If you have already a Sky mini-dish attached to your house and pointed at the Sky satellite, you can use the same dish for receiving Freesat.
Just plug the cable coming from the dish to back of your new receiver. That’s it. No need to get a new dish or upgrade anything.
Freesat and Sky are broadcast from the same satellite. So the same dish size and dish direction can be used.
Entries (RSS)
May 21st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Sky dont own the satellites Astra & Eutelsat do.
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Does anyone have experience of Freesat in Italy? How big a dish etc.?
Dick Graham
August 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
What if the cable is severed? what do i need to connect it again?
November 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Hello there. Many thanks for the info on this website. I have managed to setup my sky dish and get 80% quality and strength. However, I have one problem: I cannot get channel 4. I was wondering if you could shed some light on this? I have tested and every other channel works, i.e. ITV, BBC1, 2, 3, etc. I have the correct sattelite, i.e. 0002 and 07d4 data stream. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.
November 9th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Sahin:
I think channel 4 still shows as channel number 8350. Tune into this channel and then change the name.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Will the cable attached to sky HD STILL WORK AS THIS IS A SPLIT CABLE WITH CONNECTION 1 & 2
November 18th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Anthony: Didn’t quite understand the question. What are you trying to do?
November 19th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Thanks for the information on using a sky satellite for freesat hd. I have a standard sky box and a new panasonic free sat tv. Can I run both services from one ariel using some type of adapter and can I buy such a thing.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Peter:
You can buy a twin lnb for your dish.
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I think what Anthony means is;
Can he connect both the sky HD box and the freesat box to the same dish?
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Andrew, Thanks.
Basically, each tuner needs it’s own lnb in order to watch different channels simultaneously. So, a Sky+HD receiver has two tuner and therefore the dish has a twin lnb. If you remove one cable from the HD receiver and plug it into the Freesat box then you loose the functionality of “record while watching another programme on the HD receiver”. (But then you could probably watch it on the Freesatbox). If you want to keep the way it is, you could replace the lnb with a quad lnb and run some new cabling from the lnb to the freesat box.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
TO Dick Graham
I have a 1.8 meter offset dish in Malta and cannot get BBC 1,can get ITV 1 but no 2,3 ect,I think I should have put up 2.4 dish.
I also want to get away from the primitive rubbishy SKY box and I might get lucky with more channels.
Get all the 5 channels but ch 4 is still a mistery.
Good luck
November 25th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
To Sahin
For Channel 4 go to freq. 12.480 V 27.5 and FEC 2/3.
You should get it and the other 4′s
November 26th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
We have a sky mini dish with a single output LNB and Sky set-top box feeding an non-HD capable tv.
I’d like to plumb in a second tv with HD capability, but using Freesat instead of Sky.
Appreciate I need to replace the LNB with a quad feed one, with the original cable continuing to supply the Sky box and a new one supplying a Freesat box (leaving 2 spare feeds).
My question is, will this enable us to watch Sky on one tv and Freesat on the other at the same time? There seems to be an issue about set-top boxes controlling the LNB, so if a Sky box and a Freesat box are both trying to control the same LNB at the same time will this be a problem? Or does the fact that Sky and Freesat come from the same satellite mean this isn’t an issue?
November 26th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Jasp: With a quad lnb, you can hook up 4 different receivers and watch 4 different channels simultaneously. That’s what a quad lnb is for, it has nothing to do with same satellite, a quad lnb can only be pointed at a single satellite.
November 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Thanks Alan.
I understand that with a quad LNB I could hook up 4 Sky receivers and watch 4 different channels from Sky simultaneously.
But, could I hook up, say, 2 Sky receivers and 2 Freesat receivers and watch 2 different channels from Sky AND 2 different channels from Freesat simultaneously?
November 27th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Sure, why not? It doesn’t matter what sort of receiver or package. Any receiver, any channel.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am
Thanks Alan
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
hello…just bought a new plasmas with freesat built in,great but only the origonal sky box installed from old setup,
Question only one feed from old skydish so plugged into new tele …great freesat ..no sky so then tried connecting to sky box and via scart …only sky( to be expected) back to shop recm’d maplin splitter, two leads one to each ..being carefull of dc supply bias from skybox connection on splitter… no joy only sky no free sat..
is the signal too weak in my case it comes up with programme listing for free sat but no pictures ..
if i revert to line connected to freesat on tele cracking picture //but no sky …help?????
cheers any help greatly appreciated .. sorry for war and piece.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 am
There are a large number of Sky minidishes out there that were installed in the ‘early days’ of Sky Digital and which are now either pretty sick, or getting a little tired to say the least.
Whilst the dish face will probably last forever, the LNB itself has a decidedly limited lifespan. Anyone with an LNB which is more than five years old would be well advised to swap it out if they are planning on doing any dish maintenance or rerunning new coax for example.
New LNBs can be had for two or three quid on the auction sites.
Just a thought.
December 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
hi
i run a normal sky set up but my question is, could i put up an other dish point it an other satalite and get other chanels ie football from lets say japan would a normal sky box work with this set up or would i need a different box?
thanks
December 9th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Neil: Yes you could do that but probably no football from Japan. Those satellites are on the other side of the earth. But european stuff is easily available (mind there are not that many english channels though).
A sky box is no good for that, though. An independent box is better.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
sky select quad lnb.2for sky+ 1for freesat sd receiver set up yesterday.Signal strenght 95%.can,t get bbc2/3/4 ch4/5 poss others.Tried reset same result.Turn off power to sky+ lost all freesat settingsTurn power on reset freesat,same result.Help
December 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Hello.
I have a sky + box, and just bouhgt a freesat panasonic HDTV… I want to keep sky + for recording stuff, but have freesat for the HD content.
I planned to split the sat cable with a two way splitter, and send an output each to sky+ box and the tv freesat… howeverm found that for sky + there is a two-way coax cable and can;t find a splitter for this.
Any suggestions, without having a re-wire from my lnb?
Thanks
January 4th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
i use the basic technomate receiver with a 60cm dish at my caravan and pick up all the channels (north west uk.)
i have tried to do the same here at home(east uk)using a sky minidish that i was given. i can receive all the foreign channels but no bbc or itv.just a message (poor signal quality) or (scrambled channel)and all seem to be around channel no 800 to 850 , i am using the same receiver so do i need a bigger dish?
cheers,dave
January 6th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Hi I get good pictures from the BBC/ITV freesat ( Astra 2) but the programme guide has blanks and the message ” no information available” against some programmes. I am told that the guide comes from Eurobird and the solution is to align the dish towards that satellite. Has anyone any knowledge of this problem please? and how the LNB skew is adjusted . Thanks
January 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I want to upgrade my freesky dish to freesat capable of supporting the Humax Foxsat HDR. I have established that I need to upgrade the lnb from single to quad – there’s one on amazon for £40 – is this straightforward and do I need to repalce the cable run from the dish to the kit and if so what type of cable do I need? The dish is very accessible.
Many thanks if anyone can help.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I live in a flat with communal sky dish. I have a standard sky box as cabling in building can not support Sky +. TV is Panasonic HD with Freesat. The question is can I fit a splitter at TV so I can use the inbuilt Freesat in TV OR the Sky signal. Only want to use Freesat for HD signals for TV.
I get the LNB thing about running a second cable but I imagine this is just if you want to permanently have both signals. Would turn off Sky box when using Freesat – would this work. Any Help would be great. Thanks
January 10th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I have plugged the sky lead to my new panasonic freesat tv but the sky channels say no satallite signal being received.Help?
January 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am
A pal of mine wants to set up Freesat (particularly for HD channels)
He has an existing Sky minidish up from the previous owner of the house and the coax running into the property, he no longer has a Sky reciever.
Will this one cable be ok to get the box running and recieve HD channels, also other than the Freesat reciever (which comes with a HDMI cable) he wouldnt have to buy anything else would he ?
January 18th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
[...] argos, buy a Freesat box >and simply switch it for my current Sky box? > >Cheers >Ed http://www.uksatellitehelp.co.uk/200…t-on-sky-dish/ " If you have already a Sky mini-dish attached to your house and pointed at the Sky [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I have a panasonic tv with freesat built in and common interface module which allows me to watch setanta, i have tuned the tv to pick up sky channels which tell me they are encrypted when you try to watch, if i purchased a sky card would i be able to put it where the setanta card is and watch sky one.
Many thanks
February 1st, 2009 at 9:11 pm
@Simon: No, that wouldn’t work. You need a sky digibox and run a cable from the dish to the box (which might require a different lnb).
February 4th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
hi can any body tell me, i have a sky box and dish but only get freeview channels through the box, i would like to be able to convert what i have into getting channels from other satelites if possible ie,football from the premiership,and still get channels from freeview or freesat,thanks any advice please i am a neewbie at this.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Like many others I already have digital kit and want to obtain freesat.
I have a digital aerial, digital TV and Sky dish connected to a non-functioning Grundig. The Grundig has a card for the free channels only (changed some years ago so I do NOT subscribe to Sky).
We live in an area which cannot receive a main transmitter signal so our current analogue (and the upcoming digital) signals come from a “relay station”. These will not have enough power to transmit all digital channels so the switchover due in November will result in us receiving a maximum of 18 channels only.
I am disappoitned by this so am looking at connecting my Sky dish to the TV to receive freesat from the Astra (?) satellite rather than the dreaded “relay station”.
My assumption is that a TV being ‘digital’ means it can process a digital signal. So if I connect the Sky dish directly to the TV will that not merely pick up from the dish or do I need yet another box in between the dish and TV?
If the latter then is it easy to tune in?
Thanks
February 8th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
will myself and my housemate need 2 sky dish as I am getting free sat and he is getting the paid channels?
March 4th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I have a quad LNB and it had two feeds leaving it into my Sky+, I ran two more cables from the LNB, one for freesat and one for the sky dish upstairs.
But now the two new cables are not giving any signal!
what have I done wrong? Is it possible to buy the wrong cable?
March 17th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Please could you help my problem as follows :-
When I turn to my Sky Channels the Screen just shows searching for channel.
Could you tell me if this is just a problem with the LNB on the Dish or the Sky HD box.
I have tried the usual ways as surgested by Sky i.e Turn off the set at the mains for a couple of mins then turn back on and go through the reset programme but still no Channel. ?
April 6th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Hi,
I’m currently on secondment with my works in mid Italy (just north of Florence) There is a standard 80cm italian satellite dish fitted to my house that appears to point toward 28E and I have a UK spec Skybox+ with UK freeview card. I am aware that the dish might be too small for the location (I believe I will need about a 1.3mm dish) but I don’t know if I will need a different LNB for my UK set up. Any one any ideas please?
April 6th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Steve: You shouldn’t need a different LNB. 80cm should be ok for all channels wich are not on Astra 2D, so no BBC, but still good enough for getting some channels.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Hi
If I bye a sky+ receiver to replace my old sky (not sky+) recever an connect it up etc, am I right in thinking I could record programs that I am watching… or record programs when im not at home, I dont have a dual LNB, so of course I know i couldnt record a differnt program while watching another program, and also I am a sky subscriber so would my sky viewing card work in the new sky+ box? or would I have to get a replacment one from sky. Thank you from Dean
April 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I have an old Sky dish on the side of my house that was left by the previous owner. Thanks to this site I reckon its pointing to one of the Astra satellites (makes sense) but connected to my free sat tuner I don’t get a signal. I tried my free sat tuner on another brand new dish and that works fine.
Is there any way to test the dish without buying a signal tester, or is it possibly just too old. Could it be an analogue dish, would this still work, how could I tell? I have a digital multimeter, could I damage the dish?
Thanks.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I doubt the dish is too old, unless it’s very very old with an analogue LNB. But if it’s one of the eliptical mini-dishes everyone else has, it should be fine. It probably needs re-aligning.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
If you have already a Sky subscription, Sky+ is free otherwise ~£10/mth. So you could get a new Sky+ receiver. If you get it through Sky, they would take care of the card, if you buy it off ebay or so, you probably will need to ring Sky to get the card activated for the new receiver to make full use of the recording and premium channels etc.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I have just purchased a Panasonic Plasma with Free Sat. As it turns out the building (block of flats) im in has a sat dish setup for Sky.
My Question is. Can i use the Sky Dish in the building to access the FreeSat EPG.
Note: I can see the channels, by tuning manually but the EPG doesnt work.
What do i need to do to get this working?
thanks
Brendan
April 26th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
CAN I GET FREESAT IN POLAND, AND IF YES, WHAT KIT WILL I NEED FOR SET-UP
May 1st, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Hi ,
I have a sky dish installed on the new house I just moved in. I never had sky or anything so not sure what I need to buy in order to get free sat.
My tv is a old one so it doesnt have a digital receiver or anything, I’m just tring to get freesat from the sky dish if possible.
Do I just need a receiver or do I also need the something like Quad LNB (found on amazon)?
Any help would be great.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
IPTV TO SKY SET-TOP-BOX BRIDGE:
Hi,I have IPTV from an ADSL provider on one floor and I have Sky Direct to HOme service (Dish TV) on my ground floor.
I wish to feed my sky boxes with the IPTV signal(it provides more channels than sky). What kind of bridge if any would be required between the two set-top-boxes (i.e. between IPTV STB and SKy STB).
I was also thinking,maybe if i just feed the LNB of sky set-top-box with plain old S-Video-out signal from my IPTV box,should this do the trick?CAn i change channels on my ground floor sky box with this technique?
Any news would be helpful.
June 9th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
hello
the building i live we cannot put sky dish because we have community socket in the property and how can i install sky
June 17th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Hi
I have 70% signal on new dish but no quality 0% what have done wrong.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Hello
I am not very technical at all so any detailed help would be much appreciated! I live in a block of flats which has been fitted with a communal sky dish. Each flat only has one sky feed so we cannot get the true benefits of Sky+ as you need two sky feeds. And we are not allowed to have our own dishes installed.
We’ve just received our new Sky+ HD box and apparently there is a code of some sort that you can put into the new HD boxes that will convert one feed into two feeds so that we can reap the full benefits of Sky+ (i.e. watch one channel whilst recording two other channels at the same time) or scheduling a programme to record when away from home…. We cannot do any of these because there is only one sky output. PLEASE HELP!
July 4th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
We are moving to a new house that has a terrestrial aerial already fitted and both co-axial and satellite sockets in the living room. The builder informs me that the satellite cabling has been taken into the loft to connect with an external dish that would need to be fitted.
If I purchase a freesat TV, I understand this will need a quad lnb to pick up both Sky HD and Freesat. Would this still be able to use the one cable routed in the wall from the loft to living room or would an additional external cable need to be fitted? If another cable I would probably go for Freeview TV that would use the terrestrial aerial with Sky using the sattellite cable.
I need to know how it would be fitted before deciding which TV, then I can get the dish installed.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Please could someone give me some help?
I have just purchased a Humax foxsat HD set top box which is designed for the FREESAT service.
After setting up the box as per the enclosed booklet provided it kept on telling me that my postal code was invalid, I tried a couple of times but I keep getting the “Invalid Postal Code” message.
In the end I telephoned the supplier as per the telephone number in booklet, and the gentleman at the other end informed me that the Sky Dish that I have installed, of which I am presently using to watch FREESAT TO SKY…… HAS TO BE REALIGNED, all these people that say they can just unplug from Sky and it will automatically work with FREESAT puzzles me.
This would in effect prevent me from watching Sky or Freesat together if I realigned the dish.
Also what IS the correct setting for FREESAT?
Could someone PLEASE give me some advice of what could be the problem?
Many thanks in advance.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
No no, don’t realign your dish if you can get Sky from that dish. That’s so not true if they tell you to re-align the dish. Are you living in an area with a new post code? Try typing in another, well established post code.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:43 am
I have now managed to instal my Humax Foxsat HD, it is a pleasure to watch programs in HD, the colours are just great on my new Panasonic 26 inch TV.
Anyone thinking about getting one GO FOR IT
July 26th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Is it easy to install a second cable to my 10 year old satellite dish so that I can buy and set up a Humax – Foxsat HD recorder.
Can I buy the “bits” from B & Q.
Thanx
August 12th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I know nothing about satellite dishes but there is one installed complete with cable on the house I have just moved into. How can I tell if this will be suitable for a freesat box.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Hi ya,
Confussed by all this.
If I put up a larger dish, will I be able to receive more channels via my sky box????
I have two dishes up from previous owners, if I change one of them to a larger dish and connect it to a freesat box will I need a card to see say english football from another country sports channel????
Cheers
Brian
August 13th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Me again,
Looking uo more info on dishes and boxes etc. Evertone seems to mention that you need a freefree box with a card slot, why? and what is the slot for?
August 13th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Hi,I have recently reactivated my old sky dish,I checked the cable and also replaced the LMB I .got, a signal,so I rushed out and purchased a new sat rec,from Maplin,alas after a lot of messing about ,I tuned it in and all I could receive was alot of ads,including ads for cheap sex programs.about four old films,and that was it.I wanted to get BBC and ITV but was told by an experienced sat viewer,I needed an HD receiver and to try other satelites I am on Astra ,I have a new HD television.Any suggestions anybody,regards.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I currently have a Plasma TV and Sky box installed to watch free to air programs. I want to change it to a HD TV plus a Humax FoxSat HDR PVR so I can watch and record HD programs simultaneously. I also want to move the existing Sky box to a bedroom. I know I need to change my LNB from a single to a quad but how many cables do I need to run to the HD TV and Humax? Obviously there is one there already and I know I need a new one for the bedroom, it’s the TV and Humax that confuses.
Thanks.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Each box requires a cable. If a box has two tuners (watch and record different programs) then the box requires two cables.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Hi, I’m sorry to be thick, but I’ve read all these responses and my question is:
My Sky HD box has two inputs/cables from the sky dish. When I cancel my sub. to Sky, which cable do I plug in to my LG freesat tv to allow me to tune in the freesat channels? Or can I use either one?
Thanks
October 15th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Why don’t you just do it now? Take one cable out of the box and plug it into your telly. See what happens and tell us here.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
probably a stupid question really,but can i plug a terrestrial top box into a sky dish without blowing anything up
October 19th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Why would you want to do that? They have two completely different tuners in them. You won’t get any joy from that and whether it would damage anything, I don’t know – if you do try it, let us know.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
HI i am trying to get freesat on my pc can you help pleas i have just installed a
pci satellite tv adaptor to my pc. conected the cable fom my dish to the pc and now i am stuck whith what to do next. the dish is a sky mini dish which i still use for sky tv. can you help me many thanks Brian.
October 25th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Like many contributers I have purchased a Humax Foxsat HDR to replace my Sky freesat. I have been quoted £95 to fit a quad LNB as I need two feeds in . As I am on a limited pension to save money I have purchased a conversion kit for around £20. It looks easy to fit BUT I am concerned about getting the correct LNB skew – - a question of trial & error? – any advice will be greatly appreciated
October 25th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I have one dish through which I receive Sky+
I want freesat in the back room – is it possible to run a Sky+ box and Freesat receiver from the same dish at the same time, or will I need a second dish for the freesat receiver?
October 25th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Steve like me I think you will need to fit a quad LNB if the existing one has only two outputs already used for SKY+ but with a quad LNB you will not need another dish according to my limited knowledge
October 25th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Mike: Don’t worry too much about skew. Just put it straight on, it should do. If you need to, you can optimise it by watching the signal quality(!) bar on the receiver while slightly turning the lnb.
Steve, as Mike said, quad lnb is what you need if you want sky+ and freesat.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Thanks Alan – much appreciated
October 31st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hi.
I have SKY+HD and a Panasonic HD TV with Freesat built in.
do I need to get a HD Quad LNB or is a Quad LNB all i need – the reason i ask is that I can’t see any advertised as HD but don’t want to buy the wrong thing…
Cheers
Graham
November 1st, 2009 at 8:13 pm
There is no such thing as HD LNB…
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Thanks Mike and Alan
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Alan
That is what I thought but just wanted to confirm that – excellent!
Thanks a million……
Graham
November 8th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Hi Alan
I’ve just bought a new Panasonic TV with integrated Freesat. I have a normal Sky+ box (two cables coming in from the Satellite dish). To receive the Freesat TV channels and to retain all the currents functions of the Sky+ box do I need to get another cable installed from the Sky dish directly into the Freesat connector on the TV?
many thanks
Billy
November 10th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Billy,
Yes, and a new quad lnb
November 12th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Hello everyone,
I too have just got a Panasonic TV with built in Freesat – I have an sky satellite dish with a sky box in the bedroom which is just used for basic non-contract free-to-air programmes.
I think I have worked out from the other posts that I would need a new LNB for the dish to pick up the different satellite signals but am confused as to how/what cable would be needed to connect the satellite dish to the new TV for the Freesat……
Any advice much appreciated.
November 15th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Hi Experts!
Don’t know if you can help,re- wired old sky dish replaced lnb with a quad unit, encounted problems of the Humax box not recognising our postal code!
put a couple of others in local & two miles away still did not recognise. Could only pick up 16 channels not all showing on the transponder advised in the maual.
Messed around fitting the old sky lnb (understand only one feed)
Ignored the manual & selected all transponder settings managed to pick 300+ channels, BUT channels like qvc & price drop cannot recieve or poor signal. Firstly I suspect the quad lnb could be at fault & why are we not picking up the shopping channels on the sky lnb. Any advice guys.
Many thanks
Dave
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I have a Sky digibox (which I want to keep) but rather than pay for HD, have also purchased a Humax Foxsat-HD. Not being keen on changing to a twin LNB, I’ve purchaseed a simple (unswitched) 4-way Satellite signal splitter from B&Q. After powering everything down, I connected up the splitter and tried the Humax. It worked fine. I placed it into standby and tried the Sky digibox but was presented with “no satellite connected”. I’ve tried different outputs from the splitter and with the Humax in standby and disconnected but the digibox will not work unless the satellite feed is connected directly to it. Any suggestions other than fit a dual lnb would be greatfully appreciated.
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
KJ: These are called coax cables. Best is if you check out some satellite shops and ask them what they got in stock.
David, CJ: No idea.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Alan
Thanks for the reply – looks like my system is going to need a new dual-lnb and second cable run to get both working.
November 26th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
just fitted freesat to my old sky dish but got no signal at all.tried sky box and got 60% signal strength , 80% quality and all free channels. help.
November 27th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Hi, i have recently purchased a new dish and lnb and tried to set it up myself to my sky + box, i have put the new dish up near to my neibours dish so its facing the same way and all pointing in the right direction, but when i connect all the cables up it says no signal is being received, i tried my box at my friends house so i know its working fine, i have swapped the cables around , but still no joy, can anyone tell me what i might be doing wrong, or can i split a twin cable to use two boxes from one dish. as i have it in my living room from neighbours dish and thats fine, but no more ports are available on their dish so i cant run 2 boxes from that one, so can i split the live feed that is in my living room to work a box in my bedroom
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
To those having difficulty entering their post code on the Humax HDR, are you remembering to enter the correct spacing? The post code is only required to give the correct regionality to the HDR tuner.
December 28th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hi everyone,
Apologies if this sounds like a really thick question, but… I’ve a Sky+ box which I use and want to keep and a telly with integrated Freesat. I’m not overly bothered about Freesat as I get all the channels with Sky anyway, but I would like to watch the odd bit on Freesat HD from time to time. So, is there likely to be any problem disconnecting one of the feeds from the Sky+ box and connecting it to the telly for the HD programmes and then reconnecting it back to the Sky box?
I guess we’d be talking about doing this a couple of times a month, so it’s not a major pain, providing it doesn’t mess up Sky+.
Any advice gratefully appreciated!
December 28th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
i was wondering if you could help me out i am cancelling my sky tv will i get free sat through my satalite dish and sky box or will i nead to buy a free sat box or can i use the sky box also will i nead to take card out sky box or leave the sky card in machine thanks
January 8th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
wonder if anyone could help. ok ive a sky dish on my house and a box that lets me watch free view channels. my friend give me his disk and his sky box if i put the dish up and aim it for a different sat will it work? and if so what are the other sats that i should aim for? i live near london so better if it was english stations that or portuguese please help
January 10th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
ANDY Dec 28th(12.32)
Did you succeed in what you were trying to do?Ive got a new tv with integrated freesat and have sky+,and wanted to do the exact same,I.E. change lead over occassionally for freesat hd channels.
Does anyone know if this is viable??
January 14th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Hi,
My sky+ box has broken so I purchased a standard sky box in its place however it only has space for 1 input cable from the dish and I have 2 cables set up for the sky+. Do I need an adaptor or should 1 of these cables attached to my new standard box give me sky anyway?
I tried but it did not work. Or is it the sky+ viewing card not compatible with normal box?
Thanks
Lynsay
January 31st, 2010 at 11:08 am
Thanks to all for the thread and answers , from what I have read I can use the old Sky mini dish, but to use a freesat receiver with HD and record funtion I need to upgrade LND to a Quad to receive more channels and HD. If I am wrong could some one update me.
February 1st, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Can You Use the sky and freesat at the same time, like split the cable??
February 11th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Lynsay:
a sky+ box uses two cables from the dish, as it has two tuners inside the box, which allows you to watch one channel and record another at the same time. a basic box only has one cable input as it cannot allow you to watch more than one channel as it only has a single tuner inside.
A sky card is paired to a sky box – and if not paired you will not be able to view the Sky Sports or Movie channels – although other chanensl should be available.
others:
Sky TV channels and Fresat TV channels come from the same satellites and use the same frequencies. so if youy want ot swap a sky receiver to a freesat receiver you just change the cables around – you do not need to move the dish!
Any PVR receiver, like the Sky+ or Freesat+ ideally requires two cables to be connected from the dish to the receiver…allowing you to watch one channel and record another at the same time. So you will need an LNB with at least 2 outputs, or more if you have more receivers to connect.
Normally you cannot use the same single cable one two receivers at the same time. if one receiver is looking at a verticale polarisation channel and the other is wanting to look at a horizontal polarisation channel then one receiver will work and the other may not – and there is a possinility of damaging the LNB and receivers. You can use a STACKER system, that mixes two signals down to a DESTACKER that unmixes the signals and allows two receivers to use one single cable.
Hope this helps.
Regards
February 18th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
I HAVE RECENTLY HAD ‘FREESAT FROM SKY’ FITTED AND RATHER BELATEDLY HAVE REALISED THAT I CANNOT RECORD PROGRAMMES FROM IT, EXCEPT PERHAPS FOR THE ONE I AM WATCHING.
IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN DO THIS ? SKY SAY THAT I MUST BECOME A SUBSCIBER AND HAVE SKY + FITTED – IS THIS TRUE ?
IAN (18-2-10)
February 19th, 2010 at 8:30 am
If you want to watch one channel and record an other at the same time then there are two methods:
Get a Sky+ box and pay a subscription. With a Sky+ receiver, you MUST pay sky something per month to acivate the hard drive functions: either £10 per month, or go for their cheapest TV package – £18 per month.
Or get an other receiver (and card if required) hooked up to the dish..
February 21st, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Question: What is a decent freestat box? I want 2 channel hard drive recorder. It seems that there is not much choice and why are they so expensive (compared to f/v).
Also I am hearing about a satellite called Hotbird (?) is it better than the free stat one?
Love the site
Best wishes,
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:29 am
Humax make a very good HD PVR, that allow you to watch one channel and record another – see the deals available on joinfreesat.co.uk…right hand side…
Hotbird is another satellite group located at 13 east. It covers most of Europe. It carries mainly European channels (Sky Italia, Polsat, Cyfra, Nova, Polska). There are not many English language channels on there for free (BBC World, CNN and one or two others only)
May 11th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I am a previous sky subscriber and still have my satellite dish. Can you tell me what I need to buy to use satellite dish to receive freeview?/freesat? I do not want to go to the expence of replacing my ‘ old worn out arial. Can I make use of sky dish? Any help appreciated!
from mantaray.
May 15th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Freeview is via your TV aerial and requires a Freeview receiver.
Freesat requires a Freesat receiver and a satellite dish.
There are channels on Freeview, like Dave and History, that are subscription only on satellite.
But your Sky box with no sky card is able to receive the same channels as a Freesat receiver – Freesat and Sky use the same satellites and same frequencies.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Hi,
I have a sattelite dish outside my house but have never used it? there is a split cable thing that comes through to my living room too. My question is, if I buy a free sat box, and plug it in, will it work?
Thanks,
Dave.
June 5th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Dave:
As long as the dish is pointing towards the UK TV satellites (astra 2 at 28.2 east), then you should get freesat – assuming the LNB and cable and ocnnections are all OK
June 15th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Hi. I’m really hoping somebody can help and i haven’t just wasted 230 pounds. I have a sky plus box with minidish.
I recently decided i would prefer free sat with HD in order to save costs and because I realised that the subscription channel wasn’t worth having.
I cancelled Sky and tried to install the new Sagem HD free sat box this evening. Even though it worked for Sky I can get no signal whatever . When I asked the guy at Curries he told me all I had to do was plug the two lines from my sky box into the new receiver and that would be it. Do I now have to pay somebody to replace my dish / realign it?
June 16th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Sky boxes and Freesat boxes use the same satellite and frequencies for the cahnensl they carry – so you do not have to get your dish moved.
As long as you have a Sagam Freesat box, and not a Freeview box then it should all work – just simply swap the cables from your Sky+ box to your Freesat HD+ box.
June 30th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
i am a sky customer for 5 years we moved into an apartment block that wont allow people to mount dishes on the wall, so how can i continue to get sky without mounting a dish on the wall. (please help)
July 1st, 2010 at 10:41 pm
alann:
maybe your block has a communal dish system that you need to hook up to?
One dish feeding all apartments is better than each apartment each having their own dish. If you do not have a communal dish, get the community to get one installed. If they reject a communal dish, then you should be able to get your own personal one installed.
July 5th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
thanks “satandpcguy” but there is no communal dish and they have no interest in puting one up is there any other way of recieving sky without the dish.(please help)
July 6th, 2010 at 6:46 am
alann: “is there any other way of recieving sky without the dish.(please help)”
Sky TV is generally via satellite only.
If in the UK maybe the Skyplayer can be used, its like the BBC Iplayer.
Or look into the slingbox – have the dish somewhere else and sling the pictures to your place..
July 12th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Can I mount the sat dish to receive freesat in my loft I am in the London area
July 13th, 2010 at 7:26 am
alan: ideally no. a line of sight to the satellite with as few restrictoins as possible is required.
July 13th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Many thanks satandpcguy, just have to set it up outside
July 20th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Hi guys,
Wonderingif you could help me out, I’ve recently had a sky HD box and dish installed, but have been messed around with sky so much that i’ve decided to leave them. I know that I can recieve freesat through the new sky satelite dish and i’ve treated myself to a sony bravia which has built in freesat, however the connection for my sky HD box has two lnb cables and as far as I can see on my tv I only have the 1 connection point, meaning I could only watch one channel at a time.
I was wondering if there was a way to get around this problem or will I just have to bite the bullet and stump up for a freesat box?
I’ve got an old thompson 250gb freeview and recorder box, not sure if I could do some creative wiring and get any results from that?
Thanks
July 22nd, 2010 at 7:35 am
The two connections on the Sky box are for the hard drive recording of one channel whilst watching another channels.
Most Freesat TVs only have the one connection, as they dont have the recording ability.
So either starts a Sky sub again (1 mix £18 per month) and get the recording functions activated (and get C4HS and Five HD not on Freesat!)
Or go for a Freesat HD PVR box, where the recording functions are availabl with no subscription.
Freeview boxes are not compaitable with satellite dishes.
Freeview is the terrrestrail service via a TV Aerial.
Freesat is via a dish.
Freeview and Freesat are two totally different transmission systems and not compatiable with each other
August 3rd, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I have recently bought a Labgear Freesat dish and receiver from Screwfix, and no amount of fiddling about with the dish direction is getting me anywhere. It is pointing in roughly the right direction as my neighbours (so I know that I am not completely barking up the wrong tree). I have used a Labgear Satellite Finder and moved the dish in line with the audio and visual signals to the point where the strongest readings are obtained, still to only get a Signal Strength of 30% and Quality of 5% on the Receiver. After hours of such tinkering (and three sets of holes in the wall as I have tried the dish in different places out of desperation) I removed the F connector and coaxial lead from the back of the receiver to find that I was getting exactly the same readings!
Can anyone give me any tips or shed any light on the problem. I’m confused as the Satellite Finder seems to think I have found something but the receiver doesn’t seem to agree! Could it be the LNB to receiver cable, or do you have to alter some of the settings on the receiver?
Any help would be much appreciated – the whole lot will be going into orbit anytime soon if I don’t manage to sort it!
August 4th, 2010 at 7:29 am
what satellite are you trying to get?
A basic meter will only tell you that you are on A satellite, not necessarily the satellite you want. And the signal strength showing on the receiver will depend on which frequency you are looking for – so which frequency / satellite is the receiver set to that is giving you the 30 and 5% readings?
try dishpointer.com for a more accurate estimation as to the direction you need to point.
August 5th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Thank you for responding to me.
I am trying to get Eurobird 1 / Astra 2A/2B/2D at 28.2E. I have set the receiver for this satellite and it is giving the 30% and 5% readings. However, it even gives these readings without being connected to the satellite dish. I have tried dishpointer.com and followed it’s advice and detailed setting advice to no avail.
Am I understanding this correctly, if you set your receiver for a particular satellite, e.g. Eurobird1 / Astra 2 will it only show a signal strength reading if it is receiving a signal from that particular satellite as opposed to a signal reading for any satellite, i.e. will it know that however weak / poor it is that the signal it is receiving is from a given satellite? For example if you have set a receiver to look for Hotbird 1 / Astra 2 and it actually receives a signal from Hotbird, it shouldn’t read any signal strength at all on the display because it hasn’t received a signal from the satellite it has been told to look for?
Secondly, how can my receiver ‘think’ it has got a signal and provide a reading for it when the dish isn’t even connected – is the receiver likely to be faulty?
August 7th, 2010 at 7:25 am
IF you get these readings without anything connected then check all cables and connection, look for shorts, and make sure the LNB is working.
When algning try and use a frequency that you know what channels are on that frequency – ie use 12207, when you geta signal, do a scan, if you get Sky News, then you are on the correct satellite – align and tighten screw, and do a full rescan.
Many satellites use similar frequencies,os you may htinky you are on Astra2, but you may be on another satellite.
August 17th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Hi I am an existing Sky customer and want to cancel my subsciption to them.
Will I lose out on any channels by not requesting a freesat viewing card from Sky?
August 18th, 2010 at 6:59 am
IF oyu cancel you sky subscription properly – it 1 month notice, with Sky, then your card should “become” a freesatfromsky card, and will allow access to the “free to view” channels.
You do not need a viewing card for the “free to air” channels – like BBC – Freesat boxes only allow access to free to air channels and require no card.
August 23rd, 2010 at 2:06 pm
iv moved into a new house iv got sky + and i took the dish off my old house if i put the dish up pointing the same way as the others on other houses will it work
August 23rd, 2010 at 7:11 pm
yes
August 24th, 2010 at 7:20 am
I supoose it depends which satellites the other dishes are pointing at!
use dishpointer to get the general direction, then a portable TV, sat finder meter, and a receiver to locate the correct satellite – even a small eoor in direction can mean you are pointing tot he wrong group of satellites…