Newbie Here Help with former Sky dish for FTA/FTV

[vainhedgepig]

Firsly apologies for the total newbie nature of this post - I’m generally highly tech-savvy but I’ve only ever had Freeview/Virgin Media/ onDigital (!) before.

The house I’ve just moved into has appalling Freeview reception over the aerial connection. When I eventually remembered that the house also has a satellite dish (formerly Sky, according to the print on the cables, but I don’t have the box) I thought I’d have a go with that. I plugged one of the two satellite aerial cables in and got my TV (Philips 43PUS6262) to search for channels. It found over 1000 (lots of duplicates) and arranged them in alphabetical order. Tedious! The problem is most channels I would expect to be free come up with a ‘channel scrambled’ message each time I select them. There are a few exceptions including all the Quest channels, Challenge, Pick, CNN and various community and religious channels. Those are coming through beautifully so I’m assuming they’re on an unencrypted MUX or whatever the satellite equivalent is.

From the research I’ve done so far it’s looking like I might need to get a CAM to go in the TV’s CI slot (if so, any recommendations?) and then get Sky’s £25 FTV card. Is that correct or is there any way to get the FTA channels without a card? I’d prefer not to have any set top boxes if I can possibly help it.

Bonus points if you can tell me how to wrangle the channel list into a more manageable format!

Many thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[Topper]

Firsly apologies for the total newbie nature of this post - I’m generally highly tech-savvy but I’ve only ever had Freeview/Virgin Media/ onDigital (!) before.

Firstly, welcome to the forum, I hope we can help you out. Everyone is a newbie at some point so no apology needed

The house I’ve just moved into has appalling Freeview reception over the aerial connection. When I eventually remembered that the house also has a satellite dish (formerly Sky, according to the print on the cables, but I don’t have the box) I thought I’d have a go with that. I plugged one of the two satellite aerial cables in and got my TV (Philips 43PUS6262) to search for channels. It found over 1000 (lots of duplicates) and arranged them in alphabetical order. Tedious! The problem is most channels I would expect to be free come up with a ‘channel scrambled’ message each time I select them. There are a few exceptions including all the Quest channels, Challenge, Pick, CNN and various community and religious channels. Those are coming through beautifully so I’m assuming they’re on an unencrypted MUX or whatever the satellite equivalent is.

From the research I’ve done so far it’s looking like I might need to get a CAM to go in the TV’s CI slot (if so, any recommendations?) and then get Sky’s £25 FTV card. Is that correct or is there any way to get the FTA channels without a card? I’d prefer not to have any set top boxes if I can possibly help it.

Bonus points if you can tell me how to wrangle the channel list into a more manageable format!

Many thanks for any help you can offer!

Well unfortunately Sky are like other providers and want their card in their box come hell or high water. There may still be one or two 'methods' of using a non Sky stb still working but for how long is another unknown. I would recommend you go to your favourite 2nd hand on line auction house and buy an unwanted skybox or freesat box and card and save yourself a load of headache and hassles. That way you are also solving your 2nd problem as well.

 

[Channel Hopper]

On a lot of satellite enabled televisions, you will find the colour coded button section of the remote allows you to put the channel list in various orders, alphanumeric, by satellite, bouquet, or free/scrambled.

Or you might also be able to delete the data to factory conditions, upgrade the firmware with a USB stick (unless you can do this with the OTA service facility) then rescan as a 'Freesat' selected satellite.

 

[Mickha]

I don't think there are that many FTV, Free To View, channels, avaialble, most are FTA, Free To Air, check the link below:

http://en.kingofsat.net/find2.php?pos=28.2E&cl=eng&num_pays=3&num_genre=&num_crypt=1&num_standard=Digital&ordre=freq

If your television isn't receiving all these channels then you might need to do an update, or check if the set up is faulty.
First check that you can get both polarities, Horizontal, and Vertical, then check the signal quality levels.

 

[Analoguesat]

You may find the frequency list on the box is out of date - there were quite a few changes a couple of years back.

Mickha posted one list, heres another. If you find a particular free channel you desire is missing add the frequency parameters in & scan it.

FlySat Astra 2E/2F/2G @ 28.2° East

As the others have said there are no cams available for Sky so you cant watch any of the encrypted channels unless you are willing to put up with a set top box. To be honest the ftv card is barely worth the money these days anyway - you get very few channels on it.

 

[PaulR]

I would disagree with Topper about buying a $ly box if all you want are the FTA (free to air) channels - i.e. you don't want to pay a monthly fee. It won't get you anything more (without a card) than your TV already does.

$ly's £25 FTV (free to view) card doesn't get you very much as Mickha says. Frankly, they're so unmemorable I can't put a name to single one without doing a web search. That would be the only other reason for buying a $ly box.

Nearly all the channels you get on Freeview are duplicated on satellite and many of the ones that were previously encrypted are going FTA such as Dave, Quest etc. In fact the choice is arguably better as there are +1 versions of channels that there is simply no room for on Freeview.

I've no idea exactly how you do it on your TV but I would have thought it possible to delete all the encrypted channels and then re-order the ones you want. It will also be necessary from time to time to do a rescan as a channel changes frequency or alters some of its technical characteristics. True Freesat boxes (and $ly boxes) handle these changes invisibly.

Talking of true Freesat boxes you said cables (plural). This means that you have the option of buying a Freesat+ box and plugging both dish cables into this. Then connect the Freesat+ box to your TV with an HDMI lead and you will now be able to record programmes for viewing later. You'll lose your TV satellite connection unfortunately and also have to keep track of yet another remote control but that's a small price to pay. My wife would disagree on that last point!

Finally it has to be said that there's an awful lot of rubbish available FTA as well. Personally shopping and religion channels do absolutely nothing for me and I can't understand what keeps them going!