Need an idiot's guide to FreeSat, please!

[nectarine]

We have a Sky dish and box (no card) and get frustrated at the rubbish on the box sometimes. I keep seeing Freesat adverts and I was told you can access so many more channels (whether there's anything worth watching is another topic!) like Dave, Living, etc.

If I bought a Freesat box and just plugged it in to replace my Sky box, would it work here in southwest France? The adverts say there is no catch, no card, no contract.

Is it as simple as that, or do I need a different dish? Or won't it work in France or be restricted to only a few channels?

Many thanks for your replies.

[Bob T]

It is as simple as that.

[Baz]

The simple answer is yes. However, if you do not want to remove the feed from your Sky box you will need an extra feed from you your dish which means you will require a double or quad LNB with extra cabling. As for the programme have a look here: http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels

Baz

[Clarkkent]

Yes - it's as simple as that.

All that you need is a postcode. (You input this on first use - it is just used to determine which BBC/ITV region is selected for your broadcasts.)

[Danny]

if you want, you can buy a freesat box. These are generally available in the UK (also online via Amazon etc and delivered to France) but can be found for a bit more cash from dealers in France.

You have a choice of

1 - simple SD boxes with no recording facilities  (from £30 ->)

2 - HD boxes capable of displaying SD and HD channels (connected to an HD TV of course, from £100 - >)

3 - HD boxes with a hard drive inside which allows you to record programmes, pause live TV. You can also watch one channel and record another at the same time but for this you need two cables per box coming from the sat dish twin LNB (the pointy but at the end of the arm) If you only have a single LNB on the dish you would need to change it for a twin LNB which has two exits for cables.( from £200 ->)

more info here

http://www.freesat.co.uk/products/deal-of-the-week

still with me?....

then you plug your box in and choose your UK postcode to give you whichever regional channels you prefer and then you watch. As long as your Sky box worked fine in France, the freesat box should work OK too as they use the same group of satellites.

the TV and radio channel list is here

http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels/ click on 'next' to see all the channels

that's it

Danny

[nectarine]

many thanks for your replies which are really helpful. Can I ask: do you get more Freesat channels than the normal Sky free ones. I mean, if I change from Sky to Freesat, am I likely to get more channels to watch as with my Sky box I have a very limited choice (usual BBC, ITV 1/2/3, etc., and the '+1' channels, plus a few shopping and African film channels.

[Danny]

as I said,

the TV and radio channel list is here

http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels/ click on 'next' to see all the channels

that's it

Danny

[Will]

You will get basically the same channels on freesat as a Sky box without a card - though some of the more obscure channels won't appear in the guide and may have to be set up manually. The extra channels like Dave which appear on the digital terrestrial Freeview service are not yet on freesat.

The advantage freesat has over a Sky box with no card is that your choice of regional channels, and channel five, are available through the normal channel list rather than having to go round the houses, and if you get a HD freesat box you can see the BBC and ITV HD channels. (I know this is repeating what Danny said, but this is it in a few words without having to click on the links).

[cooperlola]

  I have both and apart from gaining HD and easier acces to regional variations, as others have mentioned,  on one, andhaving  Fiver, Five US and Sky 3 on the other, there is little difference between the choice on each that I have found.  Not worth the hassle or expense, imo, unless you have a decent HD ready TV.  But that is just my opinion - nothing more.

[Rob Roy]

As Will says you won't get 'Dave', 'Living' and that type of channel with Freesat, although you can get all sorts of other bizarre channels you would probably never want! You also don't get a listing of  'What's On' the various channels for the whole evening as you can with Sky, which we find a real pain, as I have to keep looking on the internet at a programme guide.

[Bob T]

[quote user="Rob Roy"]As Will says you won't get 'Dave', 'Living' and that type of channel with Freesat, although you can get all sorts of other bizarre channels you would probably never want! You also don't get a listing of  'What's On' the various channels for the whole evening as you can with Sky, which we find a real pain, as I have to keep looking on the internet at a programme guide.[/quote]

That is strange as I can look what is on for a week ahead on my Freesat box.

[Danny]

indeed,

Robroy, are you sure you have a 'freesat' box and not just any free to air reciever?

What is the make and model of your receiver?

Danny

[milkeybar kid]

Now I am really confused...doesn't take a lot! I thought free to air was freesat! I have googled it but it start off talking about free to air and appears to then call itself free sat, mind you they are trying to persuade you to employ then to install, so for me its still as clear as mud . So if I walk into a French shop wanting a box I can view BBC ITV and radio what am I asking for , please... I would die without this forum..thank you

[Clarkkent]

Milkeybar kid

Freesat is a specific satellite delivery service (like Sky) which is jointly owned by BBC and ITV. "Freesat" is a brand name.

There is a range of dedicated receivers on sale in retail outlets like Currys, Comet and Argos under a variety of brand names (many people consider Humax to be the best) and which incorporate an excellent (in my opinion) electronic programme guide.

They will not be on sale in French shops for copyright and other legal reasons but you should be able to find a UK retailer who will send a receiver to you. If you buy a French receiver you will have to tune the various stations yourself and you will not receive the EPG.

[Rob Roy]

It sounds from what you are saying as though we have just a free to air box - it's a FourTrac. We got it from a friend who had bought it as he thought his original one was broken, but it wasn't; it works fine, just got the niggle of having to check internet for programmes. Hubby is very practical, but not when it comes to computers and satellite systems,[8-)] and I wasn't aware there was a difference between Freesat and Free to Air!

[Will]

[quote user="milkeybar kid"]Now I am really confused...doesn't take a lot! I thought free to air was freesat! I have googled it but it start off talking about free to air and appears to then call itself free sat, mind you they are trying to persuade you to employ then to install, so for me its still as clear as mud . So if I walk into a French shop wanting a box I can view BBC ITV and radio what am I asking for , please... I would die without this forum..thank you[/quote]

Let's try (I know this is a gross simplification, but...)

There are several satellites used for various broadcast systems and programmes. So the first thing you need is a dish and LNB (the LNB is the sticky-out thing looking at the centre of the dish) pointing at one of the satellites (or groups of satellites) The usual English-language programmes are on the Astra 2 satellites, at 28.2 degrees E. These will offer a mix of encrypted programmes, for which you need a receiver with a decoder card - the Sky subscription channels form one example of this - and non-encrypted programmes, i.e. 'free to air' ('Free to view' is a different thing, and refers to programmes which are encrypted, but the card needed to decode them is not a subscription card).

There are many generic 'free to air' receivers available, including those sold cheaply in French DIY stores and hypermarkets. Sometimes these are wrongly referred to as 'Freesat'. They offer all of the free to air programmes available from the particular satellite(s) to which the dish is pointing, in all languages but usually with a pretty basic menu system and usually only basic 'now and next' programme information.

A true 'Freesat' receiver will be either a 'freesat' one (a joint venture between BBC and ITV to make their programmes and other free to air channels available in an alternative, non-subscription, user-friendly format to Sky) or 'Freesat from Sky', which is a decoder card available from Sky for a one-off fee which gives easy access to the free to air and free to view channels, with the free to air regional channels matched to your address. Note the lower case initial 'f' in 'freesat'. The major difference between these receivers and the generic ones is that Sky and freesat receivers include software which arranges the channels in an electronic programme guide (EPG), usually including programme information for up to a week ahead. The Sky card, and the postcode you input when setting up a freesat receiver, will give you the correct regional programmes (a Sky receiver with no card will still give you the EPG but will normally default to BBC London and ITV Central W; the BBC regional programmes are available elsewhere on the Sky EPG, and the other ITV regions, plus five, which are not on the EPG, can be programmed into the Sky receiver's 'other channels').

For licensing reasons Sky and freesat receivers are not available in France through 'official' channels, but a French-bought generic satellite receiver will still receive English language programmes if the dish points to the correct satellite. A dish and LNB correctly aligned for the Astra 2 satellites will work with Sky, freesat or generic receivers, even though it might be sold as a 'Sky' dish.

Sky or freesat receivers are not capable (at least not without a lot of messing around) of receiving programmes from satellites other than the Astra 2 etc satellites for which they were designed - which is why you may see good signal strength but no programmes if pointing at other satellites. Generic receivers will receive programmes from just about any satellite - but setting up and finding channels is, by their very nature, rather more for the 'techie' than the average TV viewer.

Edit - RR, yes, your box is a generic 'free to air' receiver.

[tonyv]

 I have a slightly different conundrum, but perhaps I can hijack this thread to get some related advice.

My Sony TV (brought from UK) has a built-in freesat decoder, and it happily receives the service via an 80cm dish pointed at Astra 2. However, I feel slightly guilty at not being able to view any French channels (should I wish to), but here my knowledge runs out.

I assume I can fit a second, offset LNB, to point at, say, Astra 1, together with a French TNT box, to get a similar service to Freesat, but is that really the best solution? What if I wanted to watch German, Italian, or Spanish broadcasts?

My TV has an alternate mode which allows me to scan the entire output from up to 4 satellites (presumably this means clusters, and via some sort of multiplexer), but then I appear to lose my EPG for Freesat, so I don't really want to follow that path.

Any suggestions out there, please?

[Will]

I'm certainly not an expert on French, German, Italian etc satellite broadcasts, but I think the easiest way would be to have a second dish, pointing at something like the Atlantic Bird 3 satellite at 5 degrees W, and a second receiver connected to the TV via a Scart cable. This could be a generic receiver, or, for the full package of French broadcasts, a box with a card slot to take a TNT or BIS subscription card, depending on which channels you need. Note that some of the freely-available French terrestrial channels are only available on digital satellite by subscription.

In theory you could fit a special multi-dish to see several satellites but I fear this could get rather complicated to set up and use.

[Danny]

Tony,

Not an expert either but,

it depends on what channels you want to watch and also if your TV also has a digital terrestrial (dvb-t) tuner as well as a freesat (dvb-s) tuner.

The dvb-t tuner is for receiving TV via a rooftop aerial. If the tuner is only capable of SD reception then you will not be able to use that if you also want French HD channels. That may be one possibility if you have an aerial already.

Bu the satellite route channel lists available here.

http://kingofsat.net/ click on the satellite 'map' on the top left for details of what is available.

If you want to use another dish and box, for French HD tv by satellite you would be best with a TNTSAT or Fransat labelled decoder.

Fransat is on Atlantic Bird sat 5,0W and TNTSAT is on ASTRA1 sat 19,0E.

5,0W has mostly French channels but Astra1 has a lot of German and other channels as well as French.

There are other options (Canalsat, Bis) but these are subscription = monthly payment services. TNTSAT and Fransat have no ongoing cost apart from buying the decoder and card (100 - 350 euros depending on features)

Concerning the dish, if you choose Astra, it is possible to mount a second offset LNB and share the dish with the freesat LNB but I think it is easier to use a second dish as Will says.

The TNTSAT or Fransat decoders give you all the French main TNT channels and extra channels and also all the Free to air channels on the satellite German for instance. An HD version will also receive 4 (and a half*) French HD channels and more German free to air HD too.

***EDIT*** If you do want HD channels, then you need to use an HDMI cable to connect an HD box to a spare slot on your TV.

Danny

* Canal+ is now showing some HD on HD TNTSAT decoders.

[tonyv]

Thanks, Will, and Danny.

Terrestial TV's certainly not an option here, out in the mountains, and I had enough problems explaining to OH why the existing dish had to be exactly where I put it; down the garden to avoid trees and peaks. A second dish will probably be the last straw!

So, I'll try getting a multi LNB bracket, and a generic receiver for Astra 1, and see how it goes. Thanks again for your help.

[Danny]

OK, I see.

You mention "generic receiver" but most of French TNT channels on Astra 1 are encrypted  so make sure you choose a TNTSAT decoder to receive them.

http://www.tntsat.tv/Terminaux_tntsat.htm

The recent Humax has been very well reviewed

http://www.astrapro.fr/ASTRAPRO_WEB/PDF/FicheProduit-Humax-TN5000HD.pdf

Good luck with the dish alignment.

Danny

[Théière]

[quote user="tonyv"]Thanks, Will, and Danny.

Terrestial TV's certainly not an option here, out in the mountains, and I had enough problems explaining to OH why the existing dish had to be exactly where I put it; down the garden to avoid trees and peaks. A second dish will probably be the last straw!

So, I'll try getting a multi LNB bracket, and a generic receiver for Astra 1, and see how it goes. Thanks again for your help.
[/quote]

The angle from space that strikes the dish is pretty high so mountains shouldn't be too much of a problem

[milkeybar kid]

re...Let's try (I know this is a gross simplification, but...)

Will, Thank you very much for your help. Castorama have a recepteur Optex at €44.90 it says FTA, I have researched on the internet I am thinking it has been superseded but that should not invalidate the guarantee ...before we buy can I hear anyone shout "Don't!!!!..MK