Freesat: 80 channels, £150, or £200 with HD inc. installation

Former_MSE_Lawrence

What's the deal?

Freesat's the BBC & ITV's new venture, offering subscription-free digital TV and Radio broadcasts nationwide. You just pay once for the box and (possibly) installation, and you get around 80 TV channels (see the list), which is slated to increase to more than 200 by next year.

It's also the only way to get HD-quality broadcasts without paying a subscription (unless you've an expensive Sky HD box and have cancelled your contract), although there's currently only one HD channel available; BBC HD (ITV HD to be released 'soon').

While the box prices sound good currently the installation cost will substantially eat away at any saving (unless you can negotiate a discount)

Below you'll find

• The FreeSat options
• Its cheaper if you already have a dish
• Alternatives including under £80 Sky Box & £10 Freeview

The FreeSat options:

• Standard definition. Bush Freesat setup £130 (£50 box + £80 installation).
  
  If you don't have a high-definition (HD) TV there's a basic Freesat box for £50 which'll get you everything except the BBC HD channel. It's available from Argos for £50 plus £80 installation fee (ex-Sky customers may be able to self-install, see below).
  
  It has a 7-day programme guide, 2 SCART sockets, remote control, and a broadband input socket which'll become more useful as the service develops (BBC iPlayer's expected to be available by the end of the year).

• High definition. Bush Freesat HD setup £200 (£120 box + £80 installation).
  
  If you do have a HD telly, or you're just looking to future-proof yourself, then the second Bush box is more likely to be your cup of tea. Essentially, it just adds HD features to those of the box above, which amount to a high-defintion HDMI video output, and a high-quality 5.1 S/PDIF (Digital Coaxial- outputs to home cinema receivers for surround sound) audio output, as well as 1080i upscaling.
  
  It's also available from Argos for £120 plus £80 installation, though stock is very limited (Again, ex-Sky customers may be able to self-install, see below).

A limited range of other Freesat boxes are available, but these are the cheapest at the moment.

Can I record programmes on it?

Unfortunately, none of the launch products include hard drive recording facilities, which is a shame given the rising popularity of time-shifting TV viewing.

That said, there are a few dedicated Freesat PVRs (hard drive Personal Video Recorders) in the pipeline; watch out for offerings by market-leader Humax which (at a higher pricepoint) will combine the HD funtionality of the Freesat box above with the recording capabilities of its own highly regarded freeview PVRs.

If you prefer to have TV shows fit your schedule, rather than to fit your life around theirs, it may well be worth waiting for one of these boxes to come out before diving in.

I already have a satellite; do I need to pay for installation?

If you've already got a Sky dish but you've terminated your contract, you should be able to simply plug the satellite dish lead in to the new box and get going straight away. Freesat channels are delivered by the same satellite.

If it doesn't work you'll still have to get an engineer round to sort it out, though you can likely track a cheaper one down yourself rather than pay for the full Freesat installation service.

I reckon I can put a dish up myself; do I need to pay for installation?

If you've the technical, and indeed ladder-climbing skills, you could always put a dish up yourself as there's no obligation to buy the installation package with the box.

Installation info can be found on loads of web forums, but don't do it unless you're sure you can. Obviously you'll have to source a compatible dish and parts, but it's reported below that you can get a kit for as little as £15 which will suffice, meaning an excellent saving.

Cheaper No-Subscription Alternatives

• Sky Forever Package. £75 inc. installation.
  
  Sky's 'forever' package from Dixons also operates on a no subscription basis, making it Freesat's closest competitor. It's also cheaper, at £75 including both the box and installation, though it's only available to brand new Sky customers.
  
  The package includes around 200 free-to-air channels, and 4 months worth of Sky's entertainment mixes, which you have to cancel afterwards or else start paying £19/month for, thus defeating the object of your purchase.
  
  At the moment, compared to basic Freesat this still seems a better deal, but the chances are that in a few months it'll be overshadowed by the latter.
  
  Bear in mind that if you want HD with Sky (albeit with quite a bit more variety) you'll need its pricey HD box and a subscription, and if you want to record/pause shows while you watch you'll need a premium package to get Sky+ so it's not all roses. That said, it's the best option if you think you might end up wanting subscription services such as Sky sports.
  
  If you do want a Sky service, look out for its occasional big cashback offers to offset the cost of a subscription (Read the Cashback Sites article for more info on how this works).

• Freeview. c.£10 box. No installation fee.
  
  Apparently 37% of us now primarily watch Freeview TV, and those that don't can get a digibox for about a tenner should they wish. Freeview has 47 permanent TV channels plus a number of digital radio stations, so it doesn't match the 200+ slated for Freesat by the end of 2008, but at the price that's not really a factor.
  
  What is though, is that 18-25% of the population will never be able to receive Freeview broadcasts due to their location, especialling galling when terrestrial broadcasts are being phased out. It's by these people that Freesat's 98% UK coverage will be most appreciated.
  
  HD content will be available on freeview between 2009-2011 depending on your area, but'll require the purchase of a new HD-capable digibox. Even then, it's unlikely to match Freesat's HD offering by that time, and certainly not its potential IPTV offering.

Anything else?

Bear in mind that Freesat's a new service, so there are likely to be some more enticing introductory offers in the near future if you bide your time.

-Lawrence

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cbrown7

I have never paid to have a dish installed, it really is easy, the hardest part probably being fixing the dish vertically to whatever structure you select.

Alignment is a doddle, made much easier buy purchasing a cheap dish alignment meter. For basic alignment look at where your neighbour's dishes are pointing and line yours up roughly with theirs.

With a bit of care I have even obtained a watchable picture straight away by employing this method, however the meter allows to you 'peak' the dish for maximum picture quality and stability.

Don't be put-off / fooled into thinking you cannot do it.

adr0ck

think theres a 10% voucher about if you buy forever from sky from Dixons (put sky and 10 together) making it £67.50

watch free sky entertainment mixes for 4 months

then buy either standard freesat box or freesat HD box (or maybe pvr if out) hopefully prices may have also come down a bit by then

then ebay sky box for £30 (or keep if you want some free channels that freesat won't ever get.....like playboy one)

so total cost

buying standard freesat box = £87.50 (£67.50+£40-£30)

buying hd freesat box = £157.50 (67.50+£120-£30)

buying pvr freesat box= Not known

Missoula_2

Is it correct that Freesat does not offer Channel 5?

checjb

I cancelled my Sky contract a while ago but still have the box and dish working and I'm wondering what I need to do to switch it over to Freesat reception? Do I need a new box or can I simply retune it somehow?

Thanks for any info.

C.

topofall

Missoula, that's correct, no Five yet but it will be coming!

Buy a dish kit off ebay for 15 quid, a signal finder for 1.99 and it's easy. I installed my Humax Freesat box on Sunday and the picture is absolutely superb!

A few small problems at the moment - no text on the commercial channels as the software needs a rewrite. Can't put my box in standy as the picture doesn't come back on power up but Humax support are aware of the problem and it hopefully will be sorted soon.

There was a software update on switch on for the first time after only five days after launch so it should get better.

Go install, it's easy!

cypher915

I read somewhere on interweb that you can get freesat from sky for nowt. Here's how it works. If you are a sky customer, cancel your sky subscription and tell them you are going to get freesat from sky. Apparently your dish, box and card can then be used for fsfs(freesat from sky). Otherwise you can get a £20 card from them. There are more channels also.

YAM_3

If I understand it right, freesat is basically just plain old unencrypted DVB-S. They add a program guide and some extended multimedia features and have the channels preprogrammed.

So if one just wishes to watch TV it might be cheaper to buy a simple FTA DVB-S receiver and tune the channels yourself. Also there is a wider choice of options (with or without recording, as computer card, as 12V camping device, ...). And it is possible to use it also with other (international) satellites.

-1-

I would have gone for the HD option but it's not worth it for just BBC HD currently & ITV , Channel 5 HD "coming soon".

I'll stick with Freeview until it improves or SKY HD prices come down.

keefj

Has anyone else noticed a reduction in strength of the freeview signal recently? A conspiracy theorist might suggest they are trying to persuade us to switch to freesat.

There is a serious point though. I was sold freeview on the promise of a great picture and interference free telly. Despite paying out for a new arial and downlead, and being in a supposedly "good" reception area. I often get drop out and pixellation in the picture and sometimes can't get channel 5 at all. I was hoping the signal might get better as the service became established but it seems to be getting worse. It would be nice if the BBC sorted out the probelms with the current systems before investing heavily in the next. It seems clear that most of the advances in TV technology are to do with increasing profit for the man rather than improving service for the customer. Don't even get me started on Flat screen TVs!

Keith

--Tony--

I understood you can manually tune a few channels on your sky box, if this uses the same satellite is it possible to manually tune to any of the channels not on sky?
I have an HD box but sky has no ITV-HD and only BBC-HD preview so it would be nice to tune these two in.