Discussion
Hi, Just cancelled Sky after many years. Now need to work out how to connect TV to receive freeview channels once Sky box goes back. What will I need to do so? No idea as always had sky. We currently have a box in one room where signal comes in from dish, then booster and other box higher up in the house. Any advice gratefully received.
I had to setup freeview after many years of Virgin Media, I had to get a new TV aerial installed which I think cost around £100 all in, unfortunately I then found the internal tuner on my TV didn't work so I had to buy a new TV too which was unexpected.
I think considering you already have a satellite dish i'd look into Freesat as an alternative.
I personally now mainly use other options including Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime TV for my main sources
I think considering you already have a satellite dish i'd look into Freesat as an alternative.
I personally now mainly use other options including Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime TV for my main sources
Jamescrs said:
I had to setup freeview after many years of Virgin Media, I had to get a new TV aerial installed which I think cost around £100 all in, unfortunately I then found the internal tuner on my TV didn't work so I had to buy a new TV too which was unexpected.
I think considering you already have a satellite dish i'd look into Freesat as an alternative.
I personally now mainly use other options including Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime TV for my main sources
Will have a look. We have the web options but I suppose they prevent flicking the channels, which of course is an important hobby for a middle aged bloke!I think considering you already have a satellite dish i'd look into Freesat as an alternative.
I personally now mainly use other options including Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime TV for my main sources
Tom8 said:
We have a dish and an aerial although the aerial is a traditional metal clothes frame one which I assume is only fit for the old analogue reception?
No, an aerial is an aerial. Although you can buy 'digital' aerials, in reality they're no different. Just try the one you have. Does your TV not have a freeview tuner built in? It would have to be pretty old not to I'd have thought, otherwise buy a humax or some other PVR. Tom8 said:
Hi, Just cancelled Sky after many years. Now need to work out how to connect TV to receive freeview channels once Sky box goes back. What will I need to do so? No idea as always had sky. We currently have a box in one room where signal comes in from dish, then booster and other box higher up in the house. Any advice gratefully received.
I do this for a living. Freeview is much simpler for you. Whether or not you need a new aerial depends on what you mean by clothes frame, but @otherman is quite correct. An aerial is an aerial. If it worked for the old analogue transmissions then it may well still be serviceable for the transmissions used for digital TV. That's not to say that a new aerial might not do a better job. The best answer is to try it and see.
If we presume it either works or you do get a new aerial, then the signals from it will feed either a simple passive splitter or one that is powered. Which type depends on the signal strength from the aerial and how many rooms you need to feed. A competent aerial installer can measure signal level with a professional meter and then advise. The outputs from the splitter will feed each room; one cable per room. From that feed you will be able to run any number of devices. You see, every flatscreen TV will have a Freeview tuner built-in. More modern sets will have a HD capable tuner.
The aerial feed can go direct to the TV with no further equipment required. Alternatively, you could have a Freeview recorder which would work in a very similar way to your old pre-SkyQ recorder in that it would allow the recording of at lest one channel whilst live viewing another, and it would support live TV pause and rewind. The single aerial feed would loop through the recorder first and then the TV after. In this way it would enable both. You would then have a lot of flexibility; either watch via the PVR or have it record two channels simultaneously while you view live TV via the TV's own tuner.
The cost of the aerial and distribution gear isn't expensive in relative terms. Your old aerial cable should be replaced if it was run on the outside of the building. Digital TV is a bit more finicky about interference and so the cable has better shielding now. Thos of us in the trade use the same cable as for satellite. It does both jobs.
Looking at satellite as a solution, your SkyQ dish has something called a wideband LNB. This is not suitable for most* Freesat PVRs and TVs with built-in satellite reception. The signal it produces is not compatible. What's required is the same type of LNB as you had before changing over to SkyQ. It's possible then to change back to a Quad LNB for a hardware cost of £20-£25 for a decent one.
(* the exception is the latest 4K UHD Freesat receivers)
Once the LNB is changed, then each room where there's a TV will require a minimum of one signal cable to connect to a satellite signal receiver for live viewing. This would go direct to a TV with satellite reception built-in (look for DVB-S or DVB-S2 in the TV specs), or to a satellite receiver/tuner.
Recording is more complicated with satellite. A dual-channel PVR (watch one / record another) requires two feeds. The nature of legacy satellite signals is that they cannot be split. It is not sufficient to have a single feed and split it to service both inputs. This will not do. Sooner or later a clash will occur which will disable one of the receiving tuners resulting in a temporary loss of signal until the channel is changed. Any dual channel PVR requires two independent direct feeds from the LNB. If you have two PVRs then you will have four cables connecting to the Quad (4-output) LNB. Where you need more feeds then the next step higher is an Octo (8-output) LNB. The cabling can start to look a little unsightly.
Besides the cabling, the biggest cost with Freesat is the tuners/recorders. Having to buy a tuner box just so a TV can see a satellite signal makes things more expensive than simply plugging in an aerial cable to the TV's built-in Freeview tuner.
Something else to consider is that not all TV's and PVRs with satellite reception are Freesat devices. Some are simply a satellite tuner.
Freesat uses the same signals as Sky. They come from a cluster of satellites known as Astra. Freesat and Sky each has a TV guide (EPG) which selects specific channels and puts then in to a consistent listing arrangement so that BBC1, BBC2, ITV etc appear in a familiar order. A TV with just a basic satellite tuner - not a Freesat tuner - won't do that. It will list all the channels receivable regardless of whether or not they need further decoding (pay-to-view encrypted channels), and so the TV guide won't look like the familiar Sky / Freesat / Freeview listing.
Presuming that you do buy a Freesat receiver, then satellite does have some advantages over Freeview. The general picture quality is marginally higher because there's a little less compression. The biggest advantage though is that satellite carries more HD versions of the common channels than is possible with Freeview. However, the basic channel list is not identical between Freeview and Freesat. Due to a disagreement with Ch4, Freesat lost some of the add-on channels such as More4 and the +1 services.
The bottom line here is that if cost and convenience of your prime concerns, then Freeview is your best option. If you're happy to spend the money on the latest Freesat UHD-4X boxes (£230 each for the recorders) then you can keep your SkyQ LNB but you will need extra cabling to feed any second, 3rd, 4th and so on rooms. Legacy Freesat recorders are potentially cheaper.
Lucid_AV said:
I do this for a living.
Freeview is much simpler for you. Whether or not you need a new aerial depends on what you mean by clothes frame, but @otherman is quite correct. An aerial is an aerial. If it worked for the old analogue transmissions then it may well still be serviceable for the transmissions used for digital TV. That's not to say that a new aerial might not do a better job. The best answer is to try it and see.
If we presume it either works or you do get a new aerial, then the signals from it will feed either a simple passive splitter or one that is powered. Which type depends on the signal strength from the aerial and how many rooms you need to feed. A competent aerial installer can measure signal level with a professional meter and then advise. The outputs from the splitter will feed each room; one cable per room. From that feed you will be able to run any number of devices. You see, every flatscreen TV will have a Freeview tuner built-in. More modern sets will have a HD capable tuner.
The aerial feed can go direct to the TV with no further equipment required. Alternatively, you could have a Freeview recorder which would work in a very similar way to your old pre-SkyQ recorder in that it would allow the recording of at lest one channel whilst live viewing another, and it would support live TV pause and rewind. The single aerial feed would loop through the recorder first and then the TV after. In this way it would enable both. You would then have a lot of flexibility; either watch via the PVR or have it record two channels simultaneously while you view live TV via the TV's own tuner.
The cost of the aerial and distribution gear isn't expensive in relative terms. Your old aerial cable should be replaced if it was run on the outside of the building. Digital TV is a bit more finicky about interference and so the cable has better shielding now. Thos of us in the trade use the same cable as for satellite. It does both jobs.
Looking at satellite as a solution, your SkyQ dish has something called a wideband LNB. This is not suitable for most* Freesat PVRs and TVs with built-in satellite reception. The signal it produces is not compatible. What's required is the same type of LNB as you had before changing over to SkyQ. It's possible then to change back to a Quad LNB for a hardware cost of £20-£25 for a decent one.
(* the exception is the latest 4K UHD Freesat receivers)
Once the LNB is changed, then each room where there's a TV will require a minimum of one signal cable to connect to a satellite signal receiver for live viewing. This would go direct to a TV with satellite reception built-in (look for DVB-S or DVB-S2 in the TV specs), or to a satellite receiver/tuner.
Recording is more complicated with satellite. A dual-channel PVR (watch one / record another) requires two feeds. The nature of legacy satellite signals is that they cannot be split. It is not sufficient to have a single feed and split it to service both inputs. This will not do. Sooner or later a clash will occur which will disable one of the receiving tuners resulting in a temporary loss of signal until the channel is changed. Any dual channel PVR requires two independent direct feeds from the LNB. If you have two PVRs then you will have four cables connecting to the Quad (4-output) LNB. Where you need more feeds then the next step higher is an Octo (8-output) LNB. The cabling can start to look a little unsightly.
Besides the cabling, the biggest cost with Freesat is the tuners/recorders. Having to buy a tuner box just so a TV can see a satellite signal makes things more expensive than simply plugging in an aerial cable to the TV's built-in Freeview tuner.
Something else to consider is that not all TV's and PVRs with satellite reception are Freesat devices. Some are simply a satellite tuner.
Freesat uses the same signals as Sky. They come from a cluster of satellites known as Astra. Freesat and Sky each has a TV guide (EPG) which selects specific channels and puts then in to a consistent listing arrangement so that BBC1, BBC2, ITV etc appear in a familiar order. A TV with just a basic satellite tuner - not a Freesat tuner - won't do that. It will list all the channels receivable regardless of whether or not they need further decoding (pay-to-view encrypted channels), and so the TV guide won't look like the familiar Sky / Freesat / Freeview listing.
Presuming that you do buy a Freesat receiver, then satellite does have some advantages over Freeview. The general picture quality is marginally higher because there's a little less compression. The biggest advantage though is that satellite carries more HD versions of the common channels than is possible with Freeview. However, the basic channel list is not identical between Freeview and Freesat. Due to a disagreement with Ch4, Freesat lost some of the add-on channels such as More4 and the +1 services.
The bottom line here is that if cost and convenience of your prime concerns, then Freeview is your best option. If you're happy to spend the money on the latest Freesat UHD-4X boxes (£230 each for the recorders) then you can keep your SkyQ LNB but you will need extra cabling to feed any second, 3rd, 4th and so on rooms. Legacy Freesat recorders are potentially cheaper.
Crikey, that is a full response, thank you! Will have a read through and investigate and try things over the weekend and see how I get on. Many thanks for this and all other responses.Freeview is much simpler for you. Whether or not you need a new aerial depends on what you mean by clothes frame, but @otherman is quite correct. An aerial is an aerial. If it worked for the old analogue transmissions then it may well still be serviceable for the transmissions used for digital TV. That's not to say that a new aerial might not do a better job. The best answer is to try it and see.
If we presume it either works or you do get a new aerial, then the signals from it will feed either a simple passive splitter or one that is powered. Which type depends on the signal strength from the aerial and how many rooms you need to feed. A competent aerial installer can measure signal level with a professional meter and then advise. The outputs from the splitter will feed each room; one cable per room. From that feed you will be able to run any number of devices. You see, every flatscreen TV will have a Freeview tuner built-in. More modern sets will have a HD capable tuner.
The aerial feed can go direct to the TV with no further equipment required. Alternatively, you could have a Freeview recorder which would work in a very similar way to your old pre-SkyQ recorder in that it would allow the recording of at lest one channel whilst live viewing another, and it would support live TV pause and rewind. The single aerial feed would loop through the recorder first and then the TV after. In this way it would enable both. You would then have a lot of flexibility; either watch via the PVR or have it record two channels simultaneously while you view live TV via the TV's own tuner.
The cost of the aerial and distribution gear isn't expensive in relative terms. Your old aerial cable should be replaced if it was run on the outside of the building. Digital TV is a bit more finicky about interference and so the cable has better shielding now. Thos of us in the trade use the same cable as for satellite. It does both jobs.
Looking at satellite as a solution, your SkyQ dish has something called a wideband LNB. This is not suitable for most* Freesat PVRs and TVs with built-in satellite reception. The signal it produces is not compatible. What's required is the same type of LNB as you had before changing over to SkyQ. It's possible then to change back to a Quad LNB for a hardware cost of £20-£25 for a decent one.
(* the exception is the latest 4K UHD Freesat receivers)
Once the LNB is changed, then each room where there's a TV will require a minimum of one signal cable to connect to a satellite signal receiver for live viewing. This would go direct to a TV with satellite reception built-in (look for DVB-S or DVB-S2 in the TV specs), or to a satellite receiver/tuner.
Recording is more complicated with satellite. A dual-channel PVR (watch one / record another) requires two feeds. The nature of legacy satellite signals is that they cannot be split. It is not sufficient to have a single feed and split it to service both inputs. This will not do. Sooner or later a clash will occur which will disable one of the receiving tuners resulting in a temporary loss of signal until the channel is changed. Any dual channel PVR requires two independent direct feeds from the LNB. If you have two PVRs then you will have four cables connecting to the Quad (4-output) LNB. Where you need more feeds then the next step higher is an Octo (8-output) LNB. The cabling can start to look a little unsightly.
Besides the cabling, the biggest cost with Freesat is the tuners/recorders. Having to buy a tuner box just so a TV can see a satellite signal makes things more expensive than simply plugging in an aerial cable to the TV's built-in Freeview tuner.
Something else to consider is that not all TV's and PVRs with satellite reception are Freesat devices. Some are simply a satellite tuner.
Freesat uses the same signals as Sky. They come from a cluster of satellites known as Astra. Freesat and Sky each has a TV guide (EPG) which selects specific channels and puts then in to a consistent listing arrangement so that BBC1, BBC2, ITV etc appear in a familiar order. A TV with just a basic satellite tuner - not a Freesat tuner - won't do that. It will list all the channels receivable regardless of whether or not they need further decoding (pay-to-view encrypted channels), and so the TV guide won't look like the familiar Sky / Freesat / Freeview listing.
Presuming that you do buy a Freesat receiver, then satellite does have some advantages over Freeview. The general picture quality is marginally higher because there's a little less compression. The biggest advantage though is that satellite carries more HD versions of the common channels than is possible with Freeview. However, the basic channel list is not identical between Freeview and Freesat. Due to a disagreement with Ch4, Freesat lost some of the add-on channels such as More4 and the +1 services.
The bottom line here is that if cost and convenience of your prime concerns, then Freeview is your best option. If you're happy to spend the money on the latest Freesat UHD-4X boxes (£230 each for the recorders) then you can keep your SkyQ LNB but you will need extra cabling to feed any second, 3rd, 4th and so on rooms. Legacy Freesat recorders are potentially cheaper.
Lucid_AV said:
I do this for a living.
Freeview is much simpler for you. Whether or not you need a new aerial depends on what you mean by clothes frame, but @otherman is quite correct. An aerial is an aerial. If it worked for the old analogue transmissions then it may well still be serviceable for the transmissions used for digital TV. That's not to say that a new aerial might not do a better job. The best answer is to try it and see.
If we presume it either works or you do get a new aerial, then the signals from it will feed either a simple passive splitter or one that is powered. Which type depends on the signal strength from the aerial and how many rooms you need to feed. A competent aerial installer can measure signal level with a professional meter and then advise. The outputs from the splitter will feed each room; one cable per room. From that feed you will be able to run any number of devices. You see, every flatscreen TV will have a Freeview tuner built-in. More modern sets will have a HD capable tuner.
The aerial feed can go direct to the TV with no further equipment required. Alternatively, you could have a Freeview recorder which would work in a very similar way to your old pre-SkyQ recorder in that it would allow the recording of at lest one channel whilst live viewing another, and it would support live TV pause and rewind. The single aerial feed would loop through the recorder first and then the TV after. In this way it would enable both. You would then have a lot of flexibility; either watch via the PVR or have it record two channels simultaneously while you view live TV via the TV's own tuner.
The cost of the aerial and distribution gear isn't expensive in relative terms. Your old aerial cable should be replaced if it was run on the outside of the building. Digital TV is a bit more finicky about interference and so the cable has better shielding now. Thos of us in the trade use the same cable as for satellite. It does both jobs.
Looking at satellite as a solution, your SkyQ dish has something called a wideband LNB. This is not suitable for most* Freesat PVRs and TVs with built-in satellite reception. The signal it produces is not compatible. What's required is the same type of LNB as you had before changing over to SkyQ. It's possible then to change back to a Quad LNB for a hardware cost of £20-£25 for a decent one.
(* the exception is the latest 4K UHD Freesat receivers)
Once the LNB is changed, then each room where there's a TV will require a minimum of one signal cable to connect to a satellite signal receiver for live viewing. This would go direct to a TV with satellite reception built-in (look for DVB-S or DVB-S2 in the TV specs), or to a satellite receiver/tuner.
Recording is more complicated with satellite. A dual-channel PVR (watch one / record another) requires two feeds. The nature of legacy satellite signals is that they cannot be split. It is not sufficient to have a single feed and split it to service both inputs. This will not do. Sooner or later a clash will occur which will disable one of the receiving tuners resulting in a temporary loss of signal until the channel is changed. Any dual channel PVR requires two independent direct feeds from the LNB. If you have two PVRs then you will have four cables connecting to the Quad (4-output) LNB. Where you need more feeds then the next step higher is an Octo (8-output) LNB. The cabling can start to look a little unsightly.
Besides the cabling, the biggest cost with Freesat is the tuners/recorders. Having to buy a tuner box just so a TV can see a satellite signal makes things more expensive than simply plugging in an aerial cable to the TV's built-in Freeview tuner.
Something else to consider is that not all TV's and PVRs with satellite reception are Freesat devices. Some are simply a satellite tuner.
Freesat uses the same signals as Sky. They come from a cluster of satellites known as Astra. Freesat and Sky each has a TV guide (EPG) which selects specific channels and puts then in to a consistent listing arrangement so that BBC1, BBC2, ITV etc appear in a familiar order. A TV with just a basic satellite tuner - not a Freesat tuner - won't do that. It will list all the channels receivable regardless of whether or not they need further decoding (pay-to-view encrypted channels), and so the TV guide won't look like the familiar Sky / Freesat / Freeview listing.
Presuming that you do buy a Freesat receiver, then satellite does have some advantages over Freeview. The general picture quality is marginally higher because there's a little less compression. The biggest advantage though is that satellite carries more HD versions of the common channels than is possible with Freeview. However, the basic channel list is not identical between Freeview and Freesat. Due to a disagreement with Ch4, Freesat lost some of the add-on channels such as More4 and the +1 services.
The bottom line here is that if cost and convenience of your prime concerns, then Freeview is your best option. If you're happy to spend the money on the latest Freesat UHD-4X boxes (£230 each for the recorders) then you can keep your SkyQ LNB but you will need extra cabling to feed any second, 3rd, 4th and so on rooms. Legacy Freesat recorders are potentially cheaper.
When I moved into my current house, I had a freesat box from my old house. The previous owners used Sky and I just plugged my freesat into the old Sky satellite dish connection and it worked. I didn't need to change anything.Freeview is much simpler for you. Whether or not you need a new aerial depends on what you mean by clothes frame, but @otherman is quite correct. An aerial is an aerial. If it worked for the old analogue transmissions then it may well still be serviceable for the transmissions used for digital TV. That's not to say that a new aerial might not do a better job. The best answer is to try it and see.
If we presume it either works or you do get a new aerial, then the signals from it will feed either a simple passive splitter or one that is powered. Which type depends on the signal strength from the aerial and how many rooms you need to feed. A competent aerial installer can measure signal level with a professional meter and then advise. The outputs from the splitter will feed each room; one cable per room. From that feed you will be able to run any number of devices. You see, every flatscreen TV will have a Freeview tuner built-in. More modern sets will have a HD capable tuner.
The aerial feed can go direct to the TV with no further equipment required. Alternatively, you could have a Freeview recorder which would work in a very similar way to your old pre-SkyQ recorder in that it would allow the recording of at lest one channel whilst live viewing another, and it would support live TV pause and rewind. The single aerial feed would loop through the recorder first and then the TV after. In this way it would enable both. You would then have a lot of flexibility; either watch via the PVR or have it record two channels simultaneously while you view live TV via the TV's own tuner.
The cost of the aerial and distribution gear isn't expensive in relative terms. Your old aerial cable should be replaced if it was run on the outside of the building. Digital TV is a bit more finicky about interference and so the cable has better shielding now. Thos of us in the trade use the same cable as for satellite. It does both jobs.
Looking at satellite as a solution, your SkyQ dish has something called a wideband LNB. This is not suitable for most* Freesat PVRs and TVs with built-in satellite reception. The signal it produces is not compatible. What's required is the same type of LNB as you had before changing over to SkyQ. It's possible then to change back to a Quad LNB for a hardware cost of £20-£25 for a decent one.
(* the exception is the latest 4K UHD Freesat receivers)
Once the LNB is changed, then each room where there's a TV will require a minimum of one signal cable to connect to a satellite signal receiver for live viewing. This would go direct to a TV with satellite reception built-in (look for DVB-S or DVB-S2 in the TV specs), or to a satellite receiver/tuner.
Recording is more complicated with satellite. A dual-channel PVR (watch one / record another) requires two feeds. The nature of legacy satellite signals is that they cannot be split. It is not sufficient to have a single feed and split it to service both inputs. This will not do. Sooner or later a clash will occur which will disable one of the receiving tuners resulting in a temporary loss of signal until the channel is changed. Any dual channel PVR requires two independent direct feeds from the LNB. If you have two PVRs then you will have four cables connecting to the Quad (4-output) LNB. Where you need more feeds then the next step higher is an Octo (8-output) LNB. The cabling can start to look a little unsightly.
Besides the cabling, the biggest cost with Freesat is the tuners/recorders. Having to buy a tuner box just so a TV can see a satellite signal makes things more expensive than simply plugging in an aerial cable to the TV's built-in Freeview tuner.
Something else to consider is that not all TV's and PVRs with satellite reception are Freesat devices. Some are simply a satellite tuner.
Freesat uses the same signals as Sky. They come from a cluster of satellites known as Astra. Freesat and Sky each has a TV guide (EPG) which selects specific channels and puts then in to a consistent listing arrangement so that BBC1, BBC2, ITV etc appear in a familiar order. A TV with just a basic satellite tuner - not a Freesat tuner - won't do that. It will list all the channels receivable regardless of whether or not they need further decoding (pay-to-view encrypted channels), and so the TV guide won't look like the familiar Sky / Freesat / Freeview listing.
Presuming that you do buy a Freesat receiver, then satellite does have some advantages over Freeview. The general picture quality is marginally higher because there's a little less compression. The biggest advantage though is that satellite carries more HD versions of the common channels than is possible with Freeview. However, the basic channel list is not identical between Freeview and Freesat. Due to a disagreement with Ch4, Freesat lost some of the add-on channels such as More4 and the +1 services.
The bottom line here is that if cost and convenience of your prime concerns, then Freeview is your best option. If you're happy to spend the money on the latest Freesat UHD-4X boxes (£230 each for the recorders) then you can keep your SkyQ LNB but you will need extra cabling to feed any second, 3rd, 4th and so on rooms. Legacy Freesat recorders are potentially cheaper.
Did I just get lucky? I'm not knowledgeable on this stuff.
Mr Pointy said:
Lucid_AV:
Do you get a full Freesat EPG over the satellite signal like the freeview EPG or do you have to find the information elsewhere?
Where the TV or receiver/recorder is listed as a Freesat device then the way the TV guide is formated will be similar to Freeview.Do you get a full Freesat EPG over the satellite signal like the freeview EPG or do you have to find the information elsewhere?
It will also be consistent between Freesat devices, so BBC4 will always be on the same channel number for a Humax Freesat box or one of the new Freesat HD-4X boxes or a TV that uses the Freesat guide.
Where things will differ is when the receiving device is simply listed as having a satellite tuner but there's no mention of Freesat. It's the same channels being received, but they're in whatever order the receiver manufacturer sees fit to list them.
Freeview and Freesat are the UK's two platforms for public service broadcasting, or PSB for short. Between them they should provide almost total UK coverage.
leef44 said:
When I moved into my current house, I had a freesat box from my old house. The previous owners used Sky and I just plugged my freesat into the old Sky satellite dish connection and it worked. I didn't need to change anything.
Did I just get lucky? I'm not knowledgeable on this stuff.
Lucid AV post is one of the most accurate and informative posts I have seen on here Did I just get lucky? I'm not knowledgeable on this stuff.
You did in a way get lucky
The place you moved into had the older Sky HD system which is why the LNB on the dish was compatible with your freesat box
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff