Freesat+HD & Humax

thepurplegoldfish

After years of Sky & Virgin TV I decided to give them both the boot for good. I was paying £40+ per month for landline, broadband and digital TV, I decided for 1 month to write down how much of the subscription side of it I watch and the result was just 8 hours a month!

Long story short, I now pay £15 for LL&BB and I have Freesat HD recorder box (Humax) and I love it, it works exactly like the old Sky+ box and I have it connected to the internet so I can have BBC iPlayer and ITV Player streamed directly to my TV. BBC1 HD, BBC HD, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD all FREE FOREVER not £10 a month extra on top like sky.


I can't recommend Freesat (and Humax) any more, two of my family have seen it and also given Sky and Virgin the heave-ho. £25+ better off each month/£300 a year (or another holiday) for the sake of losing 8 hours a month of OKish TV.

Gary1963

I have had Freesat since moving in nearly two years ago. Love my Humax box especially when it suggests alternative recording times if there is a clash!

thepurplegoldfish

Gary1963 wrote: »

I have had Freesat since moving in nearly two years ago. Love my Humax box especially when it suggests alternative recording times if there is a clash!

I love that feature too and it also suggests when the show you want to tape is being shown in HD and you can chose SD or HD. Simples.

Azari

thepurplegoldfish wrote: »

I can't recommend Freesat (and Humax) any more

Why on earth not?

Other than that I entirely agree with your post.

I have induce many people to dump sky by suggesting they do an audit of what they watch.

The sad thing is that there are still a considerable number of people who thing Satellite = sky and do not realise they can get virtually all the decent channels for nothing.

When you explain to them that they can get all the BBC channels, all the ITV channels, all the C4 channels and C5 it often becomes a no-brainer to save themselves around £20 a month.

Only people addicted to sport really need sky nowadays.

nellytheelephant

Azari wrote: »

Only people addicted to sport really need sky nowadays.

This is exactly what I was talking about last night!

Other than the Sports channels everything we watch is available for free - but I don't think you can upgrade to sports yet

Jimx26

I have to disagree that Sky is a waste of money, I havent paid full price for sky in over 2 years and currently on 50% off.
I do watch a lot of sport but also a lot of the american TV shows shown on Sky One and Atlantic that I would have to wait years to watch on terrestrial.
You also get a lot more channels than the 5 mentioned for the £10 HD sub.
Plus how much does one of these boxes cost?

And no I don't work for Sky,just think they have a good product.

Azari

Jimx26 wrote: »

I have to disagree that Sky is a waste of money

Obviously it isn't a waste of money if you view a great deal on the channels that it offers that are not available free.

It's just that there are a hell of a lot of people who bought into sky many years back when it was necessary to receive almost all channels.

Since then the landscape has changed dramatically with all the most watched channels available free. (I've got many people to do an audit of what they watch and a couple found that they didn't watch anything on channels that were not available free. Most found that they were watching so little on the subscription only channels that paying sky around £20 a month was a joke.)

So there are a great many people like the OP who are paying sky around £240 a year and only watching a few hours a month - if that - on channels that they cannot get for nothing on Freesat (or Freeview). For these people dumping sky makes a great deal of sense.

Lily1

I ordered one last night after reading all the recommendations! Just hope it is a simple to install as you all say.

Azari

Lily1 wrote: »

I ordered one last night after reading all the recommendations! Just hope it is a simple to install as you all say.

If you had a sky+ box it's a simple matter of disconnecting one and connecting the other.

If you had simple sky (no PVR) and want a PVR you will need to run an extra cable from your dish (and if it's an old installation you may need a new LNB).

thepurplegoldfish

Jimx26 wrote: »

I have to disagree that Sky is a waste of money, I havent paid full price for sky in over 2 years and currently on 50% off.
I do watch a lot of sport but also a lot of the american TV shows shown on Sky One and Atlantic that I would have to wait years to watch on terrestrial.
You also get a lot more channels than the 5 mentioned for the £10 HD sub.
Plus how much does one of these boxes cost?

And no I don't work for Sky,just think they have a good product.

I can't American TV (or American spelling that are becoming more and more entrenched in British English, I was on the meto the other day and a young Geordie lad asked his mother for a new cell phone for Christmas!!!)

Anyways back on topic, I got my satellite dish (Quad LNB, 2 feeds) and installation for £60 with a next day service and a 5 year guarantee, the Humax Freesat+HD box (320GB) I got of the net for £110. So all in all £150 to get started and thats it - Done, no monthly bills, no Direct Debits for Sky to get wrong, month after month, no paying extra for HD. I only had to get a dish installed as I moved and the new house didn't have one, had I not have moved I'd have only needed the box and you can use old sky dishes.

I believe the longer this recession going on (I know we're not still in recession, but I mean the uncertain times we're living in) Sky and Virgin are going to lose more and more people to Freeview, Freesat and the new YouView (launch 2012), once people realise they can live without subscription TV and that they are circa £300 better off each year it'll take some convincing to get them back. Rightfully so too.

missile

thepurplegoldfish wrote: »

..... I have it connected to the internet so I can have BBC iPlayer and ITV Player streamed directly to my TV. ....

I get BBC iPlayer but not ITV Player. Has there been another new software update that I am missing?