Freeview TV via SKY dish

[mckeevs]

I live in an area that is unable to receive a digital signal, so subscribed to SKY to receive their digital service and everything is OK with this.

I recently purchased a new LCD TV for another room in the house. This TV has built in Freeview and I was wondering if I could add a dual LNB to the satellite dish and receive the free to air channels from SKY on this new TV. We do not receive a freeview signal.

To test this I plugged the SKY cable direct into the new television, (without going through the SKY decoder box), and the TV did not recognise any digital signal.

Would be really grateful if anybody can let me know.

[Buenchico]

Freeview (which comes via a normal TV aerial) and FreeSat (which is what you get through your satellite dish) are completely different services. The signals are on different frequencies and transmitted in different formats. Consequently, they need different devices to decode the signals. The tuner in your TV works solely with Freeview signals. It can't handle FreeSat ones.

I'm also confused as to why you've subscribed to Sky if you only want a service similar to Freeview. FreeSat doesn't require a subscription. It simply requires a one-off payment of �150 if you need the dish and Sky box to be installed, or just �20 if you've already got them.

To get FreeSat through your new TV, you need a dual LNB, plus a second Sky box (under �20 on eBay) and a FreeSat card (�20 from Sky). You'll then get all of the channels listed here. (Use the scroll bar):
http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/?pID=3

The FreeSat line up includes both 'Free to Air' (unencrypted) channels and the 'Free to View' (encrypted) ones. Without a FreeSat card, you'll only get the channels marked 'FTA' here:
http://www.wickonline.com/fta.htm

Chris