Satellite dishes - Sky / Freesat

[andy400]

I have a Sky dish on my house, will a Freesat machine work when plugged into it, or are the dishes different, or aligned differently?

[CaptainSlow]

will work fine

[anonymous-user]

When I swapped my Sky for FreeSat, it was a direct swap. 2 minutes.

[tribbles]

I was running both Sky and Freesat off the same dish - they all come from the same satellite, and the Freesat channels are the same as the ones on Sky (just quite a few more channels available when you can descramble them).

[Ozone]

When we moved,the new house had an old satellite dish and LNB on the wall that was pointing at the old Astra satellite but got it moved and it all worked fine with Freesat HD.

[escargot]

tribbles said:

I was running both Sky and Freesat off the same dish - they all come from the same satellite, and the Freesat channels are the same as the ones on Sky (just quite a few more channels available when you can descramble them).

How does that descrambling stuff work then?

[FlossyThePig]

escargot said:

tribbles said:

I was running both Sky and Freesat off the same dish - they all come from the same satellite, and the Freesat channels are the same as the ones on Sky (just quite a few more channels available when you can descramble them).

How does that descrambling stuff work then?

It is done in the $ky box, unless tribbles knows something we don't

[tribbles]

FlossyThePig said:

escargot said:

tribbles said:

I was running both Sky and Freesat off the same dish - they all come from the same satellite, and the Freesat channels are the same as the ones on Sky (just quite a few more channels available when you can descramble them).

How does that descrambling stuff work then?

It is done in the $ky box, unless tribbles knows something we don't

Nope - you need a sky box, (although I have seen a card interface which can use a sky card to descramble the signal). I don't know of a way around this.

I meant that you use the sky box to descramble.

[andy400]

Thanks guys. If I cancel Sky, will they ask for the dish back, or do they not normally bother?

[Landlord]

On a related note - how come no one has "broken" the Sky scrambling algorithm yet? When you look at these ever so bright chaps wot crack operating systems/iPhones etc. I'm surprised the same hasn't been done with Sky.

Unless, of course, it has and I've just not heard about it.

[tribbles]

Landlord said:

On a related note - how come no one has "broken" the Sky scrambling algorithm yet? When you look at these ever so bright chaps wot crack operating systems/iPhones etc. I'm surprised the same hasn't been done with Sky.

Unless, of course, it has and I've just not heard about it.

I think they can be cracked - however, Sky occasionally send out new cards. It's theoretically possible for them to change the decoding keys with the new cards (I personally think this is why they send out new cards), so while you'd be able to crack it, it would only last until the keys are changed.

[Ozone]

Landlord said:

On a related note - how come no one has "broken" the Sky scrambling algorithm yet? When you look at these ever so bright chaps wot crack operating systems/iPhones etc. I'm surprised the same hasn't been done with Sky.

Unless, of course, it has and I've just not heard about it.

The key is rolling so you have to keep cracking it on a rolling basis so is quite secure. It can be done but you pretty much need a high end pc running continuously to do it i beleive.

[Neil H]

andy400 said:

Thanks guys. If I cancel Sky, will they ask for the dish back, or do they not normally bother?

Nope, just the box AFAIK.

ETA: actually I think they leave the box as well.

Edited by Neil H on Tuesday 26th October 13:38

[Moose1978]

If the house you have just bought has a dish on the side, how do you check it is aligned correctly?

Apart from the obvious, ie it not working when you plug in your shiny new Freesat box

[JQ]

Another question I'm afraid.

We have a paid subscription to Sky in our living room plus a Sky Box in the bedroom to which we don't pay a subscription (used to, but never ended up watching the premium channels). So we just get SOME of the freeview Channels through the Sky Box. However, there are many channels we don't get in the bedroom because we don't have a live card in the Sky box.

If I swapped the Sky box in the bedroom for a Freesat Box, would we get ALL the available Freeview Channels?

Cheers

[blinkythefish]

Moose1978 said:

If the house you have just bought has a dish on the side, how do you check it is aligned correctly?

Apart from the obvious, ie it not working when you plug in your shiny new Freesat box

you can buy a sat finder - think they're about 20 quid - or just plug in the box an point it in the right direction until you get a good signal. There are websites out there which will tell you the right direction based on your location.

[james12345]

Neil H said:

andy400 said:

Thanks guys. If I cancel Sky, will they ask for the dish back, or do they not normally bother?

Nope, just the box AFAIK.

ETA: actually I think they leave the box as well.

Edited by Neil H on Tuesday 26th October 13:38

We recently cancelled "paid for" Sky TV, and they leave you with everything, as long as you are out of your initial 12 month contract. You then automaticall ymove over to being able to receive "Freesat from Sky", so no need to buy any new box, or card, from whoever!

[escargot]

james12345 said:

Neil H said:

andy400 said:

Thanks guys. If I cancel Sky, will they ask for the dish back, or do they not normally bother?

Nope, just the box AFAIK.

ETA: actually I think they leave the box as well.

Edited by Neil H on Tuesday 26th October 13:38

We recently cancelled "paid for" Sky TV, and they leave you with everything, as long as you are out of your initial 12 month contract. You then automaticall ymove over to being able to receive "Freesat from Sky", so no need to buy any new box, or card, from whoever!

You don't get the HD stuff though unless you have a SKY HD box I assume?

[ND_007]

Okay, so if I cancel 'pay' sky, move to freesat for sky, keep the box, etc.- Do I loose the saved programms in Sky+ including those on the freeview channels? I would guess so?

[CaptainSlow]

freesat from sky is pants