Is freesat a good idea for me?

[Darkarium]

Hi, i need some advice on whether i can / should get freesat in my current situation.

I live with my parents who pay the standard SD Sky subscription for the living room TV and multiroom for my brothers downstairs bedroom. Upstairs in my bedroom i am using an old cheap Freeview box hooked up to an indoor aerial as there is no RF socket in my room. I get 40-90% signal on every channel so it's all okay at the moment.

Now i would like Freesat HD in my bedroom so i can watch the BBC F1 if it's broadcasted in HD. What would be the easiest way for me to get Freesat HD? Obviously i would need to get an engineer to feed a cable up to my room, but would Sky do this and would they charge me the installation fee all over again?
Do i need to buy a Sky HD box and a Freesat card or do i buy a standard Freesat box or what?

Im totally confused.

 

[flameup]

I wonder why don't you want use cable? That is always useful.

 

[Broadz]

A Sky HD box without a HD Mix subscription costs £399 - so probably kicks that idea into touch.

A Sky HD box with a HD Mix subscription costs £75 - but you will need to add it to your multiroom setup (can't buy HD mix without having a Sky TV subscription) and also pay a further £10 per month for the HD mix - so will add £20 per month for a year to the cost which works out at £315 - so probably kicks that idea into touch also.

You could buy a Sky HD box from ebay for about £250 - and you won't have to take out a further Sky TV or HD Mix subscription - but will have to sort out the connection to your satellite dish and upgrade to an octo LNB.

You could buy a Freesat HD box for about £120 - if your brother's multiroom box is only a standard Sky box rather than Sky+, you can use the spare port on your quad LNB, so will only have to sort out the cabling. If your brother already has Sky+ then all of your quad LNB connections will be in use, so you will need to either upgrade your quad LNB to an octo, or get a second satellite dish. Freesat charge £80 for whatever cabling you require, a local TV installer may be cheaper.

Sky won't do any installation if they don't sell you the box.

 

[Darkarium]

You could buy a Freesat HD box for about £120 - if your brother's multiroom box is only a standard Sky box rather than Sky+, you can use the spare port on your quad LNB, so will only have to sort out the cabling. If your brother already has Sky+ then all of your quad LNB connections will be in use, so you will need to either upgrade your quad LNB to an octo, or get a second satellite dish. Freesat charge £80 for whatever cabling you require, a local TV installer may be cheaper.

It is a standard Sky box (not +). What exactly is the quad LNB?
Is Freesat independent like Freeview or will i have to get either Freesat from sky or BBC/ITV?
If i were to just buy a Freesat HD box, a freesat card and get a local installer to run the cable from the Sky dish to my room then it would just work like that?

 

[dwhite]

The LNB is the thing on the end of the arm which points at the dish. A quad gives you four outputs, Broadz, is assuming you must have at least a quad installed as you have a Sky+ (which uses 2 outputs) and a multiroom box (which uses 1). This leaves you one spare. Sky only install Quads or octo (8 outputs, but normally has to be requested) when using sky+.

A Freesat HD box does not require any card.

 

[Broadz]

It is a standard Sky box (not +). What exactly is the quad LNB?

The thing connected to your satellite dish that feeds multiple cables to multiple digiboxes so they can all watch different channels at the same time. Sky+ uses two, Sky HD uses two, standard Sky boxes use one, standard Freesat boxes use one. If your household currently has Sky+ and standard Sky, it is using three of the four available connections on a quad.

Is Freesat independent like Freeview or will i have to get either Freesat from sky or BBC/ITV?

Freesat is the name of the service created by the BBC/ITV to provide subscription free digital satellite television. FreesatfromSky is a service that can be received on any Sky satellite box where only the FTA/FTV channels can be watched. There are other alternatives that are neither Freesat or Freesatfromsky - motorised dishes, alternative satellite receivers etc etc etc. Look on the "Satellite TV" pages if you want to investigate alternatives to both Freesat and Sky.

If i were to just buy a Freesat HD box, a freesat card and get a local installer to run the cable from the Sky dish to my room then it would just work like that?

Just like that. But no Freesat card. No need for a card - a Freesat box only shows FTA channels, and FTA channels require no decryption.

 

[Darkarium]

Thanks for all the info, one last thing though is that the living room Sky is just standard not + too, does this mean i have a quad with 2 spare or is it different for standard Sky?

 

[Broadz]

Yes, you will have two spare. (Nobody has used duals/twins in the last six years). So, in theory you could hang on until the Freesat HD PVRs are released, at which point not only would you be able to watch F1 in HD, you'd even be able to record it and watch it back later - still in glorious HD.

Quick question though - why have neither your parents nor your brother swapped their standard box for a Sky+? Seems silly to be paying for a multiroom sub on two standard boxes, when a single Sky+ box will allow you to watch one channel while recording another, or record two channels simultaneously.

 

[Darkarium]

Quick question though - why have neither your parents nor your brother swapped their standard box for a Sky+? Seems silly to be paying for a multiroom sub on two standard boxes, when a single Sky+ box will allow you to watch one channel while recording another, or record two channels simultaneously.

Nobody has ever really felt the need to switch to Sky+. Is it easy to do?

 

[bluesteel]

ermmm f1 isnt broadcast in HD
perhaps that might be an idea to point that little fact out.
Yes it is filmed in 1080i but isnt broadcast in HD yet. Even orf 1 hd is 1080i upscaled

 

[Darkarium]

ermmm f1 isnt broadcast in HD
perhaps that might be an idea to point that little fact out.
Yes it is filmed in 1080i but isnt broadcast in HD yet. Even orf 1 hd is 1080i upscaled

Yeah i know, but its almost a certain for the future, especially with the coverage now moving to BBC.