BBC upgrade to HD..

[Brandane]

As title. I can no longer watch regional news programmes on BBC1 Scotland, because the BBC have upgraded to HD, and I don't have a Sky HD box, just a standard (non subscription) one. If I want to watch regional news programmes I need to get a Sky HD box (and presumably pay a subscription). I won't be doing that, Sky/BBC..
So looks like I need to get rid of my rusty old Sky dish off the side of my house, and get a freeview aerial system instead. Isn't "progress" wonderful....

 

[mjr]

My not Sky HD box, a Zgemma H9, is still working fine, but I had to force a retune.

 

[DCBassman]

Freesat hd box, sorted.

 

[Mo1959]

I have the sky HDbox as I paid for Sky in the long and distant past. Thankfully, I still get all the free channels ok.

 

[the_mikey]

Freesat HD box is your easiest option, if you don't mind looking up frequency tables then any number of "cheap" amazon HD satellite receivers will probably work too.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

My TV has a Freeview tuner and a Freesat tuner built in. Never had an aerial connected to it. Freesat gives a few more channels over Freeview

 

[DaveReading]

As title. I can no longer watch regional news programmes on BBC1 Scotland, because the BBC have upgraded to HD, and I don't have a Sky HD box, just a standard (non subscription) one. If I want to watch regional news programmes I need to get a Sky HD box (and presumably pay a subscription). I won't be doing that, Sky/BBC..
So looks like I need to get rid of my rusty old Sky dish off the side of my house, and get a freeview aerial system instead. Isn't "progress" wonderful....

I don't have a Sky Box, just a Freesat one, but of course they both receive the same transmissions from the same satellite.

As well as HD, BBC Scotland still broadcasts on SD on a different frequency (10802 H), so your box should be able to pick it up and decode it, maybe after a retune? On my Freesat box I can choose between Channel 110 (BBC1 Scot HD) or 174 (BBC1 Scot SD), but channel numbers probably differ on Sky.

See https://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2E.html

 

[ianrauk]

I friend of mine ditched hi Sky box and bough one of those cheap Amazon Freesat boxes mentioned above. £24 iirc.
Got to admit, I was very surprised at how good the box is, especially the free HD content.

 

[mjr]

I don't have a Sky Box, just a Freesat one, but of course they both receive the same transmissions from the same satellite.

As well as HD, BBC Scotland still broadcasts on SD on a different frequency (10802 H), so your box should be able to pick it up and decode it, maybe after a retune? On my Freesat box I can choose between Channel 110 (BBC1 Scot HD) or 174 (BBC1 Scot SD), but channel numbers probably differ on Sky.

See https://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2E.html

BBC Scotland and BBC one Scotland are different. BBC one Scotland becomes HD only this week, according to https://www.hdsatelliteupgrade.co.uk/when-does-my-area-switch but they might not switch the SD off immediately if they don't need the space for anything else.

 

[fossyant]

Has terrestrial BBC1 moved to HD for local - seem to remember switching to 1 from 101 just the other day for local news ?

 

[mjr]

Has terrestrial BBC1 moved to HD for local - seem to remember switching to 1 from 101 just the other day for local news ?

1 is SD. 101 is HD. You used to only get regional news on SD but https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/articles/2022/BBC-One-HD-rollout-England says freeview will have both for the foreseeable.

 

[ColinJ]

I hadn't noticed the changes but had a look after spotting this thread. I used to have the opposite problem to @Brandane in that I couldn't see Yorkshire news because it was NOT in HD and I had deleted BBC1 SD from my Freesat box. Maybe I will start watching the local news again now that I can watch it in HD.

I noticed that ITV channels 2,3 & 4 have also gone HD. I don’t watch 2 or 3, but do watch the cycling on 4 so that is good - e.g. Paris-Nice coverage, 5th to 12th March.

 

[Chris S]

I've got a Freeview box and an old fashioned internal ariel. I can get over 100 channels without subscription.

 

[mjr]

I've got a Freeview box and an old fashioned internal ariel. I can get over 100 channels without subscription.

10 of them are timeshares ( BBC three and four with the children's channels, for example), so it's just under 100 in reality. By comparison, there are 351 TV channels on the freesat satellites and 76 radio, including a full slate of CBS, GREAT, That and ITV2/3/4/B +1 channels. No summer atmospheric signal loss either.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Just ditch SKY.
Freesat box worked with our SKY dish OK.
We don't even have an ariel in our new house yet - just watch all via t'internet.