sky boxes

[always curio]

If you unsubscribe from Sky Tv are the boxes that youve paid for then redundent, or do they operate in the same way a freeview box would with just you just recieving the limited amount of channels you would normally get?

[netibiza]

I think you still get the "free to air" channels, ie Ch. 5. A lot of people only have this, they pay a one off fee for the card.

[Hammer]

If you leave your old sky card in, you'll get all the free channels.

Some channels such as channels 4 and 5 are encrypted and won't work without a card. They are free, but they need a card.

[Buenchico]

A sky box without a valid card will receive all 'Free to air' channels, which are marked as 'FTA' in the list here:
http://www.wickonline.com/fta.htm
Basically, that's the same line-up as conventional analogue TV (BBC1, etc), plus some foreign language stations and lots of radio stations. It doesn't include many channels from the Freeview line-up. All Free to Air channels are unencrypted.

The satellite equivalent of FreeView is FreeSat. The range of channels available is similarto , but not identical to, those on Freview. FreeSat channels aren't 'Free to Air'. They're 'Free to View'. This means that they're encrypted but don't require a subscription to view them. However, you do need a valid card in your Sky box. This is a special FreeSat card, which can be purchased for a one-off payment of �20 from Sky.

Information about FreeSat is here:
http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/
That link states that FreeSat costs �150 but that's only for customers who don't already have a satellite dish and box. The reference to the �20 card can be found, here, among the FAQs:
http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/?pID=6

Chris

[Giggsie]

I no longer subscribe to sky and get loads of different channels including a few movie channels

[tellboy]

If you were on Sky Plus you will find that you get the Freeview channels but you wont be able to record them to the hard disk.