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Duump SKY for Freesat
Greenie - 30/7/12 at 06:39 PM

My better half and myself have made the conscious decision to dump SKY, just not worth it anymore and now that they have notified us of there impending increases, they are going to have to go..... Never really watch anything on SKY.

But we still want the ability to record etc, so my question to you is which is the best system Freesat system to purchase?

Mr C - 30/7/12 at 06:45 PM

The humax systems are as good as any with excellent reviews comes in two sizes 500gb and 1tb, for a more designer look the samsung isn't too bad either.

Slimy38 - 30/7/12 at 06:54 PM

Why not stick with the Sky Freesat? It's just a change of viewing card, the hardware stays the same. Unless you haven't got a sky+ box?

vanepico - 30/7/12 at 06:55 PM

you don't need to change card i don't think, just let it expire then you get freeview only

Greenie - 30/7/12 at 06:59 PM

If I I do that will I not the ability to record, will SKY not turn that facility off?

tims31 - 30/7/12 at 07:00 PM

I have a HUMAX box with a 500gb hard drive recorder, records on two channels and you can watch a third, series link etc really good. Only thing I would want sky for is the F1 but I'm not going to fork out over £600 just for that.

Would recommend the Humax though.

vanepico - 30/7/12 at 07:00 PM

Nah you've paid for a box! You will only get access to half the hard drive though, half is used for anytime, which you can no longer get

jossey - 30/7/12 at 07:24 PM

to record you need to pay for sky freesat which is £5 a month.

vanepico - 30/7/12 at 07:26 PM

Well in that case get rid of the bloody thing, burn it, or ebay it!

Greenie - 30/7/12 at 07:59 PM

Cheers to all.... Bye bye SKY hello Humax!

jase380 - 30/7/12 at 08:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tims31
I have a HUMAX box with a 500gb hard drive recorder, records on two channels and you can watch a third, series link etc really good. Only thing I would want sky for is the F1 but I'm not going to fork out over £600 just for that.

Would recommend the Humax though.


You can watch F1 here http://www.vipbox.tv/sports/formula-1.html

40inches - 31/7/12 at 08:40 AM

Can highly recommend the Samsung boxes, I personally preferred the UI to the Humax, and cheaper too.
With the Sky+ box, when you cancel your subscription Sky will send a signal to stop the recording facility, leave it unplugged for
a couple of months, before they do, and it will record fine. Our old + box is in one of the kids bedroom and works OK.

loggyboy - 31/7/12 at 09:37 AM

Freesat is great, I have it built in to my TV, but sadly doesnt have a DVR built in, so I still subcribe to sky not just for the DVR, but there is a few channels I still watch on Sky.

Surrey Dave - 31/7/12 at 10:53 AM

quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
Can highly recommend the Samsung boxes, I personally preferred the UI to the Humax, and cheaper too.
With the Sky+ box, when you cancel your subscription Sky will send a signal to stop the recording facility, leave it unplugged for
a couple of months, before they do, and it will record fine. Our old + box is in one of the kids bedroom and works OK.



If that is correct ,I wonder if there is a back door way of enabling recording on an old Sky+ box?

scudderfish - 31/7/12 at 10:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
Can highly recommend the Samsung boxes, I personally preferred the UI to the Humax, and cheaper too.
With the Sky+ box, when you cancel your subscription Sky will send a signal to stop the recording facility, leave it unplugged for
a couple of months, before they do, and it will record fine. Our old + box is in one of the kids bedroom and works OK.


That sounds quite petty of them.

Strontium Dog - 31/7/12 at 11:12 AM

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
Can highly recommend the Samsung boxes, I personally preferred the UI to the Humax, and cheaper too.
With the Sky+ box, when you cancel your subscription Sky will send a signal to stop the recording facility, leave it unplugged for
a couple of months, before they do, and it will record fine. Our old + box is in one of the kids bedroom and works OK.


That sounds quite petty of them.


It's Murdoch ffs, your lucky they don't send an auto destruct signal as soon as you stop paying there bloated bills! Lol

I have a cheapo screwfix HD freesat box and dish that cost £50 all in and have had it for ages. It works fine and records to USB devices although the UI is a bit crappy and for everything that isn't freesat I use the interweb. I meant to use it for a while and then get something better but so far I havent seen the need to upgrade.

40inches - 31/7/12 at 11:52 AM

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
Can highly recommend the Samsung boxes, I personally preferred the UI to the Humax, and cheaper too.
With the Sky+ box, when you cancel your subscription Sky will send a signal to stop the recording facility, leave it unplugged for
a couple of months, before they do, and it will record fine. Our old + box is in one of the kids bedroom and works OK.


That sounds quite petty of them.


It gets worse, you can't play back any recordings you have made previously Talk about throwing your dummy out of the pram!

swanny - 31/7/12 at 11:55 AM

+1 for Humax, not as nice to use as Sky, but like you we simply didnt watch enough telly to justify the sky costs.
a real bonus for us has been the iplayer option on the humax box, with i think more telly on demand either arrived or coming soon.

moving from standard sky to humax means we actually get to see more of what we want as we can record and download.

40inches - 31/7/12 at 11:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Surrey Dave
quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
Can highly recommend the Samsung boxes, I personally preferred the UI to the Humax, and cheaper too.
With the Sky+ box, when you cancel your subscription Sky will send a signal to stop the recording facility, leave it unplugged for
a couple of months, before they do, and it will record fine. Our old + box is in one of the kids bedroom and works OK.



If that is correct ,I wonder if there is a back door way of enabling recording on an old Sky+ box?


Yes and no If you take out your card when you cancel your subscription and unplug the box (before your subscription expires) leave it for a few months, SKY keep sending a seek and destroy command via satellite for this time, it should then work, mine did.
More info here, read the whole lot

vanepico - 31/7/12 at 07:10 PM

our phone line was removed as soon as the guy left because it cocked up our internet

Greenie - 1/8/12 at 07:49 PM

Do I need a dish to use the Humax system or can I utilise my SKY dish or do I need a dish at all?

vanepico - 1/8/12 at 07:54 PM

pretty sure LNBs are standard, but if the humax can record two things and play live tv I would think it would need three coax wires?

whitestu - 1/8/12 at 08:49 PM

quote:

Do I need a dish to use the Humax system or can I utilise my SKY dish or do I need a dish at all?


Your Sky disk will be fine. Just buy a multi way LNB like this: Linky

Stu

JC - 1/8/12 at 08:50 PM

My TV has freest built in, but also has a USB port that we plug an external standard Hard drive into!!!

franky - 1/8/12 at 10:05 PM

I've just done the same but going to wait for the new range of humax box's to come out. Lots of interesting developments around them.

Mr C - 2/8/12 at 03:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Greenie
Do I need a dish to use the Humax system or can I utilise my SKY dish or do I need a dish at all?


t should be a straight forward plug n play as they use the same satellite, the sky dish should be fine.

Jasper - 2/8/12 at 02:53 PM

I binned my Sky subscription as soon as FreeSat became available, bought a Humax box and never looked back. Feels good not to be giving those arseholes my money any more.

And yes, just plug it in, straight swap.

David Jenkins - 2/8/12 at 03:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr C


t should be a straight forward plug n play as they use the same satellite, the sky dish should be fine.


The same *group* of *satellites* - there's a whole load of Astra satellites used by various European broadcasters. Sky is on one, FreeSat is on another, but they're so close together that the same dish pointing in the same direction will work for both. See Wikipedia entry.

I've gone from paying Sky around £20 per month for hundreds of channels I never watched, to £0 per month for 50-odd channels I never watch... I only miss watching 1 or 2 channels that aren't on FreeSat - and I'm not too worried about them.

Confused but excited. - 2/8/12 at 03:59 PM

With reference to Sky turning of the 'record' facility on a set-top box once you cancel your subscription.
As I understand from my old days with Sky, they always insisted that the box was my property. Therefore surely it is illegal for them to tamper with your equipment.
Anybody taken this up with Trading Standards?
I would think this at the very least constitutes Hacking and possible Criminal Damage.

[Edited on 2/8/12 by Confused but excited.]

Greenie - 2/8/12 at 06:26 PM

Thank you ALL very very much for all your interesting advise and I have decided to take the Humax route, been to look at few models and I think I have made my mind up to get the new model with the iplayer etc incorporated. ...... Cheers again to ALL!