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!