Freesat Explained

What is freesat ?
Most areas in the UK can get terrestrial Freeview or will be able to receive Freeview when analogue broadcasts cease by 2012. For those who cant then Freesat is an option.

Freesat allows you to receive free to air programmes via satellite. A minidish or sqish dish is installed and aimed at the Astra 2 satellite at 28 degrees east of South. The dish requires a clear line of sight to the satellite and in rare case trees or buildings may block the signal. If in doubt get an engineer to survey the site.

There are two options for receiving Freesat, BBC Freesat and Freesat from Sky. Both services are broadcast from the same satellite and receive the same main channels BBC, ITV etc....

BBC Freesat
BBC launched their own non subscription freesat service in 2008. They have several receiver options, a standard definition receiver a High definition receiver and a High definition receiver with a hard drive built and twin tuner to enable recording. Several manufacturers make freesat receivers with Humax as the main supplier of boxes. Panasonic offer a range of Plasma & LCD screens and have an integrated bluray player with inbuilt freesat tuner due summer 09. Other manufacturers are also offering integrated products too.

Our current range of products are shown below with links to more information on our site.

Note: It is not possible to use a BBC freesat receiver to subscribe to Sky as they have no card or cam slots.

Note: None of the current range or receivers have UHF modulators so distributing the signal to other Tvs in the house from the same box is difficult. It is possible to buy a modulator from us that will allow connection to an RF distribution amplifier

EPG (Program Guide)
BBC freesat have their own program guide that show channel listings for the next 7 days. Listings can be selected by genre and more information about a program can be found when pressing the info button on the remote control.

 

HD Channels
BBC HD and Channel 4 HD are available on freesat in 1080i and can be recorded on the hard drive of the Humax HDR receiver. ITV HD is only available on BBC freesat using the interactive red button on the remote control. Recording using the planner on a HDR is impossible on ITV at present.

At the time of writing there are no plans for more HD channels on BBC freesat

Integrated Freesat
Panasonic make a range of Plasma and LCD screens with integrated freesat tuners. They are due to bring out an integrated bluray player with built in hard drive and freesat tuner later in 2009.

Require single feed from a dish.
The following sizes are currently available.
LCD 32” 37”
Plasma 42” 46” 50”

Other manufacturers are due to bring out integrated units soon.

Note: it is only possible to record the program that is being viewed and the TV has to be physically switched on to record.


Sky Freesat
Freesat from Sky had been available for some years now. Only the basic sky digibox is available with the option in standard definition. Sky Plus and Sky HD will receive the channels without a subscription but the recording functions will not work without a subscription. Unlike BBC freesat the Sky version can be upgraded to a subscription service.

It is possible to use multiple sky receivers in the same house with or without a subscription or you can distribute the same channel to other tvs by connecting the RF 2 output to a sky amp.

EPG (Program Guide)
Skys programme guide lists channels by genre and gives programme details when the info button is pressed.
An autoview function on the standard digibox can be set on any channel to either remind you when a programme is about to start or switches automatically, handy if using in conjunction with recorders.
The Sky EPG is incredibly easy to navigate with the remote control.