Sky or Freeview?

[anotheoldgit]

I have a Sky box with which I receive most free channels although i do not subscribe to Sky. Is there any point of me buying a LCD Television with built in freeview?

If I did woud freeview interfere with my Sky box in any way, or would it be best to get rid of the Sky box, or just buy a television without a built in freeview?

[Buenchico]

Freeview won't interfere with Sky reception. There's no real reason to get a TV set with integrated Freeview unless you want to receive a particular channel which isn't available through your Sky box. (If you buy a TV set without built-in Freeview, you can always add Freeview reception later on by buying a set top box for around �15).

When you state that you get 'most free channels' from your Sky box, do you mean just the 'free to air (FTA)channels' or the 'free to view (FTV) ones as well? FTA channels (such as BBC1, ITV1, etc) are available through a Sky box without a viewing card. FTV channels (such as Film 4) require a FreeSat card, which Sky will sell you for a one-off payment of �20 (i.e. no subscription).

The FreeSat channel line up is similar to (but not identical to) the list of channels available via Freeview. To compare the two, see here for the FreeSat channel listing:
http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/?pID=3
(use the scroll bar to see the list)
and here for the Freeview list:
http://www.freeview.co.uk/channels/

Chris

[New Judge]

There are one or two minor channels which are available via Freeview but not via Sky. However, there are many channels (about 50, I think) available free via Sky�s �FreeSat� which you cannot get using Freeview.

The advantage of having a set with a built-in Freeview tuner is that you should be able to watch the channels that are unavailable from Freeview (from your Sky box) and also watch one channel (via the built in Freeview) whilst perhaps recording another (from Sky). There should be no conflict doing this as you simply input the Sky to the TV�s AV Channel.

The alternative is to run two Sky boxes (you can run up to four from a conventional dish). I did this some time ago � not so much because I wanted Sky but because my terrestrial reception deteriorated so as to be almost unusable. I�ve since added a subscription package to one of them, but there is no need to do this. Sky are quite happy to provide additional boxes and connections to customers not wanting a subscription.

[anotheoldgit]

Two great most informative answers, thanks so much.

I do't really want to add even more boxes though, because I already have a quite complicated mass of cables, seeing that I have the TV connected to a Sky box, a DVD recorder and a VCR.

I can at the moment watch a Sky channel while I record a Terrestrial channel on a DVD, a Hard Drive or a Tape, or vice versa.

[Buenchico]

Thanks for the reply.

You're currently able to record terrestrial channels (while watching a Sky channel) because your VCR and DVD recorders have built-in analogue tuners. These will be redundant when the analogue signals are switched off. So (to continue as now) you'll either need to buy a Freeview set top box (which will convert the digital signal to a format which can be recorded by your current equipment) or buy a recording device which incorporates a digital tuner. The set-top box is the cheaper option but a recorder with a built-in digital tuner would be simpler to use.

If you buy a TV with integrated Freeview, you can record from it (using your existing recording equipment) but the TV has to be switched on and you can only record the channel which is displayed on the screen. It would make more sense to watch the Freeview channel on your TV, while connecting the Sky box to your (existing) recording equipment to record the FreeSat channel.

Chris

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks once again Chris.

To sum up then, buy a TV with built in Freeview so as to be able to watch all the Freeview channels.

Then connect the Video and DVD recorders set to record on for example Channel 7, I would then be able to record all the channels I do now, while watching Freeview.

Is this correct or am I up the shoot on this one?

[Buenchico]

If you're recording from your Sky box (irrespective of the type of recording device used), you need to set the 'channel' on the recorder as 'AV', rather than to any numbered channel. Then use the Sky box to determine which programme is recorded.

Chris