freesat via old sky digibox

[hairyben]

I'm trying to help someone out as a favour here- they have pants freeview reception - dodgy aerial and unlikely to get fixed- but do have a sky dish feed.

I have an old (1st gen) sky digibox sat unused but from what I gather rup€rt wants 20squid for the card that'll make it see the free channels. This seems a bit of a buttfkkk for a cheap ol bit of silicon and puts my back up, especially given you can buy a whole freaking freesat decoder for about 30squid.

Is there a way to get some telly with it or have I outlined our basic two options? I have a old sky viewing card thats not been used in 8 years, would that still grab the free channels?

[Bullett]

I just plugged in the sat box and it worked.

We get all the basic channels and some others but not all of them. It's fine for what we want which is an occasional use bedroom system.

Suck it and see.

[cjs]

Yes you will get some FTA channels, as said, plug it in and see.

[BigBen]

There is a difference between a Free to air channel and a free to view channel. Some of the channels on freesat will still be encrypted but free if you have a card, these won't show up if you don't have a card. The reasoning for this is broadcasters only have local rights for some content.

Ben

[FunkyGibbon]

I've got freesat receiver plugged into sky dish, no viewing card and I get all these:

http://www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=whatson.Ma...

Not sure what you'd get if using old sky box though. Fressat receivers can be had for £50-60 ish.