Leaving Sky for Freesat and Humax Foxsat?

joanneinwonderland

We saw an advert tonight for Freesat and decided to have a wee look into it. We are Sky subscribers currently however just get basic package not interested in Sports/Movies etc. due to the cost involved and got sky due to no freeview signal etc. in our last flat.

At the moment we can see no reason to keep sky and are thinking about purchasing a Humax Foxsat HD recorder! (Currently £225 at John Lewis with free 2 year warranty) Reasons being:

It records which is important to us.

We can simply plug in the satellite cables in place at the moment.

It will pay for itself within 1 year and then no more subscription :T

The box looks nicer than the Sky Plus box.

HD without an extra £10 a month.

The picture will be better than Sky even if not the HD channels.

We went through our planner and all the programmes we have recorded recently are on channels available on Freesat.

Sky would have to give us free HD and discount our subscription massively to keep us I think? We have had it for over 12 months so can cancel tomorrow if we like (aware prob 30 days to sit out).

One thing we have a magic eye in the bedroom at the moment does anyone know if we can still use this?

Also anyone aware of any drawbacks, issues I may not have thought of. Or any satisfied customers either of Freesat or Humax who wish to give me a shove towards it?

Thanks folks

x Joanne

Kurtis_Blue

No the magic eyes will not work with the freesat box as they do not have the return path on the RF out, you will still be able to view the channel straight out the box but not control.

However there is products out there for <£20 to make them work.

joanneinwonderland

Thanks very much for that. I don't mind buying something extra to be able to control it too esp. if only £20 ish as that's a months Sky! Oooh want to call today and tell them to stuff it!

flowrypot

We have freesat and a Humax Foxsat and are very pleased with it our picture is excellent .

davemurgatroyd

You will have to buy both an external RF modulator AND a Sky link plus (each costing around £20 ) to enable you to use the magic eye in another room. Freesat boxes do not have an in built RF output or means of remote control from another room. The other alternative is a wireless Audio- video sender many of which can also pass the remote control signals back to the digibox.

Unless you have a poor quality Sky box there will be no difference in picture quality on the non HD channels - they are exactly the same broadcasts (in most cases).

There are also only around 140 of the available free channels (out of around 250) that are on the freesat 7 day EPG and thus easily recordable easily. The channels not on the EPG must be viewed in non-freesat mode and recorded by manual means (setting timers like an ancient VCR) and also only one channel can be recorded OR viewed when in non freesat mode - you cannot record one and watch another or record two.

The following Free-To-View channels are NOT available on freesat ( but are available on Sky even with a cancelled subscription card) - Fiver, Fiver+1, Five USA, Five USA+1, Sky 3, Sky 3+1, LFC TV, Viva, channel 4HD and Five HD. The non HD ones are available free on Freeview.

So really for the most out of free TV in the UK you also will need a Freeview box (or TV with inbuilt Freeview as most have unless you want to record any of freesat's missing channels) and a suitable aerial. Freeview will also give you several channels that are subscription on satellite such as Dave, Quest and Yesterday.

All 3 options freesat, FreesatFromSky and Freeview have different channel lineups so you really need to check those out before final decision.

joanneinwonderland

Hm I thought I had seen a freesat box with an RF output? Not sure if the Humax models had but will double check. Happy to purchase the additional bits and bobs to make sure it'll work in the bedroom too.

The difference in picture between watching on Sky and watching on Freeview on the TV is noticeable. Not sure whether that's the do with the Sky box or not but there is defo a difference. As we've got Freeview built in on the TV we would end up with that and Freesat however I know we couldnt' record anything on Freeview but that's ok. OH just happy we'll still have Dave!

Thanks for details re RF modulator etc. I am so not technically minded...that's OH's territory!

Kurtis_Blue

joanneinwonderland wrote: »

Hm I thought I had seen a freesat box with an RF output? Not sure if the Humax models had but will double check. Happy to purchase the additional bits and bobs to make sure it'll work in the bedroom too.

The difference in picture between watching on Sky and watching on Freeview on the TV is noticeable. Not sure whether that's the do with the Sky box or not but there is defo a difference. As we've got Freeview built in on the TV we would end up with that and Freesat however I know we couldnt' record anything on Freeview but that's ok. OH just happy we'll still have Dave!

Thanks for details re RF modulator etc. I am so not technically minded...that's OH's territory!

Thats a good catch by dave, there are some freesats with RF out but the Humax and the PVR you want do not.
The "triax tri link kit" will cover your needs.

macman

The Foxsat HDR is IMHO the best Freesat box on the market at present.
The only limitation is the hard drive size, if you save a lot of HD output to disk then you'll soon use up the 320GB.
Bear in mind that you will need a twin feed from the LNB if you do not currently have Sky+.

Kurtis_Blue

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=10087&cat=

Can buy them direct or from reseller with 500gb but £££

joanneinwonderland

Thanks very much to all for input.

We've done it...called Sky today to cancel. They tried to offer us this and that but OH said to make us keep it they would need to give us free HD and discount our monthly subscription for next two years...unsurprisingly the answer was no. Also questioned purchasing the freesat box but when we pointed out it would be paid off with the no sky subscriptions over just 10 months the agent seemed to give up.

So 11th November we are free of Sky therefore aim to have bought a box and have it all hooked up for then!

Rather keen on Humax although it's a brand we've never heard of it's spoken of very well on AVforums and also reviews on Amazon are excellent.

Thanks for the note on the GB. Not sure how much we will record in HD need to decide whether the extra GB is worth it when this is a future investment and not a here and now buy if that makes sense.

I feel free haha! :T

joanneinwonderland

Oh and we do currently have Sky + therefore feeds etc. for that all set up