Freesat from Sky (without paying Sky)

S

SDXO

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky dish
My Location
South Yorkshire
Hi guys,

Just moved into a property that already has a working sky dish.

How do I get Freesat from Sky without paying an extortionate 175 quid for it?

Sky says I can buy a Freesat viewing card from them for 25 quid. Fair enough but does that mean I now have to find my own sky digibox?
 
Yes you can just buy your own box. Connect it up and away you go. A couple of quid bargain from a boot sale will get you up and running although you might want something a little better.
 
Thanks for that Analoguesat, but because the Freeview card essentially comes from Sky, does that mean I need to be looking for a used Sky digibox?
 
Doesnt matter. Get your box and then apply for your FSFS card (if you so desire)

The box will work fine without it - the card will give you half a dozen channels and regionalise your epg.


If you want to stay away from Sky then buy a Freesat box instead (no cards reqd.)
 
Only a half dozen extra with a viewing card? I think I might have been mislead by their website. It says here an ordinary Freesat receiver will get you 70+ channels whilst Freesat from Sky gets you 240+ channels!

That's a considerable number so I was wondering if that was down to the decoder or the viewing card :)
 
Ah sky being ahem somewhat economic with the truth as usual....)

A Sky box without a card in it will give you all the free channels. BBC1 2 & C4 should work fine, (ITV & C5 depend on which area you are in - if your location in Yorkshire is accurate you wont get C5 on the epg without a card).

Many of those 240 channels will be fairly low budget unwatchable stuff, religious, slapper on a sofa, or foreign language stuff for the Asian diaspora)

A card will give you C5, Fiver Five US, the +1's of the latter two and Sky 3 - plus possibly Liverpool TV which was ftv but I dont know what the current situation is. Plus it will regionalise your box to the correct BBC & ITV selections - with no card you get BBC London & Central West!

Freesat gives you a selection of the channels available on a FreesatfromSky box, (those that have signed up to the FS epg system). However most of the rest can be tuned in using a (somewhat fiddly) alternative tuning process.


To be honest I suggest you go down the local boot fair over the weekend and see if you can pick a box up for a couple of quid. At the end of the day if it doesnt do exactly what you want you havent invested much in it :)

Most of us started with cast off second hand kit - I started with my parents old analogue kit when they upgraded to digital - the box dish and assorted lengths of ropey old coax made the long journey up the M6 as they had strict instructions not to let the installer take it away - the dish is still in use today as our Sky digital dish!)
 
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