Sky dish installed. Can I watch non-Sky HD content without paying?

[argo]

Hi All,
A newbie here. Just moved into a property with a Sky dish installed and no terrestrial aerial socket.
Ordered my first HD TV Samsung LE40M87BDX Specs

Any ideas how can I watch free HD content (eg BBC HD) in this property? I don't want to pay monthly but ready to pay for a receiver. Is there any way of using the Sky dish without a Sky box? Or is the dish pointed to a Sky satellite which encodes the signal?

Thanks in advance

 

[Robbo]

Hi, Welcome to the forum.

At the moment there are only two HD channels that are not encrypted on 28.2/28.5E.

-> _http://www.lyngsat.com/hd/28east.html

For those a free to air HD satellite receiver would do the job.

If you browse around the Lyngsat site, you may find the odd channel on some of the other satellites that are FTA HD also.

For SD channels, there are plenty of them on 28E, just an ordinary FTA satellite receiver required, a Sky Box is not required.

Robbo

 

[argo]

Thanks for the quick reply, Robbo.
As far as I understood I need only FTA HD receiver connectable to my TV.
What are my options? Are there lots of them or just a couple of value for price devices?

 

[HB13DISH]

Hello argo and welcome to the forum.
I personally would'nt buy an FTA receiver for SD or HD.
Sooner or later you will regret it and then you will end up buying ANOTHER receiver to open encrypted channels and then put the FTA STB in one of the shelves as a dust collector, unless you have other dishes and use it to watch FTA channels there.
FTA HD STB from Pace costs ~ 100 pounds.
Latest Dreambox 8000S model for HD ~ 500 pounds, but there are cheaper makes.
You really have to think things over, check your budget and then decide what is your best option.
Spend as much time on this as you spent while choosing your HD TV, and even more.
The problem with encrypted channels is that there are several encryption methods (Viaccess, Nagravision, Conax, Irdeto, NDS, etc.) and you would need an STB that would open all the encryptions when you buy an official smartcard.

 

[Robbo]

Hi, yes, a FTA box will only do the FTA channels, however if you get one with a slot for a CAM , then with the right CAM you could put almost any card in it, excluding Sky and some of the other providers that tie the card to the box. The dish would need to be pointed at a differnt satellite to make use of the CAM without subscribing to Sky.

The trouble is, that for 28E, its really only a choice of a Sky HD box or a FTA box for HD, they don't do a HD Dreambox at the moment. There are no other encrptions on 28E apart from Videoguard (for which a sub to Sky is needed).


Still stuck with a SD TV myself for the moment,so I have not investigated all the receiver options for HD as yet, so could not advise.

 

[HB13DISH]

Hi robbo,

Dreambox 8000S HD is supposed to be available 18th January 2008.
There have been few threads in the English and the Portuguese forums.
There is a spec here from today.

http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/dreambox-general/114613-dreambox-8000-discussions.html

I can't understand why not to subscribe to Sky and get STB HD box and all the HD channels.
If it is a question of monthly cost, then I can only say that outside the UK, people are willing to pay any price for the hardware (silly dish sizes starting from 3-5m) and a dodgy subscription since Sky would not do a contract to subscribers overseas.
But in the UK, with just a dish of less than 60cm (right?), one can receive the signals loud and clear.

 

[Robbo]

Hi robbo,

Dreambox 8000S HD is supposed to be available 18th January 2008.

Cheers Dish, I await its sale.

But in the UK, with just a dish of less than 60cm (right?), one can receive

the signals loud and clear.

43cm actually, i.e a minidish.

Some people just don't like Murdoch or Sky I suppose

 

[PaulR]

Some people just don't like Murdoch or Sky I suppose

Yes, there are a lot of us!

 

[argo]

Thanks, mates for lots of useful information. Will shop around for Pace DS810XE.