Freeview HD v Freesat?

[bitchstewie]

I want to ditch Sky and the built in Freeview HD tuner in my (new) TV is rubbish as in awful interface and dog slow.

I think/hope a standalone Freeview HD or FreeSat box could make a world of difference as the Sky box is old(ish) but the interface works brilliantly smoothly and intuitively.

Humax seem to be the main name for these things but I guess there are two questions:

• Freeview v Freesat?
• Which box?

Something with the Now TV and maybe the TV Player app built in would be nice.

Opinions welcome please as nobody seems to have these things on demo to try out.

[addey]

You can just keep your sky box and use it as freesat I believe?

[colin79666]

There are two kinds of freesat. Sky freesat and actual freesat. I believe they all use the same dish and point at the same satellites.

For the latter Humax make almost all the boxes but a new third gen box is due this year that will do more internet linking stuff. I’ve got a first gen humax box and it still does fine if a little slow. We got freesat as being on a relay transmitter the free view channel range is poor in our area. Freesat quality if pretty good, especially the HD channels (no 4K yet). Quite a lot of channel cross over with free view but not all.

[Alucidnation]

Freesat was originally developed for those out in the sticks whi had poor freeview signals.

However, freebiew has more channels available and the hd offerings .

[bitchstewie]

It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a single box that can do the lot.

I may just try a Manhattan T1 as for £35 it's a good way to see if I can live without Sky (god that sounds so sad!!).

Edited by bhstewie on Saturday 19th January 18:06

[JonChalk]

addey said:

You can just keep your sky box and use it as freesat I believe?

You can, but the HD channels are limited; nothing from the "4" stable except C4, nothing from ITV except ITV1. Oddly enough Quest HD is available. Freeview is better, but it is aerial / location dependent.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Freesat is fairly pointless if you can get Freeview. Downside with Freesat is no Channel 4 HD.
Just get a BT YouView DTR-T2100 on eBay for about £30. You get all the Freeview channels, plus Netflix, NowTV and all the catchup apps (iPlayer, All4, ITVhub, My5) plus the ability to record. They're great boxes for the money (basically a Humax under the bonnet but IMO better).
If you want 5.1 DD+ from Netflix, get the DTR-T4000 HD box because the 2100 doesn't output 5.1 from Netflix (but it does from the TV channels).

Edited by Dr Doofenshmirtz on Saturday 19th January 19:29

[OddCat]

We have Freesat. We call it "Council Telly". It is perfectly fine and we are not that bothered about TV so it makes no sense to pay hundreds of pounds a year for Sky, Virgin or whatever. Then again, I also have a PAYG phone that costs me about £3 a month. And I don't lease / PCP my car preferring instead to buy.

I think I may be stuck in the 1970s. God knows what I'll do with all the money I'm saving. Maybe I'll retire early.....

[anonymous-user]

We have two properties at different ends of the country with freeview in one and freesat in the other. I far prefer freesat and the humax boxes work fine

Oh and you can get HD ch4 on the receiver but it has to be set up manually

[12TS]

Just replaced our 10 year old Humax Freesat box with this

https://www.johnlewis.com/humax-hdr-1100s-smart-1t...

Really nice piece of kit and big advance. I think I paid about £189 though

[RowntreesCabana]

12TS said:

Just replaced our 10 year old Humax Freesat box with this

https://www.johnlewis.com/humax-hdr-1100s-smart-1t...

Really nice piece of kit and big advance. I think I paid about £189 though

I'm still using the original Humax Foxsat HDR box that you're probably referring to and have been thinking about getting something newer. What are the improvements with the new box?

Desperately looking for a box that will automatically record content when certain keywords are found.

[12TS]

Remote is WAY better.

App to remotely record stuff. So no need to mess with HUMAX guide

Better picture

Better user interface

IPlayer Netflix other catchup via WIFI

Bigger HD

[croyde]

I ditched Sky years ago. Never miss it.

But my Humax Youview box that I have had for years is pretty slow these days and can freeze when started, which means unplugging and letting it start up again, which takes 5 minutes.

You can remote record with a phone app on it as well as pause live TV. Just like my old Sky box.

Guess I need to replace it now or try a factory reset.

[bitchstewie]

Thanks all.

I'm trying not to spend a fortune on "just" a Freeview box as from the reviews a £35 Manhattan T1 does actually look like it'll do the job.

I have a still unopened Roku stick that should be fine for "app" based stuff.

I still find it staggering that brand new TVs from such major brands come with such awful Freeview tuners built in in terms of interface and usability.

[AJB88]

I dumped SKY years ago and replaced it with a Humax Freesat HD box HDS-1100s IIRC.

Usage has been hit and miss, I don't record stuff anymore but when used to it was hit and miss if it would record or not. Remote broke after about 6 months, Humax replaced that.

Recently the picture went pink, it has since sorted itself out. Noticed it seems a little quicker recently must of been a software update.

[dave_s13]

Been said already but don't forget you can add 4hd on the humax boxes by coming out of Freesat mode and adding the channel manually, it's really easy to switch in/out of once set up.

Everything is a compromise with these things. I don't think you can better the sky boxes but costs a fortune. We do fine on a non smart TV with a mix of the humax PVR and an Amazon fire TV stick. You can access anything and everything with some setting up and subs to Netflix/prime.

[AJB88]

Didnt know you can add C4 HD like that, will be doing that later.

[Mr Pointy]

I really wish Topfield would get back into the market with their open menu software that could be modified. Nothing has ever come close to that. I hate the Humax HDR-2000T & the DTR-T4000 was so bad it only lasted two days before I sold it on ebay.

[bristolracer]

Mr Pointy said:

I really wish Topfield would get back into the market with their open menu software that could be modified. Nothing has ever come close to that. I hate the Humax HDR-2000T & the DTR-T4000 was so bad it only lasted two days before I sold it on ebay.

Plenty of satellite boxes with Linux platforms if you are that way inclined
This is a pretty versatile box

http://www.technomate.com/products/TM%252dTWIN-4K....

[adsk]

A left-field choice for either free TV via aerial or satellite is to buy an enigma2 based box. Not for the non-technical minded but once you have them set up they are very flexible/configurable. Biggest downside is the lack of catch-up TV etc Enigma2 being open source doesn't play nicely with closed source/geolocked/copyright protected content.

For satellite with the correct LNB you can record/play up to 8 channels simultaneously and watch around the world on your PC/phone/tablet or on slave boxes. https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/gigablue-uhd-...