Cheap Freesat Dish Installation ???

[rdmbfossa]

Just some info for people thinking of getting Freesat but do not already have a dish.

Sky Pay once watch forever is available at Dixons online for £75 less 10% using code SKY10 at the checkout = £67.50. This includes standard installation of dish, a standard receiver, and 4 sky mixes for 4 months. Probably cheaper than installation of a dish alone for Freesat unless you want to DIY. After the 4 months you could then keep the Sky receiver to watch the free to view channels on Sky, or sell it to get most of your money back.
You can then use the dish to receive Freesat on a dedicated Freesat receiver or PVR. This wiil also give you a few months to see how good the Freesat service is, and by this time the Freesat PVR's will be available.

Things to remember.
1. You must tell Sky that you dont want to continue the package before the 4 months is up.
2. You should have your Sky box connected to a phone line.
3. Installation will probably only include a single lnb. See the installation person about upgrading to a quad lnb if you plan to have a PVR or more than one receiver.

[Stiggy]

There is a DIY option. I put up a quad LNB dish today, £40 plus postage off eBay. Me, my Dad, a set of ladders and a compass. It works!

[imigix]

Sorry to tell you I have just put up a brand new Sky dish with new quad lnb from Ebay at 14.99 + £8 pp.
I think I was very lucky the price you payed is still good.
And of course when you diy it and it works fine it makes you feel happy

[Bravia]

Originally Posted by rdmbfossa

Just some info for people thinking of getting Freesat but do not already have a dish.

Sky Pay once watch forever is available at Dixons online for £75 less 10% using code SKY10 at the checkout = £67.50. This includes standard installation of dish, a standard receiver, and 4 sky mixes for 4 months. Probably cheaper than installation of a dish alone for Freesat unless you want to DIY. After the 4 months you could then keep the Sky receiver to watch the free to view channels on Sky, or sell it to get most of your money back.
You can then use the dish to receive Freesat on a dedicated Freesat receiver or PVR. This wiil also give you a few months to see how good the Freesat service is, and by this time the Freesat PVR's will be available.

Things to remember.
1. You must tell Sky that you dont want to continue the package before the 4 months is up.
2. You should have your Sky box connected to a phone line.
3. Installation will probably only include a single lnb. See the installation person about upgrading to a quad lnb if you plan to have a PVR or more than one receiver.

A lot of people don't have the equipment/confidence/ability to self install a dish, so this is a good idea.

[cpt1979]

I have gone for this although not sure what standard installation would be limited to.

I need a quad lnb, and also want the dish on chimey breast and not side of house, hence why I dont feel confortable doing diy.

Any ideas whether this will be a problem?

[fernandez]

Originally Posted by cpt1979

I have gone for this although not sure what standard installation would be limited to.

I need a quad lnb, and also want the dish on chimey breast and not side of house, hence why I dont feel confortable doing diy.

Any ideas whether this will be a problem?

The standard installation is for a single output LNB, so be nice to the installer in telling him your requirements and you may be lucky (tea and a tenner)

As far as mounting on the chimney is concerned, I may be wrong, but a 'special heights' team installation may need to be booked - again explain all this well in advance.

[bob1]

Get a cheap sat find meter , makes it very easy to do ,i can now find 28e without a meter just by guessing in the rough area.

[rdmbfossa]

Nearly new Sky receivers were selling for at least £40+ the last time I looked, so if you deduct that from the initial price of your installation, and give the engineer £10 to upgrade your lnb to a quad, it is a very cheap installation compared to what it would cost to get a local aerial engineer to put up a dish for you. I think Argos are charging £80 for Freesat installation.

Even doing it yourself, by the time you buy the equipment and a sat meter, you would not be much cheaper. But I would say the advantage of DIY is the cabling will probably be neater as I dont think SKY will conceal any cables behind the walls, only surface mount.

And you do get "£76 worth" of Sky TV as part of the package. I dont think anyone can say it is a bad deal.

[FunkyMonkey]

Thanks, if I get one of these new Freesat receivers for £120 from Comet or Currys, can I hook it up using my current Sky Card as a cheap shortcut to getting the free HD services? £120 without subscription and no installation fees sounds good value to me as a cheap upgrade to free HD services.

I don't have Sports or Movies or Nature packages from Sky, so I would onyl want the HD services that come with CHannel 4, BBC, ITV, etc. Not the subscibable ones.

WIll this work???!!! In short, use the new Freesat HD receiver to watch both Sky programs in SD, and also the free HD ones?

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by FunkyMonkey

WIll this work???!!! In short, use the new Freesat HD receiver to watch both Sky programs in SD, and also the free HD ones?

Basically no as the Freesat STB will not have a cam slot. You will be able to watch the free-to-view channels, but not the Free-to-air (did I get that the right way around ) or Sky subscription channels. You will still need the Sky STB for the channels that are encripted.

Mark.

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

Basically no as the Freesat STB will not have a cam slot. You will be able to watch the free-to-view channels, but not the Free-to-air (did I get that the right way around ) or Sky subscription channels. You will still need the Sky STB for the channels that are encripted.

Mark.

You got FTA and FTV swapped.

FTA broadcasts require no CAM or card. UK FTV broadcasts require an NDS Videoguard CAM and Sky/FTV card.

[Samorlg]

Ok, carrying on with this idea of using sky(£75)for a dish and free programming, and then using the dish for Freesat(ITV/BBC) would I need a quad lnb?, indeed why would i need a quad lnb? As you can see I know nothing of these things but from what I've read here on these forums, it would seem i need one(I'm guessing being able to use the same dish to split the signal for sky box/freesat box as this is what i intend to do), can someone inform me as to what i need, ty.

[rdmbfossa]

You need one lnb output per tuner. Standard receiver = 1 tuner. PVR = 2 tuners. So a quad gives 4 outputs which is enough for most peoples needs. You can get also an octo lnb with 8 outputs, or other solutions if you need even more than this.

[fastra]

Originally Posted by rdmbfossa

You need one lnb output per tuner. Standard receiver = 1 tuner. PVR = 2 tuners. So a quad gives 4 outputs which is enough for most peoples needs. You can get also an octo lnb with 8 outputs, or other solutions if you need even more than this.

Carrying with the 'noob' questions here; if you have a quad lnb installed how is it then split/divided into different rooms.
Is there literally a separate cable from the dish to each room or is there some sort of internal splitter inside the house that then divides everything up?

cheers in advance..!

[rdmbfossa]

Originally Posted by fastra

Carrying with the 'noob' questions here; if you have a quad lnb installed how is it then split/divided into different rooms.
Is there literally a separate cable from the dish to each room or is there some sort of internal splitter inside the house that then divides everything up?

cheers in advance..!

Yes a cable is run directly from the dish to each receiver, or two cables directly to a PVR. So if you are using all four outputs from the lnb you will have 4 seperate cables coming into your house.