the dish to your FS box.

    A replacement LNB with more feeds is easy to get hold of - Maplins sell them, Amazon are bound to. Fitting them is a simple swap job, as long as you can get to the dish.
  • jrajra Posts: 48,325
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    I think most Sky dishes these days have at least 4 LNB ports. Some like mine have 8. I can't vouch for dishes you might buy yourself, but you can get motorised dishes, which allow you to point at various different satellites. I think I read somewhere that by using one of these you could get up to about 4000 different channels. How many of these are usable, e.g. are English channels, I have no idea.

    There is a Freesat forum on DS. Have a look in there.

    http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=142
  • HypnodiscHypnodisc Posts: 22,728
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    Why can't you use an indoor aerial? :confused:

    These really don't work the vast majority of the time unless:

    A) The house is in an elevated position
    B) You live within just a few miles of a transmitter or relay
    C) The antenna is upstairs next to a window with rough 'line of sight' to the tx
    D) It's a good quality antenna
    E) You have a signal booster
    F) Nothing in your home interferes with the weak signal.

    If all of those are okay, then sure, an indoor aerial is an option.
  • Carlos_dfcCarlos_dfc Posts: 8,262
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    jra wrote: »
    I think most Sky dishes these days have at least 4 LNB ports
    Yup!
    Ben - Have a look at the LNB on your sky dish.
    Where the cables attach, you'll see the twin Sky cables fixed to two of the ports.
    So long as you have more ports, you can attach a cable to any of the unused ones, and run a Freesat box from it.

    My dish has the standard 4 port LNB
    Two ports are used by Sky and I have two Freesat boxes in upstairs rooms, running on cables attached to the other two ports.
  • jrajra Posts: 48,325
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    Hypnodisc wrote: »
    These really don't work the vast majority of the time unless:

    A) The house is in an elevated position
    B) You live within just a few miles of a transmitter or relay
    C) The antenna is upstairs next to a window with rough 'line of sight' to the tx
    D) It's a good quality antenna
    E) You have a signal booster
    F) Nothing in your home interferes with the weak signal.

    If all of those are okay, then sure, an indoor aerial is an option.

    Generally agree with that.

    However, what you've said applies mainly to a set top aerial, as opposed to a loft aerial.
  • HypnodiscHypnodisc Posts: 22,728
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    jra wrote: »
    Generally agree with that.

    However, what you've said applies mainly to a set top aerial, as opposed to a loft aerial.

    I presumed that's what the poster meant.

    Installing a full sized aerial in the loft (and routing the cable down etc) is only marginally less hassle and expense than having one installed on the roof.

    The signal can suffer too depending on the type of roof.
  • jrajra Posts: 48,325
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    Hypnodisc wrote: »
    I presumed that's what the poster meant.

    Installing a full sized aerial in the loft (and routing the cable down etc) is only marginally less hassle and expense than having one installed on the roof.

    The signal can suffer too depending on the type of roof.

    You will lose some signal strength through the roof. This can be easily compensated for by buying an aerial with a higher gain.

    Also.

    It's a lot safer for the average person to go into the loft than going onto the roof, if you are installing the aerial yourself. Most sensible people would pay for an installer to fit a rooftop aerial, whereas with a little knowledge, a loft aerial can be fitted FOC yourself in terms of installation costs. With the right aerial, that could save you forking out £100 or so to have it fitted.

    A loft aerial does not deteriorate over the years, due to (adverse) weather conditions. So, even after 20 years, the aerial will still look brand new.

    A loft aerial cannot be blown down or its position altered by strong winds.

    However, a loft aerial will probably not work well in DX reception areas.

    http://web.archive.org/web/20011202005233/http://www.isonstine.plus.com/dx_general.html

    http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1366144

    My current DTT installation uses a hand built aerial made by Ron Smith Aerials of Luton. It is about 6 feet long and resides in the loft. I do have a fairly good line of sight to Sandy Heath transmitter, which is roughly 20 miles away and get a very good signal.
  • Nigel GoodwinNigel Goodwin Posts: 58,330
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    To clarify things further:

    1) Freesat is just an alternative EPG for exactly the same free channels as you get with a Sky box, from the same satellites.

    2) So exactly the same dish is used, in exactly the same alignment.

    3) Any Sky+ install will already have a quad LNB, so if only one PVR is connected to it, then there are two spare outputs available.

    4) So all that's required is running two more cables (for a Freesat PVR, one for a normal box) from the dish to where you want Freesat.
  • AndrueAndrue Posts: 23,351
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    *Deleted*
  • AndrueAndrue Posts: 23,351
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    1) Freesat is just an alternative EPG for exactly the same free channels as you get with a Sky box, from the same satellites.
    Mostly :)

    Some channels that you don't actually pay for through Sky are not available on Freesat. More annoyingly some channels that are free on Freeview are not available on Freesat.

    Although to be fair to Sky it may also be because the channel concerned has to employ encryption to avoid licensing issues and is therefore not compatible with Freesat.

    If a channel is FTA (Free to Air) you can manually tune to it on either box but you might not be able record it or might interfere with the boxes operation. Some Freesat boxes (maybe all) only offer manual tuning if you disable all the Freesat functionality. The Sky box is not so restrictive - it always allows you to manually tune a channel but I'm not sure if it ever allows you to record one.
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