Freesat

[paulm]

Finally got around to dumping Sky, ends later this month, realised we really hadn't watched much actual Sky content last couple of years and it was largely the same old tired content going around in a continuous loop !

Have been looking at the freesat channels which i believe the Sky HD box will still let us view once the subscription ends, albeit without the ability to pause or record, but all the BBC channels show on the guide as being analogue rather than digital, and as we haven't used an arial for the ladt decade or more, there is nothing showing on those analogue channels to watch other than "snow" !

The other digital channels on freesat are fine but can't ser sny digital bbc, just analogue. Not sure why this is and what i can do about it ?

May well go for a humax box or similar to get back the record and live pause functionality, to replace the Sky box. Is this likely to fix the missing BBC digital channels too, or will i end up with the same problem ?

Any help much appreciated !

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[Beau]

We had Sky for a year and ditched it. Thought I would just use the Sky box for freesat but it was pretty useless and didnt seem to work right so went for the Humax. Pretty good but once in a while it crashes and needs turning off and on again but normally only happens at start up. That and Netflix have have provided much better entertainment than we could get from basic Sky.

 

[Woodchips2]

I ditched Sky and went for Freesat with a Humax box about 10 years ago. Has worked fine for me and has never crashed. No problem with BBC digital channels either. I guess Sky don't want to make it easy for you to use their box without shelling out each month!
Regards Keith

 

[Grawschbags]

I've been a Humax Freesat user for about a year now, for the same reasons as you.

The box works well. Bit clunky, and certainly not as slick as the Sky box, but I can forgive it for the £80 a month saving. Paid for itself in 3 months.

The annoying thing is there is now channel 4 HD... for the time being. Some license agreement issue I believe.

 

[Selwyn]

I use humax and netflix. I share bt sport with my dad (he pays and i watch via the app) and I stream other sport.

You can also share netflix with 4 others

 

[Geoff_S]

Same thing here. Dumped Sky for exactly the reasons you say, went to BT Youview. Then dumped BT Youview for the same reasons as Sky.

We now have Freeview and Netflix and haven't looked back.

However Freeview is a bit flakey, not sure if it would also apply to Freesat. But the digital channels are very flakey. We used to be able to get BBC4 on HD, not any more and a lot of the Freeview channels just won't load. We live in London suburbia and signal strength has never been a problem.

Anyway, the TV is not a full time pastime but I really do rate Netflix.

 

[paulm]

Yes, have gone onto netflix and cover the whole family, including two grown up kids living elsewhere, for a tenner a month !

Decided just to order the humax box and see if that resolves the missing bbc channels on freesat. If not then i'll need to figure out satellite alignment and other possible causes, but wanted the humax so we can still record stuff anyway, so will just try it and see i guess !

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[SVB]

As all said above. Dumped sky. Have Humax box and have Netflix as much better vfm.

I like the golf majors so when we’re home (approx 2oo4 each year) I pay nowtv approx £12 for 7 days sky sports access

 

[RogerP]

Don't know about Freesat but I can get, just on and ordinary TV aerial - 89 Freeview Channels, 16 Freeview HD Channels, 33 Radio Stations. I also have a Virgin Fibre Cable package which gives me a whole bundle more stuff. :shock:

We don't actually watch very much TV - but it's nice to have a choice when we do!

Have I got it wrong is Netflix just films?

 

[Harbo]

We’ve had a Humax for many years and get great reception from Rowridge ( I think) with an indoor aerial. We can record 2 and watch another programme though the new ones go even better.
You can access Sky programmes with a Now set up (Now stick, Amazon Fire Stick or Apple TV) without a contract. On Black Friday they had an offer of both Entertainment Pass and Cinema Pass for £99 for 12 months.

Rod

 

[Geoff_S]

Don't know about Freesat but I can get, just on and ordinary TV aerial - 89 Freeview Channels, 16 Freeview HD Channels, 33 Radio Stations. I also have a Virgin Fibre Cable package which gives me a whole bundle more stuff. :shock:

We don't actually watch very much TV - but it's nice to have a choice when we do!

Have I got it wrong is Netflix just films?

Netflix is films, boxsets, documentaries, serials, stand up comics etc

 

[topchippyles]

Guys why not get an enigma 2 box and run iptv and you will get all sky and hundreds of channels

 

[paulm]

New humax box arrived yesterday, decided to swap out the sky hd box straight away even though there's a couple of weeks of the notice period and usage still left (given how little we watch sky stuff anyway).

A doddle to set up, and the answer to my own original question, yes, the new freesat box picks up all the bbc channels too that the sky box wasnt, so job done and no satellite messing required !

The picture quality on freesat looks better to me also, always felt that sky pictures were a little less sharp, don't know if their box degrades the pictures/signal for some reason? Not drastic, but noticable....

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[Smithy]

A big yes for the Humax box. We live in France And we find the réception And picture quality is better than the Sky box. The only problem we have had is after a power cut. Our supply is a bit erratic And even a small dip in supply can through the box out. We unplugg it for 10 minutes And reconnect And it is fine.

 

[Rorschach]

No TV (piped in) at all here. Big saving, each year, £150 saving on TV license alone.
Lots of TV is available through on demand apps these days, no more ads than you would get watching them through a box anyway.

 

[Geoff_S]

New humax box arrived yesterday, decided to swap out the sky hd box straight away even though there's a couple of weeks of the notice period and usage still left (given how little we watch sky stuff anyway).

A doddle to set up, and the answer to my own original question, yes, the new freesat box picks up all the bbc channels too that the sky box wasnt, so job done and no satellite messing required !

The picture quality on freesat looks better to me also, always felt that sky pictures were a little less sharp, don't know if their box degrades the pictures/signal for some reason? Not drastic, but noticable....

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Just to be clear, you had a Sky dish and just plugged this into the Humax box, set it up and it worked?

Wow, if that's all it is, I'm off to buy a Humax box! Which model did you get?

 

[ScaredyCat]

If you get a humax make sure you don't get one with YouView. It's a terrible thing, so much so, I'm looking at getting Sky Q.


.

 

[paulm]

New humax box arrived yesterday, decided to swap out the sky hd box straight away even though there's a couple of weeks of the notice period and usage still left (given how little we watch sky stuff anyway).

A doddle to set up, and the answer to my own original question, yes, the new freesat box picks up all the bbc channels too that the sky box wasnt, so job done and no satellite messing required !

The picture quality on freesat looks better to me also, always felt that sky pictures were a little less sharp, don't know if their box degrades the pictures/signal for some reason? Not drastic, but noticable....

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Just to be clear, you had a Sky dish and just plugged this into the Humax box, set it up and it worked?

Wow, if that's all it is, I'm off to buy a Humax box! Which model did you get?

Yep, unplugged sky plus box and plugged in the humax freesat box to the same satellite dish cables, and worked straight away, no issues

There's only a couple of versions on amazon, the 500gb capacity one we got that was about 170pds and the 1tb capacity for a bit more. Can't get the specifics at the moment, nut just make sure you get a humax freesat box and not a humax freeview box, tjey do both versions the former being for use with satellites and dishes and the latter being for use with arials.

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[whiskywill]

I have recently got a Humax box after using a Samsung for around 6 years. The Samsung was far more user friendly allowing me to create my own files for recordings such as Sport, Children, Films etc but Humax dumps everything together.
Another thing I don't like about Humax is the way that all programmes are listed one above the other no matter what their start and finish times. Samsung displayed the programmes in real time so you could see where there were overlaps etc.
And finally, having young children,with the Samsung I could select 10 or more Peppa Pig recordings and they would play one after the other whereas the Humax only allows one to be selected. If there is a way around this please let me know.

 

[Geoff_S]

New humax box arrived yesterday, decided to swap out the sky hd box straight away even though there's a couple of weeks of the notice period and usage still left (given how little we watch sky stuff anyway).

A doddle to set up, and the answer to my own original question, yes, the new freesat box picks up all the bbc channels too that the sky box wasnt, so job done and no satellite messing required !

The picture quality on freesat looks better to me also, always felt that sky pictures were a little less sharp, don't know if their box degrades the pictures/signal for some reason? Not drastic, but noticable....

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

Just to be clear, you had a Sky dish and just plugged this into the Humax box, set it up and it worked?

Wow, if that's all it is, I'm off to buy a Humax box! Which model did you get?

Yep, unplugged sky plus box and plugged in the humax freesat box to the same satellite dish cables, and worked straight away, no issues

There's only a couple of versions on amazon, the 500gb capacity one we got that was about 170pds and the 1tb capacity for a bit more. Can't get the specifics at the moment, nut just make sure you get a humax freesat box and not a humax freeview box, tjey do both versions the former being for use with satellites and dishes and the latter being for use with arials.

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Thanks Paul

It's the aerial reception that I am having the problem with. For instance and the most obvious problem is that BBC 4 in HD either will not load or disappears completely off of the list! And I am sure other channels are dropping off. Maybe being able to use my old Sky dish will solve this? So are you able to see BBC4 in HD on your Humax box?

Cheers