Can you help with Free-to-air channels

Hi all

I am moving back into my rented property at the end of the month and don't want to sign up to sky or ntl i am hoping to use to free to air channels but after googling the info i'm confused, hopefully someone might be able to help

I have a sky dish outside that was disconnected 2 years ago when i moved, i'm not sure if this helps or not

Basically i'm looking to get as many stations as possible with just one initial outlay, can anyone advise what box i need to buy? Can i get a box that pauses and records like sky/ntl? is there a website that i can see the channels available before i buy the box?

As you can see i'm completly lost regarding this and googling only made me more confused

So can anyone steer me in the right direction?

Thanks as always

The cheapest way is to buy a secondhand sky box (try www.adverts.ie). Typically expect to pay €30 - €50. That will give you access to all the freesat channels such as BBC1,BBC2,BBC3,BBC4 ITV1,2,3and 4 Channel 4 Five, Skynews and a pletora of others. Link the box to your dish and away you go.

Have a look here for the free channels: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055520627.

I know that for the pause/rewind/record functions on a sky+ box to work, you must be a sky subscriber. It won't work if you're just using the box for free-to-air channels.

Or similarly you can get a freesat box, about the same second hand and I would guess €50+ new (Lidl & Aldi have them sometimes also).
Don't know if this one is any good:

(It's the same solution as hansov has listed above, and won't give you rte, tv3, tg4)

I think a cheap freesat box is the best option. That's freesat not freeview, fta ..etc...

Looks for a freesat logo.

You can get freesat boxes that record grundig make some good ones. you need two feeds from the dish to record.

i seen a lot of old sky boxes in the recycling places check them out you could get one for free