New Freeview / SkyTV advice

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neilinnz

165 posts

Master Geek

#22194 20-May-2008 08:30

Hi,

We are moving into a new house soon in the Nelson region which has no TV aerial or satellite dish.

Ideally we'd like digital tv but without any subscriptions. HD would be nice but that's not available in Nelson.

I think our options are,

1. Get Sky, pay $50 a month for a year then switch to satellite Freeview, cost about $600 for Sky, then $200 for Freeview box.

2. Install an analogue TV aerial and wait for Freeview over and aerial to reach Nelson, cost $200-300 now and $300 later for Freeview box?

3. Pay someone to install a satellite dish and then buy a satellite Freeview box, installation $300-400?, Freeview box $200.

4. Get Prime to install me a satellite dish with Prime box (is this possible?), then buy a satellite Freeview box, Prime installation $145, then $200 Freeview box.

We also have a widescreen LCD TV and PS3 and would love to get PlayTV in the future but we're not sure that will work with satellite Freeview? We also don't know when Freeview over an aerial will arrive in Nelson, if ever. And will Freeview ever go HD over satellite?

Confused!!!

Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Neil

cyril7

7827 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#131993 20-May-2008 10:10

Hi Neil, the offical Kordia/FreeView response on when the 2nd tier of DTT Txs will be installed is "there is currently no plan". However the exact timetable will be dictated by funds released by Guvment, that will be dictated by the success of the 1st tier. Add to the fact that many of the spectrum licences for some areas for those 2nd tier Txs wont be available for at least 3-4yrs.

Based on that I would just get a dish installed, boxs start from around $130 (the Coship is $129 at FreeViewShop, they are quite reasonable boxs). $300 for a dish install assumes 1-2hrs install time, you could save yourself some money by running the cable yourself, this is the most time consuming part. Installing a UHF antenna would probably end up costing a similar amount to a dish.

You are unlikely to get a prime sat install as you can most likely get it via UHF. I dont believe the PlayTV support DVB-S, then again it just uses a USB DVB-T dongle, so its quite possible that it could/would support a DVB-S version, depends on what the software supports.

Cyril

Mattnzl

245 posts

Master Geek

#131995 20-May-2008 10:44

Hi Neil - our house had no aerial or dish either. I just got a yum-cha cheapy decoder off trademe ($84 - works fine) and a sat dish installed ($200ish).

Very happy with the pic quality. I've had my pc receiving the terrestrial HD feed to our telly (32" lcd), but it's still "just TV" and frankly I don't care. If you have a 50" tv it might be more important.
Maybe once the terrestrial decoders are $84 I'll get one ;-)

Cheers, Matt...

neilinnz

165 posts

Master Geek

#132003 20-May-2008 11:07

Thanks for the replies guys.

The cable from the roof to the tv point is already there so I guess a simple dish install would be the way to go. Will a dish and an install cost about $200?

Do the cheaper decoders still support the EPG on Freeview?

Neil

cyril7

7827 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#132014 20-May-2008 11:52

Hi, the cable should be RG6 and preferably Sky Satellite approved, this ensures its good for LBand as used by the the LNB output. Also you said you the house has no TV antenna, so presumably this cable is dangling in freespace, hopefully water has not got in, once again if its duobond the coax is flooded with petroleum gel which stops water damage. That said the old cable if not suitable or damaged may be useful as a draw wire for new coax.

On Trademe you can get some good deals for dish kits, like this, one like this could be mounted either on the roof or on a wall.

You can get kits from FreeViewShop like this

All FTA boxs will support the EIT EPG on the FreeView sat service, this is seperate to the MHEG5 EPG that certified boxs support, but perfectly usable.

Cyril

neilinnz

165 posts

Master Geek

#132032 20-May-2008 12:50

The cable is brand new RG6 on a brand new house.

Looking at the costings and setup I think I might just get Sky to install the dish with a dual-lnb and subscribe for 1 year.

To get freeview is going to cost about $280 for a dish kit (single lnb) and decoder + lets say $150 for installation with no ongoing support. That's $430.

I can get Sky installed for free at $50/month over 12 months and get 12 pay per view movies included. Difference over the year will be $170 and for that I would be getting more tv channels and 12 free movies and tech support for an extra $14/month. With the Sky dual-lnb option I guess I could always run Freeview in another room too.

Then after the year is up we might be seeing more HD and PVR options, maybe even a freeview satellite HD PVR option and I should be able to just switch over.

Cheers for the feedback.

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#132037 20-May-2008 12:58

When the Sky tech comes out, make sure you get the silver set top box (Pace DS-230 I think). It is a lot better than the old black ones. I am amazed with the quality difference between ours and my in-laws both sound and video, and the EPG is faster.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Waatz

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#132119 20-May-2008 17:57

Hi Neil, it sounds like you are in the same boat as me, I move into my new house in a couple of weeks and am going through the same process. I think I have made up my mind,

Im going to get the free Sky install with 12 free pay per view movies (If you make your connection to sky online) and get a cheap Freeview box Probably the Coship CS-2600 @ $129.95
this way I can have dofferent channels in different rooms and If I want to watch HD I'll just have to hire a blu-ray.

I personaly think it's a bit early to be spending $600-$800 on a PVR, HD box with the limited HD that's available, maybe in 12 months time when my sky sub runs out there might be more to offer at a better price.