Freesat Box ?

[the_constructor]

Is it worth getting a Freesat box and dumping Sky ?

Jim

[Bob Minchin]

Look to see if what channels freesat offers matches your viewing habits.

To my mind it is nearly all crap however you receive it.

Free crap has to be better than paid for crap I suppose.

Bob

[Adrian C]

For the country, yes.

[Mike]

I left Sky for Freeview .. got sick of both.

Got rid of TV lecence and now watch what I want, when I want, online. Maybe a day later to catch up .. but does it matter ? If you have a family, this probably wont work.

Mike P

[Harry Bloomfield]

the_constructor wrote on 24/12/2009 :

That depends what you MUST watch or what you might miss from SKY.

We dumped it several years ago. About 3 or 4 years ago we decided sat was the way to go for the caravan and got a basic sat receiver for that and found it was a good decision, we got reception and lots of choice no matter where we were, rather than the often no reception via analogue or the Freeview.

Last year I looked at sat again for home, so we would have at least as much choice at home as when away. Rather than a pukka Freesat system I bought a Passion+ system which does what we need as in gets all the free channels and can record them and pause live programs, saving to an external HDD. It also supports multi-satellite reception via fixed dishes or motorised ones, which have not yet made any use of.

There are many more free to view channels available on Astra, which we have access to via the Passion, than (I think) are listed in the Freeview systems.

The only down side is that the Passion only has one tuner, so you can only tune one channel at one time - you cannot watch one/record another, which I believe a pukka Freeview can do(?).

[devonsteve]

I bought and self installed a fit from screwfix , only =A340.00 for everything and it works perfectly . How can they sell a dish , all brackets and cables and decoder for =A340 ?? It gets all the usual itv and bbc signals ,channels four and five etc as well as about 200 more. Had it six months now and no problems

[Dave]

about 2 years ago or whenever it was that Virgin had a fight with Sky and stopped Sky 1 I was devasted as I could no longer watch the Simpsons. So I dumped Virgin and got Sky, it took about 2 months before I got Sky 1 back.

Remember I did this because I could no longer watch the Simpsons?

I have never watched an episode since I last saw it on Virgin just before they dumped Sky 1.

If I could get away with it (family would moan) I would do as Mike has done and get rid of my TV and only watch online. That is what I do now anyway, me upstairs watching what I want online when I watch and the family watching what Sky pumps out.

Get rid of it.

Dave

[Alan]

In message , the_constructor wrote

Don't you just stop paying for Sky and then use your existing box to receive the free to air services which have the same channels as Freesat?

[Dave Liquorice]

Depends on your viewing habits, a Skybox without a card will still show you all BBC and ITV offerings, most (if not all) channel 4 stuff. five is still Free To View however things change all the time just recently so I might be out of date with what is Free To Air (no card or sub) or FTV (card, no sub).

A sky box without being shown a card is a bit of PITA though, as it will default to London channels on BBC1/ITV1 and might not allocate anything for channel 4 in 104. As I said things change so might not be 100% on the details.

If you have a Sky box and sub just let the sub lapse and the card will work in "Freesat from Sky" mode and give you the right regionalisation and allow five to work.

[Roger R]

You can use you existing Sky dish for Freesat.

Be aware / beware that as well as Freesat (BBC HD etc, entirely free) there is something quite different called 'Freesat from Sky' that costs around 140 pounds.

Roger R

[Roger R]

Ok, we remembered, so why didn't you then watch Simpsons on Sky ?

Roger R

[Harry Bloomfield]

Alan explained on 24/12/2009 :

I don't know the answer to that one for sure, but I suspect you can get some of the free ones but not all.

For those thinking of HD, you would need a sat receiver capable of receiving it as well as a TV able to display it (HDMI). There are presently only two free HD channels (BBC HD and ITV HD). BBC transmits most of the time, ITV rarely and usually only sporting events it seems.

[Vortex5]

Yes,

Was a sky subscriber since Sky Digital started and purchased a Humax Foxsat HDR 1 year ago.

The machine has it's idiosynchracies but the bottom line is there is no monthly sub. and it has paid for itself in 10 months as a result of subscription savings.

If you have no special sports or movies addiction then it's a "no brainer". the new iPlayer functionality seems to work OK as well.

New Astra satellites

due in a couple of years should significantly enhance the channel offering which is currently limited for a variety of reasons.

D

[Dave Liquorice]

If you get them to install it. If you have a sub already then it's free just let the sub lapse. If you buy a Sky box 2nd user and dish etc installing yourself it costs you either =A320 for a Freesat from Sky card or, if you can put up with the box without a card, zero.

[Dave Liquorice]

'cause he foud he canm watch for free on channel 4? OK not the latest series but who cares...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Or components.

Lux HD as well. Other non UK stations too.

[Tinkerer]

I believe the HD channels are being added to Freeview next year. The reshuffle last month was supposed to be in readiness for it.

[Harry Bloomfield]

'Luxe HD' ^

I didn't even know it was there, but it was already tuned in on my system. It seems to be nothing but demo/ads, impressive demo of HD though.

[John Rumm]

I have a feeling they have rebranded the freesat from sky bit now. Not sure there is much advantage in having it any more either - there used to be a few free to view but encrypted channels that the card would decode, but most (if not all) of those have gone unencrypted now.

[John Rumm]

You will need new freeview boxes to receive them though...