Sky Dish to receive Free To Air Channels?

[Bugsyjnr]

Hi all,

I have just moved into a house. The House does not have a UHF aerial but has a SKY Dish. Believed the previous occupier subscribed to the SKY channels. Will I be able to receive the Free To Air (FTA) channels using the SKY Dish but without subscribing to SKY?

[mylesdw]

I think so, they both come from the same satellite. We did had this situation when we moved to our current house; you'll need a Freeview decoder.

[jawnbc]

If you use the Sky Dish you will only receive standard free-to-air signals, rather than high definition.

How many TVs do you have? If you have more than one, getting an aerial for the roof is probably worth it. If you only have one, some of the internal antennas (mine's from amazon) work really well: we use one in my office and in our bedroom.

[Bugsyjnr]

How many TVs do you have? If you have more than one, getting an aerial for the roof is probably worth it. If you only have one, some of the internal antennas (mine's from amazon) work really well: we use one in my office and in our bedroom.

I have only one TV but I may not stay long in this house so I don't want to spend money on fixtures. I'd rather spend money on something that I can take with me if I move. How much did you pay for you internal antenna? What brand is yours? Can you get HD quality?

[jawnbc]

I have this one. it's currently USD17.99 plus about $15 shipping to New Zealand.

I get every HD Freeview TV and radio channel available in Auckland. I live about 10km south of the Sky Tower, near Blockhouse Bay. I had to move it around to a few different places in the room I use it, but eventually found a place that works well.

[RedVee]

There is a possibility that your house is in a reception blackspot for UHF, and that is why there is no aerial. This happened to me in my last house, so I got Sky. Because it was in a reception blackspot, the internal antenna may not work either.

However, this was in Wellington, which is hilly. You could check the houses around you and see if they have aerials, an absence of aerials is usually the give away sign that reception is poor.

[Bugsyjnr]

There is a possibility that your house is in a reception blackspot for UHF, and that is why there is no aerial. This happened to me in my last house, so I got Sky. Because it was in a reception blackspot, the internal antenna may not work either.

However, this was in Wellington, which is hilly. You could check the houses around you and see if they have aerials, an absence of aerials is usually the give away sign that reception is poor.

Should not be: My next door neighbor has aerial installed and there are houses in the neighborhood with aerial as well. Well, but at the moment, my plans are not firmed yet so I'm not sure if it's stay or go...so not putting up the aerial coz it's not cheap....about $300 plus (I was told).

[Sun777]

Why not consider Netflix, we currently have sky but I'm inclined to see how Netflix goes for the first lot of customers. Broadband has drastically improved in the past 3 years (in terms of speed and data cap) so do consider it.

[jawnbc]

We just use Freeview on our bedroom telly. In our living room we have an Igloo box. In the city it's a decent price point: $20/month for all the Freeview channels as well as another 15 or so channels usually only available on Sky. Mostly we watch BBC World and Knowledge, but there's often interesting stuff on here or there on the others. We paid $99 for the box; had we gone on a 12 month contract the box would've been free (beyond the contract also).