Freesat/Sky Freesat

Cranny44

Hi

I am currently with sky (i have no aerial) i have a basic package plus HD and a sky+ HD box (just over a year old) and have an LG full HD tv with the Monster plug thing and everything runs through this to help give better picture quality ( it does work and was worth the extra spend to us)

I am looking to cut costs and sky is an obvious one at £31.75 per month.

I am therefore looking at freesat as i understand this can be used with my current dish and would need to record programmes.

1: If i go with the sky free sat would i still have to buy their box and installation at £175 or would my current box be ok

2: Is there a massive difference in the channels received from the sky version and the freesat version or like sky are most of them rubbish? I dont watch soaps or anything so need something else to view...

Thanks it will be gutting to loose the Discovery channels and my OH will miss the shed channel - although i wont....:D nor will i miss paying out the money.. and i do watch alot of stuff online anyway

macman

You can use your current Sky box and dish, but you can't keep the recording function (or indeed any of the Sky+ functions) unless you pay Sky £10 a month -forever. So buying a Freesat box (such as the Humax Foxsat HDR) will pay for itself within about 18 months. This is a straight box swap-nothing else required.
This will also give you the four HD channels currently on Feesat.
If you got to the Freesat website, you can check the channel listings for yourself. Not massively different to !!!!!!.

Fuzzy_2

Sorry to hijack thread, but I just want to verify... I am about to move to a rented property which has a Sky dish; I am not interested in using Sky, as don't need the extra expense of subs.

So is freesat the best way forward? How do I know what is a good freesat box?

Thanks

macman

Yes. Get any Humax box or PVR.

Heinz

For cheapness, just pick up a standard (not Sky+) Sky box - free on Freecycle/Freegle or £5 or so on eBay.

That'll get most channels but, if you can get hold of a FreeSatFromSky card too (£25 if you buy one new), that's TV reception sorted.

macman

Good advice. But if you want the PVR functions then you'll have to go for a Freesat PVR (Foxsat HDR is the one to have).
That will be a straight plug-in to the existing Sky set up, assuming it already has a twin feed from the LNB for Sky+.

bluedove

For cheapness, just pick up a standard (not Sky+) Sky box - free on Freecycle/Freegle or £5 or so on eBay.

That'll get most channels but, if you can get hold of a FreeSatFromSky card too (£25 if you buy one new), that's TV reception sorted.

As above, i bought a sky HD box and freesat sky card on ebay for £50, already have a HDD dvd player hence i record any programme i want on the dvd hard drive.

i think its the heapest option.