FTV Cards?

[The Mighty 890]

Hi all,

Got one of the Sky FTV cards from a contact in the UK recently. Very handy for C4 and ITV London, BBCs 3 & 4 and all the BBC radio stations.

One thing puzzles me. ITV2 is not available on it. I thought ITV2 and Sky1 and others were part of the Freeview service in the UK.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers, :)

[JDxtra]

Yes, ITV2 is part of Freeview.

However Sky 1 & ITV2 are and always have been subscription channels on Sky Digital.

You will need to have a UK subscription in order to get ITV2.

[Anthony]

hey there mighty,

the auld (bbc as opposed to sky) ftv cards are great, arent they? you forgot to mention channel five. wonder why!!!

as jdempsey says itv2 is only available with a uk sub, something to do with the way itv kept their channels off of sky for so long.

you are confusing sky one with sky one mix. it is the second, stripped down version which is on freeview. sky one have no clearance to broadcast some of their programs via terrestrial, so sky one mix is their way around the problem. this is currently part of the sky sub on satellite, but will also be on ftv cards soon. so will some other channels like sky sports news and ftn, which is the best of flextech channel.

[The Mighty 890]

Thanks for the info guys, that clears that up for me.
Hopefully ITV2 might become available soon as it could be handy for Champions League soccer when TV3 persist in showing only Man United games (sorry John!).
Well done to Brian Kerrs men last night but as for Scotland :eek:

[JDxtra]

Hi Anthony, Sky One Mix is actually not available on Freeview.

Yes, it would be great to see ITV2 available on the FTV card. ITV are slow to move on these things - so don't go holding your breath! :)

[Anthony]

thanks for the correction jdempsey, i was convinced it was part of the freeview package. so what purpose does sky one mix serve then?

i was wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure that sky have forced itv2 onto sub cards because of the original reluctance of itv to go on the platform. the decision is out of itvs hands afaik.

[The Doc]

Anyone know how I could get my hands on an FTV card? Where could I get one and how much would it cost? Thanks in advance.

[John Fleming]

West Sat are selling cards again...

sales@west-sat.com

0044 1288 381679

I can personally recommend these people.

Last price was £23

[The Doc]

Thanks a milion John.

[John Fleming]

I would even more recommend - if you can afford it - getting a second receiver for your new card. There's nothing like having all the UK channels on one, and your usual Sky sub on another.

[Anthony]

Best of all is to get a UK subriscription. That way you get ITV2 as well. You will lose Rte and TV3 on sky but you can get them with a cheap aeriel anyway.

[The Beacon]

Originally posted by John Fleming
I would even more recommend - if you can afford it - getting a second receiver for your new card. There's nothing like having all the UK channels on one, and your usual Sky sub on another.


To get a second receiver,would one have to put up another mini dish? Where would one source another receiver? Would you need 2 remote controls? Do you have this set up? Does it work well for you? And Sky copped onto to everyone watching ITV regionals etc thru the other channels menu, so how can these FTV cards work....will Sky not block them? Or can they? Like if I was to buy one,would it possibly be blocked and making my investment worthless?? ohhhhhhh........and that price for the card....£23 is that 23 sterling or € ?

A lot of questions I know, but please help me out if you can.

Thanks.

[John Fleming]

I'll try.

A second mini-dish is an option but is absolutely unnecessary. You can feed up to four receivers with a single mini-dish using a special lnb for the purpose.

There are many sources for receivers. Brand new there are plenty of dealers. I know of people who purchase on Ebay. Try 'Buy and Sell' (the magazine and/or the board on this site!).
I bought my receiver from West-Sat for £200.

The set-up i have works perfectly. Unfortunately, the remote control for Sky receivers is a generic one and there's no way of adapting one. So, with two receivers in the same room it can cause problems if you're recording from one, and surfing channels with another one. There are solutions to the problem though, which i won't go into here unless you decide to go for the second receiver option.

The ITV regions were available on an Irish subscription card. it was ITV who forced the issue and got them blocked. Don't you think Sky would love to provide them. How many more subs from Ireland do you reckon they'd get with ITV on board?

Certainly if Sky become aware that you are viewing from Ireland using a FTV card, they are obligated to block you, but unless you tell them, they won't know - certainly not with the second receiver solution anyway (one day they may cross-reference their database and discover UK FTV cards AND Irish sub cards tied to the same receivers).

Your final question i don't understand. In my post i said that the card was £23. You're buying from a UK company and the price i gave was in pounds - why are you confused ;-)

BTW Anthony's post about UK subscription is a worthy one. I believe West-Sat offer this solution also. That would allay a lot of your fears.

[JDxtra]

One solution to get around the remote control problem is to get a Sky+ digibox instead of a regular digibox. The remote on a Sky+ digibox operates on a different frequency. They also usually come with a quad LNB as well - so it may be a cheaper option than buying a regular digibox and a quad LNB seperatly (even if the hard disk built into the Sky+ digibox is useless in Ireland!).

[John Fleming]

I wasn't aware of the different frequency on the Sky+ - what price are we talking?

[JDxtra]

They are not available in Ireland, but you can get them over the counter in places like Dixons & Currys in the UK for STG£249. Check the box it comes in though - as some don't actually contain a quad LNB (it should be labelled on the outside). I have also seen them online for STG£299.

Stocks are apparently low at the moment, as there is a meant to be a new model from Pace due out soon (apparently, with no extra features though - just a tad smaller and apparently cheaper to make).

The cost of a regular non-subsidised regular digibox and a quad LNB will probably end up costing you STG£350 - so they are pretty good value, and are a far superior box as well (proper optical out with Dolby, S-VHS output and a very fast EPG). Not to mention the possability of Sky+ actually being available here soon...

[The Beacon]

another question?.......you said

A second mini-dish is an option but is absolutely unnecessary. You can feed up to four receivers with a single mini-dish using a special lnb for the purpose.


whats a Inb? Excuse my ignorance?

[John Fleming]

LNB = Low Noise Block Converter. It collects the signal from your dish and converts the high satellite frequencies into ones usable by your receiver.

Or in technical terms, the yoke at the end of the feedarm with the cable coming out.

[Anthony]

i might go for Sky+ receiver myself. John, what is the solution to the remote problems please?

I think west-sat do the uk subs. There is another company on the net that do them but they charge way over the odds. I got mine from a UK address using my dads cc. No problems to report.

[The Beacon]

Originally posted by John Fleming
LNB = Low Noise Block Converter. It collects the signal from your dish and converts the high satellite frequencies into ones usable by your receiver.

Or in technical terms, the yoke at the end of the feedarm with the cable coming out.



thanks John, i'll have to get one of those yokes! lol.:D

[JDxtra]

With Sky+ and a regular digibox in the same room - there is no remote problem!

[The Beacon]

If I cancelled my Family pack Sub. with Sky, and got one of these FTV cards from the Uk,What channels do you receive with the FTv card? Can anyone please give me a definitive list?


please and thanks.
:p

[The Doc]

You'll receive BBC's 1 2 3 & 4 TV channels, ITV West Country, Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament (though this one will bore you to death!) Also you'll get the usual Free To Air channels such as Sky News, CNN etc but you WILL NOT have Sky One, UK Gold, UK Living, Bravo, E4, ITV2 etc. So think twice if you're gonna cancel.

[FoxyJock]

With the free to view card, over and above the free to air channels already on the Sky epg in red, you will get the following - in bold:

101 BBC One (from the region your card is from - none of the other regions are available)

102 BBC Two (as above - but the three other regions are available lower in the EPG)

103 ITV (as above - but the majority of the other regions can be tuned into the other channels section - in some circumstances, you will get another 1 or 2 regions lower down the EPG)

104 Channel 4 (Welsh cards get S4C, with Channel 4 available at 184 - S4C is free to air outside Wales on 184)

105 Five

160 BBC Three (was BBC Choice)

161 BBC Four

181 Travel Channel

182 Travel Channel 2

184 S4C Digidol (not terrestrial version - in other words NO English language Channel 4 extras)

202 Life TV

208 Showcase

220 Fashion TV

223 Game Network

229 You TV

235 Avago TV

238 BEN

241 Reality TV

247 Classics TV

259 Performance

262 Simply Nostalgia

327 TCM

414 redbuttonraces

416 Motors TV

422 Extreme Sports

455 Chart Show TV

461 p-rock tv

464 Classic FM TV

467 Channel U

501 Sky News

507 BBC News 24

508 BBC Parliament

513 CNN

519 S4C2

525 ITV News (but advantage of FTV card, this station is not blocked during extra Champions League games - usually not available on TV Three)

528 EuroNews

534 CCTV9

621 CBBC Channel

622 CBeebies

630-695 Various shopping, religious and community channels - all free

805-826 Various Asian channels - some free

851-855 BBC Radio 1 - 5

866 BBC Radio Scotland

867 BBC Radio Wales

868 BBC Radio Ulster

869 BBC Asian Nt

870 BBC Radio 4 LW

907 BBC Radio 5L Sports Extra

911 BBC Radio 6 Music

919 BBC Radio 1Xtra

920 BBC Radio na Gael

922 BBC7

960-964 Extra BBC Two & ITV regions

[Anorak]

Well done Foxy jock! You forgot to add that most of the fta channels are pure dross. When are you starting on 98?

[JDxtra]

Don't forget Sky are replacing all their cards at the moment - and you cannot mix new cards with old cards in the same digibox!

I believe that Dublin Sky subscribers began getting new cards in the post today. People have been reporting that once you upgrade your Irish Sky card - your "old style" FTV card will not work anymore in the same digibox.

Swapping "new style" FTV cards with "new style" Irish sub cards appears to work fine though.

[Billy Dane]

I got my Sky card too. I also heard that in lots of cases the cards dont work, and it wont accept your old card again, meaning you lose your subbed channels until they can replace it. I wont be putting mine in until Monday. I dont want to lose my weekend viewing!

[The Beacon]

What audio channels or radio station channels do you get on the FTV card???

[Liamo]

So what's the bottom line ? If you get an FTV card.....

1) can you swap cards to view different channels without screwing up the box ?
2) can you swap if you've received a new Sky card (or are there equivalent "new" FTV cards that allow you to swap) ?
3) is there any difference in rotation, etc, to access the FTV sat ?
4) how come you can run 2 boxes from one dish if Sky say that's only available in the UK ?
5) if FTV is supposedly regionless (i.e. that's why the RTE rights issue arose) how come the UK sub is different to the Irish sub ?

Sorry if any of the above are dumb questions...

[Billy Dane]

1) Yes you can swap cards. This will not cause any problems.

2) If you have a FTV card that was issued before the start of this year, it appears that you will not be able to use that with your new Sky card. However, any FTV cards issued this year will not cause a problem. And if you use your old ftv card in a box independent of a sky sub, that will cause no problems.

3) Can you repeat the question :-)

4) You can run 2 boxes using an lnb with 2 (or more) outputs. It has been available in every country, not just the uk, since the begiining of (satellite) time.

5) FTV is not regionless. In the same way that RTÉ has rights only to broadcast to Republic, UK channels can only broadcast to the uk. This is why the ftv scheme exists. Contrary to what has passed for fact on some websites, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & Five are not dependent on a Sky subscription. They are free to viewers in the UK who have the right equipment. Plus, the channels that you get are tied to the postcode that the channel was issued to. Other BBC2 regions can be accessed lower in the epg, other itv regions in other channels, but other BBC1 regions are not accessible.

[Liamo]

Thanks Billy

Good news on #1 and #2



3) Can you repeat the question :-)

Just wondering whether the dish needs to be repointed (as per receiving "foreign" broadcasts), or whether the existing orientation is good enough. I presume it is.


4) You can run 2 boxes using an lnb with 2 (or more) outputs.


I thought that wasn't available in Ireland....that's good news! And you can just buy the second box from Dixons ? Hold the fort, folks - I might just go digital yet!


5) FTV is not regionless. In the same way that RTÉ has rights only to broadcast to Republic, UK channels can only broadcast to the uk. This is why the ftv scheme exists. Contrary to what has passed for fact on some websites, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & Five are not dependent on a Sky subscription. They are free to viewers in the UK who have the right equipment. Plus, the channels that you get are tied to the postcode that the channel was issued to. Other BBC2 regions can be accessed lower in the epg, other itv regions in other channels, but other BBC1 regions are not accessible.
Now that's definitely different to what I'd heard before! The whole discussion on it being bad news for RTE if they switch from Sky was that they'd automatically be broadcasting to the UK and Ireland, thereby incurring extra costs for rights, or losing out on any hope of affordable rights.

Thanks for the info, Billy!

[John Fleming]

3) All the channels - Sky subscription and UK terrestrials - are available from the same spot in the Sky. Technically it's a little more complicated than that, but all you need to know is that one dish, pointed at 28.2° East, will pick up these channels.

4) You are confusing the Sky+ offering from Sky with the general technical capability of receiving channels on 1 or more receivers from a single dish. Sky themselves won't add a dual (or quad) output lnb to your dish unless you are subscribing to their Sky+ service. This does not mean that it's not possible to implement this set-up yourself.
Sky Digital's broadcasts can be picked up with any dish (if you have an old "analogue" 80cm it will do fine), and any universal lnb - whether it has 1 or 4 outputs.

5) I think you are confusing FTV with FTA. FTV=Free to View. FTA=Free to Air. Neither requires a subscription, but FTV signals are encrypted and need a card (in this case) or a suitable receiver to decrypt.

All the UK terrestrials presently broadcast via satellite using Sky's Videoguard encryption. This means they can only be viewed uising a Sky Digital receiver and a FTV card.
When the BBC go FTA at the end of this month, it will then be possible to view all the BBC channels on any (almost) receiver. They will be independent of Sky, but there will be benefits in receiving the services using a Sky receiver (EPG, interactive).

I hope this clears things up a little Liamo.

I would advise that you decide exactly what channels you want. You may decide that you only want the BBC channels. This will mean you can go totally independent of Sky, and will only need a standard dish set up..
Or you may only want the UK terrestrials. This would require a Sky receiver, and a UK address to have the FTV card sent to. Again, dish set up is standard.
If you wish to subscribe to Sky - and you will need to to get the 4 Irish 'terrestrials', and also want the UK terrestrials, then the standard dish and single box solution means swapping cards.
A Dual output lnb running to two receivers will give you your Sky sub on one box, and the UK terrestrials on another (recommended!).

See other threads for the best way to get a FTV card.

[Liamo]

Cheers John!

4) Yup - I had thought there was a technical (hardware or software difference) so that one's good to know!

5) Yup - I kinda was, or at least wasn't sure how they interrelated

I hope this clears things up a little

It certainly does....I think I have it now:

1) all BBC channels will be FTA unencoded from next month - just requires dish and any receiver, without a card
2) other terrestrials may follow BBC to FTA, but for the moment will require an FTV card and a Sky receiver, and the channels will be regional variations based on the UK address you supply
3) if you have the above without Sky, then you'll need a UHF aerial to receive the 4 Irish channels
4) if you have Sky, you'll receive the Irish channels (and BBC, when they go FTA next month), but will need an FTV card to view the other terrestrials listed above. You can swap cards and/or use 2 receivers

One final question:

Why won't the 4 Irish ones go FTV, if the regional (address-based) blocking system is there ? That would solve the rights issues, wouldn't it ?

[John Fleming]

1) Yes

2) In the case of UK terrestrials other than BBC, your EPG will display the region from which your card originates.
So, if your card is from Manchester, you'll get Granada ITV1 at 103 on your EPG. However, another 15 ITV regions can be added to your other channels menu.
In the case of EPG104, if your card is from Wales you'll get S4C in this slot, and Channel 4 at 184. Anywhere else in the UK displays these the other way around. (S4C has recently gone FTA (as opposed to FTV) and can be viewed on any receiver (184 on a Sky box without a Welsh card tied to it).

4) Yes

RTÉ's appearance on Sky is down to contracts signed. At the time it suited both to go the route they did. One wonders what will happen when we've all got the BBC without paying a penny (beyond receiver and dish).

[FoxyJock]

There is one other option. Take out a Uk subscription. Its awkward but you get itv2 as well.

[The Beacon]

Originally posted by John Fleming
West Sat are selling cards again...

sales@west-sat.com

0044 1288 381679

I can personally recommend these people.

Last price was £23


Is there any other source anyone for these handy things????

[corkdood]

No they're not I ordered one yesterday.

[The Beacon]

Originally posted by The Doc
You'll receive BBC's 1 2 3 & 4 TV channels, ITV West Country, Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament (though this one will bore you to death!) Also you'll get the usual Free To Air channels such as Sky News, CNN etc but you WILL NOT have Sky One, UK Gold, UK Living, Bravo, E4, ITV2 etc. So think twice if you're gonna cancel.


Got my FTV card and popped it in the digibox. But to my dismay, There is NO BBC4 , 1,2 &3 (is there) , No CHANNEL 4,NO CHANNEL 5, or ITV 1 or 2????

Can anyone help me? Really pissed off!!!:ranting:

[JDxtra]

Errr, what you talking about? The FTV card scheme ended months ago.

[John Fleming]

...and ITV2 is only available via sub, and if you're getting the other three BBCs (on the EPG), BBC Four should also be available...

If it's an old (series 1) card and it was out of the box, it may have been deactivated at this stage (the telltale sign is a 'This programme is not available' blue screen on the sub channels, as opposed to the Sky subliminal 'subscribe' message).

If it's a series 2 card, leave it in long enough and the channels will return - if the card was active before, that is.

[The Beacon]

I got the card from Westsat about 3 weeks ago. Only put it in the box last weekend and when I try to choose,for instance itv2, it says " VIEWING CARD not authorised, contact your broadcaster for assistance. Fine! But all i can get is the BBC's. but not BBC4? And ITV's not on the menu or channel 4 or 5? Whas da STOREYYYY>?