Talk To Me About Freeview?
Discussion
Hi guys, I have been having a lot of trouble with my Sky lately. Loss of signal, failed recordings, pixelated picture etc etc. I have also lost the UFC which is a pain in the bum as they want to charge me £15 a month to get it back. I am already paying for the top level package so that pisses me off.
Anyway Sky want to charge me £65 for a technician to come out since I am already off contract and my HD box is out of warranty. They are offering to charge me £60 for Sky Protect. Free callout and also 6 months warranty. I said why should I have to pay a £60 charge to make sure I can get signal? With what I pay they should at least provide me with a signal!
Anyway, someone said I should get freeview. I have a late model Samsung LCD and I googled it and my TV has it. I also have an antenna in my loft. What else do I need? I know if I want to record something I need a hard drive recorder. Can my current Skybox do that or do I need a new one specific to Freeview? Does it work by just plugging my ariel into the sky box?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to waste any money on the wrong stuff.
Anyway Sky want to charge me £65 for a technician to come out since I am already off contract and my HD box is out of warranty. They are offering to charge me £60 for Sky Protect. Free callout and also 6 months warranty. I said why should I have to pay a £60 charge to make sure I can get signal? With what I pay they should at least provide me with a signal!
Anyway, someone said I should get freeview. I have a late model Samsung LCD and I googled it and my TV has it. I also have an antenna in my loft. What else do I need? I know if I want to record something I need a hard drive recorder. Can my current Skybox do that or do I need a new one specific to Freeview? Does it work by just plugging my ariel into the sky box?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to waste any money on the wrong stuff.
Big Tav said:
Hi guys, I have been having a lot of trouble with my Sky lately. Loss of signal, failed recordings, pixelated picture etc etc. I have also lost the UFC which is a pain in the bum as they want to charge me £15 a month to get it back. I am already paying for the top level package so that pisses me off.
Anyway Sky want to charge me £65 for a technician to come out since I am already off contract and my HD box is out of warranty. They are offering to charge me £60 for Sky Protect. Free callout and also 6 months warranty. I said why should I have to pay a £60 charge to make sure I can get signal? With what I pay they should at least provide me with a signal!
Anyway, someone said I should get freeview. I have a late model Samsung LCD and I googled it and my TV has it. I also have an antenna in my loft. What else do I need? I know if I want to record something I need a hard drive recorder. Can my current Skybox do that or do I need a new one specific to Freeview? Does it work by just plugging my ariel into the sky box?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to waste any money on the wrong stuff.
If your TV has a decoder and you have an aerial plugged into it, it should just work. Your TV *may* also be capable of recording if it has a USB slot which can take a memory stick or hard drive. If it can't - then you will need a dedicated Freeview recorder. Your Sky box won't do it because it has the wrong tuner/decoder for terrestrial signals.Anyway Sky want to charge me £65 for a technician to come out since I am already off contract and my HD box is out of warranty. They are offering to charge me £60 for Sky Protect. Free callout and also 6 months warranty. I said why should I have to pay a £60 charge to make sure I can get signal? With what I pay they should at least provide me with a signal!
Anyway, someone said I should get freeview. I have a late model Samsung LCD and I googled it and my TV has it. I also have an antenna in my loft. What else do I need? I know if I want to record something I need a hard drive recorder. Can my current Skybox do that or do I need a new one specific to Freeview? Does it work by just plugging my ariel into the sky box?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to waste any money on the wrong stuff.
What have you tried to fix the issues you've been having?
A reboot would be the absolute minimum, if that hasn't or doesn't work I'd suggest googling a planner rebuild and trying that.
In fact let me google it
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/content/202-how-per...
A reboot would be the absolute minimum, if that hasn't or doesn't work I'd suggest googling a planner rebuild and trying that.
In fact let me google it
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/content/202-how-per...
Could be your Sky dish has gone out of alignment, or you have a faulty LNB (the bit on the end of the dish) or bad cabling, all need to be checked. A local aerial guy could do it for you. Or Sky will eventually roll over and come around for free if you threaten to leave, start by getting through to cancellations and tell them you want to cancel, see if they'll get a engineer around for free.
If you want to record Freeview properly, like you do with your Sky+box then, as said, you'll need a box, The Humax boxes are pretty good.
If you want to record Freeview properly, like you do with your Sky+box then, as said, you'll need a box, The Humax boxes are pretty good.
Ring sky - tell them you want to leave because of the service and issues, you'll probably find they become all customer friendly and sort it for you free of charge.
As others have said your sky box won't work with freeview.
A third option if freeview is poor is freesat - you still need another box but you replace your sky box with that and your dish should be fine (of course if the issue is with your disk and or cables then this issue would also occur with freesat).
As others have said your sky box won't work with freeview.
A third option if freeview is poor is freesat - you still need another box but you replace your sky box with that and your dish should be fine (of course if the issue is with your disk and or cables then this issue would also occur with freesat).
As you already have the satellite dish (assuming that that's not what is at fault) you could get rid of the sky box and replace it with a freesat recorder.
Just transfer the two satellite cables from the sky box to the new freesat.
http://www.johnlewis.com/humax-hdr-1010s-free-time...
But you'll lose any sky premium channels.
Just transfer the two satellite cables from the sky box to the new freesat.
http://www.johnlewis.com/humax-hdr-1010s-free-time...
But you'll lose any sky premium channels.
Freeview is via and aerial. Freesat is via a satellite. They are basically the same, save for a few channels. These are the free digital terrestrial channels. Analogue terrestrial TV no longer exists in UK AFAIK.
Your SKY box will play Freesat but as said, won't record without a contract. If you don't already have SKY, then Freesat is a waste of time. You'd have to pay for dish and installation plus by a box to decode and display the signal.
Pretty much all TV's made in the last 6-7 years should have a built-in Freeview digital decoder. Some may be HD, some not. If your TV doesn't have a Freeview decoder, you'll need to buy a Set Top Box (STB) to decode and display the signal. These can be had for as little as £20. If you also want to record TV, you'll need a Personal Video Recoder (PVR). These cost more - probably £150+
Or you could get BT Youview which is an HD Freeview PVR for about £5 a month subscription. Does i-player and other stuff too.
Which Samsung TV do you have? My telly has a built-in decoder for bother Freeview and Freesat.
I suspect that you can just plug the TV aerial into your TV and you'll have Freeview. Or via the SKY box for Freesat. Obviously if you can't get a signal then it's not much use. If you want to record then you will either have to look at getting a Hard-Drive or a PVR or Youview. Can't really help you with Samsung TV's. Youview is probably easiest.
I'd call SJY first and get them to fix the issue. It's either dish out of alignment, faulty LNB or faulty box. Either way, I'd suggest that it's their responsibility to fix it.
Your SKY box will play Freesat but as said, won't record without a contract. If you don't already have SKY, then Freesat is a waste of time. You'd have to pay for dish and installation plus by a box to decode and display the signal.
Pretty much all TV's made in the last 6-7 years should have a built-in Freeview digital decoder. Some may be HD, some not. If your TV doesn't have a Freeview decoder, you'll need to buy a Set Top Box (STB) to decode and display the signal. These can be had for as little as £20. If you also want to record TV, you'll need a Personal Video Recoder (PVR). These cost more - probably £150+
Or you could get BT Youview which is an HD Freeview PVR for about £5 a month subscription. Does i-player and other stuff too.
Which Samsung TV do you have? My telly has a built-in decoder for bother Freeview and Freesat.
I suspect that you can just plug the TV aerial into your TV and you'll have Freeview. Or via the SKY box for Freesat. Obviously if you can't get a signal then it's not much use. If you want to record then you will either have to look at getting a Hard-Drive or a PVR or Youview. Can't really help you with Samsung TV's. Youview is probably easiest.
I'd call SJY first and get them to fix the issue. It's either dish out of alignment, faulty LNB or faulty box. Either way, I'd suggest that it's their responsibility to fix it.
If you want a cheap Freeview PVR there are plenty of Youview boxes on Ebay. Watch out for the latest ones that have no hard disc and rely on internet catchup services only. Just search Ebay for youview and 320GB or youview and 500GB, These are the most common hard disc sizes.
You don't need to subscribe to BT or Talktalk internet to get the box to function as a PVR and you also get Freeview HD channels and 7 day catchup services.
You don't need to subscribe to BT or Talktalk internet to get the box to function as a PVR and you also get Freeview HD channels and 7 day catchup services.
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