Replacing Sky tv - when no cable tv available. Not prepared to give any more momey to New International.

[AwesomePan]

This comes in the light of the NOTW journalists hacking Millie Dowlers phone,and deleting messages off it, and thus providing more heartache and false hope to the Dowlers that their daughter was still alive.

There a few ( well me and Ponders so far) who need advice on how to access digital services for TV. Ponders is a bit restricted due to poor reception from a transitter, me by the fact that nickelodeon AFAIK is only available in the UK on the Sky dish set up ( no cable out here).

Is there someone wit hsome expertise in this field. Appreciate it's a bit of a wide question and experts probably charge for this sort of thing. But any help would be appreciated.

By Ponders aand me in any event.

tia.

Of course, you could just stop watching them.
Not much of a sacrifice otherwise is it?

I mean I'll have to keep paying...

I could. But why should I?

Ponders - I've not tried these myself, but seeing the way DH is now watching a lot of internet content I wondered if nat geo had anything online - maybe their webisodes might fill the gap?

Ponders did you mean why should you have to stop watching those channels?

Well, each to their own of course but TV is a choice you make. If your feelings about the company are strong enough t not want to give them money then that is the choice you make. It is like any sort of boycott. I don't buy Nestle, sometimes I want to. Sometimes I culd just kill for a fruit pastel buy hey, they come under the Nestle group. There isn't a substitute so I do without. If there isn't a substitute for the TV and you feel strongly then you do without. It isn't like Sky TV is a right. Anyway it is just more shit really isn't it, ok so there might be some good stuff but there are plenty of other things to do, books to read, hobbies to take up, people to phone and have a chat to. We've never paid for TV at all, I really don't see the point of all these extra channels.

Of course you are perfectly entitled to keep your Sky TV too, just depends on whether you feel more strongly about the TV or the politics. (I don't mean that in a horrible pushy way by the way).

Well I'm not boycotting NoTW, because I've never bought it.

Whereas I boycott Nestle, despite wanting to mainline Milkybar at this stage of pregnancy.

It sounds like you don't feel that strongly about it as it sounded in the OP.

I can live without TV, & would cancel Sky tomorrow if it was just me; but it's not just me. I can't impose that choice on 3 other adults, can I?

If we could switch to Virgin then we would, but it's not available here - nor where Pan lives, hence his OP. (He only has an 11-yr-old to negotiate with...)

Grimma, thanks for that suggestion - really helpful I suppose if nothing else I can refrain from using Sky myself, but as long as other members of the family want it I'm not going to cancel it.

(I buy some Nestle products too. Shoot me now)

I think you can get freesat if you have a sky dish. Otherwise you can get a setop box (or tv) and use freeview.

We watch telly through a tv card on a Media Center pc. Not entirely sure what that means but I think you can subscribe to some sat channels through it, plus get the usual freeview channels. You can record, series link etc. We find it more flexible than Sky+.

Thanks, throckenholt - yes you can, & I would, but the others wouldn't...one of the most watched channels in our house is Sky Sports News...

I am trying to work on their political consciences, but to no avail so far

Hmm, of course, you can make the others pay for it.

well DH does anyway, obv. I don't think switching to freesat would affect him unduly. The other 2 are students though & we sub them considerably already

when they leave home forever (please god) they can buy their own Sky (or not )

Do they need Sky for their studies?

constantly, TW

actually DS1 has Virgin (via Xbox) in his student house & maybe DS2 will too when he goes in Sept...meanwhile I will work on them...

confusing isn't it? Freesat/freeview/foxsat/satview/freefox

As with Ponders, if it was only me then I would never had sky, but dd spends a lot of time with me. Her mum has sky and we need to 'do a deal' re which one goes. Dd goes to big school next year in any case. Time to leave nickelodeon in any case? (though I will miss Spongebob!)

think of the money you will save ? Put it towards another treat for dd.

Glad you posted this. We're in the process of cancelling Sky. I'm a bit anxious at the thought of losing our broadband for possibly weeks on end though. My children are too young to argue but they do watch Nick Jr a lot.

We have Freeview. When Sky have nicked off with my favourite shows that were originally on terrestrial channels (which they do constantly, waiting to see if something is successful and then stealing it with their oodles of cash ? I give you Dexter, Lost, Mad Men etc etc) or if a good-sounding show starts on a satellite channel, I just wait until it comes out on DVD and then hire it from Lovefilm. That way I get to see the lot with no ads and no money to Murdoch.

I realise this requires WAITING (something that doesn't come naturally to a lot of folks these days) but there's plenty of other stuff to watch in the meantime.

re "confusing isn't it? Freesat/freeview/foxsat/satview/freefox"

There are four subscription services I'm aware of:

Sky, Virgin Media (cable), Top-Up TV (Freeview) and BT Vision. There might still be "Tiscali TV" but since TalkTalk bought Tiscali, I don't know if that's still going.

For Free To Air (FTA) services, there are three choices (two when everywhere is digital):

Freeview, FreeSat.

Fox is presumably a maker of FreeSat receiver/ recorder (PVR) , just like Humax is a manufacturer name. Hope that clarifies a bit.

sorry - third option for FTA is your standard UHF (BBC1/2, ITV, C4, Five)
but as more regions switch, it will be London and the S-E which have those longest, and everywhere else will be digital with just 2 free, or the subscription services...

Good thread...

Biggest shame is that BT Vision isn't available if you use any other ISP. Many have been offering faster broadband, or cheaper deals, but you can only get BT Vision if using BT Broadband. When you use BT Broadband, your router becomes a node for anyone driving past to use as it becomes part of the Von network too.

thanks NetworkGuy - I am a BT Broadbander so this is my preferred route. and yes it does occassionally disappear into an open mode, which is a bit annoying as I don't really understand if this is a good thing or a bad thing tbh.

Oh - it was the Fon network not Von (maybe I was thinking of Vonage and mixed them!)

The map of Fon hotspots probably shows 1 or more for your postcode :)

"Would a sat dish with digital receiver not work then? We had a dish in Germany that picked up the freeview channels at least. Would be no use to those wanting extra channels but for basic BBC/ITV/CH4 etc it is fine."

I thought there was some level of encryption on the signals, but maybe the lower-cost FreeSat boxes are simply requesting the user's (UK) post code to determine whether you get BBC England / Scotland etc and which ITV region to put as your primary choice.

I've seen Maplin selling complete bundles (dish, cables, sat box) for 100 quid or so (poss in sale) and didn't think anyone would get the UK channels but not had the spare cash to buy just to try (and be potentially disappointed at spending a ton for no UK TV).

Thanks for this thread, Awesome. Just what I was looking for x