tim1963

I agree guitareth, l'm not sure what licinius' problem is and what he's trying to achieve with the bashing. I've read the Guys advice on this and other forums and I've used his web site to solve a few of my sat tv issues. I know he's in the business of selling sat services but he's never tried to sell me anything and I've never seen him use any of the forums to troll for business. I don't begrudge him any business he might get but licinius seems to.

licinius

Well you're obviously missing the point Tim which is that free to air satellite receivers are better than Sky boxes for pulling in weak signals in Spain. If your tv breaks up at night or you lose channels................ ditch your sky box.

Now do you understand?

tim1963

What point is that exactly? All I got was "ditch my sky box" which isn't going to happen without some compelling reason. How about showing your bona fide's with a little more information? What specifically worked for you? What receiver, what dish, what lnb and where are you? There's no magic going to fix the fact that we're living in the satellite penumbra and local conditions mean that everyone's results might vary.

licinius

'Sigh' you obviously haven't fully read above so I'll repeat it for you.

What works for me is a 1.3m dish with twin Black Premium lnb and an FTE Max S93 receiver, however I can't list what lnb's other customers had because they vary so widely. What I can tell you is that everybody on the costa that experienced channel break up either during the evening or during heavy rain has seen much improved results by using a FTA sat receiver instead of a Sky box, even though the guy says you can't receive these channels without a Sky card

Why don't you dig deep for €30 & try it yourself??????????

johnnyone

I think there must be two conflicting questions here.

i) Are the quality of Fta boxes better than Sky boxes?

ii) Can you pick up all the channels with a FTA box that you can pick up with Sky box and card?

Licinius, you do not appear to have answered question ii). A yes or no will do.

Domino

right now I am getting pixelation and general signal break up on at least 4 channels on FTA digital, without trying a satellite, which is going to be rather difficult at this house.

licinius

I have answered the question, yes a FTA box will pick up all FTA channels such as BBC1/2/3/4, ITV1/2/3/4, C4, C5, Sky news & everything else such as E4, More4 etc that is FTA on Sky. You do not need a sky card, that is just Rupert Murdoch ripping you off.

I realise that nobody wants to believe me because 'the guy' says FTA boxes don't pick up FTA channels ( ) Perhaps he sells sky boxes so it's not in his interests to share such information??????

Re Q1, if you have trouble with channels breaking up at night then try buying a FTA box before paying somebody to fit a new top dog lnb for you.

I've had enough repeating myself on this thread now so will leave you all to it!

guitareth

Thank goodness for that! Now go and cuddle up to your beloved 30€ box

amideislas

He might be saying words that don't sink in for whatever reason, but with all due respect, he's right.

Sky boxes are designed to be used exclusively in the UK, and aren't designed for "fringe" reception. They use cheaper, less sensitive tuners. Many of the off-the-shelf FTA boxes have much better, more sensitive tuners than a Sky box.

He's also right that virtually any FTA box can receive all the same "free" channels as a Sky box, but do not require a £20 "freesat" card.

I say this only because we previously used Sky boxes, but when we added 3 more TV's around the house, we bought €29 FTE MAX receivers which are 1/4 the size of a Sky box, have digital connection to the TV, and get better reception than the Sky box.

The main drawback is that the FTE boxes don't have an 8-day EPG. They only show current and next program details...

guitareth

"He might be saying words that don't sink in..." ??!! For goodness sake, I've only been on here a short while and can see from this and other threads that he never stops going on about the 30€ box while slagging off all things Sky! I appreciate he may well be right that this box is ideal as a replacement FOR FREE TO AIR channels but problem is he seems to suggest this as the cure-all for ALL Sky related problems. However, apart from him sounding like a worn record, my real problem with licinius is his total lack of respect in many of his replies - particularly to TheGuy, who I (and it appears many others) have continually found to be very helpful in his responses.

I think "respect" is the key word here. It always seems sad to me that on any of these forums, where people are invariably just looking for help or advice, you always seem to get one or two people who have an agenda or whose responses are repeatedly rude or arrogant and just get up everyone else's noses!

OK, rant over

johnnyone

[QUOTE=licinius;9817522]I have answered the question, yes a FTA box will pick up all FTA channels such as BBC1/2/3/4, ITV1/2/3/4, C4, C5, Sky news & everything else such as E4, More4 etc that is FTA on Sky. You do not need a sky card, that is just Rupert Murdoch ripping you off.

QUOTE]

That may be true for some but not all.

I had a FTA box that did not pick up itv1, 4HD,5, 5 usa and various others.
I have now got a sky box and can get those channels.
I only have a 80cm dish so perhaps it's all in the dish size.
And although I am not interested myself what about if you want to receive subscription channels?

I am not trying to be awkward but helpful as I think you are referring to larger dishes that not everyone has or wants. The area you are in also may effect what you can receive.

Just as an aside the Guy originally fitted my satellite dish etc. with a FTA box after explaining to me all the options. There was no hard sell on the Sky box.
All the advice and other work he has done for more is consistently good and reasonably priced, to the extent that he quoted me for an aerial installation and when he installed it there was less work than he thought so reduced his charge accordingly.

amideislas

Sorry, I was only referring to the point he was trying to convey. No he needn't be rude, however, he was likely frustrated with the lack of understanding of the point he was trying to make - and I happen to agree with.

Perhaps I'm dyslexic, but it appears to me that the thread title refers to BBC1 reception after 8pm. BBC1 is a Free to Air channel, not a Sky subscription channel (unless of course, you have a Sky box, then you need a Sky subscription or a £20 "freesat" card to receive it).

After 8:00pm? yes, this is a well known problem, and the local satellite experts have suggested to us that we should buy a new 2 meter antenna and some sort of mega-LNB to compensate for the "night fade" and resulting poor reception on our Sky box.

I was simply pointing out that we have both Sky and cheap FTE receivers, and (I believe a 1.4m dish), using the same signal at any time of day, the cheap FTE receivers consistently get a good signal when the Sky box doesn't. ... and I needn't buy a 2m dish, mega LNB, pay €80 for used Sky boxes and pay £20 per receiver for the "freesat" card giving us the "priviledge" of receiving BBC or any of the other "freesat" channels on our lousy, expensive Sky boxes.

Sky subscription? well, that's a different animal - I suppose you're stuck with the Sky box. C'est la vie.

We don't subscribe to Sky because we get just about any movie we want in full HD on our AppleTV, for as little as 99c per movie (not to mention lots of free stuff and other dazzy features like displaying live video and photos from an iPhone). We really don't care about sports (although my OH is a cricket nutter).

Edit: Oh, and I love stuff that's "free", such as "freesat" for just £20.
I was recently speaking to a friend in Canada who was telling me they have "free" public healthcare there.
I said, "FREE healthcare? boy, I'll bet that's expensive!".

Fred James

With a small dish only some of the regional ITV channels were receivable and as these were encrypted a Sky box with a card was required. C4HD was on Eurobird which was probably the most difficult channel to get. Some of the 5's were also encrypted requiring a Sky box.

This has now changed significantly with the new Astra 1N satellite becoming operational last month.

You won't get much success with an 80cm dish with Astra 1N but for bigger dishes it seems better than Astra 2D which is where most of the FTA channels are/were situated.

C4HD and the 5's have now moved to Astra 1N so the need for a Sky box for the FTA channels has almost gone. Some of the ITV regional channels have moved to 1N and I understand that the rest will eventually move making a Sky box unnecessary for FTA at all.

The Guy will know the latest situation regarding these changes - hopefully he will be back soon to update us.

Personally I have a Humax Freesat HDR box and you won't find anything similar for €30!

VFR

Trouble is just telling people to bin their Sky box after years of service just ain't going to happen.
For sure I will one day buy a much better quality HD jobbie like the Humax, but at around the 150 mark that will have to wait for a spell.

I spent my money on a top notch dish & LNB (Prodelin) and reading all the info from the likes of Guy & Snap/Expat from the Astra 2D forum who clearly know what they are talking about.
The smart money is clearly on a good installation before anything else is even considered & crap my Pace 420 (?) may be, but this 1.8 offset dish has dragged most of the channels in, for the vast bulk of the time here in Valencia (inland)

The Guy

I know you dont need a card for FTA channels.
I know you need a card for FTV and subscription channels.
I have never said you need a card for FTA channels.

I said, and you quoted
"if the user has a sky card, why recommend a FTA receiver over a sky box, when the fta box will not be able to use a sky card?"

At no point in that statement do i say, or imply, that you require a sky card for FTA channels.

I was asking why say to someone "ditch a sky box and go for a FTA box" is pointless if they use a sky card (for FTV or subscriptin channels, as the FTA box will not be able to use a sky card.

as above, where did i?

Again, as above, where did i?
I never said such a thing.

I sell a range of boxes, depending on the clients needs. If they use a sky card, then I suggets a sky box. If they want FTA channels, then I suggest a range of FTA, FTAHD and Sky HD boxes, depending on location, requirement, dish size, and channels required.

I simply do not say, forget sky just have a 30€ FTA box, as that may not meet their requirements, such as if they want to use a Sky card.

And as I keep saying, the receiver is only one part of the reception equation, not the only part of the equation, and simply getting a FTA box may not be the answer. Like I have been saying all along, if the dish is not aligned properly, or there is some other system issue, then simply getting a FTA receiver will still lose channels like the Sky box does.
It was a subtle dig at your post on another thread saying Sky News is available on Freesat when it is not. Freesat and Free to air are different things, Freesat allows access to a limited number of FTA channels. That limited list does not include Sky News. To get Sky News on a Freesat receiver, you need to enter "Non Freesat Mode" - emphasis on "NON Freesat", which turns the box into a FTA receiver.
Your FTE FTA box does not receive Freesat.

Well, we shall see, as I have on on order and will do the comparisons with other FTA and Sky and Sky HD boxes.

[QUOTE=amideislas;9817893]BBC1 is a Free to Air channel, not a Sky subscription channel (unless of course, you have a Sky box, then you need a Sky subscription or a £20 "freesat" card to receive it).[/QUOTE]

As mentioned many times, if you have a sky box, then, even without a sky card, it will receive the same FTA channels as a Freesat box, or a FTA box. You have not needed a sky card for BBC channels for over 8 years now.