Satellite TV

I'm fed up paying a fee to my local cable company every month for mostly crap TV stations. I have no interest in getting SKY TV and paying a monthly fee to them. I was thinking of just buying a dish and getting free to air channels like the BBC on that. I am content with getting the Irish channels through my aerial.

I was given this link which explains what free to air channels are available. I cant make head nor tail of it however. :confused:

The ones I am most interested in getting are the BBC Channels, TCM (can I?) and Eurosport. Do Channel 4 and ITV broadcast over satellite. What are the best foreign channels for free continental football?

Anybody got any advice?

Free To Air (FTA) on Astra 2 the main ones are BBC1 and BBC2 (all regions), BBC3, BBC4, News 24, BBC Parliament. ITV3, Sky News, CNN, Euro News, Horror Channel are also FTA. There's also a few channels like Real Estate TV, Golf TV, Motors, Extreme Sports if you're into that sort of thing. There's a load of shopping and text and títs channels as well.

ITV are currently in negogiations over encryption with Sky, so they may go FTA as well. The last deal ran out at the end of November, but they have an interim encryption deal until the end of January while the negotiations carry on.

If you get a Sky digibox, you can source a Free To View (FTV) card that will allow you to get ITV1, ITV2 (for the time being - previously it was part of the UK Family Pack), Channel 4 and Channel 5. If you know someone in the UK, you can get the card for a one off stg£20 and a 3 year garantee. There are companies that deal in them, or you can chance ebay.

I did have a Free To Air Receiver, but have gone with a Sky Digibox and FTV in the last week (Sky have only just re-introduced the free to view card). There is an arguement that if you're only viewing on Astra 2, then get a Sky Digibox even for the FTA channels - you then get the full 7 day epg (electronic programme guide) rather than now and next.

TCM were FTA, but are now encrypted - not sure on other Satellites.

Astra 1 and Hotbird are your other options - they are mainly foreign stations FTA. Judging by my holiday in Slovenia, several of them have football on (DSF especially). British Eurosport is available unencrypted on Astra 1 in analogue I think - but obviously you'd need an analogue reciever or a combined analogue digital receiver.

Essentially it gets more complicated the more sat's you want to recieve. You can have one dish for Astra 2, and then get a second for Astra 1 and Hotbird (with a monoblock lnb which allows you to get signals from both). That's the route I plan to take eventually. Other alternative is a motorised dish, so you can pick all sats within range. Finally it is possible to pick up all three on one dish, with extra brackets etc.

A 60cm dish (or sky minidish) will get you Astra 2 no problem in Ireland, However for Astra 1 and Hotbird you need an 80cm dish (like the old sky dishes).

Probably your best bet is to have a look around the Sat Forum on boards.ie - it's where I found much of my info. Satellite.ie is a good dealer and helpful if you need to ask questions (Tony on the Sat forum).

FTA Astra 2 FTA Astra 1 FTA Hotbird

Macy,
My knowledge is limited, but...
Friends of mine moved house recently, and cancelled their sky subscription (moved to cable-land). They gave me the box, dish, and card. I've looked up how to tune in the dish, and plan on mounting it on the side of the house. Is it as 'simple' as that? (any extra channels would be a bonus)

Should've added, I recommend doing it (particularly the FTV card route). There are no cable or chorus options where I live, so basically Satellite is the only route to go. I don't like giving Murdoch money, and the additional channels are more than enough on top of the RTE channels imo.

Also no problem with multi room - just the cost of a twin, quad or octo output lnb and the cost of the receivers (and cards if that's the way you want to go).

Used it when abroad. If you can get a sky box (ebay) with card with FTA for sky (ie somebody stops their subscrption all the extra channels are then unsubcribed but it leaves FTA)
I had used a card from the north as this gave you BBC NI as the main BBC one channel. You can get all BBC channel inc 3 + 4 Channel 4 and 5 UTV/ITV. TCM. (but you can get BBC wales scotland etc on different channel on the sky box) the best thing is you don't have to pay again for the channels.

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Originally Posted by noby

Macy,
My knowledge is limited, but...
Friends of mine moved house recently, and cancelled their sky subscription (moved to cable-land). They gave me the box, dish, and card. I've looked up how to tune in the dish, and plan on mounting it on the side of the house. Is it as 'simple' as that? (any extra channels would be a bonus)

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Well the Card is no good, as you don't get any Irish stations without a sky subscription (RTE = :rolleyes: ). Actually I think you have to take it out.

It is pretty much that simple, although it can take a bit of time to tune it in - being digital you either get it or you don't (it's not like tuning in an aerial where the picture comes in and out of reception). Put it this way, I did it myself coming from knowing nothing only a few weeks before. Here's a link that maybe useful http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

Just to clarify for anyone going on the sat forums, so that you avoid a load of abuse ;)

Free To Air or In the Clear
Can be received on any receiver, no need for a card, for no charge. They are broadcast unencrypted. eg. BBC Channels

Free To View
Can only be received on a sky digibox, with an activated card, but with no charge. i.e. they are encrypted. eg ITV, Channel 4, five

A free to view card can either be an ex UK subscription card (as Dricky's is) or one of the specific free to view cards that sky have re-introduced (www.freesatfromsky.com).

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Originally Posted by Macy

Here's a link that maybe useful http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

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Cheers, Macy. I had come across that link already.
Do you then manually tune the channels, or is it automatic?

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Originally Posted by Macy

Free To Air or In the Clear
Can be received on any receiver, no need for a card, for no charge. They are broadcast unencrypted. eg. BBC Channels

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does this mean I could get BBC3 on my Sky dish???? :o

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Originally Posted by noby

Cheers, Macy. I had come across that link already.
Do you then manually tune the channels, or is it automatic?

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It comes through automatically, but defaults to BBC1 London and BBC2 England. tbh I'm not sure how an ex-irish sub box will work, but that should be the default (like I said, take out the card and reboot). It's worth having a go at, and I used that site as my basis (actually the hardest part for me was finding a position that had a line of sight!).

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Originally Posted by tiktok

does this mean I could get BBC3 on my Sky dish???? :o

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Yes, just that if you subscribe to sky the extra BBC channels are not on the epg. See here for instructions on tuning them in...

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Originally Posted by Macy

Well the Card is no good, as you don't get any Irish stations without a sky subscription (RTE = :rolleyes: ). Actually I think you have to take it out.

It is pretty much that simple, although it can take a bit of time to tune it in - being digital you either get it or you don't (it's not like tuning in an aerial where the picture comes in and out of reception). Put it this way, I did it myself coming from knowing nothing only a few weeks before. Here's a link that maybe useful http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

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This is why you should source your card from the north or the uk they have all ITV BBC channels including all local ITV (ie london yorleshire etc) Ch 4 and 5 aren't encripted and RTE you can get with rabbit ears. THe Irish sky cards are not as good as not as many channels on it.

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Originally Posted by eoinh

Anybody got any advice?

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Wouldn't somebody very close to you be an expert in this area?....;)