Freesat if old Sky box is playing up?

I have had an old Sky box (without a card) for 5 years and a large dish which worked fine to get BBC, ITV, CH4 and a few others. Over the last year the ITV channel sometimes disappears but then returns later. (I am in the Marbella area).

I was thinking of getting FreeSat so that I have more channels and have been offered a box for €99 which I've been told I just plug in instead of the Sky box as he would set it up in advance before sending. I have also heard that you can get FreeSat cards that go in the old Sky box which is cheaper but as channels sometimes disappear I am not sure if box is getting old and also it doesnt take new Sky cards from UK since they updated them to digital.

Could anyone advise if the box sounds like the best idea?

Many thanks,
Jo

Hi Dangermouse,

Welcome to EOS!!!

Have a look at this link:

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freesatfaq.html

It tells you all you need to know, including recommendations of what box to buy.

We just had Freesat installed in our community.

I bought a Bush box from Argos for £45 and have loads of channels.

I think you can order from Argos if you live in Spain, but that may be a service only operating in my area  (Costa Blanca)

Worth checking out though.

I have heard the best box to buy is a Pace, you can pick up even more channels.

All these channels are called Free to Air in Spain, as opposed to Freeview in the UK

Good luck!

Thanks so much for that info - hmmm, the €99 isnt looking like such a good deal;)

I live in the UK but my apartment is in Marbella - I am going over to Spain next week, would you recommend buying here from Argos and taking over (although hadnt been planning on checking in a bag)? I checked El Cortes de Ingles website but can only see TDT boxes.

Regards,
Jo

Hi there,

I live in Albatera near Alicante, we have a Sky box and a FTA free to air satellite box, both of which work well. The FTA box is better to use as you can get 100's of channels for tv and radio. The Sky box is only used for the free channels so there is a lot of channels listed on the EPG that we cannot get.

You can get a FTA box from Carrefour, MediaMarkt, Aki or most places that sell tv's, I would avoid a satellite installer as they will add their markup, I bought mine from Lidl for 40 euro.

Just plug it into your dish and do a auto search for the channels.

I know nothing about Sky boxes but in our community we have to be connected to one Sky installation which will cost us about 350 Euros to connect  if we provide our own Sky box  - money making rip off if you ask me but we have no alternative unless we want to watch only Spanish TV.   

Are you saying in these posts that we could have an alternative or do you need to have your own dish?

Yes I have my own dish so assume you need one apart from with Freeview via aerial (but think all Spanish channels).

I would have to pay £16 to put the box in the hold with Easyjet so may actually go for the €99/£87 one incl. delivery as the cheapest Argos one is £49 so although saving £20 would have hassle of carrying it and if its faulty would have to bring it back to UK. I think I will stick with Freesat rather than FTA as I dont understand enough about finding channels and would like the programme schedule.

Thanks so much for all of your advice!

Jo

FTA boxes are very easy to setup, same as a freeserve box, have a go and save yourself some money and the hassle of bringing one from the uk.

Good luck any way

if your existing sky box is a "sky digital" box, then you wil get all the channels on that that are available on the basic freesat boxes.

a feeshat hd box gets bbc hd (same reception as bbc1 channel islands) and itv hd (1 programme a week in hd if you are lucky!)

if you go for a freesatfromsky viewignc ard - 20quid from sky - you will also get five, fiver, five us. and some strong ITVS and C4s that are not available on a freesat box.

if you are loosing itv now on your sky box then you will also loose itv on a freesat box

it does depend on what make / model you r sky box is also....some are good and some are bad.

Generic FTA receivers: some work well, others dont, and unlike sky / freesat boxes they dont have a good EPG or automatically update them selves with new cghannel frequencies.

the chanenls on freesat are all FTA! all channels on a sky box without a viewign card are also FTA!

there are the same number of free channels available on bot basic sky and basic freesat boxes....

but it gets compicated as freesat has two modes - an offical freesat mode where channels are in the offical freesat EPG channels giode...and nonfreesat mode - which allows you to access channels that are not in the offical freesat EPG channel guide.

sky and freesat boxes load up everything automatuiclly when you have a good siganls - although freesat boxes want a postcode inoput so they can determine when ITV and BBC regions to use.

freeserve..??

i think you may mean freeview! and freeview cannot be received in spain.

some UK freeview boxes do work, but as i have exaoplined a few times before they do have some limitations...best go for a TDT receiver once in spain to get the spanish version of freeview.

if your sky box is still working ok stick with that and go for a freesatfromsky card - gives a bit more than freesat..

Thanks! I have a very old Sky box (5 years) so not sure if its digital as remember people used to bring their Sky cards from home to use in it but they stopped working which I thought was because Sky went digital so new cards wouldnt work - would this mean a £20 card wouldnt? Also I dont have an account with Sky as I use Virgin Media in UK and in Spain have only ever had the free channels so never subscribed. Would this still be ok?

I didnt understand about losing ITV with both, is that because it is related to the dish?

I rent out my apartment so just wanted to offer a better choice of channels but something that is reliable and wont need playing around with as I only visit a few times a year.

Just a couple of points Dangermouse.........

You could carry the box hand luggage, they are very small and not heavy.

But, if you do buy one in the UK, they will NOT change it if you don't want it

That is their policy...........

As it has a recordable hard drive in it, they cannot re-sell it due to anything that may be stored on it.

Trust me, the Bush box will give you more than enough channels, I took mine in December.

Plugged it in, followed the onscreen instructions and away I went!

If I can do it, anyone can!

Thanks but I couldnt carry as bag will be full to brim as not taking luggage and Easyjet wont allow overflow...

Still not sure re the card q below? But since been told the box that is €99 would have 500 channels but is not Freesat but Freeview so even more confused now... Im guessing they mean free to view so perhaps like FTA.

if your sky box is 5 years old it will be a sky digital box. sky digital has been going for almost 10 years now!

you can watch any FTA tv channels on it that can be received on your dish.

people can bring htier sky cards out and watch some of the pay tv channels they pay for - but not sky sports or sky movies channels as these are specific to the cads "home" box...(note that this MAY change with the new sky cards that are currently being issued but i dont know yet!)

it makes no difference if you are with virgin or not....however, if you do order a new FSFS card remember that it must be connetced to a dish and receiver for Sky to activate it. when you order the card sky will create an account - and i think the fsfs card database / departmnt is totally seperate to the pay tv database / department.

if you are loosing ITV on your exisiting setup using a sky receiver then you may well loose it using any other receiver also...it may be down to the dish not being aligned properly. both sky receivers and freesat receiver all get their channels using the same frequencies - (ok apart from skys five and freesats five!). there are not seperate satellite or frequencies for tthe fta channels received on freesat or sky. the only difference iis that the two use different frequencies for thei EPG (programme guide) data...

there are various types of freesat and sky receivers

freesat SD - basic -- around 50 quid

freesat HD - about 150 quid (bbc hd and itv hd "service")

freesat HD+ - has builtin hard disk for receord - about 300 quid

sky - basic

sky + - sky with builtin hard dish - needs a monthly payment to sky to use record and playback

sky hd+ - a HD PVR - again requires a monthly payment to sky to use record and playback, you can watch bbc hd for free with no card, itv hd (only with new epg), c4 hd with a fsfs or subscritpion card), all other HD channels you must pay an extra £10 per month for,

but like i said before, if you already have a sky box there then you will gain nothing using a basic freesat box

Thanks, I think my box must be faulty then as not allowed other people to use their Sky cards for last couple of years when worked fine initially. My cousin used to bring his but it just stopped working and he thought it was because my box needed upgrading. So doubt the £20 card would work?

Doesnt help being in UK and only have a window of 3 days next week to get it all tested and sorted!

Turns out the €99 is FTA but doesnt include CH4 and 5, but get hundreds more - hmmm, this is hard work - sorry if I'm hurting your heads too...

Thanks, I think my box must be faulty then as not allowed other people to use their Sky cards for last couple of years when worked fine initially. My cousin used to bring his but it just stopped working and he thought it was because my box needed upgrading.

like i said any sky card works in any sky receiver and you will be able to view most of the channels your dish receives...but your premium channels (sky sports and sky movies) are only viewable onthe cards "home" box.

when a sky subscription card is inserted into the box - can you see the programems on sky one ....if yes then the card reader and box are working fine.......if if not what is the message on the screen...no signal means a seriuous problem - as sky one can be received even on an 80cm dish! - if it says card error then maybe the card reader has got knackered and you will need a new box (but only if you want to use a sky card! - it should still be able to work ok with the fta channels!)

your box should self update the software automatically - go to services 4, 5 *system details) and the EPG Software should be higher than 3.5.x....anything over 3.5.x should work with the "yellow house" sky cards, but you may need the 3.7.x versions for the new  white sky cards to work....you box should automatically update itself after a few hours of been used...

So doubt the £20 card would work?

See above

Turns out the €99 is FTA but doesnt include CH4 and 5, but get hundreds more - hmmm, this is hard work - sorry if I'm hurting your heads too...

Ch4 (and all their sister channles)  has been FTA for a year - if not longer...so i would be very worried if they say your FTA receiver does not get it....

Five has had a FTA version since October 2008

but - their reception is limited and you will only get them for the same time as BBC2 (ish)

(C4+1, E4, E4+1, M4 should all be vailable as per bbc1)

(you can get a stroong free C4 by scanning frequency 12480v 27.5 2/3 and adding TTon4 - a left over free C4 test signal!)

I just found last email from guest, would this throw any light on if box or dish is at fault:

"The TV was unreliable. We could almost always get the news channel but other channels including BBC1, BBC2 and ITV1 were unreliable. Sometimes we could get ITV3 but more often the picture and sound broke up."

The company who suggested the new box with the 500 channels thought it sounded like a faulty box but do you think it could be dish alignment as they mention picture and sound breaking up which is what I experienced last year but only with ITV1.

And thanks for explaining re card, I understand now that Sky encrypted them a few years ago for the paid channels so they probaby did work but only by getting the same channels I got without a card.

Many thanks!

Jo

if BBC and ITvs are breaking up, but news channels are ok, then it sounds like your dish is out of alignment.

these are the really weak channels, and what a big dish is needed for!

Thanks, some are saying it sounds like frequency is out so box at fault. Guess without someone testing Im just not going to know so will have to get engineer in.

Jo

You could be really cheeky and buy your new digibox (whichever you decide) from Currys, Argos, Maplin, etc. Take it with you to Spain (I know you said you were only taking hand luggage, but...) and try it. If the new box has the same problems bring it home with you and take it back to the shop so long as you open the box carefully . If it does work, you have probably saved yourself some money on buying the box in Spain!

Mark

Thanks, could have been good idea! But now read that its very common on the Costa del Sol to lose ITV at night as standard dishes are used by technicians there that arent quite big enough (even though looks huge to me!). And storms and winds will affect it and worse during rain which might make sense for when I lost them.

Would a new box or the card from Sky have any impact on strengthening the signal? As someone mentioned with the card you get 'strong ITVs'?

Jo

Thanks, some are saying it sounds like frequency is out so box at fault.

not too sure what is meant by this...

but pay no attention to people saying you need to change the default tranponder frequency - you only need to do this to help the box get the informaiton it needs to start up - it does ont make channel reception better!

yes, bbcs and itvs are very weak in spain, and you can loose them late at night - but you should get them ok during the dat time....so maybe the dish does need to be realigned.

Would a new box or the card from Sky have any impact on strengthening the signal?

Depends whcih sky box you have at the moment...ideally a pace 2600 is the best performing basic sky box, followed closely by the pace 430n. avopid the new pace 440 and 445, but the best of the new models is the thomson.

cards do not do anything about increaseing signals...all they do is change your default regions for bbc1 and itv1, and all are available already on your existing card.

As someone mentioned with the card you get 'strong ITVs'?

All BBC and ITV channels are free to air - you do not need a viewing card to watch them - just a big dish.

however, due to lack of space omn the main bbc / itv satellite (astra2d) there are 6 itv regions on another satellite., whose signals is a lot stronger in spain than those on astra 2d. these "alternate" ITVs are encyrtped and require a sky card to view. but they are on a signal that is weak during the after noon, but should be strong at night when the other iTV regions go off.

on a sky box got o services, 4, add channels, input the frequency of 12408, v 27.5 2/3 and find channels, press yellow (puts a tick) nect to an ITV and press select - the new itv channels is in your "other channels" list in the services menu.

more here

www.satandpcguy.com/Site/extra_secret_frequencies_channels_sky.htm