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.
All questions
In this section
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
J
jb389:36 PM
Alan Lloyd: Try resetting your box by disconnecting it from the mains for about 30 seconds or so before reconnecting it again and allowing it to go through the usual "searching for listings" procedure, on completion checking if this action has rectified the situation.
However, should it not have done, then another thing that can sometimes result in channels dropping out is by the dish having moved slightly out of alignment, e.g: being blown by the wind or something having knocked against it, therefore you should carry out a signal strength & quality check on the box by pressing :- Services - 4 - 6 and checking the result, both levels indicated having to be around 60% minimum for satisfactory reception, the important aspect of the signal being its quality which should never be under the strength, as this is always an indication that the dish requires slight realigning.
If the situation has not advanced any, then this is inclined to point to the problem being caused by the boxes internal power supply being defective, something not exactly uncommon in older boxes, as their power supplies can suffer from leaky capacitors resulting in a reduced voltage being fed to the tuner, the effect of this being erratic reception.
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Thursday, 4 December 2014
J
Jane3:49 PM
Can I use my old sky box without a card in France via a dish thankyou
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MikeP
9:56 PM
9:56 PM
Jane:
It depends on where in France and what size dish you will have. An indication of the intended location will help to check what the 'footprint' of the Astra satellite's signal beams would be at that location. That could help to work out whether you would get anything and how large a dish would be needed if it is at all possible to get the signals.
You will not be able to record or playback anything alrready stored on the box if it is of the Sky+ type.
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Sunday, 14 December 2014
P
Pauline8:19 PM
I am currently using sky freesat, sky did an update recently and since then I am not getting programme listings, is there anything I can do about this.
Thank you for your help
Pauline
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J
jb389:19 PM
Pauline: Try disconnecting the box from the mains supply, followed by waiting for around 30 seconds or so before reconnecting it again. If though the box being referred to is of the Sky+HD variety, place it in standby for a minute before disconnecting it from the mains, other than that proceed as aforementioned.
Any problems, give an update on the model involved, as printed on either the rear or underside of the box.
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Saturday, 3 January 2015
G
groby10:21 PM
Great site. Does anyone know why Stratford upon Avon gets such a bad deal via Lark Stoke? There never was Channel 5 on it and now there are only 6 HD channels and fewer SD channels than surrounding areas can get from Sutton Coldfield. It's not uncommon around here to see neighbouring houses with one aerial aimed at LS and next door 180 degrees the opposite, presumably at SC. Mine is aligned for LS and a manual tune to the SC frequencies gets me nothing. I have Sky so am not too bothered but I think it's unfair for the government to extort the same licence fee from everyone and not deliver the full Freeview service.
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Sunday, 4 January 2015
MikeP
10:21 PM
10:21 PM
Groby
As has been stated previously on this website by many contributors the Licence Fee is to permit you to use your TV receiving equipment. It does apply to the provision of BBC services and some of the commercial services which are deemed to be Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). Those are, in general, transmitted on the PSB multiplexes. The services provided on the COM multiplexes are purely commercial and have to reach enough viewers to warrant the considerable expense of using the smaller transmitters such as Lark Stoke. You are not being 'short changed' as you don't pay for the additional services via your licence fee, rather the costs incurred are added to the product price of the goods and services provided by the operators and advertisers.
So it is entirely fair for everyone who wanted to operate equipment to watch 'live' TV broadcasts all pay exactly the same.
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Thursday, 8 January 2015
Can I get a new contract.just about to finish sky 1 year contract?
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Thursday, 22 January 2015
L
Laurence Hughes10:00 AM
We have used freeview from Sky for many years, now we have bought an HD TV could somebody tell us how we can now get the (free) HD channels. Going on these channels now gives me a phone number to call, should I just ring it? By the way we do not leave the Sky box connected to a phone, will I need to connect it to upgrade? Will they charge, if so how much? Thanks
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