Pullling my hair out - guidance appreciated.

dealfinder

Hi

I want to put a proper tv aerial in a bedroom and this has prompted me to consider my options. Nothing is simple as looking into tv options leads onto telephone and broadband and I don't wish to make an expensive wrong decision. Currently I have freeview downstairs and have a Panasonic Plasma, a blue ray player and a non HDMI Arcam receiver. I'm not particularly bothered about subscription channels but would like HD where available. Upstairs I don't need HD but it would be good to be able to add it if I upgrade the bedroom tv in future. A PVR facility would be good.

I use Freedom 2 Surf for broad band and BT for phone calls. My worries about changing these are that my wife frequently uses discount dial to call friends and family in Germany at 0.5p per minute and virgin charge about 10p a minute for 0870 numbers and I don't think their international call package is particularly cheap. Also the hassle of changing email addresses and that I am in the process of setting up a business and have used f2s to register my domain name and email and get some hosting and am paid up for the additional services until end of Jan 2010.

So, should I go for Freesat with a Humax HD Freesat+ PVR in the lounge and a cheap SD decoder in the bedroom or a Virgin Package (or individual services) or a Sky package (or individual services). And if I go for freesat, is there a particular spec of dish I should ask for ie can I get extra channels with a bigger/better dish etc?

I realise I'm asking a lot here but sensible guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dan

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

If to go the Freeview route, you'll pay around £250 for the Humax box. A standard box for the bedroom can be had for £20. No more costs involved.

Sky are offering the HD box for £49 with free install and £50 Tesco voucher, or a Sky+ box for free, £30 install and £25 Tesco voucher. You can also get cashback through Quidco on the HD box.
You would have to take a 12 month contract on either.
Basic package is £16.50/month for both, but you'd have to add another £10/month for the HD subscription if you went for the HD box.

Can't advise you on Virgin I'm afraid.

dealfinder

Thanks, I was thinking maybe go the freesat route then if I decide a want sky at a later date then all I would need are the boxes. That said, the reason for my post was to get some views on whether or not to package services up or keep them separate and if so, how and also other considerations I may not have thought of. Regarding freesat vs the alternatives, is there much by way of HD content available (or planned), is HD likely to be available as freeview anytime soon? what about quality? audio? .... (so complicated if you like to be thorough in your research before making a decision which is one of my traights!)

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

Freeview HD has been rumoured to start at the end of the year in certain areas, but rolled out nationwide next year. Exact times aren't available as fas as I know.

Freesat gives you BBC and ITV HD at the moment. Obviously Sky has a reasonable amount of HD content, but then you're paying extra for that.

I have Sky HD and the difference in picture quality is good. I'm led to believe that Freesat HD quality is also good, especially on some of the BBC nature programmes.

My phone, broadband and TV are all seperate, so I can't comment on any packages.

dealfinder

I've just been reading up on sky and if you look at the current offer on HD+ it seems it might make sense to go down that route for 12 months and possibly consider stopping after that, presumably after which time the box and dish would be mine. However I hadn't realised that the box has to be connected to a phone line for 12 months which could be a problem for me as the box is the other side of the house and since I tiled the floor there's no easy way of getting an extension to my lounge. Is there any way around this?

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

After the 12 months, the Sky kit is all yours.

I think it's possible to have an install done without a phone line, but it'll cost you around £25 extra. You could just run an extension across the floor up to the TV for the duration of the install and then take it out. Although it's in the T&C's that you have to have it plugged in, you wouldn't have to. Once the install's done it's really only used for interactive and pay on demand stuff.

dealfinder

Ok, I have a long phone line extension that might reach. I'm thinking it would be possible to run the Sky HD+ on the main system with Freesat or Sky Freesat upstairs to keep costs down though it's still about £26 per month for the basic Sky+ HD package given that from Virgin I could have HD+ and an extra room and phone with unlimited landline calls and 20Mb broadband for about £45 and wouldn't need my BT line. I just don't really want the hassle of chaning email addresses, the much mor expensive international calls and the feeling of being tied into one provider and possible price hikes/hidden or less obvious costs.

scotsbob

dealfinder wrote: »

And if I go for freesat, is there a particular spec of dish I should ask for ie can I get extra channels with a bigger/better dish etc?
Dan

The answer to your last question is yes.

The Freesat reps on the forum always flame me for mentioning it but if you get a 90-100cm dish and spend an extra £50 for a motor then you can get literally thousands of channels (including HD ones) from a dozen or so satellites and no subscriptions
See my previous posting

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=20886079&highlight=#post20886079

dealfinder

Now you've got me thinking. I guess my wife would appreciate it too as she is German and could get channels from home? I'll give this some serious thought. Are there any issues regarding planning etc with a dish of that size on your chimney?

scotsbob

dealfinder wrote: »

Now you've got me thinking. I guess my wife would appreciate it too as she is German and could get channels from home? I'll give this some serious thought. Are there any issues regarding planning etc with a dish of that size on your chimney?

The size of dish depends on where you are in the UK. Also different local authorities will have different rules regarding dish size. My understanding is that a dish up to 100cm does not require any permission.

If you live in Scotland and want to get all the satellites from Spain across to Turkey then you would need a 100cm dish. If you live in England you would only need an 80-90cm dish.

Most of the German channels are on the Astra 19.2 satellite.

If you explore this webpage you will see the channels that you can get. The rest of the website will give you more info

http://www.lyngsat.com/astra19.html

dealfinder

Thanks. If I wanted it in two rooms, would it be a case of having two decoders and being limited by the dish being controlled by one and therefore only being able to access programs on one satellite at a time?