whitelinen

Is there any way to receive UK satellite TV without subscribing to SKY? I am sure I read somewhere that this can be done using freeview or something similar that does not require a subscription but cannot seem to find it now.

This is for the Valencia area and there already is a large dish installed.

Lynn R

We have a 1.8m satellite dish and a freeview digibox, and get most channels with no problem (although have read recently that satellites are being repositioned which may cause problems). We had a friend buy a new digibox in the UK and bring it over for us. No SKY card required.

whitelinen

thanks Lynn, can you say the make and cost please as seems a large range available.

also what else is needed to connect to the TV?

snikpoh

All you need is a 'large' dish and a satellite receiver - this can be an old Sky box or a freeview digibox, and that's it.

Old Sky boxes can be picked up for any thing from 25 euros upwards. Satellite dishes are more expensive and need to be installed and aligned professionally.

whitelinen

Yes have huge dish plus a Sky box which used to work fine until this year when now only receives one or two channels.

If I have to re-tune where can I find the details please.

pwwm

Think everyone means freesat, need a dish to work, I stand to be corrected, we have a freesat Humax box with hard drive, no card needed, dont miss Sky at all, bought it over from UK.

Freeview works through an ariel I do believe

also find if we have a power cut the Humax powers up faster than the old skybox

Fred James

Yes, Freeview (TDT in Spanish) is via a normal antenna and you can receive the Spanish channels, not the UK ones.

Freesat is via satellite. You can buy generic receivers for €50 or less or "proper" Freesat boxes for not a lot more. The only difference is that the Freesat boxes have a better program guide.

Sky boxes without a card will receive the same channels as the Freesat boxes with the Sky program guide.

If you get a lot of power cuts buy a cheap "Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)" for about €50 and it will keep the box running for some time. It's particularly useful if you get frequent short cuts. In Spanish it's an SAI.

snikpoh

It should re-tune automatically but, if not, then do the following;

Turn on sky box
On the remote, press services 4 0 1 and then select
You should now be at the installer setup menu
press 2
Now enter the following; against frequency make sure it says 12129
now highlight save new settings and press select

press backup several times (3?) until all menus have gone

It should now say 'searching for listings'.

This should find all possible channels.

If you still have nothing, then (as said before) you may need the dish re-aligning or the Sky box may be defunct.

Hope this helps.

The Guy

Sky and Sky boxes are only a "portal" to free to air (ie those that can be received via satellite without a sky card eg BBC, ITV) , free to view (eg Five*) and subscription channels.

Freesat and Freesat boxes are a portal to free to air channels.

A basic free to air box can also receive the free to air channels.

Sky and Freesta boxes have an advantage of "basic free to air"" boxes as they have a 7 day programme guide, where as the basic FTA receiver only have "now and next" information.

YOu can even use a Sky box with no sky card, and thus no subscription, for the free to air channels. A Sky box with no sky card inside will get the same channels as a Freesat box or basic Free to air receiver.

A Sky box will automatically return to any frequencies that may change...so there isa no need to do anything about "retuning a sky box". Loss of channels will be down to dish alignment, or poor LNB.

The process that "snikpoh" mentions is the way to help boot the sky bo up...if the main frequency used for intital data download (11778) is unavailable - although depending where about the OP is in Valencia, and his size dish, this should not really have to be done....unless there is a power cut at about 5pm in very heavy cloud / rain!

YOu CANNOT use a Freeview box with satellite and vice versa, as they are two completely different broadcast platforms.


Thats because the Sky boxes download the EPG and channel list when powered on, freesat boxes dont, and only load the EPG when you press the EPG button..

Im_and_Er

Dish alignment is only one possibility for a change in performance. As often as not the problem is down to deterioration of the cable and/or the connectors or in some cases the LNB itself.

First step would be to try another box if you can borrow one or else take yours somewhere else and try it on a known good dish.

sonnyc

I am down near Cadiz and have a sky box tuned in to central, between 7 and 11-30pm I lose all my ITV channels, and ch5 I cannot get at anytime. This happened last May when my old box was tuned in to HTV I have had the LNB changed and the alignment checked. My installer did tell me how to get a list of the itv chanells giving the strongest signals using the remote but I have forgotten.

Thanks for any advice.

The Guy

Which of the 3 or 4 ITV1 Centrals...
Currently you can add somebetter reception ITV1 centrals - scan freq 11973 and add those 2 ITV1 centrals to your "other chanenls list"...they do need a working sky card to watch them.


The "free to air" version of Five is on the same frequency as BBC2 England. So if you cannot get BBC2 England on your dish you will not get "FTA Five.
If you have a Sky card, then you can currently scan frequency 12442 h and add the "free to view" sky card versions of Five, and add them to your "other channels" list.

Which region / version of Five you get allocated on 105 is all down to the address of the sky card.

Perhaps there is nothng wrong with yur dish alignment or LNB and its just the gfact that you are trying to use the weakest regional variation of the channels....?

Hows about this...
http://www.satandpcguy.com/Site/extr...annels_sky.php

whitelinen

Now can only get BBC channels, any ideas on what to try next please?

snikpoh

Have you done all that Jon ('The Guy') suggested - checked LNB, checked box, checked alignment of dish, checked cabling etc... ?

If so, and all is OK, then I suspect there is not much else that you can do.

The Guy

Will be very unusual if you can only get trhe BBC channels and nothing else....as the BBC channels are some of the weakest signal channels around.

So if you can only get BBC channels, and cant even get Sky News, then you have some serious issues with your system...LNB failure or box failure.