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All posts by Les Nicol

Below are all of Les Nicol's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

Freesat+ is here, bye bye Sky? | Freesat
Sunday 2 January 2011 3:06PM

e.g.reid You need to purchase a "Freesat" receiver. There is a range of both standard and HD readily available on the high street from local suppliers and Curry's, comet, John Lewis, Argos etc. The "Freesat" service is supported by the BBC and ITV and is subscription free. Its a straight swop over of receivers using your existing dish. You may need a small upgrade to the LNB and an additional feed if you are thinking of a receiver with recording capability. If your current SKY receiver has that capability you won't need the upgrade should you not require a "Freesat" receiver with the ablity to record

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Malcolm No you cannot connect this way. A Freeview receiver requires a connection to a rooftop aerial. You require a "Freesat" receiver if you wish to make use of an existing satellite dish.

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Daz - SKY will only make active the recording capability if you subscribe to them. i am afraid not available on FSFS.

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Simon - I suggest you check connections as a first step. Try to connect your TV temporarily to the aerial feed as it was without the extension.

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meddling old pensioner. In part I agree with you in that in the past it was generally recognised that SKY equipent was subsidised. However in recent times SKY promotional advertsing in the likes of Tesco and advertising media generally have been pushing subcription sales on the basis that the recivers wre being supplied "Free"! What does them seem rather dubious is that if you stop subscriptions outside the contract period but opt for the FSFS from SKY option where you can receive The public service broadcasters with a smatering of free to air channels that SKY effectvely disables equipent which they purport to supply you as "Free".

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P>S Perhaps not an Ofcom issue but might be a Trading Standards issue in that it isn't made clear at the point of signing up to SKY that the recording facility will be disabled should one seek to cancel subscription packages at the end of the initial contract period. Also even where taking up the FSFS service that channels viewable via this service will not be recordable.

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Jan - I would make use of the existing dish, but you would need to purchase a "Freesat" receiver which are available in Standard - High Definintion and recordable variants from a range of manufacturers. These are available from local suppliers multiples eg: Curry's Argos, John Lewis, Comet etc and online. You may simply be able to connect up yourself, but a local installer's services should be relatively in-expensive if the dish and wiring are already in-situ. Minor upgrade might be necessary if you were to opt for a twin tuner receiver with full recording capability.

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P>S If you opt for the onboard "Freeview service cia your TV you would tequire to connect to an external roof mounted TV aerial.
I would check the level and quality of reception in your area on Freeview with near neighbours as it may be more limited than what "Freesat" will offer.

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Zena - The most cost effective way is to purchase ab RF modulator kit from Amazon Maplins etc. You connect this to the scart connection on the Humax and the RF outs as per how you had with you SKY system. These kits are relatively inexpensive with several manufacturers.

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