# crown freeview box in UK



## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

[[ originally posted on TiVo.com, but they sent me here... and I found I already had an account from aeons ago  ]]

I'm trying to set up a "Crown" freeview box in the UK (my Sky box packed in and I'm trying to save GBP 21 a month for channels I never watch)

Unfortunately crown is not on the list...

and if I pick "none of the above" it gives a phone number which says "This is an important message from Sky" (of all people!)

I've tried some of the "freeview" options, but the IR blaster is doing nothing.

So, what next?

Steve

--

posted while on the sofa from my Eee running Ubuntu Hardy.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

If you have access to a Pronto universal remote or a PDA that can run an emulator then you can capture the codes and send them to Tivo to add to the database.
Details are under "Supported STB's" at this site http://www.tivoportal.co.uk/
Alternatively have a search for the threads on here about good freeview boxes to use with Tivo and check the (rather old) list at Tivoportal.


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

I have just had to replace a failed freeview box on one of my Tivos and I opted for this one 
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-4360.aspx
Very small and works perfectly using Tivo IR code 88881


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

RichardJH said:


> I have just had to replace a failed freeview box on one of my Tivos and I opted for this one
> http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-4360.aspx
> Very small and works perfectly using Tivo IR code 88881


Hi,

Just bought one of those (well, very similar as they had in-store today... will swap for the exact one you mentioned if it doesn't work)... but I can't see Technika on the list of supported receivers. What am I supposed to select at this point?

I've tried a couple of the Freeview (1 of 3) and freeview (2 of 2)  ? but the codes I see from these are 100002 or 200002, etc., How do I choose one which will allow me to specify 88881 ?

Sorry if I'm being thick here, but I just can't see what to use.

Thanks,

Steve


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

if it helps, the model I've bought is an AESTBS7... but even a google search for that model comes up with nothing useful.

Any ideas what code I should use for this box (someone seems to have got it working from the google search for aestbs7 tivo, but they don't say what codes they used.)

Otherwise I guess I'll just hope Tesco will swap it for the other one, which I can order from Tesco Direct.

Help!!!

Steve


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

.... or even better (and sorry to keep replying to my own post), which would be a DECENT freeview box to buy? These seem to have a pretty crappy UI and don't get a very good signal strength. Should I spend a little more and get a good one?

Steve


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## Nero2 (Aug 22, 2005)

sbutton said:


> .... or even better (and sorry to keep replying to my own post), which would be a DECENT freeview box to buy? These seem to have a pretty crappy UI and don't get a very good signal strength. Should I spend a little more and get a good one?
> 
> Steve


You might want to check this thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=384668

Thanks


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

Nero2 said:


> You might want to check this thread:
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=384668
> 
> Thanks


Yep. Thanks. Spotted that after a little more searching, and I'm now watching several Sonys (Sony's, Sonies?) on eBay... sounds like a far better proposition.

I mean, surely the whole point of TiVo is the superior UI, so why suffer a crappy UI on one of these £18-£30 boxes. Especially now I've saved £21 / month on Sky. Even if I won't be using the UI all that much really.

Getting closer to a resolution.

Steve


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

I'm not sure that you would gain anything extra from using a Sony stb compared with my recent purchase and suggestion. The STB menus and EPG/GUI have no relevance once it is being controlled by Tivo.

BTW


> How do I choose one which will allow me to specify 88881 ?


88881 is listed under Tivo in the IR codes list.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

After reading all of the above posts which seem to lead only in the direction of the highly reduced channel lineup available with a Freeview box I notice that both the OP and all those who have responded to him seem to have ignored the two most logical options for replacing a failed Sky box:-

1. Buying one of the new Humax HD capable BBC/ITV boxes Freesat boxes as found at www.freesat.co.uk and which are also now supported in the Tivo database and for which the whole slightly different channel numbering sequence is now supported by Tivo as a separate Freesat EPG platform. These boxes provide BBC HD (not via Tivo but when hooked directly to your tv) now free of charge if you have an HD capable tv and also ITV HD at some point in the next couple of months with C4 HD likely to follow by the end of the year or so.

2. Buying a secondhand Sky box on Ebay for £20 or so and transferring your existing Sky viewing card (still needed for C4, Five, FIVER, Five US and Sky Three) and connecting that to your Tivo.

An unsubscribed Sky box has things like CNN, Bloomberg, Euronews, Russia Today, France 24 and Al Jazeeraj International that a Freeview box does not receive. It also has Zone Reality, Hollywood Tv etc and film channels like Truemovies, Truemovies 2, Movies4Men, Movies4Men 2, Zone Horror and Zone Thriller not to be found on Freeview, not to mention Wine Tv, Wedding TV Overseas Property channel etc, etc. Also More4 and E4 are now available on a desubscribed Sky box. About the only channels you don't get on a Freesat or an unsubbed Sky box that are on Freeview are Sky Sports News, part time UK Bright Ideas, part time UK History and Virgin 1. These will probably become FTA on an unsubscribed Sky box later this year and/or also on a www.freesat.co.uk box.

The OP seems to be one of those people who labours under the sad misapprehension that a Sky box only works when paying a subscription to Sky. However this is not so and there is also now the HD www.freesat.co.uk non Sky satellite option. Also see www.freesatfromsky.co.uk for all the channels you can get on a Sky box without a sub.

Regarding money back on the original Tesco box just take it back saying it kept freezing regularly and appeared faulty and that under the Sale of Goods Act you wish to take advantage of a full refund on faulty goods returned soon after purchase.


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## jrg (May 26, 2002)

sbutton said:


> Yep. Thanks. Spotted that after a little more searching, and I'm now watching several Sonys (Sony's, Sonies?) on eBay... sounds like a far better proposition.


My Grundig GDT 2000 recently completely gave up the ghost (power supply death, after a crash and hard reset. Probably a dead capacitor but I couldn't spot it.)

When we had the Grundig/Thomson Teletext software upgrade debacle the other year I'd tried an Argos Wharfedale STB on recommendations from that other thread. But I got one of the unreliable ones with the sound drop outs (and sound synchronisation problems, which is even more distracting when it happens.)

So after looking at some of the current models, and there being no clear winner on the reliability or quality front, I decided to go with a second hand Sony VTX-D800U, because of its reported picture quality and reception ability. I found one cheap on eBay: there's a lot of them coming up for sale at the moment.

Unlike some of the current STB software, it will allow you to pick and always get 16:9 (if available) on a 4:3 TV (the Wharfedale was quirky in that regard.) You can also completely disable updates, though there are unlikely to be any now - a feature I often had wished the Grundig had. The on-screen menus make no difference, beyond the tuning and set-up. The vaunted snappy MHEG performance is merely eye-candy when selecting a Radio station, for me. The Tivo has no use for SmartLink nor EPG.

My one concern with this was the BBC 3/4/CBBC/CBEEB switch over problem (Pinky and the Brain, if you're wondering). But that's not yet cropped up in the few days I've had it.


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> The OP seems to be one of those people who labours under the sad misapprehension that a Sky box only works when paying a subscription to Sky.


Yes, I was. Even more sad is that fact that I cancelled my Sky subscription for a couple of months a few years back and it continued to work... which I has completely forgotten about. Twit.

As you suggested, I've purchased a second hand Sky box from Ebay for £20 (including postage!) ... I took the Technika back to Tesco and got my money back... and will probably switch to freesat when the box price comes down and when it's settled in a bit more.

When I eventually feel the need to get an HD telly (no point at the moment as I would have to watch live TV with adverts and all. Ewww. ) I'll have to build myself a MythTV box... unless TiVo have re-entered the UK market by then. I just can't stomach getting Sky+...

Interesting question though... could I get a second hand Sky+ box and use that instead of the TiVo without paying for a Sky subscription? I guess this would depend on whether the EPG is linked to your subscription like TiVo. And the next question (to myself really) ... is it really worth saving £10 / month, to suffer a piss poor UI?

Final note: I took my Sky box apart (Sony) last night (none of the lights come on the front when it's plugged in) and it's NOT the internal fuse. It still whistles when plugged in so it's definitely getting power. Guess it's not economically viable to get this fixed? That Pace box is not going to look very nice in my living room (and will probably overheat or something annoying), but at least I can just replace it for £20 if we get another thunder storm and it goes pop.

Steve


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

sbutton said:


> Interesting question though... could I get a second hand Sky+ box and use that instead of the TiVo without paying for a Sky subscription?


A sky+ box acts like a normal dumb digibox without a subscription,
no recording functionality or second tuner.

You need to pay £10/mo to activate the recording and second tuner.
You can order that on its own.

They are including that £10/mo in all packages at the moment though,
so you can get basic 1 mix inc sky+ sub for £17/mo total.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

sbutton said:


> As you suggested, I've purchased a second hand Sky box from Ebay for £20 (including postage!) ... I took the Technika back to Tesco and got my money back... and will probably switch to freesat when the box price comes down and when it's settled in a bit more.


Its good to hear you are now back in business. Sounds like you also got a very good deal on the Sky box although I guess prices are perhaps plunging through the floor on Ebay now they have to compete against new Freesat boxes.

You could also have got a Grundig, Goodmans or Alba basic/SD (no HD) www.freesat.co.uk box for £49.99 as Tivo can also now control those too. However as a Freesat box can't give you Five, Five US, FIVER or Sky Three or indeed also CNN, Bloomberg tv and many other channels not currently in the Freesat EPG to my mind you are better off with a Sky box on a Freesat basis unless you want to watch BBC HD or ITV HD.



> When I eventually feel the need to get an HD telly (no point at the moment as I would have to watch live TV with adverts and all. Ewww. ) I'll have to build myself a MythTV box... unless TiVo have re-entered the UK market by then. I just can't stomach getting Sky+...


Possibly a Freesat twin tuner HD PVR from Humax might suit you as and when they are eventually launched (rumoured to be late summer or early Autumn). But no case for it though until you also splash out around 700 quid plus on a respectable HD television to go with it.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

mikerr said:


> You need to pay £10/mo to activate the recording and second tuner. You can order that on its own.
> 
> They are including that £10/mo in all packages at the moment though,
> so you can get basic 1 mix inc sky+ sub for £17/mo total.


Its £16 per month for 1 Mix and Sky+ recording enablement actually. Although in practice taking 3 Mixes or 4 Mixes usually represents a better value option if you are going to bother subscribing to Sky at all. Knowledge and Entertainment Mixes are the most likely ones and the rest will then depend on your tastes and whether or not you have kids.

The basic problem with Sky is its too expensive. If you could get the Knowledge, Entertainment and News and Sport Mixes for about £7 per month then I would be a permanent Sky subscriber.

Also Sky won't let you record the HD versions of any of their pay Mix channels unless you are also paying the additional £10 per month Sky HD subscription. TCM maintains the £10 HD fee gives you access to all HD variants of channels in the Sky Mixes even if you don't pay for all the Mixes. So basically the minimum with a Sky HD box is £10 per month to record all FTA channels including BBC HD, C4 HD and Luxe HD or £26 per month to record Sky One HD, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD etc too.


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> Its £16 per month for 1 Mix and Sky+ recording enablement actually. ... £26 per month to record Sky One HD, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD etc too.


I guess because Sky are being so greedy with their prices it's pushing people like me towards BitTorrent + XBMC.

Perhaps I should be directing my efforts at replacing my £25 xbox1 with hardware that supports HD and surround sound.

There's SO many options now it's making my head hurt. In the mean time BitTorrent is my only option to get Battlestar Galactica, which *was* the only reason I was paying for Sky in the first place. (hope I haven't broken forum etiquette here 

Steve


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

sbutton said:


> Perhaps I should be directing my efforts at replacing my £25 xbox1 with hardware that supports HD and surround sound.
> 
> There's SO many options now it's making my head hurt.


Speaking personally I am a widest possible program choice and not an ultimate viewing quality man. Therefore I frequently have moved fast to make technological changes that give me access to a wider range of channels and programs but have been slow to be persuaded that the latest £3,000 Plasma is really going to make my viewing of precisely the same program so much better than before.

I am enjoying watching episodes of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and The Prisoner on ITV4 that I have never seen before. It doesn't matter a damn to me they are 40 years old and made in a mildly lower resolution colour recording format in a different aspect ratio. On the other hand I have always had a very low tolerance of watching old black and white programs. This suggests to me that black and white to colour was a far more significant viewing change than SD to HD is. However HD is an absolute marketing man's dream for selling new televisions and trying to charge a higher fee (in Sky's case) for watching the same tv programs as before............

I suspect you are similar to me whilst many other regulars on this forum are clearly picture quality fetishists and often seem to put the visual quality at which they are viewing a program ahead of what they are actually viewing.

To each their own I guess..........


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## terryeden (Nov 2, 2002)

sbutton said:


> Perhaps I should be directing my efforts at replacing my £25 xbox1 with hardware that supports HD and surround sound.


If you get the Component Cable for the Xbox, you'll get upscaling to 720p and 1080i (it doesn't play native HD files at a great frame rate) and surround sound via optical.

You can get just surround sound with the Advanced Scart cable. XBMC handles DD and DTS.


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

terryeden said:


> If you get the Component Cable for the Xbox, you'll get upscaling to 720p and 1080i (it doesn't play native HD files at a great frame rate) and surround sound via optical.
> 
> You can get just surround sound with the Advanced Scart cable. XBMC handles DD and DTS.


That's brilliant news (about the surround via optical).

Thanks for all the responses everyone, I've new got a shiny new (well grubby old actually) Sky box and have all my old channels back (until the end of the month).

Steve


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

sbutton said:


> Thanks for all the responses everyone, I've new got a shiny new (well grubby old actually) Sky box and *have all my old channels back (until the end of the month)*.


What happens at the end of the month then?


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## sbutton (Nov 11, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> What happens at the end of the month then?


When the old Sky box went pop I cancelled my subscription. Guess Sky One is going to disappear. Not sure I'll notice anything else. I suppose it would have been possible to call Sky out to fix / replace the box... but really I'm an IT Contractor so £20 is MUCH cheaper (30x) than me spending a day at home waiting for a Sky engineer to arrive/not arrive.

Steve


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

sbutton said:


> When the old Sky box went pop I cancelled my subscription. Guess Sky One is going to disappear. Not sure I'll notice anything else. I suppose it would have been possible to call Sky out to fix / replace the box... but really I'm an IT Contractor so £20 is MUCH cheaper (30x) than me spending a day at home waiting for a Sky engineer to arrive/not arrive.


If the box was more than a year old and so out of warranty Sky would have levied a substantial call out charge or £60 or more and/or charged for a new box as well if it was faulty.

You might possibly notice the loss of Sky One, British Eurosport or National Geographic. They are about the only channels showing programs that are not all repeats from terrestrial and/or that don't turn up on BBC, ITV C4 or Five in the end.

Fortunately E4 and More 4 and their +1 variants have become FTA on Sky in the last few weeks due to the launch of BBC/ITV Freesat.


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## britcub (Jan 19, 2004)

To help anyone else out, after much messing around tonight, I got my Technika AESTBS7 to work with the following TiVo codes:

Freeview 2 of 3
20049
Medium


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