can you get freesat with a normal satellite receiver

**Devilfish** · 13th May, 2008, 02:51 PM

I was wondering, I've got an 80cm dish and a technomate TM-9100, can I get the freesat channels or do I need a special receiver and card to get them?

cheers

thommo · 13th May, 2008, 02:57 PM

well from what ive read you need there box/card or so they say, it,ll prob have some encryption but it,ll be weak so should be usable to use at some point and as its freeview there shouldnt be a need to have there box or card so nothing illegal either when its made available to the masses from what i can see. there kind of forcing you to buy there boxes at the min which isnt right imo.

today infact ive just got itv hd going on my technomate 6900 box which isnt one of there receivers so if this early hd owners can get itv hd id say the lot will be available at some point.

**Hejira** · 31st May, 2008, 12:41 AM

Freesat is basically the EPG, the channels are the same FTA channels no encryption, a selectied list of the FTA channels that you get on a standard SlyBox!

I bought myself a Freesat Humax Foxsat HD (Impulse Buy, wanted to watch FA Cup in HD) Plugged it straight into Old SlyDish Scanned n it was up n running!

The Humax unlike the other FreeSat Boxes also has a non freesat mode and will pickup all the FTA channels fine just not freesat EPG!

If I were more patient n saved a few quid I would have gone for the Dream 800 out of preference and would get all that freesat had to offer n more I'm sure.

**interaktas** · 4th June, 2008, 10:42 AM

Well i've got Skystar2 on my pc is there a plugins or watching soft to get epg for freesat? The itv hd works fine

**Hejira** · 4th June, 2008, 11:42 PM

The EPG may be possible...

Freesat EIT in MythTV

Seems like the clever guys at MythTV have already released patches to use the Freesat EPG. The diff here contains the patches: h**p://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachmen...sat_epg.2.diff. I'm sure it will take a while before its mature, but from the mailing list it seems to be working:
h**p://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...reesat;#335097
h**p://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...reesat;#335360

The compression used turned out to be Huffman coding. I like the way the guy figured out (most of) the Huffman tables, by comparing the uncompressed Freeview data with the compressed Freesat data. Big congrats to David Matthews and the MythTV team for some inspired work.

Theres now nothing stopping other software/receivers using the Freesat EPG data.

**carol1952** · 14th June, 2008, 11:47 AM

intresting must be worth a look

**frankharrison** · 27th June, 2008, 10:47 PM

I've been looking at the new Freesat Boxes on the internet, and can't see a card slot as mentioned.

If they do need one later you might as well get sky with all the give aways that they can do to get your custom.

Remember that to watch HD you also need an HD tv as well as a HD sat box.
Unless you can afford the new combo.

Frank

**ac-milan** · 30th June, 2008, 08:19 PM

humax 2000 could be a good option

**limer** · 17th August, 2008, 01:45 PM

hi,normal fta receivers are selling like hotcakes at present ,mostly technomate
3000 series,no real interest in hd or epg,i believe sky sales would plummet if RTE went free too,

**pothead** · 19th August, 2008, 09:24 AM

with the new equipment there testing in ireland all us replay/starview owners will be looking for another way to watch tv so this could be the way to go

**DESSERTDOG** · 25th August, 2008, 03:27 PM

I have the Humax foxstat HD Receiver and an old sky dish and lnb and it picks up all the freesat channels np plus more on a non freesat scan.HD is great just a pitty there are not more channels but im sure they will come in time.

**Fekker** · 20th September, 2008, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by frankharrison

I've been looking at the new Freesat Boxes on the internet, and can't see a card slot as mentioned.

Freesat will never be encrypted,the business model is for free to air only,so no need for a card slot. You choose your region for the EPG so that you get your local ITV & BBC channels.

**.: JaCkPoT :.** · 21st September, 2008, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by Fekker

Freesat will never be encrypted,the business model is for free to air only,so no need for a card slot. You choose your region for the EPG so that you get your local ITV & BBC channels.

Why not use a old sky box. It is better than freesat. With a card it allows you to watch setanta news and a few other channels yet to be introduced to freesat.

**bob114** · 25th September, 2008, 01:55 AM

hi
in Sadiq999uk post
Why not use a old sky box. It is better than freesat. With a card it allows you to watch setanta news and a few other channels yet to be introduced to freesat.
is this the card with the yellow house on (i will have a look at the weekend)
have 3 old sky boxes working at caravan (works better than freeview)
thanks

**Gandalf1175** · 1st December, 2008, 11:54 PM

This freesat I take it, is not full high definition, I was led to believe that there are currently no proper 1080p transmissions in this country. Therefore if it is not proper HD.. I would think you could receive it through a normal satellite receiver... or can you .. I know this doesnt really answer your question, but at least i've said my bit...