Leaving Sky. Have Humax. But a Freesat TV.

hybernia

We've cancelled our Sky TV subscription. The company will not offer a fixed-price contract so if we sign up to a new one for 18 months, we'd likely have cause to ring them again at the next price hike to say we're leaving. Life's too short to waste it on Sky customer retentions department. We also have a £7.99 a month Amazon Prime subscription. We watch as much on that as we do on Sky.

Our techie situation is this:

(1) We have a Sony HD TV purchased in June 2010. Still works perfectly. It came with "built-in FreeSat". It is in our lounge, in which two TV wall sockets connect to our rooftop aerial. Those sockets are, obviously, unused;

(2) We have never used the TV's FreeSat facility because this is the TV which is connected to the Sky+ receiver and the input from the external Sky satellite dish;

(3) We have 2 Humax HD PVRs, one in a bedroom, another in the kitchen. Both work perfectly. Both provide terrestrial Freeview HD;

(4) We're wondering if the bedroom Human HD PVR -- which is rarely used -- can be shifted downstairs to the lounge. There, it will replace the defunct Sky box. And there it will connect to the existing (but so far never used) TV wall socket. Instead of taking a Sky satellite feed the TV will instead take a Humax Freeview HD terrestrial feed.

My dear OH thinks that regardless of whether or not the Sony TV is equipped with Freesat, the Humax is the unit which will actually receive the incoming terrestrial Freeview signal and simply pass it through to the Sony TV.

That the Sony happens to have FreeSat is irrelevant. The Sony is not being called upon to provide FreeSat itself, only to serve as the adjunct to the terrestrial Freeview HD Humax recorder.

Is he correct? (I'm hoping he so.) Thanks for any advice.:)

molerat

The TV will also have a terrestrial aerial input so you can receive Freeview through either the Humax or directly through the TV inbuilt digital tuner, the Humax probably has a pass through aerial connector so aerial cable will go wall -- Humax -- TV.

debitcardmayhem

Plug one of the "sky" leads into the TV too since it has a sat input

Gloomendoom

I left Sky a few months ago and also have a TV with a Freesat capability. I don't use it though because the Sky Box does the same job. It doesn't stop working when you leave, you just can't get the pay channels.

We use a BT YouView box to record Freeview.

RumRat

Your OH is correct.

As others say, you could connect your sky to the tv Freesat input and receive the free channels. However, you wouldn't be able to record them as you could the Freeview ones via the Humax box.

I use a Humax box and never see programmes via the TV tuner.

hybernia

Hi everyone: sincere thanks for all the help and advice. OH is now preening. Doh. I really appreciate the explanations because they finally explain to me How Stuff Works (I tend to look at anything involving plugs and cables and glaze over.) So really, molerat / debitcardmayhem /Gloomendoom have managed a primer in a few easy to understand paragraphs, whereas whenever I've browsed the 'Net in times past there's been so much wordage I've gone numb.

@ Rumrat: yes, it's the record facility that's essential, and both our Humax boxes work fine. One other item OH has acquired direct from Humax is a wifi dongle-thingie. We always viewed BBC catch-up on Sky because it was so easy easy, but having experimented with it on the Firestick (BBC iPlayer app) OH thinks the dongle will provide better visual quality.

However, it's still in its box so who knows, I may be back here again, pestering people. Ah, this techie stuff! Thank you again everyone.

Inner_Zone

hybernia wrote: »

Hi everyone: sincere thanks for all the help and advice. OH is now preening. Doh. I really appreciate the explanations because they finally explain to me How Stuff Works (I tend to look at anything involving plugs and cables and glaze over.) So really, molerat / debitcardmayhem /Gloomendoom have managed a primer in a few easy to understand paragraphs, whereas whenever I've browsed the 'Net in times past there's been so much wordage I've gone numb.

@ Rumrat: yes, it's the record facility that's essential, and both our Humax boxes work fine. One other item OH has acquired direct from Humax is a wifi dongle-thingie. We always viewed BBC catch-up on Sky because it was so easy easy, but having experimented with it on the Firestick (BBC iPlayer app) OH thinks the dongle will provide better visual quality.

However, it's still in its box so who knows, I may be back here again, pestering people. Ah, this techie stuff! Thank you again everyone.

A Wi-Fi dongle will not improve the picture, it purely for the Wi-Fi signal. The picture on a Firestick should be the same.

[Deleted User]

hybernia wrote: »

OH thinks the dongle will provide better visual quality.

It will be the same quality you received (and can still receive) via the Sky decoder.

hybernia

Thanks for that latest info, moneyineptitude inner zone; that's one less thing to bother about then. We'll plug it into the spare bedroom Humax instead of making a redundant addition to the Humax in the lounge replacing the Sky+ box. Cheers!