Using a freeview box in a non-freeview area?

[Mastodon2]

Just got a new tv for my girlfriends house, getting rid of the stty old CRT she got after her last flatscreen died an unforunate death. I bought an LG which is supposed to be able to receive Freeview channels, however, upon trying and failing to get the digital service to work I learned she lives in an area where freeview cannot be received. Apparently the area she lives will not be a freeview receiving area until 2012, confirmed online, which I find ridiculous as I've had freeview for a long time now and I only live a few miles down the road!

So my question to PH (because I can't seem to get a straight answer from google) is that since Freeview cannot be received here, how can I get freeview here? If I buy a freeview box (cheap as chips apparently), will that be as redundant as the receiver in the tv I bought?

Her dad's tv has freesat on it, which I believe goes through his aerial - can I piggy back off freesat off the aerial too? The option I really want to go with is getting a freeview box, because it's cheap and easy - do these boxes have some kind of signal booster to receive distant signals to other areas, or will buying a freeview box be totally redundant?

Sorry if I come across as uncouth and uneducated, I am just used to turning on my tv and it working, and I don't live in the backwater, hillbilly hellhole that is the Tyne valley!

[Shaw Tarse]

A free view box would be the same as the freeview built into the tv.
Freesat needs a satellite dish to work.

[Mastodon2]

Shaw Tarse said:

A free view box would be the same as the freeview built into the tv.
Freesat needs a satellite dish to work.

So it wouldn't work? fking hell I've really been dealt a stty hand here, looks like I'm stuck with a tv with 4 channels (even channel 5 don't cover this area) until someone can be bothered to broadcast digital signal here.

It's not like she even lives that far out in the sticks - 10 miles from the centre of the biggest city in the north east and apparently not under digital cover!

[davepoth]

Or attempt to re-align the aerial to the transmitter you use. It might work.

[Shaw Tarse]

BBC1 have just shown the "ad" for http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/

[Zad]

Ask a local aerial rigger. It MAY be possible that if you fit a very high gain antenna and the most powerful booster you can get your hands on, then you will be able to get a signal. It depends what is blocking it. If you are behind a hill then you might have to try pointing at a totally different transmitter.

Is buying/installing a dish not an option?

[Deva Link]

Mastodon2 said:

fking hell I've really been dealt a stty hand here,

I think you need to get (or regain) a sense of proportion.

Half the world's kids go to bed at night hungry.

Just get a new girlfriend, checking first that she lives in a Freeview enabled area.

[Mastodon2]

Zad said:

Ask a local aerial rigger. It MAY be possible that if you fit a very high gain antenna and the most powerful booster you can get your hands on, then you will be able to get a signal. It depends what is blocking it. If you are behind a hill then you might have to try pointing at a totally different transmitter.

Is buying/installing a dish not an option?

There is already a dish on the house from when she used to have Sky (disconnected and no one used 95% of the channels) and her dad's tv downstairs has freesat on it. Having asked her dad how he did it, he reckons I will need a freesat box (new tv is not freesat enabled) and a special aerial lead. I will be going to the local tv specialists and seeing what is what.

[eltawater]

Mastodon2 said:

There is already a dish on the house from when she used to have Sky (disconnected and no one used 95% of the channels) and her dad's tv downstairs has freesat on it. Having asked her dad how he did it, he reckons I will need a freesat box (new tv is not freesat enabled) and a special aerial lead. I will be going to the local tv specialists and seeing what is what.

Before you do that, you need to be aware that there are two competing "freesat" products.

Freesat, i.e. Freeview over satellite with some channels not available on freesatfromsky
http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels...

and

Freesatfromsky, i.e. most of the freeview channels + some free channels not available on freeview
http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/what-can-i-wa...

Both require specific, non-compatible box, so choose wisely

Freesat requires a Freesat box. If you want HD or PVR, just buy an appropriate box, no subscription required.

Freesatfromsky requires a Sky box + FreeSatFromSky viewing card. If you want HD or PVR, pay Sky for a subscription and an upgraded HD/+ box.

If you have previously had a Sky subscription with box from Sky and allow the subscription to lapse, your card effectively becomes a FreeSatFromSky card and you get the same service as us freesatfromsky-loaders.

So, has your girlfriend's dad got freesat or freesatfromsky?

[Eric Mc]

Watching TV needs as much mission planing as a NASA space probe to Jupiter.