Can I use my ex-contract sky digital satellite receiver to get Freeview channels
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV You can get the following Freeview channels on with an ex-contract digital satellite receiver (once it is connected). Items marked with a star require either a Freesat from Sky (fSfS) card, or a expired Sky subscription card to view.
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Monday, 9 April 2012
Brettpigeon: Probably should get your facts straight before posting. VIVA is a subscription channel on satellite, and there is no such thing as a "free cable" service.
I think you will find my list of channels is 100% correct, unlike yours.
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Elliott: Yes, the wiring is the same for Freesat and Sky.
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Thursday, 3 May 2012
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Mike Smartt10:18 AM
Hi - I have an old analogue Sky dish and we used it to watch many German channels successfully, although reception wasnt always perfect, until yesterday when the analogue signal was turned off on the Astra satellite. Now the channels all say "you'll need a digital receiver". Will I be able to just switch to a new digital receiver and continue using the dish? And, if so, do have any recommendations as to what the best receiver might be best?
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Tuesday, 15 May 2012
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franklyn10:51 PM
not getting sky news on my caravan comag 60 sattlite receiver iam getting the other bbc itv channels tried scanning them all in but cant get sky what might be the problem
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Wednesday, 16 May 2012
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Neil Bell6:15 PM
Mike Smartt You'll probably need a new "universal" LNB which can be used with both analogue & digital receivers as well as the digital receiver but they are not too expensive. I use an HD receiver but there are only about 3 free to air German HD programmes on 19.2 all with SD equivalents so an SD receiver will suffice. Try to get a non Freesat receiver if possible as it will probably be easier to set up. I'd just do a search on line.
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Saturday, 19 May 2012
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tellypathetic12:33 PM
Hello. I now receive fSfS and record/playback
without any card. I`m buying a flatscreen
soon, and want to continue fSfS and be able to
r/p fSfS HD., again without any card.
Do i just swap my sky+ box for a sky+HD box,
or is that too simple??.
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J
jb388:03 PM
tellypathetic: Considering the fact that the recording / playback side of a Sky+ box cannot be used unless a subscription of a £10.00 per month access change is in force, Sky having disabled this facility shortly after cancellation of the contract, then I am rather intrigued by your request for info as to whether or not the situation would still be existing if you changed the box to an HD version.
Maybe you could clarify on this.
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tellypathetic10:55 PM
jb38:Intrigued??, you and me both. This sky+box
lay gathering dust in a vacated bedroom until
i extended the cables and, when it worked, i
assumed (Doh) fSfS was indeed free, as with
freeview. I have just spoken to the original
subscriber,and have been assured the subscription was cancelled after the minimum contract period, and he also was unaware of any £10.00 p.m.access fee.
It would appear there are two possible
reasons for the service to be live.
1.He is not aware of continuing payments.
2.Sky have somehow left this box with fSfS r/p active.This may be most unlikely. but not
impossible?. So the situation remains as
described in my initial post.Needless to
say,i would be hesitant to initiate changes
requiring interaction with sky.
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Sunday, 20 May 2012
J
jb388:39 AM
tellypathetic: Thanks for the clarification, and I am inclined to suspect that your No1 suggestion could well be the reason for your good fortune "if" the original subscriber hasn't bothered to check his/her bank statements recently and is purely relying on the fact that they cancelled the contract.
However that said, the baffling aspect about all this is that the access code to enable the recorder to operate is programmed onto the Sky card and likewise has always to be kept inserted or the recorder will not respond to any commands, this just in the same way as if viewing Pick TV (epg:152) and the card is removed when after a few seconds a message will come on stating "please enter your viewing card", and so if you do not have a card inserted then although I have never personally witnessed nor ever heard of this type of situation applying, and its highly unlikely that it would, but it makes one wonder if a glitch has occurred in the access code processing side of the box whereby the memory has locked giving permanent access, and so just in case this happened I would refrain from ever being tempted to use the software update reset facility as it would be tempting fate.
Anyway whatever the reason, I will agree that it would be most inadvisable to initiate any changes that would draw attention to the situation.
PS: Can you view Pick TV without the card?
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Paul11:08 AM
I recently had a new 90cm dish fitted to my place in Ontiyent, Valencia. I brought my Amstrad skybox with me to watch free view from the dish. However, it says no signal is being received. Is this a problem with the box do you know? Thanks.
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