New TV with Freesat built-in - alternative to Sky Q?

GraceF125

If anyone could offer advice please I'd be very grateful. Have been with Sky for years and haven't bought a TV for years either so feel very out of touch with what is now available.

So like many people I am planning on ditching Sky TV (currently have Sky Q with just Sky Signature) as just coming out of contract and the cost is just too high. Sky Atlantic and Sky Documentaries are the only channels we value/watch.

But we also need a new TV so am getting totally confused with all the options and which would best suit our needs. I don't think a wifi/broadband connection only Smart TV would be right for us as our internet connection can be affected by the weather and it would be annoying for the TV to stop working when the internet goes down even if only briefly?

So I think I'd like to still connect to our satellite dish - and apparently this is possible with a Freesat box? But if we're buying a new TV we could buy one with Freesat built-in so wouldn't need to by a Freesat box? Is that right? But if I don't buy a Freesat box I won't be able to record so maybe it would be better to buy a TV and a Freesat box separately?

(How would a Freesat TV connect to the dish - would the TV have sockets for using the same leads as currently go into the Sky Q box? )

We mainly watch the apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ now. I've read that Disney+ isn't available on Freesat, but if the new TV is a Smart TV we could watch it on that? Would the Smart TV need an aerial or internet connection to work? We have an old-fashioned aerial but no idea if it works as the current TV's aerial input socket is damaged so we can't watch "normal" TV on it anyway.

 I keep confusing myself as to what we need and how to spend the least amount of money replacing Sky Q. I don't need an expensive or big TV - just a Smart one with all the apps to replace Sky Q, so I'm looking at ones that cost about £250 (43" max size).

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Veteransaver

Do you have a normal aerial?
If you have an aerial anyway then I don't think there is much benefit to having freesat is there?
Not sure there are any more channels (other than possibly some foreign ones?).
Picture quality is worse on some channels on Freesat because of the higher compression (or used to be).
But yes a smart TV should work fine without an aerial or satellite dish. Obviously it will only receive TV via the apps over internet.

jbrassy

I don't think there is much benefit from using Freesat over Freeview. If you have a regular aerial, just plug your TV into that and use Freeview.

If you want to record TV, then you could buy a BT Youview box off of Amazon. These allow you to record Freeview channels and also include apps for iPlayer, Netflix etc. 

If you don't want to record TV, you could just buy a Google Chromecast.

It goes without saying that you need an Internet connection to watch Netflix etc.

GraceF125

Thanks for your replies.

We do have an aerial but can't use it with our current TV as the input socket in the back of the TV is faulty - but hopefully it would work in a new TV. (Do all new Smart TVs have an old-style aerial socket as default? Have been reading up on specs for some and don't see that mentioned).

And yes, I think I've been worrying about internet reliability too much, I currently use an Ethernet connection with Sky due to problems with our Wifi in the past, so would stick with that for the TV.

Re recording, I used to always end up sticking with Sky when they offered a new deal, as the ability to record was so easy and we used it a lot for series links, avoiding ads etc. But I reckon we're doing that less and less now with most of what we watch being on Streaming Apps. So I think I might take the plunge of just not having it as an option and see how much we miss it.

Tempted by a Panasonic Smart Fire TV at the moment, think that would suit all our needs initially and be a happy new replacement for both Sky and old TV, as coming to conclusion we probably don't need Freesat or the ability to record.

wongataa

GraceF125 said:

Thanks for your replies.

We do have an aerial but can't use it with our current TV as the input socket in the back of the TV is faulty - but hopefully it would work in a new TV. (Do all new Smart TVs have an old-style aerial socket as default? Have been reading up on specs for some and don't see that mentioned).

Yes all TVs come with an aerial socket.