Can I use an existing sky dish with a freeview box? and if so can the two servic
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV No, you cannot use a satellite box to receive terrestrial programmes.
I don't want to use a satellite box I have a freeview box. I want to know if an existing dish for sky can be use with the freeview box.Can I use a cable splitter and run one end to the sky box the the other to a freeview box and get the freeview channels.
You cannot use a Freeview receiver with a satellite dish, only an aerial.
You also cannot split a satellite signal from a dish, if you want to run more than one box you must use a dual- or quad-LNB on the satellite dish and have a cable to each satellite receiver.
All questions
In this section
Sunday, 30 December 2012
L
Leanne11:04 AM
Hi, I'm completely useless when it comes to tvs etc! I've got a new tv with freeview in it, an old white sky box (just bought a viewing card as I thought it would solve my problem). I can't get all the freeview channels and the signal seems patchy. I know its me being daft ! any help out there please?
| link to this comment |
Leanne: Which channels are you missing?
Freeview and Sky are two totally separate systems; the former requires a terrestrial aerial and the latter comes from a satellite and hence requires a dish.
If your reception issue is with Freeview, then knowledge of your location is required in order to get an idea of what the likely possibilities of reception in your area are. A post code or that of a nearby building such as a shop would be useful.
| link to this comment |
Monday, 25 February 2013
L
Liam 8:25 PM
I have sky wired throughout the house in 4 rooms how can i get freeview to these tvs i take it you cant receive sky and freeview through 1 ariel
| link to this comment |
Liam : By feeding the signal from the terrestrial aerial into the Sky box.
| link to this comment |
K
KMJ,Derby9:28 PM
Liam : Further to Dave Lindsay's comment, remember that the Sky signal is analogue, so you will need to switch between analogue and DTV (assuming each TV has a built in Freeview tuner) to access both services. An analogue only TV would require the use of a Freeview box with RF loop-through facility to allow the Sky signal to be received by the TV. The Freeview box would then be connected by a scart lead for viewing when the A/V input is selected on the TV.
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 12 May 2013
C
colin4:43 PM
i have three tv's running sky two with magic eyes.they both run off the rf2 outlet on the sky box and is great.unfortunately i only have one aerial lead to the loft,so freeview cannot be connectted.that inturn is connectted to a amplified splitter.afourth tv receives freeview on a seperate amplifier.i would like to run both sky and freeview on all of them.mainly this is because when recording two programmes i want to switch to freeview.i hope someone can help.many thanks.COL
| link to this comment |
J
jb386:08 PM
colin: You can have Freeview on all TV's if you can arrange to feed the aerial straight into the Sky boxes normal aerial socket, as this will enable the Freeview signal to pass through the box as well as picking up the Sky boxes analogue modulated RF signal and with this combined output being fed into the splitter for distribution to the other TV's.
This then enables the remotely position TV's to view either Freeview or Sky dependant on whether they are set to TV or DVB, this of course being on the assumption that the TV's in question are dual standard types capable of analogue / Freeview operation.
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
C
Cheryl12:37 PM
Hi. My Grundig Skydigibox has just died.
I watch Freesat channels through it ( I live in Northern France and have a dish with unicable lnb in garden) I use Sky - no subscription - through it and now need a replacement. Having looked though all these posts a Humax foxsat freesat seems to be the answer! However, the cost between normal set box (+-£60) and Recorder (+-£250) is quite considerable and I want to be absolutely sure to be able to record before I spend the extra pounds (I haven't recorded anything in over 5 years so it would be a pleasant luxury!).. The use of a splitter does not seem to be advised on this site, but a shop selling freesat receivers told me about it (!).
I really do not want to run another cable from the dish down through garden through house.
Is there no other option?
Are there any 'dangers' using a splitter to make my one cable into a twin to go into the back of my receiver so I can record one channel whilst watching another?
If I tried it and signal was too weak i could then change back to one cable?
If using just one cable (no splitter) can I still use the recorder?
Thanks for any info, I just don't want to splash out on a PVR if I won't be able to record.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
M
MikeB2:56 PM
Cheryl: A Humax is an excellent choice, and with your current dish (which I assume only has one wire coming from it), you can get a Humax Freesat receiver in exactly the same way as your old Sky box.
However, to record and watch at the same time on Freesat, you will need to have two wires coming from it, or rather those wires should be connected to a twin LNB on the end of the dishes arm. You may actually have a twin on there already, with the second LNB not connected, or you can upgrade it. Since the 'second wire' will often be conncted via a type of double coax lead often called 'shotgun' , you'll still only really have one wire, but you will be able to record.
Recording will make a huge difference, and remember that a Freesat PVR has two receivers in it (so you can watch and record on two different channels), plus a large hard-drive and now will allow you to access Iplayer, etc - so the price is pretty reasonable.
You cannot use a splitter! Whoever told you that was, hopefully, confused and thought you said Freeview... See this page I have split the signal from my satellite dish and now nothing works. | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice - and yes, I know Maplin sell them, but its almost as cheap to upgrade the LNB's with fewer downsides.
If you try to put two receivers to one LNB at the same time, it will cause problems - and possibly expensive ones - you can get switches to allow you to use the same dish for Sky and an TV's internal Freesat tuner seperatly, but thats rather different.
If you were a customer, I would advise the following: buy the recorder (it will be very useful and will certainly justify the larger price), then have your dish upgraded to have twin LNB's (or even a quad if you want, the cost is not much more to buy, and gives you more flexibility for the future), and put a twin cable rather than the single you have now (or even better, just put a twin next to the existing cable, so you can use the existing cable for another box in another room).
Yes, you will have to spend some money, both on the box, and the upgrade to the dish/cable, but you cannot split the signal from a single LNB to two receivers at the same time (you could watch only what you were recording - at best), so even buying a new recorder would not be a great investment by itself. Buy once, buy right.
Have a look at A.T.V (Aerials And Television) FM DAB TV Aerial, plus poles and brackets and Satcure.co.uk, and find someone who can do the work for you properly.
| link to this comment |
Friday, 24 May 2013
C
Cheryl12:50 PM
Thanks for your time Mike. Much appreciated. Notes taken. "Buy once, buy right". Now that's a good motto! I will go for the PVR in a first step and see later if i really need/want the second cable. Thanks again.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please