freesat question
Author
Discussion

dirky dirk

Original Poster:

3,367 posts

193 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
hi,
a friends new house has e a sky dish and two cables, but no sky box,
so the idea is to get a freesat box, but that only has one in socket,
how do i get round that please?

thanks in advance


Pitre

5,727 posts

257 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Plug in either cable, it should work fine but you won't be able to record one channel whilst watching another...

Radec

5,377 posts

70 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Unless you are set on recording I'd just buy a sky box, can pick them up second hand for about £20 odd to use for Freeview, you'll get all the free channels plus some more than you would with Freeview/Freesat.
The boxes are fast and the guides etc have the best interface.
If you get one from around your area then it should have already been set to regional TV stations/news etc without a viewing card.

Condi

19,597 posts

194 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Radec said:
Unless you are set on recording I'd just buy a sky box, can pick them up second hand for about £20 odd to use for Freeview, you'll get all the free channels plus some more than you would with Freeview/Freesat.
The boxes are fast and the guides etc have the best interface.
If you get one from around your area then it should have already been set to regional TV stations/news etc without a viewing card.
Is it still possible to buy "hooky" cards from the internet and such like?

Asking for a friend. whistle

Evercross

6,883 posts

87 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Some Freesat boxes have more than one LNB input to allow recording/viewing of different channels at the same time.

Condi said:
Is it still possible to buy "hooky" cards from the internet and such like?
Not for a loooong time now.

Zoon

7,216 posts

144 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Pitre said:
Plug in either cable, it should work fine but you won't be able to record one channel whilst watching another...
I seem to remember some of the old Humax boxes could record one channel and watch another with one feed if the channel was on the same frequency band and polarisation.

48k

16,234 posts

171 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Check that the TV doesn't have freesat built in already before buying a separate box.

Timothy Bucktu

16,617 posts

223 months

Thursday 25th November 2021
quotequote all
Condi said:
Is it still possible to buy "hooky" cards from the internet and such like?

Asking for a friend. whistle
Not these days.

dukeboy749r

3,165 posts

233 months

Tuesday 4th January 2022
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Sorry it's not directly related to the OP's original post, but rather than simply start a new thread, I thought I'd ask here.

Moving from SKY to Freeview - with Virgin fibre (350Mbs).

Aerial is being installed prior to the SKY service ending. I wonder if the following box is what other Freeview users might choose?

Many thanks for any guidance and tips!

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertai...

S6PNJ

5,769 posts

304 months

Tuesday 4th January 2022
quotequote all
Yup, looks good - I've been a Humax user for at least 15 years or so, now on Freesat not Freeview. I've bought from their refurbished outlet before - same box you are looking at but 2TB and £10 less. https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished/humax-au...

anonymoususer

7,877 posts

71 months

Tuesday 4th January 2022
quotequote all
Zoon said:
Pitre said:
Plug in either cable, it should work fine but you won't be able to record one channel whilst watching another...
I seem to remember some of the old Humax boxes could record one channel and watch another with one feed if the channel was on the same frequency band and polarisation.
Yep I think that was courtesy of a link through on the back of the box It certainly applied to the Humax FOXSAT-HDR box which was a cracking piece of kit

The chaps suggesting buy an old sky box is a good idea and you can get them for less than £20 now often under a tenner. One downside is that there will be programmes in the EPG that you can't access and I seem to recall it was hard to make up a favourites list and exclude the channels you couldn't access.
A freesat HD box is probably an easier option

anonymoususer

7,877 posts

71 months

Tuesday 4th January 2022
quotequote all
dukeboy749r said:
Sorry it's not directly related to the OP's original post, but rather than simply start a new thread, I thought I'd ask here.

Moving from SKY to Freeview - with Virgin fibre (350Mbs).

Aerial is being installed prior to the SKY service ending. I wonder if the following box is what other Freeview users might choose?

Many thanks for any guidance and tips!

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertai...
That is a goiod box another good one is the Manhattan T3R box

Condi

19,597 posts

194 months

Tuesday 4th January 2022
quotequote all
You can buy a BT Youview box on ebay for about £50. Can record channel and watch another, all the usual stuff, but much cheaper than paying £250 from Currys for essentially the same thing. Has all the streaming apps on as well.

dukeboy749r

3,165 posts

233 months

Wednesday 5th January 2022
quotequote all
Many thanks for the replies related to my query (apologies OP).

Plenty of alternatives to look at then!