# Irish channels with old Sky box



## Firefly

I used to be a Sky customer before switching to UPC (primarily for their broadband and tv package). Picking up on the Saorview thread I plugged my old Sky+ box into the TV last night and I can get the BBC and other channels fine. The Irish channels weren't availabe though...what's the best way of getting these without signing up to Sky? Is an arial required or is is Saorview?
Thanks,
Firefly.


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## SparkRite

Firefly said:


> I used to be a Sky customer before switching to UPC (primarily for their broadband and tv package). Picking up on the Saorview thread I plugged my old Sky+ box into the TV last night and I can get the BBC and other channels fine. The Irish channels weren't availabe though...what's the best way of getting these without signing up to Sky? Is an arial required or is is Saorview?
> Thanks,
> Firefly.



You will NOT get them on a Sky box without a subscription.

A Saorview stb (set top box) requires an aerial and/or a cable feed.

As you have UPC you can get all the Irish channels from them and until end of 2012 (approx) without an Mpeg4 decoder ie. an analogue TV will suffice.
Thereafter you will need a STB or a television with a Mpeg4 tuner/decoder inbuilt.


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## Firefly

SparkRite said:


> You will NOT get them on a Sky box without a subscription.
> 
> A Saorview stb (set top box) requires an aerial and/or a cable feed.
> 
> As you have UPC you can get all the Irish channels from them and until end of 2012 (approx) without an Mpeg4 decoder ie. an analogue TV will suffice.
> Thereafter you will need a STB or a television with a Mpeg4 tuner/decoder inbuilt.



Sorry, I'm not being very clear...say I cancel my UPC subscription. How do I get the Irish channels then with only my Sky+ box? Do I need an arial? Thanks,F


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## SparkRite

As I said you CANNOT get them on any Sky box without a subscription! They are NOT FTA (free to air) and neither or they FTV (free to view) on the sky satellite system (Astra).

So when they go digital only, as I said you will have to get an STB or a television with a Mpeg4 tuner/decoder inbuilt, both of which will need an aerial or cable feed.


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## Firefly

SparkRite said:


> As I said you CANNOT get them on any Sky box without a subscription! They are NOT FTA (free to air) and neither or that FTV (free to view) on the sky satellite system (Astra).
> 
> So when they go digital only then as I said you will have to get an STB or a television with a Mpeg4 tuner/decoder inbuilt, both of which will need an aerial and/or cable feed.



How do I get the Irish channels (without a Sky subscription) before they go digital? I presume this is via a standard aerial?


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## jpd

tune your television to them,


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## Firefly

jpd said:


> tune your television to them,



I tried that last night but no joy...I'll try it again


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## Eithneangela

You have to have an aerial to get the terrestrial stations (RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4).  We got one put into the attic, works fine, and we use our old SKY boxes (multi-room) to get all of the channels that are available via FREESAT.  If you google FREESAT, it will give you a list of the channels and you can easily tune them in on the old SKY boxes.


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## Firefly

Thanks for that. Just googled the channel listing...some super channels alright such as "Revelation TV"!!


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## Brouhahaha

You have the free-to-air channels through your old sky box. 

To get the Irish channels, as said, you need an aerial. If you have one and it's connected to your TV you should be able to tune the normal analogue versions of these channels in on your TV. 

You could also buy a Saorview set top box (about €100, prices will fall later) and use this with your aeriel connection to receive the digital versions of the channels. You will need to do this anyway soon as the analogue versions are being turned off in 2012.

Both your old sky box and the Saorview box require no subscriptions.


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## Firefly

Brouhahaha said:


> You have the free-to-air channels through your old sky box.
> 
> To get the Irish channels, as said, you need an aerial. If you have one and it's connected to your TV you should be able to tune the normal analogue versions of these channels in on your TV.
> 
> You could also buy a Saorview set top box (about €100, prices will fall later) and use this with your aeriel connection to receive the digital versions of the channels. You will need to do this anyway soon as the analogue versions are being turned off in 2012.
> 
> Both your old sky box and the Saorview box require no subscriptions.




Thanks for that seems the way to go. Now to arrange live pause and recording for free!


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## SparkRite

Firefly said:


> How do I get the Irish channels (without a Sky subscription) before they go digital? I presume this is via a standard aerial?



Yes, thats correct, if you're lucky "rabbits ears" may suffice, just as people have done for the last 50 years since RTE started broadcasting in 1961.


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## Ceist Beag

Firefly said:


> Thanks for that seems the way to go. Now to arrange live pause and recording for free!



A decent dvd recorder will let you do this.


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