Another set-top box...

[Krayy]

...But.. the hassle with set top boxes is that every TV in the house needs one if they want to watch different channels....

Here's the beauty of having a PVR...when I get the money together to get one...

You can record off of the Sky box on one channel, record as many free to air channels as you have Sat on Antenna recievers in the PVR (and it has fast enuff disks), and then stream them around the house (including pre-recorded) using either Coax or remote PCs (media centers).

Go gigabit home network!!!

[Krayy]

Reading up on this today. There are "issues" with having a sky decoder and this new "thingamy" plugged in at the same time.

Analogue is supposed to be phased out within "5-10 years".... Tui?

Only because Skys signal is oriented vertical and Freeview is Horizontal...go to Sky channel 888 to see if you have Horiz capability. Sky have (apparntenly) intimated that there signal will be changed in the next few months..

[Krayy]

Also go here: http://www.mypvr.co.nz

[limbimtimwim]

Coming soon to a television near you?
http://freeviewnz.tv/
One wonders why these people don't do a deal with Sky and TelstraClear, rather than rolling out yet another platform.

It's not a bad thing to do. When more TVs have DVB-T receivers in them from the get go, it will all make sense. It shouldn't add much to the cost of televisions in the short term, and in the medium term won't add anything at all because the required bits and pieces already sell at comparable prices to analogue tuners. It means better picture and sound. DVB also allows there to be more channels in the same amount of electromagnetic spectrum, my understanding is that 5 channels can use the same chunk of spectrum at a time. Sorry, can't quote my source as I don't recall it.

Also, SkyTV and the cable TV networks are semi-proprietary. DVB-S and DVB-T are standards and you can buy off the shelf bits to receive the transmissions if you wanted to.

[Hitcher]

OK, I understand the upstream splitter thing, but what if the signal is coming off a different satellite: two dishes needed?

[lb99]

what say I know a person who has a tv tuner card in his pc, that tuner card could be capable of intercepting and decoding a certain paytv companys UHF signal if the owner felt the need.
Now that tuner card has an input for cable tv, could this be used to decode freeview digital to save the need for another set top box?

[limbimtimwim]

Now that tuner card has an input for cable tv, could this be used to decode freeview digital to save the need for another set top box?

Unless that plug is a DVB-T or DVB-S tuner, no. However, you could get a DVB-S or DVB-T card in that PC for less than $150: http://www.pricespy.co.nz/search.php?q=dvb . One geeky good thing about DVB is since that it is already essentially MPEG video, you don't need to encode the transmission as it comes in the aerial, you effectively are saving the transmission to disk when you record stuff.

You've been able to point a DVB-S receiver at the Sky satellite for a long time and get TV1 and TV2 un-encrypted.

[limbimtimwim]

OK, I understand the upstream splitter thing, but what if the signal is coming off a different satellite: two dishes needed?

Doesn't need reaming or another dish, it is on the same satellite. Though freeview are discouraging the re-use of the sky-dish because sky own it.

But if you had a freeview tuner in addition to a paid up sky box, they couldn't really take issue, could they?

[SimJen]

Apparently Sky Basic (not advertised, as they don't like people subscribing to it) is $18.49 or somesuch, and you don't need to pay $300 for the set-top box. It gives you access only to the "free to air" channels.

Theres a lot more free to air channels on sky than freeview and you have the option of adding more if you want to watch the rugby/soccer/bike racing etc. for a month or two. Nothing says you can't sign up only for the seasons of your favourite sports. Thats what I do.

[bungbung]

OK, I understand the upstream splitter thing, but what if the signal is coming off a different satellite: two dishes needed?

If you want to watch a channel from a different satellite, you'll either need another dish so you could flick between the two, or to repoint your dish at the new satellite. Which is involved if you don't have a motorised dish mount and a controller with a location memory function.

[ManDownUnder]

yayyyy - at freakin last, some competition for rupert the wanker.

fkin sky - how dare they charge me for watching tv ads - now i can watch them for free. at least they're more interesting that the crap awful programmes on tv these days.

tv is dead - long live youtube

redtube you say? (NWS... *ahem*)