All posts by Les Nicol
Below are all of Les Nicol's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Shazza - If your on a budget. The Technisat HDFS has only a single tuner but has PVR functionality either with a pen drive or external Laptop HDD. It's priced just £130. but you need to factor in the pen drive or HDD. It's still makes it more affordable than the Humax. I have both and the two are quality products. The Technisat actually gives a three year warranty and can stream to your PC also formats an HDD to give media and photo partions similarly to the Humax. Performance is excellant - what it doesn't do is record "two" while watching another as it's a single tuner but has pause and series record capability. It's down to how much recording you do. Both Humax (except the 500GB drive special edition) and the Technisat have DiseQc control and have motor capablity for those who would wish make use of this. They also can function in mom-freesat mode.
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Ken Swan - The Ross receiver you have is an FTA - Free to Air box These channels - Dave 5 US are not on "Freesat" either due to contractual agreements with SKY. They are however on "Terrestrial Freeview" transmission - SKY being a partner in that platform.
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Edd - No You simply swop over the receivers. You would need an HD capable TV to receive the HD transmissions via an HDMI cable which are supplied with a new "Freesat" receiver. If the TV isn't HD it will still see the receiver usable with a scart connection as your SKY box and the scart cable is also included. If however you opted for a freesat HD box with dual tuner recording facility same as a SKY HD plus receiver then you would need upgrading to the LNB and additional cable run to feed the signal to the two tuners on these boxes. A "Freesat" single tuner recording receiver can be had the differnce being that box can record one chasnel while watching aother rather than two. Going for this would not require any upgrading as described as your existing dish would suffice. Non recording "Freesat" receivers also will work fine with your current dish.
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Edd - see this link- -Upgrading from Sky to Freesat
| ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice - but you must use an HDMI cable, rather than the old-fashioned SCART lead.
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SMedei8543 - Dixon's PC World Curry's have a range of slingbox's. You may want to check them out. Dixon's are online the others in this group are retail outlets.
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adc82140 - I would be looking elsewhere given Michaeloxford's posting. Installing a
motorisied system needs patience and accuracy in configuration to give results. If this is the way they business all your going to get is a lot of heartache here. I would look elsewhere and get a competant installer (preferably with recommendations) rather than what appears as a suspect outfit where your likely to get ripped off.
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A. Dimitropoukos - You wont' get Five USA or Fiver on "Freesat" as these channels are locked to a SKY contract at this time. They are available on Freeview as SKY is a partner on that platform. Depending on the "Freesat" receiver you have you might be able to switch options to non Freesat mode which will you to receive all FTA - Free to Air channels. The receivers handbook should show how to do this.
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Keith Thacker - See Brian's previous post to dan. Installers configure the dish with a Professional meter where the required Satellites are pre-programmed and where the selected Satellite or Satellite cluster as far as the UK is concerned,can be peaked for signal strength and quality. These meters are an expensive item. It is possible to achieve an acceptable outcome with a fairly cheap basic meter that has a visible scale reading and audible output as the dish is peaked for maximum scale reading audible output(usually referred to as the "Sweet spot"). These range in price from about £8.00 to around £15.00 and can be had at Maplins or Amazon, The alternative is to have an installer peak the dish for you which will cost more, but going for a local installer to do this shouldn't see this as overly costly.
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F J - In cancelling your subscription for your SKY plus receiver SKY disable the recording capabiliy. You can continue to use the SKY box but would need a FSFS - Freesat from SKY card available for a one off £25.00. Alternatively you can buy your own "Freesat" receiver (this service is supported by the BBC and ITV) The freeaat plus receivers are HD and are available as a single tuner version that will pauseplay series record can be set up for iplayer and soon the ITV Player as well as stream to and from your PC. - Requires external storage device. Pen drive or usb connected HDD. There is a twin tuner version (various manufacturers) that has onboard HDD drive the same functionality and more as a SKY HD plus receiver. Cost single tuner £128. add a £100.00 for the twin tuner. - You own the receiver - no subscriptions and you will never have the recording function disabled.
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Sunday 23 January 2011 7:02PM
P>S "Freesat" has around upwards of 130 channels but many of these receivers although not all have a non - Freesat mode option thus allowing these receivers to tune to 1000 and more channels with a 5000 channel memory capacity. If going this route check receiver specs before you buy.