Best option for me to connect to Freeview (or other) in area with no digital availability and crap reception

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rollingcloud

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#46104 5-Nov-2009 16:19

Hi

I live somewhere with really crap reception. Only get TV2 clear, TV One Ok when it wants to be (probably the aerial coming to the end of its life) and forget the rest. I don't watch a lot of TV so forking out for Sky is not a track I want to go down.
I want to get Freeview (I think) and we inherited a Sky Dish off an demolished house, guessing it is a few years old. I want to do this the cheapest way. Do I buy a freeview box and see if i can get someone to wire it up using the dish? I understand we can lay some cable to reduce the cost of the labour costs of the TV guy doing it. My hubby is clever enough to do that. Could someone advise what to do? I am not techy so won't understand jargon so I would need simple instructions. We have wireless broadband in case that is of any interest. Many thanks in advance to you people that know all this stuff, appreciated.

CYaBro

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#270409 5-Nov-2009 17:11

You will need a Freeview satellite (DVB-S) set-top-box as this is the cheapest way to get it.
There are also no Freeview via Satellite tuners built in to TVs like there are for Freeview|HD.
The cable you will need is RG6 and this will need to run from wherever you want have the Freeview box to the satellite dish.
The dish will need to have a clear view of the sky in a NW direction. Does anyone living around you have Sky? You could see which direction their dish is pointing to get an idea.

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wally22

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#273287 15-Nov-2009 19:24

Hello Rollingcloud,
I was in a similar position to you, out in the sticks with limited reception, when the aerial died on me and I was forced to address the issue. I got a Digistar 811U from Trademe, along with some cable (RG6), a satellite finder, compass and of course a dish and LNB for around $200 all up. Has your Sky dish got an LNB (receiver) mounted on it. If not you will need one of those.
I am happy to talk hubby through it all if you want to contact me off list. I found it a mission to cut through all of the jargon at the time as it was all new to me then.
I received plenty of help from here to my queries and ended up just mounting the dish on an old Chep pallet on the front lawn as an interim measure. It is still there but I will have to move it as it keeps getting knocked.