freesat?

stev68

Want to get rid of sky because i think its overpriced cack. so has anybody here got a freesat box or t.v ,hd or normall.I dont watch the box just her indoors an the sprogs,trying to talk her round to cancelling,so i then can spend my forty sheets a month my bike bits lol.

mr_poll

I tried it but the younger kids hated the kids channel so the electronic babysitter was failing in its duties.

I have mine down to 22 quid (lose the HD,films and sports) with a cpl of packs the kids one and the news one (which gives you eurosport if you enjoy watching the skinny wheeled pro guys).

Also if you threaten to leave SKY they will do you a deal - i got half price for 6 months.

However if your adamant then I believe a freesat box will work with your sky dish so no need for fiddling about and set up isses.

redvee

mr_poll wrote:

However if your adamant then I believe a freesat box will work with your sky dish so no need for fiddling about and set up isses.

It's what my Granparents have done upstairs. Due to having trees between their house and the nearest transmitter the reception through the ariel was always bad. When they got a better TV in the bedroom the old sky dish was used with a basic freesat box. IIRC they paid all in £120 for somebody to fit it which included the box.

Penylope

FYI there are 2 different types of Freesat.

1. freesat (BBC/ITV joint venture). good mix of channels (but not the same as freview iirc), boxes are getting better (although i think the only recording box is still the Humax HDR box. it's a good box (i had one for a year or so) but not quite as user friendly as a sky box) will work with your current 'sky' mini dish/cabling, just swap the box over and away to go.

2. freesat from sky. pay sky £20 for one of their freesat cards, this will turn your current box into a 'freesat' box (no more monthly subscriptions) with (almost) the same channels as freeview/freesat (plus if you have a HD box you will still get the 'free to air' HD channels (BBC HD, ITV HD, CH4 HD etc). You will however loose the record function (if you have it). this costs £10 a month from sky(?!)

HTH

Anonymous

stev68 wrote:

Want to get rid of sky because i think its overpriced cack. so has anybody here got a freesat box or t.v ,hd or normall.I dont watch the box just her indoors an the sprogs,trying to talk her round to cancelling,so i then can spend my forty sheets a month my bike bits lol.

Does she watch the sports channels? If not, get rid. I've got discovery, all the normal channel lineup, and I think, some cartoons on mine, and it costs me about £20 a month.
That way, you don't take away her telly, or the kids' telly, you still get to ride on weekends rather than entertain them, and you're £20 better off each month. It's not £40, but stil...

Aggieboy

stev68 wrote:

Want to get rid of sky because i think its overpriced cack. so has anybody here got a freesat box or t.v ,hd or normall.I dont watch the box just her indoors an the sprogs,trying to talk her round to cancelling,so i then can spend my forty sheets a month my bike bits lol.

My new tv has both incorporated. I use the freesat off an old Sky dish, freeview off normal aerial. They have some different channels and with Freesat you get free HD channels.

stev68

Thanks for the info guys,don't mind paying £20 smacks a month,but forty notes to watch judge fookin judy and spongebob. Just ain't worth £40 quid is it?

Kaise

i'm trying to get virgin media at the minute and its proving a problem with the neighbours and the building management company (my landlord is fine with it though) bu i can get a sky dish that sits on a tripod outside the window so im interested in what peeps think of the free sat thing.

Mrs K wathces the E! channel and stuff and wants catch up tv but tbh i am not that bothered by it.......

VWsurfbum

I have Freesat working off an old Sky dish, HD is fantastic and normal telly is much better quality, but the wife still watches freeview with pants quality. I set it to record a few things like topgear and F1 in HD and i play them back at my convieniance. thats my TV input for the week.

Clark3y

Penylope wrote:

FYI there are 2 different types of Freesat.

1. freesat (BBC/ITV joint venture). good mix of channels (but not the same as freview iirc), boxes are getting better (although i think the only recording box is still the Humax HDR box. it's a good box (i had one for a year or so) but not quite as user friendly as a sky box) will work with your current 'sky' mini dish/cabling, just swap the box over and away to go.

2. freesat from sky. pay sky £20 for one of their freesat cards, this will turn your current box into a 'freesat' box (no more monthly subscriptions) with (almost) the same channels as freeview/freesat (plus if you have a HD box you will still get the 'free to air' HD channels (BBC HD, ITV HD, CH4 HD etc). You will however loose the record function (if you have it). this costs £10 a month from sky(?!)

HTH

Don't pay £20 for a freesat card, it works exactly the same as a cancelled sky viewing card. If you cancel the subscription, just keep the equipment exactly as it is and you will then have freesat.
Pretty sure that this way you will get 5HD too, which isnt available on normal freesat or freeview recievers.

Buckled_Rims

I bought a Ariel from Wilkinsons for £15 a few years ago and installed it in my loft. I did a quick and dirt calculation of the position of Pontop Pike (My local transmitter) from Google earth and rigged it up to my freesat TV. 70% of the channels are good quality, but it really needs a small adjustment to get better.

However, ASDA had a freesat/channel detector for £12 a few months ago and I've been humming and harring about it. It's only a once used object so I'm not sure whether to buy and then sell on ebay. But the cable channels are crap and full of top gear repeats.

Quality wise, I prefer freesat. The colour seems much better then the cable quality. Plus there's one less remote without cable TV.

Clark3y

I'm totally confused, you bought an aerial and pointed it to your local transmitter to pick up freeSAT?

Buckled_Rims

Clark3y wrote:

I'm totally confused, you bought an aerial and pointed it to your local transmitter to pick up freeSAT?

Whoops...I meant freeview. :oops:

Penylope

Clark3y wrote:

Penylope wrote:

FYI there are 2 different types of Freesat.

1. freesat (BBC/ITV joint venture). good mix of channels (but not the same as freview iirc), boxes are getting better (although i think the only recording box is still the Humax HDR box. it's a good box (i had one for a year or so) but not quite as user friendly as a sky box) will work with your current 'sky' mini dish/cabling, just swap the box over and away to go.

2. freesat from sky. pay sky £20 for one of their freesat cards, this will turn your current box into a 'freesat' box (no more monthly subscriptions) with (almost) the same channels as freeview/freesat (plus if you have a HD box you will still get the 'free to air' HD channels (BBC HD, ITV HD, CH4 HD etc). You will however loose the record function (if you have it). this costs £10 a month from sky(?!)

HTH

Don't pay £20 for a freesat card, it works exactly the same as a cancelled sky viewing card. If you cancel the subscription, just keep the equipment exactly as it is and you will then have freesat.
Pretty sure that this way you will get 5HD too, which isnt available on normal freesat or freeview recievers.

hmm, not sure, but i think you need to pay for the card to get channel 5, sky3 etc (but dont quote me, as i'm not sure, just that i needed to buy a freesat card from sky for my dad, as the cancelled card in his box did not give all 5 'normal' channels).

solsurf

I don't know if it has been mentioned yet, but if you connect the freesat box to your router with an ethernet cable you can watch iplayer on the red button any time you like. This is brilliant!