Alternative to sky

Whywhywhyeliza

I’ve finally cancelled sky. Long overdue. I’m actually a bit embarrassed by the number of years I kept on accepting the increased charges. 

Anyway, better late than never. 

I currently have sky q and am looking for a replacement/alternative way to watch and record from freeview. Can anyone recommend a particular box? 

For broadband I’m considering plusnet or now, but have no previous experience of either. Any red flags with these that I should be aware of? 

Thank you for reading - this is my first post so apologies if it’s overly long.

Farway

Welcome to MSE, and good idea to ask before you buy unlike some who only find out too late

FWIW I have had both Plusnet & Now, currently with Now, and I've had no bother with either, left PN when price went up and they failed to match or meet other suppliers offers, reading these forums it seems since then they have got message

Freeview recorder [PVR] I've had various, Humax is reckoned to be the best but the specs vary, do want to record say two programmes while you watch another? Or just one?  Worth thinking about and of course the cost will differ depending on the answer

My Humax had and easier to use interface, more logical but maybe that's just me

rjmachin

I cancelled Sky and switch to Now (was Now TV) for TV services.

Now does not allow you to record, and has limited pause and rewind functionality, however I have found all of the content that I need on demand.  Admittedly, some programmes don't appear on demand until a few hours after broadcast, so you may not be able to start watching your favourite programme 30 minutes later and would need to wait a bit for it to be added to the demand section.

Despite the reduced features (no where near as good as Sky Q - I also had it before cancelling), the price difference for me more than compensates for this.  I was paying £50-60 at the time for entertainment, movies and multiroom, compared to around £10 now for the same (mostly) content

jem16

Whywhywhyeliza said:

I currently have sky q and am looking for a replacement/alternative way to watch and record from freeview. Can anyone recommend a particular box? 

I use this box - can record 4 things at once. You will of course need an actual TV aerial. Do you have one? You can choose the refurbished versions which are always excellent value or pay more if you want a new one. 

https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished/freeview-play-recorder-fvp-5000t-500gb-refurbished.html

[Deleted User]

Humax freesat pvr is good. Plug your sky cables in the back and good to go. 

Will also record 4 channels at once. 

mobileron

Read about Plusnet Customer service first.

jem16

Deleted_User said:

Humax freesat pvr is good. Plug your sky cables in the back and good to go. 

Will also record 4 channels at once. 

Humax don’t seem to be doing Freesat boxes any more. 

cymruchris

mobileron said:

Read about Plusnet Customer service first.

I've only had very good customer service from them - as with all companies there will always be a number of people that don't have any problems - and a percentage that do. I'm not sure their percentage that do would be any different to the other big names such as TalkTalk (that was a company I didn't get on with and was happy to leave - but there'll be many thousands of happy customers)

Rodders53

Freeview Play PVR if you have a working UHF TV aerial and reception is adequate...  TV will have Freeview tuner to check.  Check if you receive from a main transmitter site or a 'Freeview Lite' relay where there are fewer channels.  https://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview-channel-checker

Freesat do a PVR and it's fully compatible with $ky Q LNB so plug-swap and play with (iirc) foure tuners inside... https://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat/set-top-boxes/recordable-4k-tv-box

Rodders53

jem16 said:

Deleted_User said:

Humax freesat pvr is good. Plug your sky cables in the back and good to go. 

Will also record 4 channels at once. 

Humax don’t seem to be doing Freesat boxes any more. 

He meant the freesat-branded freesat 4k recordable box I linked to above... Only one compatible with Q lnbs (currently).

[Deleted User]

I did indeed mean freesat not Humax. 

I’m very happy with my box and would recommend it. There is loads of stuff in free tv channels. You don’t need sky!