Loading ...Dec 14 2009
Latest update scan on all Freesat receivers (24/11/09)
5 Added – 405 Food Network; 406 Food Network+1; 870 Babestation; 874 Filth; 999 Freesat Information
0 Removed
0 Changed
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December 14th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I guessed The food network would join, the adverts in the breaks gave that away, as for the adult channels, I dont think I shall be ringing the numbers!
james guyQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
At last, a channel we’ll all watch!
SaltydawgQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Glad to see FOOD Network on Freesat. OK, it is American, so may recipes are not aimed at us, some of the presenters are irritatingly American – but I like to watch many of the programmes on TFN when I am in the States, so I welcome the launch here.
Biggest shame is that they have got content from the truly irritating, idiot grinning offspring of Nigel Lawson – the truly horrid Nigella!
Regards
Paul S WattsQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Good to see some of the bigger names joining freesat, shame about the adult
channels I was hoping freesat would avoid those. Wishful thinking I suppose. It feels like freesat is slowly turning into sky!
CassonQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
lol @ adult channels. I wonder what kind of people watch them, as they are very ‘tame’ compared to what you could see for free online, the women are usually pretty rough and the phone charges are extortionate.
Still, more money for Freesat is a positive overall.
GalvatronQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
go on then saltydawg, you’re waiting for someone to bite, so i’ll volunteer…
which one of the above are we all going to watch?
Al CatrazQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Yet more garbage from across the “Pond”.
AlanQuote
December 14th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
@Al Catraz
Thats an easy one! – 999 Freesat Information!!
DexterQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 5:58 am
I like the “Northern Birds” channel….lol, they dont come much rougher than theeeem ooooop narth…….
Shaun FinningQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Is there a plan to move C4HD onto the freesat platform?
I was under the impression it had been given a temporary birth in the ‘pay-TV arena’ until space became available.
Is this true and does anyone know the window for its arrival as we seam to be having a steady trickle of channels coming in for Christmas
Or have they entered into an agreement with the dark side Luke!
Also whats the story on C5HD. I can’t say I have heard anything on that.
Pete
Pete WoodsQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 10:19 am
who watches the adult channels?? isn’t it obvious. 14 year olds who cant get the good stuff…….yet!!!! the yelling they get from the parents when the phone bill comes in is something to worry about later, not at 23:30 on a friday night while they are in bed and you are discovering yourself!
euan melvilleQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Yep, nothing exciting!
I was watching E4 last night and saw their ad for E4 HD for …Sky.
Such a pity, I would have loved to get that channel in HD.
If those channels bring money for future better content then bring them on, I will probably forget about their very existence anyway.
dhomiQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
dhomi – yep, E4HD went live today on $ky.
Al CatrazQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
The addition of the Food Network channels is good news as more and more of the channels watched by the better half on $ky are now appearing on Freesat, so won’t be long before the $ky subscription can be cancelled. Keep it up Freesat!
Derek (Original)Quote
December 15th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Excellent news about the Food Network!
Just need Film24, True Entertainment, and the other CSC music channels now. And Five USA, Fiver, Channel 4HD, FiveHD, etc. sometime soon (when space is made available on a narrow-beam satellite).
Looking good though!
ChazQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Re update scan: My replacement Goodmans STB is set to manual scan after the last software update fiasco, however it still downloaded the latest 1.8.1 software. Fortunately the STB is still working OK with better EPG graphics and the Food network…….deep joy!!
RoddersQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I have been a keen supporter of FreeSat because of the free HD channels since last December 2008 with the arrival of the Fox Sat PVR, but now with no more HD channels since then, also the downgrading of the BBC HD channel, and now it seems that there will be no more HD channels on FreeSat because of the narrow beam issue until 2012!!. So it seams that FreeSat, will, only be for people who cannot pick up the superior content from Freeview which will have all the main channels in HD, and more SD channels like , Dave, Virgin, Sky3, Fiver, Five US and more.
I have read that we in Devon will be getting all the HD channels on Freeview from the middle of next year. So I for one will be investing in the new Freeview HD PVR as soon as it is available.
I agree with some of the other posts, in that the next generation of HD Pvr’s should have integrated turners for both FreeSat and Freeview built in, because at the end of the day this will solve all the problems, as it is all about having free HD content, and also I believe, FreeView and FreeSat are not in competition with each other, so surly this is the next most logical step.
oyodiQuote
December 15th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
great that the food network channels have appeared,shame they have to have the slapper on a sofa channels though (at least on freesat we can delete em though ,unlike a $ky digibox
)
darnall42Quote
December 15th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I have a sky HD full package ( I was a ex-freesat HDR), and love the E4 HD channel, along with everything else in HD.
As they say, you get what you pay for…..
AlexQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Oyodi, fear not, I’m confident more HD will appear long before 2012. Currently there are three Astra satellites at 28.2E (plus Eurobird 1 at 28.5E), Sky currently occupy five transponders with encryption on 2D when in essence these could be on 2A or B if space was available. It’s SES’s plan, the owner of the Astra Satellites, to move Astra 2C back to 28.2E once it’s finished in it’s current disaster recovery mission at 31.5E, probably around the 2nd quarter of next year. There will then be a potential reshuffle to remove remaining encrypted services from 2D and on to 2C, thus five transponders on 2D could be freed up for more HD or SD FTA services.
DVB-T2 (Freeview HD) will only consist of three HD services, BBC, ITV and [presumably] Channel 4HD at some stage later. They reckon by 2012 there might be four HD services if bandwidth savings, coupled with improvements with Encoding efficiency, permit enough bandwidth to be freed up but any suggestion that most DTT (Freeview) channels will all be in HD is simply untrue.
I’ve opted for Freesat as there’s more overall choice than DTT, SD bitrates are higher and personally I believe there’s more chance of further HD than Freeview will offer in the next 3-4yrs.
NeilQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 4:24 am
@Alex
It’s only television. £60 a month is a lot of money to pay to watch adverts every six minutes on Sky One in HD.
The point is Freesat is free and is getting better all the time.
If you want to spend £720 a year to watch it’s your choice. Personally I don’t and am very happy with Freesat.
Tony HalesQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 4:27 am
@darnall42
What’s wrong with a slapper on a sofa? If you don’t like it don’t watch.
Adrian GrahamQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 7:04 am
@Tony Hales HERE HERE
Robert HudsonQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 9:31 am
@Tony Hales HERE HERE from me too. [Thanks @Robert]
Paul S WattsQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 9:39 am
As far as I’m concerned the Food Network and Adult channels are a waste of bandwidth. I would welcome the opportunity to watch some free-to-air French, Dutch, Spanish or German Channels which are only available on other satellites at present. Some of us out here would like the opportunity to keep up or language skills. Or how about Freesat negotiating to host Discovery or National Geographic?? Just returned from a visit to Dutch friends. I realise that it’s an almost 100% cabled country but you can get extensive multi language packages (including all the BBC channels), Video on Demand for the local Dutch channels, 20-50MB/sec broadband on their cable networks(KPN, UPC) universally available.
peterbattleQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 9:56 am
@ Neil
I got the availability of HD channels on FreeView from the FreeView HD Website, where it say BBC HD, ITV HD and CH4HD will be available to almost 50% of the UK by the time of the 2010 World Cup . It also says Five HD aims to launch on Freeview HD in late 2010. We in Devon are lucky as the HD service will launch here in April 2010,
oyodiQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
@ Oyodi
Just had a look on the HD section of the Freeview site, I’m in Manchester (via Winter Hill) so like yourself probably already have access to HD although there isn’t any commercial STB’s available yet! I think once these services (C4 for example) appear on Freeview it will put them under more pressure to go on to Freesat and hopefully by then the re-jig, if it comes off, will free up some 2D space.
NeilQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
we should all ge pleased about the extra channels, I too wont watch them, but it provides extra finance for the Freesat platform.
Lets remember, we have the ability to remove any channel we don’t like from the EPG, and can use the parentla controls to remove the enitre adult genre if that kind of content offends you.
ChrisQuote
December 16th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
@ Tony (21)
£60, wheres that from???
I pay £25 for HD, Sports, Movies and all channels
The reason for this is I know a friend that works for sky that has a code which allows family or friends to get Free HD Pack, Free Box and Install and 1/2 Price for 12 months.
£300 a year, the same price I paid for my HDR Box.
which i have now sold for £210, so sky is only £90 for 1 year.
AlexQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 8:22 am
@ Alex – so whats the discount code ?
Not giving it up right …… then its £60pm really isnt it ? (offer no longer valid from what i hear anyway)
And what are you going to do next year ? sell your soul on ebay and then its only half price again, £350 ? Bargain.
I echo the Freesat compliments, had the PVR for 1 year and yes more HD would be nice but you get whats you pay for and we dont pay anything so what we get is all a bonus, particularly for those of us without a freeview signal.
Sam PQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
@Sam P LMFAO
Robert HudsonQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 10:48 am
@ Alex,(29)
If you do your sums again, I think you made a net loss of £90 on your HDR. the fact that you will be using the £210 from the resale does not alter the fact you will still be paying $ky £300 for the first year.
I would also like to say I think Tony Hales estimates seem to be a more realistic figure for the real cost of sky. Being an ex. Sky subscriber myself and having had many problems with their customer service department, I for one will never subscribe again.
RussQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 11:05 am
@29 Alex
So what are you going to do next year when inflation is 5%,petrol is £1.35 per litre interest rates are 8% and rising and taxes are on their way up. We are living in a fools paradise at present which will end after the election no matter who wins.
Tony HalesQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@32 I know the net loss of the HDR is £90, which means the full sky subscription is £7.50 a month. Which is a fantastic price for all the channels you get.
The reason into my post is that this offer is still valid until 28th decemeber, and if you know anyone that works for sky, they can give you the voucher code to activate on your account once you ring up.
Anyone thinking of getting a HDR, should really be thinking is it worth getting SKY hd for a year, then dropping down to normal freesat from sky??? And having the feature of BBC HD, ITV HD, CH4 HD, and E4 HD. and much more SD content.
I will no longer be posting on this forum, as consumer information doesn’t seem to be welcome here.
AlexQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
@Alex
Your promoting a rival platform on a Freesat site so not sure what response you were expecting, but regardless, the offer you have is through an employee which 99% of viewers won’t have access to so your breakdown of costs are pretty much irrelevant; not to mention that dropping to Sky’s FTA/FTV service after 12 months will mean no use of the Sky+ functionality that is available free with Freesat+.
Both platforms have their benefits depending on what you want, but most on here want free channels without subscription at all.
adminQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
@ alex
You seem to be missing the point. you paid £300 for your hdr. after selling it for £210 you where £90 out of pocket. That in fact is how much FREESAT cost you.
A £25 per month subscription in my book adds up to £300 per annum. Your mathematics do not add up I am afraid.
RussQuote
December 17th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
@ darnell42 Re the adult channels on Sky. They can be removed from the EPG through an option in the service menu.
@TonyHales It’s only £18 per month to watch Sky One (and all the other channels in the variety pack), not £60. The frequency of breaks are the same as ITV/C4/C5 etc. and are way less than every six minutes!!
derek500Quote
December 18th, 2009 at 12:08 am
@peterbattle: gotta remember that those channels will pay a rent/sub of some sort to be included in the freesat channel line up and EPG on Freesat boxes – giving more funds for more bandwidth on sats so more of a chance of HD and other channels like French/Dutch etc.
PhilyQuote
December 18th, 2009 at 10:11 am
# 38. Freesat do not buy bandwidth!! Individual broadcasters make their own arrangements and just pay Freesat 30 grand a year to be on the EPG.
derek500Quote
December 18th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
37 derek500
I am fully aware it’s £18 a month for the variety pack which is what I had before I dumped Sky because there was almost nothing worth watching.I even had the knowledge pack for £1 a month and the shows were mainly second rate in my opinion.
I was talking about the full HD package with films and sports for £60 a month which is the only one worth having. If you have £720 a year to spend on TV go for that yes. You pays your money etc.
The adverts on Sky One are far more frequent than on ITV etc as their shows are mainly bought in from the US.The standard US show like Stargate Atlantis etc is 40 mins of programme and 20 mins of adverts per hour. . I know what I saw.
Tony HalesQuote
December 18th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
” Tony Hales The break rules are the same. Three breaks in a one hour programme, maximum duration 3’50″ (including promos).
Most UK programmes are made with a shorter running time now to accommodate three breaks per hour or six in a two hour show. Programmes like Midsomer used to have a running time of 110′ and three breaks, it’s now down to 90′ and six breaks.
In fact C4 classify True Blood (56′ running time) as a ’60-75” programme and insert four breaks. When it was on FX there were only three!!
derek500Quote
December 18th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I’m pretty sure Sky One have more than three breaks in an hour.
Tony HalesQuote
December 18th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Ofcom allows up to 12 minutes an hour with the average being 7minutes.Then add on the time Sky uses for self promotion and you get 20 mins per hour not programme. Don’t see any rule that says only 3 breaks per hour.
Tony HalesQuote
December 18th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
@42 No, Sky’s the same as ITV/C4/C5, only three breaks within the programme and of course a fourth at the end in between programmes.
derek500Quote
December 18th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
So you pay a subscription and still have to put up with ads! Buying or renting a DVD box set seems better value
Kevin Ver1Quote
December 19th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
@44 No, there were more on Sky than anywhere else. There is no rule that says three breaks per hour. If so where are your links to prove it’s so?
I already pay to watch adverts so am not going to pay twice by subscribing to Sky.
It’s only television and I don’t need Sky thanks.
Tony HalesQuote
December 19th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Regardless of the frequency of the adverts on sky, which to me, being an ex sky subscriber seem to have been more than the average terrestrial station, does not distract from the fact that they seem to abuse their position as the main player in the satellite tv market. My first experience of sky was to buy a dish and receiver For £460. At this stage there was no subscription whatsoever. In those days there was 16 channels. we could watch eurosport. along with another who’s name escapes me at the moment. There was two sky movie channels, a couple of german stations.
After the launch of further satellites, Plus a further 16 stations $ky then started to charge £9:99 per month for subscription for the movie channels. then of course sky sports added further to your monthly expenditure.
surprise surprise, next, sky box office reared its ugly head. If you wanted a premiere movie that was an extra on top of your subscription. Soon to follow Sport! The world heavy weight fight that every body wanted to watch was also pay per view.
My monthly subscription by now had increased to £42 per month. In the meantime I had been threatened with court action for not paying my subscription. After numerous phone calls, and having been called a liar by the customer services I sent a copy of my bank statement to $ky. Still I was told I had not paid my subscription.
Eventually after asking for the account number it was determined i had been paying the bill for someone else, $ky in fact had the last two digits of my account No: the wrong way round. As if that was not enough, I moved house and asked them to install a dish at my new property. They Turned up at my new residence, But refused to install to meet my requirements which was to connect to my tv points which had already been installed by a qualified electrician.
To add insult to injury they Charged one month for my old property also one month for my new residence although I had no dish, receiver,in fact no means receiving a signal from sky whatsoever
As far as I am concerned LONG LIVE FREESAT.
RussQuote
December 19th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Was Sky One free at one time?
Kevin Ver1Quote
December 20th, 2009 at 10:15 am
@ Kevin Ver1.
If my memory serves me correctly Sky One was one of the channels available free in the early days of satellite tv.
RussQuote
December 20th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
when i first bought my humax foxsat hdr i ran a single cable to it and a loop system as per manual. i have now just attatched a quad block to my dish and have the two feeds required to record and play ect. but i am not sure all is well because i dont seem to be able to record 2 channels at the same time or even record 1 whilst watching another. do i need to restore factory settings then reinstall. if i do will i lose all my recordings?
john dQuote
December 20th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
@john d
Yes, you need to do a factory reset. This will retain your recordings but loose your scheduled recordings.
adminQuote
December 20th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
The only free general entertainment channel that is still available from Sky, Sky 3 on Freeview platform is to replaced by pay TV. Seems like history repeating itself. By the way I gather there are technical problem getting Freeview thanks to the snow. I cannot get any Freeview channels at present. Thank goodness I have Freesat. It seems to me it pays to be able to access more than one platform.
Kevin Ver1Quote
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:04 am
There’s no filth on filth and there’s no babes on babestation.
What a complete let down. I could always give food network a try although I’d need kitchen wipes and not tissues.
TheDukeOfHunsletQuote
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
lol @53!
I don’t mind the adult channels, just hide them if you dont like them. More money for Freesat which can only be a good thing.
Pro FreesatQuote
January 7th, 2010 at 11:15 am
I hope c4HD and e4hd arrives on freesat soon!
RyanQuote
January 17th, 2010 at 11:42 am
i v had my freesat box for a while now i know it s a free service but the eqitment
isnt i realy cant understand why free to air channels such as dave virgin or quest
canot be a part of the line up all the exuses in the world as to why they are not
there dose not add up they are on the freeviwe systems swiching between the two systems means missing something on the other platform anyway cbs channels have a good line up of programs but it the freeviwe channels that
i watch most of the time because i record them most of the time i realy hope
that freesat will sucseed as i think it is worth having no doubt it will get better
and we need an alternative from sky to stop sky from monopolising the market
place
martinQuote