Freesat or equivalent
Author
Discussion

Zippee

Original Poster:

13,795 posts

250 months

Thursday 6th March
quotequote all
Sorry if this has been asked before but what Freesat or internet based boxes are people now using instead of Sky?
I love the interface of the Sky Q box we have, and also like to record things to watch later (If we just streamed we'd forget about half the things we watch) so do need a box with a hard drive.
What are people using now? We don't use 80% of the sky only channels so freeview type stuff is perfect - just want the ability to record at least 1 channel whilst watching another. Getting fed up of paying over £50 a month to sky for not a lot.

balise

2,130 posts

226 months

Thursday 6th March
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There's not a lot of choice. I've used Humax and they're OK - reasonable UI and features. They seem to expire after five or six years, so I treat them as disposable.

superpp

501 posts

214 months

Thursday 6th March
quotequote all
you need to ask yourself if you really need to record anything any more.
on freeview the quality of SD channels makes them unwatchable in my opinion, so sticking to the HD main 5 channels they all have decent apps for catchup.

cant go far wrong with a 4K Roku or Firestick.

Now TV gives cheap access to the main SKY channels at a much cheaper rate if required and will work from any streaming device.

Bluevanman

8,630 posts

209 months

Thursday 6th March
quotequote all
Do you have an aerial? That will give you more choice of boxes.
Unless things change Freesat is closing down in 2030 btw

Mr Pointy

12,573 posts

175 months

Thursday 6th March
quotequote all
Brilliant. OP says they want to record not stream. Second answer tells them they are doing it wrong & they should stream.

OP: There's a few options - try going into Richer Sounds & see if you can have a play to look at things like the EPG:

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/tvs-acc...

My sister gets on well with one of the Panasonic models. I don't know if your Sky box can record Freesat if you drop the Sky subscription or what the EPG would be like.

Bluevanman

8,630 posts

209 months

Thursday 6th March
quotequote all
Mr Pointy said:
I don't know if your Sky box can record Freesat if you drop the Sky subscription or what the EPG would be like.
I don't think you can record,nor do you get an EPG

rlg43p

1,442 posts

265 months

Thursday 6th March
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I use one of these and it works very well:



You can record two programs at once whilst watching something already recorded.

You can also use the EE TV app on your phone to search for TV programs and set them to record - even if you are away from home.

If you are watching a recording with adverts, when you get to the advert break the "forward chapter" button will advance the recording by 60 seconds - you'll find most advert breaks are 4 or 5 minutes - so pressing this button 4 times will skip all the adverts.

It is fully integrated with iPlayer etc, so if you ask to watch a program on the EPG that has already finished it will automatically load the correct app to play the program (iPlayer, ITVx, Channel 4, etc)

It also has Netflix and Now TV apps integrated into it, although these may not be capable of playing Super HD programs. I use native iPlayer on my TV if I want super high res.

I don't think you can buy these new, but there are plenty for sale on eBay.

eBay listing

Mr Tidy

27,267 posts

143 months

Thursday 6th March
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When I moved in 2011 the aerial was hopeless, but the house already had a Sky dish so I bought a Humax Freesat box for about £200 because I figured if I spent money getting the aerial I'd have to leave it behind, but I could take the box with me and a Freeview box would have cost about the same anyway!

It can record 2 channels at the same time, my only problem is freeing up space on the hard-drive as I seem to want to keep too much, but it is still working fine.

But if/when I get a Smart TV I'm not sure I'd really need it.

Truckosaurus

12,705 posts

300 months

Friday 7th March
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I binned off Sky and switched to Freesat (using a free Humax box that a mate had gathering dust in a cupboard) for a while, but soon just switched to a Firestick and streamed everything (lots of series are available in full before being recordable), then switched back to 'Sky Stream' for access to sporting fixtures, and the basic Sky is cheap enough (£15 inc Netflix with ads, and Discovery+)

My parents have some cheap no-name 'Manhattan' Freesat box (which currently are £69 at Argos) which works well enough combined with the built in apps on the TV for the streaming services.