Any use for old Sky box?

bitofatit

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Upgraded recently to Sky+. I was wondering if my old sky digital box would be any use to the "mother-in-law", no jokes please. I made the mistake of mentioning this to her, she will not pay a subscription (shes a pensioner) but would benefit from free to air via a sky dish. As she live up a valley, in S.Wales the PQ on her normal terrestial signal is appalling.
I'm happy to pay the £40 to get a dish and cable put in but what I need to know is what exactly she could get without a subscription. Someone indicated Sky scramble some free to air such as Channel 5 is that true?

Any help much appreciated, a positive response may ensure free sunday lunches for me for at least the next 6 weeks!
Regards.
 
bitofatit said:
Upgraded recently to Sky+. I was wondering if my old sky digital box would be any use to the "mother-in-law", no jokes please. I made the mistake of mentioning this to her, she will not pay a subscription (shes a pensioner) but would benefit from free to air via a sky dish. As she live up a valley, in S.Wales the PQ on her normal terrestial signal is appalling.
I'm happy to pay the £40 to get a dish and cable put in but what I need to know is what exactly she could get without a subscription. Someone indicated Sky scramble some free to air such as Channel 5 is that true?

Any help much appreciated, a positive response may ensure free sunday lunches for me for at least the next 6 weeks!
Regards.


TV-wise, (With a Freesat card) she'd get all the existing terrestrial channels in digital quality. Plus stuff like BBC3,4,News24,and ITV3, Sky News, ITV News and a few others.

It's well worth doing IMO. You need to budget another 20 quid for the Freesat card.


Gav
 
She will need a "free to air" card which costs a one-off £20, and she will get all the free channels.
 
Hi bitofatit,

This is a good website to show you what channels are available. You can also buy the card from there.

http://www.wickonline.com/ita.htm

You will certainly be in her good books, and you can look forward to having some delicious roast Welsh lamb!
 
If you can't get the website by clicking on it, put it in the usual Address section. My computer's playing up at the moment and I keep getting the same Internet Optimizer website when I click on something. I uninstalled my expensive Norton Anti Virus package as my computer was so slow.
 
Norton is AWFUL. Get a free AV solution instead - AVG or Avast or something,
 
Hi Guys,
thx Nick and Gav for the advice - freesat card - I'll do a search to pick one up. I'm hoping this is a one off fee as "she" will not pay for a subscription. Cynthia 7, I tried the link and searched from the home page as well but no luck - off to try google.
Best regards all around
B of a T
 
Yes it's a one off fee for a "Free To View" or FTV card i.e. Freesat card (no subs).

Chris Muriel, Manchester
 
bitofatit said:
Hi Guys,
thx Nick and Gav for the advice - freesat card - I'll do a search to pick one up. I'm hoping this is a one off fee as "she" will not pay for a subscription. Cynthia 7, I tried the link and searched from the home page as well but no luck - off to try google.
Best regards all around
B of a T

From: http://www.satalogue.com/section1/page1.htm (also lists all the channels you'll get)

"For ITV, Channel Four, and Channel Five, a Freesat Card will be required..The cost of this 3 year Card card is just £20.00 and it is easily obtainable by calling 0870 850 0033 and asking for a Freesat Card to be sent to any UK address.."

Dunno if it's accurate but give it a go.


Gav
 
Hi bitofatit,

Sorry, I hadn't looked at that site for a while. This site has cards for £18.95 delivery free to Uk. It also has an up to date list of available programmes with this card. Your mother in law will probably love the two free movie channels:

matinee movies channel 336 showing from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
true movies channel 333 which is on 24 hours although there may be some repeats.

http://www.freesatcard.co.uk/tvchannel.htm
 
Got me thinking now....just had a flyer from Sky saying I can get either £50 in vouchers or an upgrade to Sky+ 160 (worth apparently £199) if i introduce someone to Sky. Question is do I go with plan A - get the sky dish installed (£45), new handset (posisble e-bay - say £8), cost of freesat card with postage £21, add in £50 of vouchers ("cost" in total £126) against Plan B getting Sky to install and take a subscription which I pay for, 3 months @£7.50 + 9 @ £15 - total £157.50 + free sat card in 12 months time total £178.50). If I get the upgraded box and the one for mum in law, both will have a 12 month guarantee and I guess she gets additional channels for 12 months??.... I'm loosing the plot here: make my mind up for me anyone? - B of a T :blush:
 
bitofatit said:
Got me thinking now....just had a flyer from Sky saying I can get either £50 in vouchers or an upgrade to Sky+ 160 (worth apparently £199) if i introduce someone to Sky. Question is do I go with plan A - get the sky dish installed (£45), new handset (posisble e-bay - say £8), cost of freesat card with postage £21, add in £50 of vouchers ("cost" in total £126) against Plan B getting Sky to install and take a subscription which I pay for, 3 months @£7.50 + 9 @ £15 - total £157.50 + free sat card in 12 months time total £178.50). If I get the upgraded box and the one for mum in law, both will have a 12 month guarantee and I guess she gets additional channels for 12 months??.... I'm loosing the plot here: make my mind up for me anyone? - B of a T :blush:

Actually, you won't need a Freesat card in 12 months ... a lapsed Sky card will act as a de facto Freesat card. So for about a 30 quid difference, you get a 'better' Sky+ box and she gets a 'new' digibox plus additional channels for a year. Seems reasonable.

Note that there are Dolby Digital problems reported with the 160 boxes. Also note that she might get a refurbed digibox. OTOH it will have a guarantee which the old one won't have.


Gav
 
Hi WorKid,

Thank you for your advice. I'll Google AVG and Avast to find out about this. I cannot find the original Norton CD which cost me about £45. My son, who is a computer expert. said I don't have enough memory on my Dell laptop and it was now operating at an unacceptable speed. He said it's not worth buying new memory for a
four year old ME computer. However, I am really plagued with bugs at the moment so I must do something. Jonathan says I must learn to sort things out for myself or I will never learn, too true. I try to resist phoning him when I'm in trouble!

Thank you again.






1
 
Hi bitofatit,

I would definitely go for plan B, get Sky installed for ma-in-law. You will both have new guarantees, she will have a new installation, you will have a lovely big planner, and far less hassle all round.

Go for it!!!
 
Cynthia, Gavan, thx for the support .. Plan B it is then. Later.
B of a T
 

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