School me on TVs and non-Sky stuff

[Henners]

Evening all,

We currently have a dumb TV plugged into a sky box.

TV is c10yrs old and has started randomly turning itself off and buzzing, so time to be replaced. We use Sky not for alllllll the channels but for the ability to record, ideally I’d like to move to a freeview/Now type dealy but with the ability to schedule and record.

I’m guessing this is possible but can someone suggest what I should actually be looking for? FreeSat? Smart? FreeviewPlay?

Those are all the idiot questions for now

Thanks

[gareth_r]

If you want to record you'll need a Freesat, Freeview Play, or Youview recorder, some of which can also run streaming apps. The recorders may not run all apps - Youview, for example, has BBC, ITV, C4, C5, S4C, and UKTV, plus Milkshake, PopFun, and Ketchup TV for children, and also Planet Knowledge and Sports Channel Network, together with subscription streaming from Amazon, Netflix, and NowTV, but NowTV is, currently, movies only.

In my experience, the best option for running streaming apps is a Roku stick, but that's because our smart TV is a few years old and isn't Android, which means that it cannot run the current versions of some apps. I assume that Android TVs will avoid that problem (at least until Android and the apps need more processing power or memory than the TV is able to provide... then you can buy a Roku ).

[davek_964]

Freeview might be better than Freesat - I seem to be gradually losing channels on FreeSat. C4 HD disappeared last year (the non-HD versions are still there), as did most of the music channels.

[bad company]

I’m watching with interest as fed up with paying Sky & hardly watching anything but terrestrial channels.

I can’t get freeview so it’d have to be Freesat.

[bad company]

I’m watching with interest as fed up with paying Sky & hardly watching anything but terrestrial channels.

I can’t get freeview so it’d have to be Freesat.

[21TonyK]

I would recommend looking at the TV's EPG and user interface etc quite carefully.

I have LG, Samsung and Sony TV's and they all have their quirks (I hate the LG interface).

If you are using an external freesat box etc look at how that works via the TV as well, two remotes? Having to change inputs through several button presses etc.

I find the need to record is almost eliminated now with the main channels offering catchup and TV on demand.

(dropped sky ages ago and now use freesat and freeview + prime/netflix)

[Henners]

Thanks all - some good info to digest and read up on.

[JulianPH]

Having read this thread I have just got off the phone having finally cancelled my Sky account.

With everything else available Sky has now become redundant to me and it is saving me nearly £1k a year on something I hardly ever use.

Feeling good!

[Somebody]

21TonyK said:

If you are using an external freesat box etc look at how that works via the TV as well, two remotes? Having to change inputs through several button presses etc.

This is where Logitech Harmony and Alexa integration comes in......There's some initial set up, but after that, to turn on the TV and Freesat box I say "Alexa, Freesat", or if I want to start with a particular channel, e.g BBC News, I say "Alex, turn on BBC News".

[aberdeenelvis]

Firestick + IPTV?

[bad company]

Please excuse my ignorance but here goes.

I have 2 x televisions and pay for Sky multi room. Both tv’s are working well enough but are getting a little old. I need Freesat so should I buy boxes or replace the televisions. If I buy Freesat boxes I can record on them but do the Freesat Smart televisions will I be able to record tv programmes?

[psi310398]

I, too, found that I was paying Sky a fortune to watch stuff that was available for nothing, and I barely watch TV anyway, so I cancelled Sky and moved to Freesat. (My son just takes out a subscription to Now TV when he wants to watch sport).

FWIW, I am seriously unimpressed with the Humax HDR -1100S box that I bought. It frequently fails to find a signal from standby unless switched off and on again (sometimes repeatedly), it frequently locks up, spends a lot of time buffering where my laptop doesn't on identical programming, and the series linking fails repeatedly (I don't think I've ever had a full series downloaded successfully). There's nothing much I use it for now except for catch up which comes through the internet anyway. Maybe it's just my box. I suppose I'll need to set aside some time to enter call centre hell and see if there's a resolution.

And the user inferface leaves me hankering for my Sky box.

It is possible that newer models are better but I'd be very careful in your research before committing to one receiving/recording route or another.

[bitchstewie]

Interesting thread. Same dilemma as many, I want to drop Sky but even a 5 year old (maybe more) Sky Plus box seems to have a better UI than most of the current boxes.

Is there a single box that can do everything i.e. Freeview/Freesat/TV Player/NowTV?

[randlemarcus]

bhstewie said:

Interesting thread. Same dilemma as many, I want to drop Sky but even a 5 year old (maybe more) Sky Plus box seems to have a better UI than most of the current boxes.

Is there a single box that can do everything i.e. Freeview/Freesat/TV Player/NowTV?

The TV's do that, was looking at an LG one that does for my mother, but then you are stuck when it outdates itself.

Amazon filters are very useful when picking features from the list.

[bitchstewie]

randlemarcus said:

The TV's do that, was looking at an LG one that does for my mother, but then you are stuck when it outdates itself.

Amazon filters are very useful when picking features from the list.

Just replaced the TV and didn't pay much attention to the UI as the TV (Philips) was a bargain and like you say I figure just buy a box and replace when it ends up out of date.

Dilemma is which box as there doesn't seem to be one that does everything.

[Speed 3]

I came to the same conclusion last week with our Virgin package - £700+ per year for a landline we don't even have plugged in and TV that we can get 99% of through a Freeview/NowTV combo for £120 per year.

I've bought a Roku Express for £30 to start with, based on reviews of the apps/interface vs the NowTV versions of the same thing. Easy enough to set up and can just add more of them to the other 3 rooms once I'm convinced. Haven't really tested it fully as we're still in the 30 day notice period of our Virgin TV so no point taking out the NowTV subscription yet but the In-Laws have had this combo for a while as they couldn't get Sky or Virgin and they're very happy with it. I will slightly miss the convenience of a recorder box to mitigate broadband being poor or down (ours suffers in heavy rain) and having to watch MOTD live but not £600-worth of pain. Slightly annoyed that I'd binned the aerial from the loft last year as we kept banging our heads on it and were not using Freeview. Strangely enough we can't get Dave on our living room Freeview (TV about 3-4 years old) but can on the kids TV's with exactly the same loop aerial. I'm hoping a better aerial in the loft will cure that, otherwise its catchup only for that requirement.

[gareth_r]

bhstewie said:

Interesting thread. Same dilemma as many, I want to drop Sky but even a 5 year old (maybe more) Sky Plus box seems to have a better UI than most of the current boxes.

Is there a single box that can do everything i.e. Freeview/Freesat/TV Player/NowTV?

If you mean Freeview/Freesat recording, not that I know of.

Even if there was, I think the convenience would be outweighed by the cost if (when?) one of the components failed or became obsolete.

We have an old (in electronics terms) smart TV that is no longer capable of running some apps, so we ended up with a cheap BT/Humax Youview recorder off eBay/Amazon and a 30 quid Roku Express to run the apps.

There is some duplication (triplication, in fact, because the Humax also runs streaming apps), but if the Humax fails, I can easily fit a new HDD or just buy a cheap replacement box. Likewise, it's not expensive to replace the Roku if it runs out of processing power as the apps are updated and need more resources.

When we acquired another TV so that I didn't have to suffer my wife's "Come Dine With Me" obsession , I just bought a dumb TV, another Youview recorder, and a second Roku.

EDIT:
The Humax remote is programmed to operate the TV on/off and volume, and the TVs have HDMI-CEC, which switches automatically between inputs, so there is no need to use the TV remote unless the Humax is recording two programmes and you want to watch a third.

Edited by gareth_r on Sunday 14th April 01:07