changing from freeview to sky freesat - anything to look out for?

[SCOOBY.C]

I've a nokia mediamaster box connected to my tivo but we've now got one of the sky freesat type packages. I'm led to believe i have to reset tivo to select that its now sky instead of a settop freeview box and was wondering if theres any problems to be aware of? Only asking as when i did a reset a few months ago i lost my account and took tivo a month to sort it out:mad:
any help/tips appreciated, cheers sc.

[Raisltin Majere]

Should just be a case of re-running guided setup to reflect the new source.

[Pete77]

The main issues are really with any radio channels you want to record and where you will record them from and also with a few Freeview channels not free on Sky that you might otherwise lose.

Due to Sky renumbering all their radio channels a while ago, the radio channels on Sky now all begin zero (eg 0101) while the tv channels are all three digits. If you want to record radio channels on Sky you have to select a dual source setup and choose both Sky packages.

Alternatively you could keep your old Freeview Nokia Mediamaster box in service (if it has an analogue coax signal output) and set up your Tivo for a dual Sky (tv channels only) and Freeview setup. This would let you still record on your Tivo any programs on channels such as UK History, Sky Sports News, TMF, The Hits and Virgin 1 that are FTA on Freeview but are pay channels (in the basic Mix packages) on Sky. The free Freeview channels not on Sky also used to include E4 and More4 but no longer as they are now also FTA on a Sky box. Depends how good the reception quality is to your Nokia Medimaster box and whether you can receive all the channels on that or not really. Also possibly depends on whether or not you have an SWMBO who objects to having two boxes under the telly or not.

There is an extensive thread discussing the issues for a dual Sky radio and tv setup (after Sky changed the radio channel numbers) somewhere on the forum, including hacking the box so that it will record both the radio and tv channels from your Sky box via Scart (otherwise you have to run a coax feed from the Sky box to the Tivo as well as a Scart lead to be able to record the radio channels on the Tivo).

Here is that thread:-

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=259645&highlight=sky+radio

See also this thread for more discussion of the Sky/Freeview dual source possibility:-

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=337320&highlight=dual+source+sky+freeview

[SCOOBY.C]

thanks greatly, exactly the sort of things i was looking for. Nothing wrong with the nokia box, just the good lady wanted sky and me peace, so i'll do some reading up! cheers sc.:up:

[Pete77]

thanks greatly, exactly the sort of things i was looking for. Nothing wrong with the nokia box, just the good lady wanted sky and me peace, so i'll do some reading up! cheers sc.:up:

What is she hoping to see on Sky Freesat that she cannot get on Freeview? If you were getting the pay Sky channels then the answer would be more obvious.

Sky Freesat is great for FTA news channels with stuff like Bloomberg, CNN, Euronews, Russia Today, France 24 and Press Tv (Iraq) all provding a large number of English speaking news alternatives to the narrow BBC News and Sky News only diet on Freeview. Or perhaps she hankers after FTA channels dedicated to property, weddings and numerous other obscure special interests. Or perhaps she is one of the few who is after 24/7 Teachers Tv or the Community Channel rather than the restricted hours variants on Freeview?

You aren't going to tell me she is one of the few women in the country actually turned on by the idea of having a dish stuck on the front of her house rather than wanting to hide it if at all humanly possible?

[TCM2007]

all provding a large number of English speaking news alternatives to the narrow BBC News and Sky News only diet on Freeview.

CNN's on Freeview now too.

[Pete77]

CNN's on Freeview now too.

But only for four hours per day from 9pm to 1am instead of 24 hours a day.

See www.democracyforum.co.uk/television-film-radio/56439-cnn-american-news-channel-now-freeview-set-top-box-4-hours-day.html

Not exactly much use when the twin towers came down then.:rolleyes:

[TCM2007]

Sill a news channel though. You'd have picked me up if I'd said what you did - sauce for the goose and all that!

[Pete77]

With any luck given the current recession/depression all the shopping tv channels on Freeview will go bust and be replaced by a few more news channels.

That having been said I really do feel that Ofcom should have refused to allow any +1 channels on Freeview/DTT given the all too limited total channel capacity. Its obvious that the BBC, C4, Five and ITV will simply try and have as many channels as they can on Freeview if they aren't prevented from doing so by regulation.

Their only motivations for doing so are not at all laudable but are simply to prevent any chance of any rival broadcasting organisations obtaining a foothold on the platform.

[woody]

With any luck given the current recession/depression all the shopping tv channels on Freeview will go bust and be replaced by a few more news channels.

That having been said I really do feel that Ofcom should have refused to allow any +1 channels on Freeview/DTT given the all too limited total channel capacity. Its obvious that the BBC, C4, Five and ITV will simply try and have as many channels as they can on Freeview if they aren't prevented from doing so by regulation.

Their only motivations for doing so are not at all laudable but are simply to prevent any chance of any rival broadcasting organisations obtaining a foothold on the platform.
The +1 channels are better than nothing, and can be a good thing if you miss a program, or it clashes with something else. It's not like theres are huge rush for other broadcasters to put channels on freeview.

[Pete77]

The +1 channels are better than nothing, and can be a good thing if you miss a program, or it clashes with something else. It's not like theres are huge rush for other broadcasters to put channels on freeview.

+1 channels are all about big name broadcasters hooking in even more viewers and keeping out the competition. There should be damn all need for them with the likes BBC IPlayer and 4OD not to mention Sky+ or even Tivo.;):p

The only thing a +1 channel is better than is any form of shopping channel.

[SCOOBY.C]

What is she hoping to see on Sky Freesat that she cannot get on Freeview? If you were getting the pay Sky channels then the answer would be more obvious.

Sky Freesat is great for FTA news channels with stuff like Bloomberg, CNN, Euronews, Russia Today, France 24 and Press Tv (Iraq) all provding a large number of English speaking news alternatives to the narrow BBC News and Sky News only diet on Freeview. Or perhaps she hankers after FTA channels dedicated to property, weddings and numerous other obscure special interests. Or perhaps she is one of the few who is after 24/7 Teachers Tv or the Community Channel rather than the restricted hours variants on Freeview?

You aren't going to tell me she is one of the few women in the country actually turned on by the idea of having a dish stuck on the front of her house rather than wanting to hide it if at all humanly possible?

We had it installed just before christmas with the £75 all in package if you take 4 free packages for 4 months (normally £15 a month?). Its up to her then if she wants to keep the comedy channels etc that she likes now after that. We also got £50 m&s vouchers so not a bad deal all in but my reason is i pay for setanta through freeview just now but when i get tivo setup i'll use the sky box and get the other setanta channels for very little extra outlay:)
also the nokia box is incabable of updating the info on the setanta CAM so it has to be inserted to my tv to update every few months.