So, I'm just about fed up with Sky TV !
I've been paying way too much for TV and I never really watch it (there's 900 channels of RUBBISH). We've recently cancelled just
about everything because we don't need / use it and it's still working out at £600 per year (it's peaked at £1140 / year in the past
which is just plain silly!)
All SWMBO wants is to be able to record a program on "series link" as she never watches it when it's actually on - likes to skip the
ads. She'll only watch all the terrestrial channels - never watches movies or animal or history etc etc. We might watch occasionally watch a
program on sky 1, but I can live without it, it's not the end of the world.
What are my options? I need to be able to replace the sky box in the lounge with something else that has a hard disk in it - ideally HD, then
i'll pipe it round the rest of the house via cat 5 with an 8 x 8 HDMI switch matrix from China for about £500. I'll need a remote in each
of the bedrooms for the kids or else they'll just argue and I can't be doing with that!
I don't want to pay for a monthly subscription any more.
If it lasts a year, I've got about another £400 to play with after buying the matrix - and I can ebay the 3 sky + HD boxes which will be surplus
to requirements to round it up to £1k all in !!
Blimey, that's a s**t load of cash to waste EACH YEAR on TV !
Open to ideas guys.
A FreeSat box will connect to the SKY dish using the existing leads (a straight swap).
You will need a FreeSat +PVR, they are around £200, the best ones are Humax or Samsung.
Richer Sounds are selling the 320gb Humax FreeSat PVR for £80
Linky Be quick though!
Blimey! just had another look, it's also HD!!!!
[Edited on 11-2-13 by 40inches]
Get a Freesat box with a HDD - you can plug the Sky dish straight into it. Get one that will do HD if that's your thing.
Fewer channels, still containing rubbish, but at least it's free!
We have that Humax box and it works really well.
Stu
For multi-room; Most Sky dishes fitted over the last few years have multi-output LNB's to install Freesat in other rooms all that is
required is to run an additional co-axial cable from one of the spare outputs to a cheap (i.e.. £35 from Asda ) Freesat receiver. Doing it this way
different channels can then be watched in different rooms.
If the dish isn't already fitted with an multi-output LNB then it won't break the bank to buy one and fit it but take car to buy the
correct type as many Sky dishes are not the standard shape.
quote:
If the dish isn't already fitted with an multi-output LNB then it won't break the bank to buy one and fit it but take car to buy the correct type as many Sky dishes are not the standard shape.
I rang Sky to cancel the service as we just seemed to be paying for stuff we didnt watch and I had a moral objection to the Murdochs continuing the
breath the air on this fine planet.
They quoted £ 10 a month to keep the ability to record free channels on on the Skyplus box which didnt seem a bad alternative as we had quite a lot of
stuff stored we wouldnt want to lose. I then asked them if they could do anything better and for a further £ 2 a month they let us keep the
existing channels just without HD. So one phone call got the monthly fee dropped from £ 36 a month to £ 12 a month.
Can you get Sky F1 with this £12 option?
quote:
Originally posted by Not Anumber
I rang Sky to cancel the service as we just seemed to be paying for stuff we didnt watch and I had a moral objection to the Murdochs continuing the breath the air on this fine planet.
They quoted £ 10 a month to keep the ability to record free channels on on the Skyplus box which didnt seem a bad alternative as we had quite a lot of stuff stored we wouldnt want to lose. I then asked them if they could do anything better and for a further £ 2 a month they let us keep the existing channels just without HD. So one phone call got the monthly fee dropped from £ 36 a month to £ 12 a month.
quote:
Originally posted by Not Anumber
I rang Sky to cancel the service as we just seemed to be paying for stuff we didnt watch and I had a moral objection to the Murdochs continuing the breath the air on this fine planet.
They quoted £ 10 a month to keep the ability to record free channels on on the Skyplus box which didnt seem a bad alternative as we had quite a lot of stuff stored we wouldnt want to lose. I then asked them if they could do anything better and for a further £ 2 a month they let us keep the existing channels just without HD. So one phone call got the monthly fee dropped from £ 36 a month to £ 12 a month.
quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
quote:
Originally posted by Not Anumber
I rang Sky to cancel the service as we just seemed to be paying for stuff we didnt watch and I had a moral objection to the Murdochs continuing the breath the air on this fine planet.
They quoted £ 10 a month to keep the ability to record free channels on on the Skyplus box which didnt seem a bad alternative as we had quite a lot of stuff stored we wouldnt want to lose. I then asked them if they could do anything better and for a further £ 2 a month they let us keep the existing channels just without HD. So one phone call got the monthly fee dropped from £ 36 a month to £ 12 a month.
They tried this with me, but when pushed they admitted it was only for 6 months, then back to full price
Plug your computer into the tv, get iplayer and the likes, then "legally aquire" the rest of what you want to watch 
Plus with it not being a tv you don't need a licence 
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Plug your computer into the tv, get iplayer and the likes, then "legally aquire" the rest of what you want to watch
Plus with it not being a tv you don't need a licence
We have both a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) and a Humax PVR on Freesat plugged into the big TV, both connected with Cat5 to the router. We've found we
are watching more and more on the various iPlayers via the PC than on the PVR. The only thing that's still a problem is that 4OD do not have an
HD option yet, other than that it's MUCH more useful than the PVR.
You can download all the TV series you could ever want, along with movies. If you want to be fully legal you've got all the Netflix and Lovefilm
options too.
You can build or buy an HTPC for about £300, PVR box from about £80-200. I have no idea why anyone would want to throw they're money at the
Murdochs when there's better options available.
And BTW - you still need a license to watch iPlayer and I do think it's worth every penny, we watch so much BBC.
quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
We have both a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) and a Humax PVR on Freesat plugged into the big TV, both connected with Cat5 to the router. We've found we are watching more and more on the various iPlayers via the PC than on the PVR. The only thing that's still a problem is that 4OD do not have an HD option yet, other than that it's MUCH more useful than the PVR.
You can download all the TV series you could ever want, along with movies. If you want to be fully legal you've got all the Netflix and Lovefilm options too.
You can build or buy an HTPC for about £300, PVR box from about £80-200. I have no idea why anyone would want to throw they're money at the Murdochs when there's better options available.
And BTW - you still need a license to watch iPlayer and I do think it's worth every penny, we watch so much BBC.