Confused by freeview, freesat, youview etc

sjpkgp

Hi, We've been with virgin media for a long time, and we pay around £85 per month. I've been trying to get on to the bill tonight to see what package we have but it is the largest possible broadband, and I think L or XL TV (we don't get any prem channels) and phone with evening and weekend free (I think). We are in the process of changing our house (new extension) and will need to change the way we use things. I'd like to pay far less per month, and think with all of the new things that have appeared on the market, we might be able to do that, but I have looked at so many sites now that I've got completely confused.

What we would like is:
- "good" TV to watch in two downstairs rooms (no disney, no sport) just a few more channels than the 5 basic ones. great if we can record stuff to playback, 1 of the rooms has aerial.
- basic TV to watch upstairs x 2, perhaps with a recorder, we've got aerial for this in at least one room
- really heavy broadband use (6 of us heavy/constant use of internet by 3 out of 6 at most times, sometimes all 6 are on via tablets etc - we don't download lots of stuff but we surf)
- husband says we don't need a home phone, but i don't agree (reception is a bit hit and miss) if we were to have a home phone I would want one upstairs and down as it is a bit of a hike/we don't hear it.

In the old days there was freeview set top boxes (we have still got one and it works ok) but now there seems to be freesat, freeview, youview etc. , and I have got confused as to what matches what we want. I don't mind paying for stuff "one off" rather than tying in to another big package - but the big broadband is important. Can anyone please advise, thanks in advance. Sal x

closed

depends whether you want to stay with virgin, £85 is way OTT unless you need all the extra tv, you can get broadband and phone rental for under £20

a youview pvr is £250 from amazon, or there are plenty of freeview pvr's for half that price.

youview is just a freeview pvr with iplayer entries under the same epg, some standard pvr's have iplayer functionality, but this puts them and 4od etc all in the same place.


https://sales.talktalk.co.uk/info/tv/youview-tv

to move supplier, and get broadband, you'll need a phone line

there's been far more than 5 basic channels available free for a decade on freeview.

cordless home phones have been around ages, and would solve your upstairs/downstairs problem if you dont have an extension upstairs.

freesat would require a satellite dish

Cornucopia

If you went with Freeview and/or Freesat, you could bring down that figure substantially.

The question is whether you want to go with Sky for a basic package and get cheap broadband thrown in, or whether you ditch pay-TV entirely and pay an installer to add the bits you will need around the house to enable Freeview or Freesat usage.

From your broadband usage it sounds like you need speed but not vast monthly limit - most of basic packages now offer this.

Including landline rental I would expect to pay around £25-30 per month for your telephone/broadband package.

chopps

Phone up VM and tell them you want to cancel due to the forthcoming price increase in February.

You can then negotiate a new landline and BB contract package with them for between £20-25 pm.

As for the TV try using Freeview to see if it meets your needs. If you want more free channels consider Freesat but you will need a dish installed.
If you want a PVR to replace VM's, then a Freeview one costs from about £70 or £200 if you want the newer versions with 7 day catch up (eg. BBc iPlayer etc.).

sjpkgp

Thanks Corn and Closed - very helpful. Not fancying a sateillite dish (esp as it seems to say it needs a clear line of sight to it, so freesat doesn't look good) but youview sounds good. If I got talk talks offer (of a free youview box) I assume I can then buy another one to go on the other downstairs TV. Do they both need to be connected to the broadband router ?

We've tried 3 wireless sets of phones (although not recently) with limited success (thick walls, high house) but think one line in would be OK as we have mobiles.

Thanks sal x

pledgeX

Unless you really need the extra TV channels, ditch the TV package and stick with standard freeview. Take a look on this website to see what TV channels are available in your area and compare it to what you watch currently.

Freesat is essentailly freeview but using a satellite dish instead of your traditional arial. I think you maybe able get one or two extra channels but nothing major. I think it's better to get freesat if arial reception is rubbish in your area.

If you're getting a new TV then it will have freeview/freesat built in, if not just buy a set top box for each TV. If you need to record TV, then get a PVR such as the humax as mentioned, or the more expensive youview.

If you feel you'll be missing out on films/TV consider getting a Lovefilm/Netflix subscription. Even on the best packages it'll still be a lot less than what you're paying currently.

Onto the phone situation. Unless you're going down the cable route, you're going to need a landline. Whether or not you'll use it for a landline phone is another matter. Do you have a landline in the house already, or is it only cable?

Finally - broadband. Unless you're good at monitoring what you use, then I'd be tempted to go with a package with unlimited usage, or at least a very high bandwidth allowance. With 6 of you I imagine the GB usage could rack up quickly.

I'm with Sky for my broadband and phone. It includes unlimited 20MB broadband, line rental and free weekend and evening calls. It costs me £25 a month of which a few quid are phone calls outide the free ones.

pledgeX

sjpkgp wrote: »

If I got talk talks offer (of a free youview box) I assume I can then buy another one to go on the other downstairs TV. Do they both need to be connected to the broadband router ?

Yes they'll need to be connected to the router if you want to use online services, although I'm pretty sure the standard freeview service will work without being connected.

Also bear in mind that the youview box isn't wireless, so youll need to have an ethernet port in both rooms, or a powerline adapters if you don't want to have cables trailing up the stairs!

chopps

Freesat offers a lot more channels than Freeview but most of the additional ones will probably be of little interest.

Freeview just needs an aerial connection but for the catch-up services an unlimited Broadband connection is essential.

Talk-Talk have had poor reviews compared to their competitors so do your research before being enticed by the 'free' You View box which BT also provide.

closed

a standard pvr is also an option, they are cheaper if you aren't bothered about hd channels and 4od etc integrated into the epg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-PVR9300T-Freeview-Standard-Definition/dp/B003HJVJSS/ref=tag_stp_s2_edpp_url

you'd have to have a bt line to move away from virgin cable.

this hd one one supports iplayer if you have a direct ethernet connection to router, or a humax wireless adapter.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-HDR-FOX-T2-Freeview-Recorder/dp/B004BMB2XC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1356911936&sr=1-2

-TangleFoot-

pledgeX wrote: »

I think it's better to get freesat if arial reception is rubbish in your area.

Or if the transmitter simply doesn't transmit everything.

Enterprise_1701C

We have Freesat and Freeview and we knocked Virgin right down so we have extremely basic channels on the cable box but we still keep it for on-demand, we pay nothing for the tv from Virgin.

We have freesat and freeview so that if one fails then we have the other, weather often affects our viewing habits.

If you, like ourselves, went for cable because the signal was not very good in your area, then since they have switched off the analogue transmitters they have ramped up the power of the digital transmitters, meaning the signal for freeview is now much stronger and we have no problems with it.