Good sky alternatives

[admin_exported]

Im about to move into a listed building. And due to its listed status, i cant put a dish on the outside (dammit).

Im assuming its location specific, but what is the best cable package? Will i get HD through cable?! Im fearing that i cant.

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

I think your options are narrowed to Virign or BT Vision. Virgin do BBC HD and also have a certain amount of HD content on their On Demand system. AFAIK the BT Vision box does have an HDMI output for hi-def content but they don't actually supply any at the moment.

 

[John Duncan]

Check availability of virgin in your area here. They have good content, if expensive (though less so for new customers, I think). And their customer service is poor (IME), though I suspect this is the case with them all.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Are you 100% sure you can't have Sky?
I lived in a listed building for a while and got round it by having the dish on a flat section of the roof - it was invisible unless you were at roof level, and as such was less unsightly than a standard TV aerial.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

It is ludicrous that you can't put up a Sky dish. I blame organisations like English heritage and the Prince of Wales who seem to want to turn Britain into a gigantic Museum. I can't help thinking that if are ancestors came back to life they would be horrified that we have tuned Britain into a gigantic theme park.

 

[HDNumpty]

I work for a large Housing Association and the sky free-for-all left some blocks looking like shanty towns (60 dishes on one elevation anyone?). Clare's solution sounds like a good one if you can get away with it. Otherwise, live in a Barratt-box, not a Grade II listed building!

 

[danwood6]

Insane that you can't put up a dish. It would however be ok to buy a large rusty old caravan and park that right infront of the property permently. How about fixing a dish to that and running the cable through the window into the lounge?

 

[Anonymous]

My dish is hidden in a bush and with regular careful pruning, the signal is fine. There is nothing quite as ugly as a council wok on the side of someone's house. Is there a handy tree nearby ?

 

[southdownswolf]

If you have kids, how about getting one of them to hang out the window holding the dish?

 

[play_it_again_sam]

Or get your
dish mounted on a pole in your garden. As FlyingScot says it can be screened
on 3 sides by bushes. Get a compass out and check whether there's a position outside where
a dish on a pole, at say 1 metre off the ground, can 'see' the Astra satellite -
depending where you live, this will be at about 25 degrees elevation and a
bearing of about 147 degrees. The coaxial cable can be fed through flexible conduit
(£12 for 10metres from Screwfix) and covered over by soil. Some installers specialise in this or have a go
yourself like I did - the hardest part is getting hold of a pole - I used a bit
of old scaffolding pole!

Remember that
you don't need to pay Sky to get HD - FreeSat is now up and running.

 

[Anonymous]

some entertaining replies guys!

I have no children so i cant use them as a temporary dish holder. Although thats and idea for the future!

We only have a patio garden out the front which leads into a communal area, so a pole and a dish there would go down like a poo sandwich with the neighbours.

Its a mews property and the roof is pitched all along, so sadly no flat areas to hide a dish away. I do agree in keeping the facades dish free, as i do think dishes look terrible if you have a whole load of them hanging off the walls. Its the last thing that should happen to a gorgeous period property. But i dont see the probelm with having a communal dish on the roof for everyone to use.

I was looking at the virgin offers and it looks pricey and not that great. I checked the avaliability at the address and it just had the set top box highlighted. Which is a complete bummer all round.

I thought even with free sat you need a dish installed?? And can you get sky sports and the nat geo, discovery etc??

Cheers

Matt

 

[HDNumpty]

danwood6:
Insane that you can't put up a dish. It would however be ok to buy a large rusty old caravan and park that right infront of the property permently. How about fixing a dish to that and running the cable through the window into the lounge?

That's not allowed either under the Be A Decent Citizen Not A Selfish Scrote Act 2002

 

[HDNumpty]

You can get a list of options by unputting your postcode to http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/when

I have a mate in exactly the same situation and his options are limited to Freeview/Top-Up & Tiscali/BT Vision (no HD). Why not buy a blu-ray player & get a Lovefilm subscription?

 

[Anonymous]

that would be ideal if love film had live premiership games every week

i'm off to see how much a rusty old caravan is........