Thursday 17 July 2008

Adding non-Freesat services to Bush Freesat Digibox

The recent upgrade to the Bush Freesat Digibox's operating system allows the box to receive non-freesat services. This means that you can program the digibox to receive a plethora of other free-to-air television channels over and above the standard ones that the box is programmed to find. In general, free to air services include many channels that you would have received if you had installed any service from Sky. Alternatively, you could purchase third party satellite decoder digiboxes and receive the free to air channels using these boxes. Luckily the freesat boxes all have the ability to receive any television channel that is broadcast via the Eurobird satellite (at 28.5 degrees E) or the Astra 2A, 2B, 2C or 2D (28.2 degrees E).

The original release of the instruction manual doesn't show how to add the non freesat services, and it is a touch un-intuitive, so I'm going to help you out.
First, using your remote, select "Menu", choose "Settings" and then scroll down to Add Non-Freesat Services, click tho "Ok" button and then select "Manual Tune". It should look like this:Now you have a screen where you can add the non freesat services. There are three settings you need to be aware of: Frequency, Symbol Rate and LNB Polarisation. You also have signal strength and quality indicators down the bottom. Here's a screen shot:

Ok, this is a lot less complex than it looks at first. We need a good reference for the various channels that are available to us. Luckily, here it is:
Eurobird
Astra

Lovely. So just type in the frequency and the symbol rate listed on those pages, check the polarisation and then highlight the "Scan" field and hit the right arrow. You'll add your new channels! Wehey!

Now, how to view these channels? Well get to your "TV Listings" and then hit the "Swap" button on your remote and voila......free to air satellite channels to view on your freesat box!

Great stuff.

What's that I hear, you don't want to decipher the frequencies you need.....ok, 'cause I'm a gent, just type these in to your manual tune.....

Astra 2A/2B/2C/2D 28.2 East


FrequencySymbol RateLNB Polarisation
10714H22000
10729V22000
10744H22000
10758V22000
10773H22000
10788V22000
10803H22000
10818V22000
10832H22000
10847V22000
10862H22000
10876V22000
10891H22000
10906V22000
11052H22000
11778V27500
11876H27500
11914H27500
11934V27500
11954H27500
11973V27500
12012V27500
12032H27500
12051V27500
12070H27500
12090V27500
12110H27500
12129V27500
12188H27500
12207V27500
12226H27500
12266H27500
12285V27500
12304H27500
12382H27500
12402V27500
12422H27500
12441V27500
12460H27500
12480V27500


Eurobird 28.5 East

FrequencySymbol RateLNB Polarisation
11222H27500
11223V27500
11259V27500
11261H27500
11307H27500
11307V27500
11343V27500
11390H27500
11390V27500
11426H27500
11426V27500
11469H27500
11488V27500
11508H27500
11527V27500
11546H27500
11565V27500
11603V27500
11623H27500
11642V27500
11661H27500
11680H27500
12524H27500
12524V27500
12560V27500
12607H27500
12607V27500
12643H27500