Freesat/Freeview - am I missing something?

[cooperlola]

A few months ago I bought a Panasonic hard drive dvd recorder with 2 built-in freesat decoders.  Nice piece of kit and (in spite of a few little hiccups due mainly to the fact that it does so much it's taking me a while to get to grips with some of its features) it is doing what is says on the tin.  I also have a Sky decoder so I get access to Five US and Fiver.  A couple of weeks ago I was in the UK and availed myself of a copy of the Radio Times - a rare luxury these days - and I see that on the "Freeview" pages several channels are listed which I haven't been able to receive as they are blocked on the Sky box and don't appear on the Freesat programme guide (Yesterday, Channel 1, Dave etc.)  Am I able to get these on Freesat in any way or do they just come with a standard Freeview box through a traditional UK aerial?  I find it rather bizarre that they would be available on the one but not other.

Martin, Anton and co, am I missing something?

[Danny]

Hello Deb

the channels do vary between freesat and freeview. So you are not missing something[:)] Not sure if it is bizarre or not. I think Martin will be able to explain why - most likely it is for commercial reasons.

here is a comparison - I am not sure if it is up to date or not....

http://www.ukfree.tv/allchannels.php

don't forget that the correlation between amount of channels/quality of programmes is inversely exponential so more channels = waytoomuchcrudtowatchandlifeistooshortanywaybettertoreadagoodbook

Danny

PS hope the legs and the rest are improving

[cooperlola]

Thanks Danny that answers my question.  D*mn because there are one or two things on those channels which really interest me. 

I read good books too but as the legs don't get me further than a few meters at present, the TV is a great asset to me.  And I'm an adict anyway, I admit, although I won't have the thing on just for the sake of it, thus I hunt around in obscure places for stuff I enjoy.

Improving, yes, but far too slowly for my taste!  Long term future looks OK but far from perfect.  Thanks for asking.[:)]

[elamessa]

Hi Coops,

I dont know if you can do this on your Panasonic, but access the Menu, Setup and Manual tune and then search. This will give you a load more channels (although quite a few are doubled up) you can then switch between Freesat and non Freesat mode, in non freesat mode your PVR will not work the same i.e. you wont be able to use the EPG to record programmes. There is no timer recording for start of recording in non-freesat mode.

Stored channel's in non-freesat are retained but to access them requires

accessing the Settings menu, selecting STB Mode and changing the option

from Freesat to non-freesat.

STeve

[Will]

Coops

The channels you mention are encrypted on satellite transmissions, so are only available if you have a Sky subscription (even on 'other channels' they will still not be visible). They are, however, freely available on digital terrestrial transmissions (i.e. Freeview), so will be out of range for you in central France.

I don't know the exact reason for this, but it's almost certainly to do with broadcasting rights. Dave etc are probably contracted to Sky for satellite transmissions, so can't go free to view on satellite until the Sky contract ends.

This (rather old) topic on another forum discusses the same thing, albeit concerning Sky rather than freesat.

[cooperlola]

Thanks all.  Will, this was rather what I assumed but as E4 and More 4 are now available, I was rather hoping that the other three might have followed suit, especially as the are on Freeview now.

I will experiment as you suggest, Steve.  You never know even though it does not sound at all hopeful.

[Martin963]

Martin can't add anything concrete,   except to confirm that it is frustrating that certain channels freely available within Britain using Freeview are encrypted by Sky.

Part of it may relate to rights issues,    but most of it is down to the fact that it costs dosh to be carried on any platform,   and satellite is no exception.    I'd guess that the advertising revenue generated by the Freeview channels on terrestrial justifies (and pays for) those particular transmission costs,   but that the beancounters draw the line at duplicating the service on satellite *unless* they tie it up with Sky,   whereby Sky contribute (maybe even pay them a fee!) to the costs of satellite transmission.    In their turn though Sky will encrypt the channels as Murdoch is a tight **** and doesn't want anyone to get something for nothing,  so no Sky sub = no reception.

ITV 2/3/4 HD versions are finding the same thing,   ITV can't (or won't) pay for them on satellite but have done (or are thought to be doing) a deal with Sky so that Sky HD customers will see them but us lesser mortals won't.

It's been a long haul for you Coops,   I think everyone wishes you continued improvements,  I know I do.

Bon courage.