FreeSat versus FreeSat from Sky

[bryan]

Where I live we have a communal satellite dish and a Freeview aerial. One of the residents here has bought a new TV with FreeSat HD built in presumably and in order to get the FreeSat to work on the same dish some work has to be done which will cost under £200 plus Vat. He has requested that this charge be shared amongst all the owners here as they all could benefit from this work.

I know almost nothing about FreeSat and don't know of anyone else who uses FreeSat. My feeling is that as this couple are the first to want this service here perhaps they should consider using FreeSat from Sky first as this appears to offer more channels (240 as against 150) and also there would be no expense for other owners. I have just recently spent £299 on a Humax YouView 1T HD PVR and am also a Sky subscriber since approx 1997 and it is unlikely that I will ever benefit from having FreeSat. I also think that very few others here will use FreeSat when Sky is available and therefore it isn't reasonable to ask everyone to pay the cost of this service. I am also faced with the cost of upgrading my Sky box to HD when the current six or seven year old box fails, already the RF2 outlet is broken which is inconvenient but I can live with this especially now that I've got the YouView box I can get some HD channels.

I'd appreciate some comments from anyone familiar with situations like this. Thanks in advance.

[Scubbie]

Sky and Freesat use the same group of satellites so any work could benefit yourself as well.

What you haven't said though is what will or won't be accomplished.

Your profile indicates that you have an Amstrad Sky+ STB. Would this be a Sky+ HD STB? If you don't have a Sky+ HD STB, then now would be a good time to look at getting one with all the new services being rolled out. Just make sure that you avoid the Thomson model.

How many feeds does your STB currently have connected? If it is just the one and they are looking to get two feeds to each lounge, then you would benefit as you could finally record one channel, whilst watching another. You would also be able to access the Showcase content too.

[Isitme]

It is hard to see what could be done to the dish as the existing wiring is perfectly suitable for FreeSat as well as Sky. If he has an existing connection to the dish in his flat, then that is all he needs.

The only thing I can think of is that he wants a multi switch connected, but it would be surprising if there was not one already there.
Satellite LNB switches and multiswitches

If you only have one connection to the disk anything that would give you a second connection would be a good investment. You should find out if this is going to be possible.

[bryan]

Thanks, we've already got twin feeds in each flat. To Scubbie my box is not HD. Since I wrote this earlier he has informed me that his Freesat is now working presumably without anything being done to the dish which fits in with what you've suggested above.

[Scubbie]

Since you already have two feeds, what is it that he was trying to achieve?

It may be possible that not everyone had two feeds from the dish or that he has tried to get a 3rd feed. Whilst there are some who have a 3rd feed to one room, this would be more common for a multi-room setup.

[bryan]

so far he hasn't told me what he was trying to achieve but I am curious to find out. I had assumed that FreeSat would need a different dish alignment or something like that. It may be a TV engineer that was trying to charge something for a non-job although he obviously seemed to think it was something that we all should contribute towards as he had discussed this with the factor and told me in an email that the factor was going to write me about this charge.

[Scubbie]

No problem.

Hopefully you have a better understanding about what you already have and the differences between Freesat & Sky TV (one is free-to-air only, the other includes the free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription channels, but both use the same group of Satellites).

Some STBs require 2 inputs. This is so that you can watch one channel, whilst recording another, or record 2 channels at the same time.

This should allow you to ensure that you are not ripped off.

Just in case, Freeview is via the terrestrial aerial and had now replaced the Analogue channels. Unless the aerial is particularly bad, there is no real requirement normally to replace it. All those super-duper aerials which were being sold were really a waste of money in most areas. Now that Freeview is broadcasting at full strength, most people should be alright with a more simple TV Aerial.

[bryan]

Thanks Scubbie, I'm reasonably familiar with most of that but what intrigues me is how they supply 53 flats with twin feeds, I'm assuming every flat here has twin Sky feeds, there obviously isn't 106 LNBs but there must be a lot of wires coming down the inside of the building from the roof. Also the flats here or at least some of them like mine have internal wiring to all the rooms for phone, internet and TV. I'm told we can't have Sky HD over this wiring but I would like to know if there is another way to wire Sky HD to at least the living room TV. I presume I'd need an approx 10 metre HDMI cable to go from the Sky HD box to the TV as the internal wiring is coaxial cables and the HD box doesn't sit next to the TV as the twin feeds are into a cupboard in the middle of the flat. How well do long HDMI perform? I see Cable Universe for example supplies 10 and 15 metre HDMI cables.

[Scubbie]

Communal dishes use a different set up to what someone like myself would have.

The system I have has 4 ports on the LNB. There are Octo-Port LNBs, but again the communal dish will have a different system entirely.

There are some members who can give you more information on this.

[Isitme]

How well do long HDMI perform? I see Cable Universe for example supplies 10 and 15 metre HDMI cables.

You would be a lot cheaper and probably get a better result by extending the dish cables. This can be done quite easily using F barrel connectors and shotgun cable for neatness.
F plugs and TV leads connectors