SKY v Freeview

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brucemillar

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I am getting fed up with the huge bills that I get from SKY tv.

What are the +/- of moving to freeview?

I have two daughters school age 13 & 8. So we have the SKY multi room package. If I move to freeview what do I lose ? channels - multi room etc.

What kit do I need recievers etc do I need a dish or aeriel?

Regards

Bruce
 
Phone Sky and tell them you are leaving.

I did that and now get-
Full Sky package, Sports & Movies HD
Multi-room
Sky broadband
Sky phone

All for £63 per month Inc. Line rental
 
I bought a Humax PVR gives me freeview can record two channels plus watch anything previously recorded and depending on which sometimes watch a third as well, if not I switch to the TV tuner. Probably not as much choice as Sky but enough for me and it's free. Just use an ordinary TV aerial. Not sure what the multi room is but another freeview box is a cheap way to watch in additional rooms have one for the second old TV.
 
I have a Humax freesat PVR. (aks HDR)
This uses the same satellite as SKY - so no changes ther, it is a simple plug&play.
You will also get full recording/pause/rewind live etc

You will get all channels worth getting apart fom national geographic.
You get HD for free (BBC, ITV, C4)

You also get BBC Iplayer as a channel - ITV player coming soon.

Channels are here.
 
I have a Humax freesat PVR. (aks HDR)
This uses the same satellite as SKY - so no changes ther, it is a simple plug&play.
You will also get full recording/pause/rewind live etc

You will get all channels worth getting apart fom national geographic.
You get HD for free (BBC, ITV, C4)

You also get BBC Iplayer as a channel - ITV player coming soon.

Channels are here.

I have Freesat too and find it really good. My TV also has Freeview built in so I get more Channels.

Edit: in case you don't know Freeview and Freesat are different things. Freesat can be rewound and paused and Freeview comes in standard and HD versions. To have both you need an indoor aerial and a dish that has 2 outlets. Never used multi room but you'd just need cables or wireless streaming. Having said that, if you give up Sky aren't you left with the hardware and just lose the Sky channels?
 
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I have Freesat too and find it really good. My TV also has Freeview built in so I get more Channels.

Edit: in case you don't know Freeview and Freesat are different things. Freesat can be rewound and paused and Freeview comes in standard and HD versions. To have both you need an indoor aerial and a dish that has 2 outlets. Never used multi room but you'd just need cables or wireless streaming. Having said that, if you give up Sky aren't you left with the hardware and just lose the Sky channels?

Nearly. Freeview is distributed through the air and received from your normal (or upgraded) TV Ariel.

FreeSat is essentially similar to Sky. You need a dish to receive.

Either of these can support live pause, rewind etc. but it's dependant on your AV equipment. Twin tuners are required on Freeview, and Two wire connections on the satellite connection for FreeSat.
 
I have Freesat and a Humax PVR and it works a treat. No (over-rated) Premier League football,but that's not a hardship.
 
All depends on what you / your daughters want to watch.
If you want the widest choice available to you then Sky or Virgin Media subscription services are what you need to go for.

If you just want the standard stuff (BBC / ITV etc. ) then simply cancel Sky (one months notice) and then use your existing Sky setup to receive Freesat.

You currently have multiroom setup so basically you'll receive all the non-subscription channels on these boxes.

What you will lose is the ability to record programes and pause/rewind live TV.
If you want to retain that functionality then simply pay Sky 10 pounds a month for the record/live pause feature.
That's the simplest way.

Alternatively, you could buy a Freesat PVR box (one off payment but no monthly charge) and hook that up to your existing Sky dish.

Or buy a Freeview PVR box if you have a decent areial installed and cabling in place.

The difference in channel choice between Freesat and Freeview isn't much and as you already have the Sky equipment in place (i.e. dish and cabling to other rooms) I'd go with Freesat.

All depends on what channel choice you want? Do you want HD?
If you want all the subscription stuff, then do as others have done. Threaten to leave and they'll throw a whole load of discounts at you.

They offered me a huge saving on the TV package for a whole 12 months, but as we don't actully watch anything other then BBC / ITV etc. it was still dead money, so I declined.

Hope this helps.
 
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If you're into movies, then losing the sky subscription means you can buy a lot of BluRay discs. If you're into sport then lising the sky subscription means you can spend more time at the pub watching sport for the price of a pint or two.

I have never subscribed to sky, and because the broadband packages aren't available in Hull it's even worse value for us!
 
FREESAT pvr box one of these---- freesat+ HD TV recorder - freesat

recommend the HUMAX FOXSAT-HDR---- with Freesat you will also get the BBC iPLAYER and in a short time ITV on demand as descrete channels provided you can provide an ethernet link to your router.
 
Last experience of Humax [a freeview PVR] was painfully slow download of TV guide and poor user interface. Hope they've updraded things.

I am a SKy victim - am also trying to think of ways to cut the cost. I recently bought a Phillips 500GB PVR which has HD freeview channels [and also a rubbish interface], but still rely on Sky. I think Sweetpea's suggestion in post #2 might be worth a punt. Don't want to change my broadband/phone setup though so let's see

Sean
 
Had SKY previously, many years ago and vowed never to go back. Both our tv's have built in freeview,not a big sports fan so not bothered about football and the like, formula 1 is in the beeb, bt vision box takes care of the recordings etc. Personally dont see the need to shell out for something we can manage without.
 
Confession time.

I have hijacked daughter No1's sky login, and I watch all the sky movie channels/on demand services via an old laptop under the telly.
Connection via VGA, digital audio into my home cinema, and access to the laptop via remotemouse app on the iphone (connects via my wireless router)

Free sky!!
 
Unless you want to watch alot of sport then freeview is perfectly adequate.
We also have access to free Russian satellite tv.
So only the TV license which is dear enough £150 ish £12.50 per month.
 
Phone Sky and tell them you are leaving.

I did that and now get-
Full Sky package, Sports & Movies HD
Multi-room
Sky broadband
Sky phone

All for £63 per month Inc. Line rental

I did this and they offered me a 50% discount for six months. 4 months and 4 calls later they keep telling me that they have applied the discount and it will happen next month.

Free beer tomorrow sign required.
 
Dumped Sky and went Humax Freesat some time ago. Don't miss them and have saved a fortune.
 
freesat-


Tom Watson MP thinks parents will be disgusted by the Dowler phone hacking.
I am appalled and I don't have kids.
Thanks Tom.
 
Although I presently have Sky, over time I have found that I watch more Freeview channel offerings than from Sky - so come September I will be cancelling Sky.

I am also well-pleased with my recently purchased Humax HDR-Fox-T2 recorder that allows me to watch BBC iPlayer. It is expected that SkyGo will be available on this device (on a per monthly subscription basis) very soon.

My intention is to by a Humax Foxsat too, but only when the G2 specification units appear early next year (which will hopefully incorporate YouView).

I also have a second Mac Mini purely for HTPC purposes. This means that I can order a greater selection of latest movie releases via iTunes than is ever available from Sky Box Office. Likewise, I can buy 'season passes' for most of the series that are available from Sky, but without having to regularly commit to a Sky subscription.
 
Dumped Sky and now have Freeview and Freesat, money in pocket more than makes up for the lost channels.:)
 

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