# Free to Air TV.



## Coolaboy

Fed up paying for Sky TV. Has anybody got in a Free to Air package. I was talking to an installer who will put in a free to air package for 250.00 euro that will supply the Uk chanells ( 70 channells in Total.)    The 250.00 is a once off fee. Anybody taken this package yet.


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## nod

I worked for Sky last winter for a few months and installed the free to air system myself. The channels I get are BBC1-4,ITV1-4,SKY News,Men and Motors,and a few more,mostly shopping and promotion channells,doubt if it comes to 75 but may well do.


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## gordongekko

If you already have Sky just take out you card and what channels that remain are the channels that are fta. These channels are free to air so there is no "package".


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## slave1

Assuming you do not have an existing satelite setup...if you are being quoted €250, why not join Sky directly and go into a years contract for around €26/month, which will cost you about €312 for a years viewing of their "pay" channels, you can always pull the plug once the year is up.
For around €60, you'll get a years viewing of their "pay" channels.


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## extopia

Second that - just cancel your sky subscription. You keep the dish and can receive the free channels.


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## Jockey

Hi Guys,

I had sky but disconnected it last year. Was still left with a good selection of channels for free plus i tuned in all the ITV channels, Film four, BBC 3 & 4 and a few others myself which cost me nothing at the end of the day! My question is i can't seem to tune in Channel 5. Has anyone had any experience of actually successfully tuning in this channel?

Regards,

Jockey


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## Towger

You need an UK card (Yellow house) for ch5 (there are now 3 ch5s), Ch4 and Sky3.


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## Jockey

Hi,

How do i go about getting one of those?

Jockey


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## oopsbuddy

Alternatively, is there any advantage in getting one of Lidl's cheap & cheerful satellite dishes for about €100 (when they come up) and can you then get all the "free to air" Sky channels, or must they be sourced via a Sky satellite dish? Excuse my ignorance!


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## Ballyman

You can buy a Yellow House Card [broken link removed].

I wouldn't recommend buying one from eBay as they have a habit of being cancelled after a few weeks!!

I bought mine on the site above months ago and apart from having to leave it in the box for 24 hours on receipt, I have had no problems with it. Provides me with my racing fix every saturday!!


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## Towger

Jockey said:


> Hi,
> 
> How do i go about getting one of those?
> 
> Jockey


 
If you know someone in the UK to sent it to you, you can/could request one off . They were available for about £20, but now the site it just offering a full (no subscription) package.

Or.

Try Ebay...


See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-view for more details.

Towger


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## kfpg

extopia said:


> Second that - just cancel your sky subscription. You keep the dish and can receive the free channels.


 
Ok you keep the dish but what about the Sky digibox, I assume that goes back to Sky? What kind of box do you buy and where to replace the sky box?


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## Ballyman

Nope, you keep the box as well. You have a fully functional FTA system when you cancel your sky sub after your initial 12 month contract. All the equipment becomes yours after the 12 month contract expires.

You will need a cancelled UK Yellow House card for C4, C5 and Sky 3 (See link above to purchase), but you will recieve all the bbc's and ITV's, sky news etc without any card.


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## Guest127

sky are offering half price (€11) for three months for fairly basic package and then reverts to full price.  3x11=33 +9x22 =198  total €232 for 12 months. If I signed up to them now and cancelled in 12 months ( and purchased that yellow card thingy) would this work out ok. rte, tv3 and tng I presume are off a seperate signal at that stage? any recommendations for paying this years sub ie loath to give direct debit details as they might keep collecting and deny cancellation? can you pay by other means?


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## orka

The yellow card seems to give Channel 4 which Sky doesn't - if I subscribe to Sky can I buy one of these yellow cards and use both so I can get the Sky channels and also Channel 4?


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## gordongekko

orka said:


> The yellow card seems to give Channel 4 which Sky doesn't - if I subscribe to Sky can I buy one of these yellow cards and use both so I can get the Sky channels and also Channel 4?


 

You will only be able to use 1 card at a time.


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## procus

Hi 

I have set up a free to air system and am receiving all the bbc's e.t.c. and was hoping to cancel NTL. The only problem is the wife can't handle losing channel 4. I have read the threads above and am interested in the yellow house card.

Will a normal free to air decoder do with a slot for a card or does it have to be a sky digibox?

Or is there a compatable decoder I could buy ?.

Excuse my ignorance , i am new to all this satellite stuff.


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## jhegarty

procus said:


> Hi
> 
> I have set up a free to air system and am receiving all the bbc's e.t.c. and was hoping to cancel NTL. The only problem is the wife can't handle losing channel 4. I have read the threads above and am interested in the yellow house card.
> 
> Will a normal free to air decoder do with a slot for a card or does it have to be a sky digibox?
> 
> Or is there a compatable decoder I could buy ?.
> 
> Excuse my ignorance , i am new to all this satellite stuff.



some of the better (dreambox) decoders will read a sky card.. but most won't...


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## procus

Thanks For The reply , where can you buy a dreambox and are they difficult to setup? in other words do you just plug it in and insert the card?


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## procus

Thanks for the reply. where can i buy a dreambox are they expensive and is it just a matter of plugging it in and inserting the card?


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## jhegarty

procus said:


> Thanks for the reply. where can i buy a dreambox are they expensive and is it just a matter of plugging it in and inserting the card?




ebay is the best place to get them.... but you will really need to know your stuff to get it working with sky...


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## procus

ok thanks j for the reply appreciate it


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## Ancutza

Have looked at FTA in the past and done nothing about it but I'd be interested to know if I bought a second-hand Sky Digibox in Ireland and brought it out here to Romania would I get the FTA channels?

Bit hacked off with the local offerings and CNN is doing my head in


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## BlueSpud

With the setup described, do you get channels like the history chanel, national geographic & any other educational chalels?


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## kfpg

Now that Channel 4 has been added to the Sky digital package does that mean there is now a frequency that can be tuned in on a FTA system to also receive Channel 4?


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## Swallows

We got the dish put up on friday. There are a lot of channels, too many to get around this soon. We connected it to the TV in the kitchen and left the TV in sitting room as it was with the local channels. The news channels are great and of course the shopping ones for anyone who likes watching the latest gadgets.


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## Technologist

procus said:


> Thanks for the reply. where can i buy a dreambox are they expensive and is it just a matter of plugging it in and inserting the card?


Just be aware that using a Dreambox with a $ky card is technically 'dodgy'. It may be illegal. I am sure that $ky will find a way to block this at some point. You'd then find yourself looking for a firmware upgrade. There's a whole sub-culture of this on the net. Some of the offerings are very dodgy ^ certainly have no warranty. Probably not worth the trouble of getting involved in it. You'll spend so much time trying to do it illegally, that it would be simpler just to pay Murdoch what he wants.

But, general-purpose FTA receivers, including a DreamBox with no card will, legally, receive BBC, ITV, $ky News and lots of other channels (just not $ky ones or RTE, TV3, C4 etc).


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## Daisybell

In this month's Sky magazine they are offering a Sky package for a once-off fee of €99, you get to pick 2 out of the 6 mixes and you have these channels for 6 months, no 12 month subscription required. I presume the box is yours after that.  They don't have it up on their website.  I think it sounds really good for anyone looking for a FTA box.  I'm sure it would cost more than €99 to get one installed whatever about the cost of the equipment.


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## Technologist

Ancutza said:


> Have looked at FTA in the past and done nothing about it but I'd be interested to know if I bought a second-hand Sky Digibox in Ireland and brought it out here to Romania would I get the FTA channels?
> 
> Bit hacked off with the local offerings and CNN is doing my head in


The Sky boxes are primarily designed for Astra  Satellites at 28.2 east. The best channels are on 2D which has a tightly focused beam See this map.  See this list. In Romania, you should be able to get anything that's marked as 'fixed' but not anything marked as '2D'.  So even with a sub card, in Romania, it would be physically impossible to get 2d (where BBC, ITV are). You would get able to get all of the shopping and dating channels though.  You might get other channels with that box in Romania by pointing the dish at other satellites, such as HotBird but the Sky box may not have the ability to tune the channels you'd like as it's designed for the Sky service primarily. It's not a general purpose receiver.   A FTA box is a much better option.


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## procus

Hi technologist , no i'm not really interested in the dreambox for sky its only for channel 4 , i wouldnt even mind paying sky the money just for channel 4 if it wasn't that expensive. It's just that if i get rid of ntl , the wife will be left withot channel 4 and when big brother is back on and she can't get it , my life wont be woth living!


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## Technologist

My posting was not intended to berate you for considering 'dodgy' hardware or piracy techniques, more to point out that using anything other than a Sky box to receive a channel that is encrypted so that only Sky subscribers can get it, is likely to be intermittantly unreliable or involve heavy technical ingenuity. 

The DreamBox is a very good receiver for FTA as-is'. Additionally, It enjoys popularity with satellite hackers as it's very 'flexible'. But, I think it's mainly an enthusiast's receiver.

Easier to just pay Sky. But, I agree, it's terrible to have to pay for lots of channels you don't want. 

But...there is speculation that C4 might eventually go FTA.


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## procus

Thanks technologist for taking the time to reply , i really appreciate it. At least i know now that i need a sky box for channel 4. 

I hope it goes free to air sometime in  the near future, i think ill hold off on a dreambox till i learn a bit more about satellites , i have a lot of reading up to do. I wouldn't have a clue how to use it or set it up at the moment.


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## yella

I have a Dreambox purchased from a dealer in Germany. The Dreambox has to be the coolest best receiver available. They are tricky to setup and it is helpful to know a bit of Linux (to get the best out of it).  I have the 7020 model with a hard drive for storing recordings and also useful for mp3s. The latest model has dual tuners which is nice. 
Mine is connected to a wireless network for software updates. I can control the Dreambox from a browser and even stream a channel in good quality to any PC in the house. 
I can confirm that an FTV "house" card works fine on CH4 and CH5 with a software CAM.


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## procus

*Film Four not automatically tuning in*

Hi ,
Just having a problem tuning in film four, decided to clear station list and do a complete scan on FTA decoder and sort them into some kind of sequence. For some reason Film Four wont tune in automatically or Film Four + 1. I can manually put in the frequency and it will pick it up , but was wondering if this dosen't tune in, would there also be other channels  that the decoder is not picking up?. I have tried it a few times , its on 28.2 Astra . I have tried this a few times and tried it to include even the scrambled channels but each time Film Four never appeared in list. 

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks


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## Technologist

If that's with a Sky box, I think it's just they way they work.   With a general-purpose FTA system, they come programmed with a list of frequencies and you can add more, which they'll remember even if you clear the channel list.


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## procus

hi tecnologist , thanks for the reply , its a inverto 1000p . When I do a full scan it never pick up film 4, each time i have to enter it manually. I was just wondering if it was missing ouit on other fta channels
Thanks


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## ninsaga

If you take out the sky card & replace with a FTZA card... can you then pick up RTE, TV3, .. or do you still need to stick up an ariel for those channels?

ninsaga


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## procus

Hi ninsaga, mine is not a sky box, but i know rte tv3 etc are not free to air. i'd say if you remove the sky card you wont be able to get these channels. I tried tuning in rte tv3 etc on the tv with a small arial and rabbits ears, and the reception was unwatchable. i purchased an aerial for 40 euro placed it in the attic , not outside and the reception on these channels is crystal clear, as good as if not better than they were coming in on ntl.


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## ivuernis

Recently got a communal SKY satellite installation in my apt block. I don't want to subscribe to SKY but there are about 40-odd FTA channels. To pick these up can I plug in any digital receiver or do I need a Sky box?


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## polo9n

is that equivalent to the NTL package (16 channels) ?


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## ivuernis

polo9n said:


> is that equivalent to the NTL package (16 channels) ?


 
Is this is reply to my question polo9n?


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## polo9n

SORRY MATE i just like to know if its worth while to get rid of NTL for Skybox


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## Daisybell

ivuernis said:


> Recently got a communal SKY satellite installation in my apt block. I don't want to subscribe to SKY but there are about 40-odd FTA channels. To pick these up can I plug in any digital receiver or do I need a Sky box?


I would imagine you would need a sky box.  They have enabled the dish to accept so many boxes but you'd need the box to actually connect up to the dish.

Polo9n - You have analogue NTL which includes your RTE's and the basic BBC's.  The FTA channels are different, BBC3, BBC4, ITV3, ITV4 etc.  If you are looking for advice, Sky + is the business for everyone.  I was a Chorus digital subscriber, had terrible trouble with Chorus themselves, got a Sky+ box and just can't imagine ever getting rid of it....it's amazing!  It does cost an extra €15 a month for the privilege of recording 2 channels at once, pausing what your watching and rewinding up to 30 minutes of the programme you have just watched, clicking a series link button once so you never miss a programme in a series, it just automatically tapes the whole series for you.  I probably shouldn't hog this thread in this way, but I couldn't help it!


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