Using sky dish with no ariel for freesat

[tom1975young]

Hi
We live in a valley where the only TV signal available comes from the Sky dish. We currently have a TV in the Lounge with Sky plus.
We would like to be able to watch TV in the bedroom on a different channel to the channel downstairs.

At my disposal I have the existing Sky+ set up, an old sky box in the attic, a portable TV/DVD in the bedroom, very little technical aptitude.

Can anyone tell me how I can best acheive my goal at minimal cost within the law. I do not want Sky in the bedroom, just standard channels. Friends have suggested freesat cards in the old box but are a bit vaguie when it comes to the details.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Tom

[Kymmy]

He means a Freetoview card though with the advent of freesat I'm not sure if they still do them..

Best option is probably a freesat box (either official or FTA) which will plug into the same sky dish (as long as you have a quad LNB) and will give you a lot of free channels

[v0id]

As you already have the equipment, this part of the FreesatFromSky FAQ would apply I assume http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/faq/#3

Originally Posted by tom1975young

Hi
We live in a valley where the only TV signal available comes from the Sky dish. We currently have a TV in the Lounge with Sky plus.
We would like to be able to watch TV in the bedroom on a different channel to the channel downstairs.

At my disposal I have the existing Sky+ set up, an old sky box in the attic, a portable TV/DVD in the bedroom, very little technical aptitude.

Can anyone tell me how I can best acheive my goal at minimal cost within the law. I do not want Sky in the bedroom, just standard channels. Friends have suggested freesat cards in the old box but are a bit vaguie when it comes to the details.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Tom

A £25 viewing card from Sky will put your old spare Sky box into 'FreesatFromSky' mode, and is cheaper than the next cheapest option, which is a Freesat decoder box (various models available, prices from about £40).

The only fly in your ointment is likely to be the LNB (the widget that sits on the arm of your satellite dish). To run a second box, you need a separate cable running down from the LNB to connect to the box. If you're running Sky+ already, then you have at least two terminals on your LNB; if you're lucky, when Sky was installed they gave you a quad-LNB (four terminals), in which case there are still two spare and you can connect your old Sky box to one of them. But if you have a dual-LNB, then you will have to replace it before you can connect up an additional box.

Removing and replacing the LNB isn't difficult provided you're confident working at height. You will of course also need to be able to run the cable from the LNB to your bedroom, drilling and tacking as necessary.

---------- Post added at 22:33 ---------- Previous post was at 22:30 ----------

Originally Posted by tom1975young

Thanks both for replies. How do I find out if I have quad LNB? (I did not get the install done and am entirely without paperwork)

Just go out in the daylight and have a look at it - use a pair of binoculars if necessary. You will be able to see two cables attached to it, which are serving your Sky+ box. If there are a further two spare terminals next to the two that are in use, you should be able to see them easily enough.

[tom1975young]

Thanks to all for answers. I now know where to go from here and special thansk to Chris for summarising my options so succinctly

[Matth]

You do get some channels with no card or a no longer valid card, but, for instance, not channel 5 - I forget the exact line-up

You get Five but not Fiver, Five US or Sky Three. And the region defaults to London, so not good for BBC1 or ITV1 (Unlike true Freesat boxes, FreeSatFromSky requires the card to be programmed for the correct region by Sky - it's not user-settable. Freesat boxes have their region set by the user entering their postcode).

The card should be valid for a good few years - it's worth having IMO.