Freeview in place of Sky.

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Hey guys.

I've been contemplating jogging sky on as we are fed up with their prices going up all the time, and for what we actually get/use is a waste of money.

The problem is, is that we do like being able to record, pause etc etc.

I know there's thing available, but I don't know what's good and what's not..?

Do we keep and use the sky dish or use the roof aerial?

Any ideas?

Cheers
 
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The easiest solution is to use the aerial and buy a Free view recorder.with twin tuners. This will give you the "watch one while.recording another" feature that you have with Sky now. A decent make of recorders is the Human brand. The company specialises in these and so they have it down.

Going for Free view means that your TV will also be able to receive the same range of channels as the recorder.recorder . There at least two advantages there.... (1) you could have the recorder 'taping' two programmes at once and just use the TV tuner for watching something else.... and (2) quite a few TVS have a basic 'record to USB' feature if you plug in a USB memory stick. It's not as comprehensive or versatile as as full blown recorder but it does give you an extremely way to record TV.

Sticking with the satellite dish but swapping to another make of recorder is another option, but you may need one such recorder per TV.
 
If you want TalkTalk as your internet/phone provider, there box is good don't need to record, just watch it on catch up. My box was free.
I do have a pvr, which is a few years old now, does everything, ie cd/dvd & plays .avi's.
I also have a smart TV so all the catch ups are available on that also.
Plenty of options
 
talk talk or other pay for veiw need a physical internet connection

dongles like cromecast[around £25] dont need a physical internet or aeriel connection but dont record just play the tv live from subscribing channels like bbc iplayer

freeveiw recorder boxes just need the aeriel but some also connect to the internet for some additional services some pay for veiw
 
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I'm considering BT TV , few more channels than Freeview plus you get a PVR
 
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I wouldn't feel that bad about having "dodgy" Sky as they've been ripping me off for years,
 
I wouldn't feel that bad about having "dodgy" Sky as they've been ripping me off for years,

No they haven't. They quoted a price for their service, and you chose to accept it. It is not an essential service that you cannot live without.
 
I can only relate what I have done. I have had Sky for years so now have three boxes standard Sky, then Sky+ and finally Sky+HD of the three boxes to use them without subscription the original box is best as it allows one to program it to auto change program the latter ones after they included a hard drive don't have this feature. Also the hard drive keeps kicking in even though you can't use it.

I also have a range of free to air boxes. It seems these are different to freesat the free to air gives now and next only with electronic program guide but freesat is same as sky with program guide. The disadvantage with freesat is setting them to record is purely by time, no series link and no auto correct when program times move. However with the cheap boxes on stand-by can't actually measure the power used, the sky box on stand-by can still be using 20 watt as to be able to auto correct to program changes the LNB must be powered.

There are also some advantages with the free to air box. You can set the order of programs so mine is set BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, ITV1, ITV1+1, ITV2 etc. I find having the Plus 1 next to standard time a real advantage when called away no hunting for the plus 1 you can also delete all programs you can't watch or don't want to watch like all the shopping and porn channels.

The last free to air I bought was Iceweasel from Maplin. Rather a disappointment I thought it would work like my old blueray box and allow me to watch U-tube, and BBC catch-up etc. However as far as internet goes only got weather. Also a real pain to program my Flipper remote control to work it. However on the plus side the unit will take any USB stick or hard drive and allow both recording and viewing I think MP4 format so you can also watch recordings on computer etc. My daughter got one which although it would record was in a special format and it actually re-formatted the drive or stick be aware of that. Anyway it's for my mother and what I found there are more HD channels I can watch on the Iceweasel from Maplin than I can watch on my Sky HD+ box even with the subscription.

In the main anything on freeview is also on free to air with a few exceptions UKTV is the odd one out you can't watch UKGold, and Dave on free to air. However there are many programs which are not on freeview which are on free to air. Films for men for example.

Before getting the Iceweasel from Maplin we went to Curries and they had what seemed some really good catch up TV boxes I was really impressed with the demo. However when I got home it would not do anything until I entered all my bank card details which there was no way I was doing. So it went back. It would seem many of the catch-up boxes are the same, that's how I ended up with the Iceweasel from Maplin.

Freeview is really a pain. I still have my mother TV an LG set-up to watch freeview, and about once a month freeveiw change their programs, when they do this the TV displays a message that it needs re-tuning even when set to watch the free to air box, and I have to go down yet again to re-program the freeview 12 miles just because they have changed a channel we likely never watch anyway. At home freeview has been kicked to touch because of this. I have no terrestrial aerial it's such a pain it seems nearly once a week I need to re-program at one point it was daily. Maybe because I live on a hill and can receive four or more masts the problem is higher?

My wife likes Universal and Encore so we still have the lowest sky package. However in my bedroom and in spare bedroom we have free to air boxes so I can watch an alternative channel. I hate any program which has a bong bong when it swaps scene, I refuse to watch them. What I have noticed is Plus 1 free to air seems to work most of the time. But Plus 1 on freeview only works at certain times of the day.

With the old sky box used for mother I have a flipper remote control. These are for people with alsimizers and they with slider shut only have 6 buttons on/off, mute, vol up, vol down, prog up, prog down. I find with the sky box without subscription these are great as you can program in 25 favourites in the order you want. So ITV3 then ITV3+1 etc. So no need to wade through programs you can't get.

With the Iceweasel I have got rid of all the useless channels and I have around 75 channels to watch. If you remove all the useless channels from freeview one is left with about 25 not that it allows you to do that. So to my mind you already have a satellite dish so it's free to air or freesat depending if you want the electronic program guide.
 
Just to round up what some have said and hopefully make it clear. (I am assuming Virgin Media is not available in our area as you haven't mentioned it.)

There are 2 main technologies available. Freeview and Freesat.
A freesat box uses your old Sky dish and serves up the free to air channels including HD channels. I believe other pay to viw channels are available. If you have a multi-room LNB on the sat dish I believe you can have multiple boxes, otherwise you are limited to 1 box.

All the rest use freeview, even the TalkTalk and BT Openview services. The free to air channels are provided using your aerial, on demand content is provided using your internet connection and the propitiatory box provided to you.

If you are considering the likes of TalkTalk (Who have a free unlimited BB for 2 year deal at the moment) or BT Openview, this will include TV, Phone and Broadband. Often the cheapest way to get all the services together.

If you are just wanting the free to air channels then it is either Freeview or Freesat with a PVR box. As mentioned Humax do very good PVR boxes

A previous post mentioned a Chromecast. Just to be clear, this is simply an interface. It is controlled by a PC/Tablet/Smart Phone and on demand content can be shown on your TV by "Casting" it from your device.
 

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