hello again all, yes I know I've asked about this before and there are lots of 'discussions' on here but I have a very specific question....
We have just moved into our place in Lauroux and sound an old AMSTRAD digi-box in a cupboard, imagine my surprise when I plugged it into the dish and telly to be presented with the following...
A very old looking SKY type menue with the usual 300+ channels listed however the only ones that work are BBC (bizarrely BBC midlands) ITV Channel 4, MORE 4 And E4, BBC Radio and Classic FM the others say either not subscribed (very true as we have no subscriptions whatsoever) or no satellite signal.
1. Can anyone explain what is happening here??
2. If I just replace the Amstrad box with a Freeview one will I then get the standard Freeview channels?
3. Would I need to point the satellite dish another way?
I have no interest in SKY as I have been boycotting all MURDOCH EMPIRE products since Wapping (an elephant never forgets lol) and don't see any reason to subscribe to tv when there is a better free alternative.
PS lauroux is just outside LODEVE about 40km NW of MONTPELLIER...
I have a Sagemcom HD recorder and it is a big disappointment after the Sky+ box I was used to, the User inerface is apalling and until a recent firmware update was freezing on a regular basis.
Pete.
Yes, a Freesat box should get you all the other free-to-air (FTA) channels, and asks for a UK postcode when you set it up. (I've never come across a Sky box that has somewhere to enter a postcode - A Sky box seems to remember the part of the UK where the previous subscription was held.) Personally, I wouldn't buy one of the cheap Freesat boxes as I've never met a satisfactory one. (I use a Humax with an internal disk, which seems fine & offers recording in the same way as a Sky Plus HD box.)
What you may find is that you need some tweaks to the dish alignment and/or a replacement head ('LNB') to get all the FTA channels. The channels that you're not getting on the Sky box may be because of the age of the box, or becuse of the head or the alignment of the dish. If you get a Humax recording box, you'll need a twin head (& second cable from the dish) to make maximum use of the recording capability, though it can cope fairly well if you only have a single cable. (In this case, you need a short 'loop-through' cable, which Humax didn't provide when I bought mine.)
You should be OK with your present positioning both come from the same cluster of satellites.
thank you Roger I meant FREESAT rather than Freeview my mistake, does the dish need to be repositioned if I change from the skybox to a FREESAT one
Sounds as if you have an old Sky box without a valid sky freeview card. you might be able to receive the preferred local BBC etc channels by going into set-up and inserting the post code of wherever you would like to (virtually) be.
If you plug in a freesat box then you will receive all the current freeSat Channels Your freeview box is only any good in the UK and is intended solely for terrestrial (not satellite) Channels.