How to identify friend's satellite source?

[Penners]

I'm a non-techie!!

I'm staying with an English friend in southern France. He receives UK TV via a large dish and a Sky Free-to-air account. The dish is over a metre in diameter and appears to have a twin LNB.

My friend wanted to be able to record TV programmes to a hard-drive recorder, so he bought himself a Sky Plus box. However he has subsequently discovered that, in order to use this, he would have to have set up a Sky subscription account. He doesn't want to do this.

So at present he receives the free-to-air Sky service through the Sky Plus box, but the slot in the box marked "Interactive card" is empty.

Having given you the background, I have a question for you satellite TV experts, please.

1. If he bought a Humax Freesat PVR box instead of the Sky+ box, is his dish likely to be pointing in the right direction to receive Freesat channels? How can I find out which satellite he is currently receiving from?

Any thoughts and advice would be much appreciated, please.

 

[satelliteman]

1. If he bought a Humax Freesat PVR box instead of the Sky+ box, is his dish likely to be pointing in the right direction to receive Freesat channels? How can I find out which satellite he is currently receiving from?

Any thoughts and advice would be much appreciated, please.

If he is receiving sky programming and using a sky digibox then the dish will be pointing at the correct satellite 28.2/28.5, just a matter of swapping over the receivers and going through the initial set up procedure.

 

[Robbo]

...which would include inputting a UK postcode, yours will do.

 

[Penners]

Wow! Thanks for those high-speed responses, Satelliteman and Robbo!

Your answers are very encouraging. Actually my friend also has a UK address, so he could use that postcode. Presumably Freesat wouldn't throw a wobbly if the receiver isn't actually located within the registered postcode?

 

[Robbo]

The receiver doesn't know where it is, it could be absolutely anywhere that gets a good enough signal. It just goes by the postcode you tell it.

The receiver has no means of talking to Freesat, so they would not know where it was either.

 

[Penners]

OK - many thanks to you both for your advice.

Much appreciated.

 

[PaulR]

The postcode is only used by the Freesat receiver to make sure that you get the correct regional BBC and ITV1 programmes. With a few exceptions (Scotland and the smaller ITV regions) you could put any valid postcode you liked in and get the regional prorammes that you want.

 

[Penners]

Thanks for that clarification, PaulR. It's a handy detail, because my friend still likes to keep tabs on what's going on in his old stamping ground in the UK. So he will get the correct regional news.