[Dave]

With the Olympics being transmitted in HD , free from BBC, it's very tempting to pay the one off fee for the freesat service freesat - Home

Anyone elese considering it ?

[Dabhand16]

No.

[Markulous]

Since we don't get terrestrial digital where I live and the analogue signal is rubbish, I've been contemplating getting FreeSat for a while, so have looked at all the bits needed for chucking a dish on the roof.

One neighbour has had it for a while, paying £150 but I see the price is now £80 (exclusive of receiver), so quite tempting over my proposed DIY. Having said that, I'm looking to installing a quad LNB, so I can take off a feed to my other neighbour (and leave us both with HD systems) and with some low trees through which the signal has to pass, contemplating a larger dish. So if you hear of the new Jodrell Bank in the Peak District, that'll be us!

But I'm not that fussed about the Olympics and have found not having TV to not be a burden (tho' do have a DVD system for watching films! )

[the_frog]

I have HD on cable, but for me the Olympics will just be an excuse to get out of the house more.

[fionaB]

i cant wait for them to start! but have never heard of free sat and dont have HD tv anyway, i dont even have a wide screen ( thankfully and much to the disgust of the OH and son)

Fi

[Dave]

Oh my god 4:3 telly Does it have those push buttons, you pull out to twist for tuning ?

[Charlotte]

Nothing to do with the Olympics, but the freesat thing looks interesting Mind you, 80 free channels of mixed tv + radio could be just another group of mostly-junk stations

Panasonic are soon to launch their new tv with freesat built in ... be interesting to see how much they'll cost. Presumably you can still connect to other cable setups like Virgin.

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by Dave

With the Olympics being transmitted in HD , free from BBC, it's very tempting to pay the one off fee for the freesat service freesat - Home

Anyone elese considering it ?

If you have an HD ready set already and have normal Sky,you can purchase a Sky HD plus box for about £ 170 on e-bay. There is no payment to sky but you only get the BBC & Ch4 HD content at the moment. God knows what ITV are doing!!

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

Nothing to do with the Olympics, but the freesat thing looks interesting Mind you, 80 free channels of mixed tv + radio could be just another group of mostly-junk stations

Panasonic are soon to launch their new tv with freesat built in ... be interesting to see how much they'll cost. Presumably you can still connect to other cable setups like Virgin.

A Lot of Dosh.
Best to get a £569 37 inch Plasma HD ready TV and buy a Humax Freesat Box for about £150 but probably cheaper on the web

[WOODY]

WE HAVE HAD FREESAT FOR ABOUT EIGHTEEN MONTHS, AS WE ALREADY HAVE SKY IN THE FRONT ROOM, WE BOUGHT ANOTHER SKY BOX WITH FREESAT CARD FOR £70 FROM A SATELLITE EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER. WE GOT A FOUR WAY CONNECTOR WHICH WAS GIVEN TO USE BY A FRIENDLY ARIEL INSTALLER.

SON -IN - LAW INSTALLED IT FOR US IN DINING ROOM. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.

YOU CAN BUY A SECONDHAND SKY BOX FROM MOST PLACES AND SKY ONLY CHARGE
£20 FOR A FREESAT CARD.


JUST AN UPDATE ON THE TV SITUATION, IT HAS GONE TO ARBITRATION AND MY WIFE
WILL BE DECIDING WHICH ONE WE WILL BE GETTING IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS,
I HAVE BEEN TOLD.

[Dave]

Hmmm seems a Freesat PVR will not be available until Xmas time

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by WOODY

WE HAVE HAD FREESAT FOR ABOUT EIGHTEEN MONTHS ... YOU CAN BUY A SECONDHAND SKY BOX FROM MOST PLACES AND SKY ONLY CHARGE £20 FOR A FREESAT CARD.

The freesat (which is jointly owned by BBC + ITV) website says they only launched on 6th May 2008 Maybe you've got something different from Sky?

[WOODY]

CHARLOTTE IT IS SKY FREESAT.

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by WOODY

CHARLOTTE IT IS SKY FREESAT.

That's going to be confusing, if Sky have a freesat, and BBC-ITV have a different freesat

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

That's going to be confusing, if Sky have a freesat, and BBC-ITV have a different freesat

I know that Sky do a service with limited channels - not sure exactly what you get, but I think it is the 'main' ones and a couple of others, but there was (is?) a fitting charge of about £250, and from then on it is free.

A friend of mine had this installation about 4/5 years ago.

[fionaB]

ok im completely lost. sky sat,,,, sat nav,,,,,, free sat,,,,,, hdr .... hd.......... dvd.... dvd-rw............wide screen,.......... plasma...... lcd...lsd............ cable. satelites............... gimme 4 channels and a square telly anyday ( although ok we have cable tv but only cos we cant get any kinda picture any other way! lol)

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by fionaB

...lsd............

[fionaB]

hmmmmm wondered who would spot that

[Charlotte]

[Dave]

Fi, do you still get the Test card for the afternoon TV ?

[towershot]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

Yea man, LSD,, 70s slang for " lost seven days?????????"

[fionaB]

Originally Posted by Dave

Fi, do you still get the Test card for the afternoon TV ?

well at least im up til midnight watching the little white dot til it disapears!


here u go just in case anyone is too young to rememebr them!

YouTube Video

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by fionaB

well at least im up til midnight watching the little white dot til it disapears!


here u go just in case anyone is too young to rememebr them!

Yes I remember it well having work for the BBC in Studios & Enginneering from 1963-1992.

The girl in the picture is Carole Hersee and her father, George, was at the time in 1967 working as an engineer in the BBC's Planning & Installation Dept, when this test card F was introduced.

I hope this info interests.

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by towershot

Yea man, LSD,, 70s slang for " lost seven days?????????"

Seven It wasn't that many in the 80s

Originally Posted by brian wright22

Yes I remember it well having work for the BBC in Studios & Enginneering from 1963-1992.

The girl in the picture is Carole Hersee and her father, George, was at the time in 1967 working as an engineer in the BBC's Planning & Installation Dept, when this test card F was introduced.

I hope this info interests.

Possibly the only people it might be interest to are you, Carole + George

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

Seven It wasn't that many in the 80s



Possibly the only people it might be interest to are you, Carole + George

You got it in one Charlotte, aaaaaah nostalgia but much less painful than neuralgia

[Charlotte]

You got that right Brian, I get neuralgia ... it's probably my punishment for all the cheek I give on here

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

You got that right Brian, I get neuralgia ... it's probably my punishment for all the cheek I give on here

Keep it up Charlotte ,cos your on my wavelength

[Charlotte]

[Markulous]

OK, a quick "Guide to all digital TV"

The government thought it'd be a jolly wheeze if they could grab the analog wavelengths (which are quite wide, so could raise plenty of readies) so they told us how wonderful digital was and that we'd much prefer it. And it was and we did....... until someone realised that a digital signal does not carry nearly as far as analog (and it's line of sight - but let's not get too technical here!).

So rather then having a very small proportion of the country unable to get TV from the ground-based transmitters, digital looked as if there'd be a fairly good chunk who'd never receive this "jolly wonderful digital".

Then a bright spark (sic) remembered that Mr Murdoch has some sort of satellite thingy in the Sky that transmitted digital TV. So rather than deprive those luckless souls who cannot receive terrestrial digital, the Sky man graciously offered to supply overpriced Sky boxes that'll receive the digital Free To Air channels (thereby giving Sky a ready market of potential full Sky customers) and so FreeSat was created

In summary, FreeSat is a cut-down Sky receiver tuned to the Sky satellite. All hail Mr Murdoch! Not!

HD, BTW, is just High Definition - so is TV that looks much better. Nothing to do with FreeSat, other than that it'll gradually be introduced

Oh, and the final irony: in these days of attempting to cut down on our carbon footprint by reducing energy consumption, digital TVs consume more power than analog! But that's progress!

[the_frog]

Originally Posted by brian wright22

The girl in the picture is Carole Hersee and her father, George, was at the time in 1967 working as an engineer in the BBC's Planning & Installation Dept, when this test card F was introduced.

I hope this info interests.

It does! Further trivia: as the test card was used in many countryies around the world for many years, Young Carole has logged more TV appearances than anyone else on earth.