Leave Sky and go to Freesat - Any good?

Based on the listing there, there are two "free" types: one "free to air" and one "free to view".

This only applies to Sky boxes and the Sky TV Guide. It defines whether the channel is encrypted or not. If it's encrypted, the card needs to decrypt it to view it.

Anyone know if you can use the Sky card in Humax box for "free to view"

A Sky card doesn't go in a Humax box. No card is needed for Freesat - if it's on the Freesat guide, you can get it.

Returning when I said I wouldn't? Yes, to pass on tips that may be useful to others.

My setup is now: Sony Bravia 40RD (non-smart) TV, cabled by optical toslink to a Samsung HW-250 soundbar and by ARC HDMI lead to the Humax HDR-1100S, which is ethernet cable connected.

I had a sound problem with this setup, solved by setting the HDMI-CEC correctly in the TV Settings and by also setting the Humax Audio to "Stereo" instead of "Multi Channel". That is because I failed to account for the soundbar being a simple 2.1 Stereo device, not a Surround Sound one with multi-channel speaker outputs. Anyone using a Sony Bravia TV with a Sony soundbar or Home Cinema, can use the Bravia setup on both, to set them up simply and easily.

The Twin LNb was fitted in minutes for a couple of pints later and it all works well. My next move is to fit a NowTV box to the TV via the second HDMI socket. Switching is controllable from the TV. To connect both boxes to internet via one ethernet cable, I have bought a small network switch, to take two outlets.

We are not missing Sky at all.

Calamityjon wrote: »

You could always get nowtv. They have 24 hour/weekly/monthly sky sports passes for watching the occasional big game at home.
Also some new TVs come with not only freeview but also freesat built in. So swapping from sky to freesat is as simple as moving the cable from the sky box to the tv

£6.99 for a day pass is a rip off.

£10.99 for a week pass is pointless as they don't have any football on during the week - BT have all European games.

So effectively i'd be paying £5 extra for nowt.

They have a good deal on the month one though to be fair. I'd just have to get a BT sports account sorted now and that may be my route.

Thanks for the heads up

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

You do realise that Sky owns NowTV? You said you hate Sky.


So why are you going to pay for NowTV which provides Sky Channels ?

I was waiting for your input! Tell me the exact wording which said that I hate Sky?

I am well aware that NowTV is owned by Sky. However, with the box, I can choose, with passes I purchase, which programmes I want to watch. I don't sign a contract and I don't pay an expensive DD every month, for perhaps 90% of the programming that I don't want, with hundreds of channels that I will never watch and which take so long to scroll through until I find that most of them are dross. And repeated dross at that, in most cases.

Freesat channels on the Humax box are easily deleted from the channel list if there are any which are not wanted. Which I have done, and which is not possible on Sky.

I dislike Sky, but I never said that I hate it, it would be ridiculous to hate such a monolithic, faceless, moneygrabbing, institutionally incompetent organisation. I certainly do not like being phoned several times since I left them either, to ask if I have changed my mind. Are we clear now, or is there something else that you wish to apply the moral weight of your critical faculties upon?