Raging Bull Posted 31 January, 2012 Share Posted 31 January, 2012 Anyone got this cos I'm thinking of getting rid of sky. What's the quality of the HD like cos that's really important? Anything I should be aware of? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acersaint Posted 31 January, 2012 Share Posted 31 January, 2012 I have had freesat for a while. The HD channels bbc, itv1 and channel 4 are good quality. if you connect ethernert cable you can get BBC iplayer. all in all very happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acersaint Posted 31 January, 2012 Share Posted 31 January, 2012 ps if youn get a humax freesat box you can also get itv player Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norwaysaint Posted 31 January, 2012 Share Posted 31 January, 2012 I have Freesat, I'm not fussed about HD, but everything's okay with it generally. I just really hate the menu system which isn't user friendly at all. I also have an old sky box (no subscription) and tend to just use that instead as it gets most of the same channels but is nicer to use, no HD though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyboy Posted 31 January, 2012 Share Posted 31 January, 2012 I have a Bush Freesat HD box - its great, no crackly pictues like Freeview! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 31 January, 2012 Share Posted 31 January, 2012 I have a Humax box ATM but I can't get the 'record' menu up. It doest even appear in the basic menu options. Spoke to their support guy in Germany, spoke no inglish so no help whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 1 February, 2012 Author Share Posted 1 February, 2012 Thanks for the replys. I'm feeling thoroughly mugged by sky and am probably going to go for the Humax but it's interesting to hear your having trouble with yours Hamster. I have however mounted the tv on the wall and chased the HDMI cables into the wall to the blu ray and sky box about 4 meters away and like a dildo didn't fit the ethernet cable too!! Hopefully the Humax can do wifi to me telly. High speed fibre optic virgin broadband here I come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sev Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 I've had a Humax Foxsat HDR for a few years now. I've been happy with it. The HD is good on the few HD channels on Freesat. The worst thing about the Humax for me is that the remote responsiveness isn't the greatest, but I've got used to the lag over time. If you get a brand new box then make sure you peel off the thin protective film from the front flip panel (it's very thin and not obvious it's there unless you scratch away at the edges looking for it), and then remove the second protective film covering the LCD and remote sensor behind the flip panel (even less obvious), otherwise the remote control will be very directional and not work off-centre. HD recordings can fill up the drive pretty quickly, so once it was out of warranty I replaced the standard 320GB drive with a 1TB drive as per this guide: http://www.astra2d.com/harddrive.html and installed customised firmware to enable it for network storage / media server, as per http://www.avforums.com/forums/freesat/1517610-media-file-server-bundle-foxsat-hdr-release-4-0-a.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedg Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 Thanks for the replys. I'm feeling thoroughly mugged by sky and am probably going to go for the Humax but it's interesting to hear your having trouble with yours Hamster. I have however mounted the tv on the wall and chased the HDMI cables into the wall to the blu ray and sky box about 4 meters away and like a dildo didn't fit the ethernet cable too!! Hopefully the Humax can do wifi to me telly. High speed fibre optic virgin broadband here I come! Remember its ethernet to the box you need not the telly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelman Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 So Freesat can work with an ethernet cable rather than dish? I have an ethernet running to my Sony blu-ray player but thought Freesat might be good. I wonder if I could split ethernet to run to both Blu-ray and Freesat?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colinjb Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 So Freesat can work with an ethernet cable rather than dish? I have an ethernet running to my Sony blu-ray player but thought Freesat might be good. I wonder if I could split ethernet to run to both Blu-ray and Freesat?? I would guess that's required for interactive features and firmware updates rather then tv streaming per sé, unless you have a smart box that has iPlayer build in (like some modern TV's can do.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 2 February, 2012 Author Share Posted 2 February, 2012 Remember its ethernet to the box you need not the telly. Ah well that's ok then cos their in the same place. Done a bit of research and it turns out if you (like me) have an HD sky box already all you have to do is cancel your sky subscription and tell them you want free sat and the box reverts to free sat, poss with a new viewing card at £25 meaning I can use the 500gb box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 2 February, 2012 Author Share Posted 2 February, 2012 So Freesat can work with an ethernet cable rather than dish? I have an ethernet running to my Sony blu-ray player but thought Freesat might be good. I wonder if I could split ethernet to run to both Blu-ray and Freesat?? No you'll need a dish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norwaysaint Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 Ah well that's ok then cos their in the same place. Done a bit of research and it turns out if you (like me) have an HD sky box already all you have to do is cancel your sky subscription and tell them you want free sat and the box reverts to free sat, poss with a new viewing card at £25 meaning I can use the 500gb box. Free Sat from Sky though, not quite the same as normal freesat, but not much different. I have both and I actually prefer the Sky box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essruu Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 Ah well that's ok then cos their in the same place. Done a bit of research and it turns out if you (like me) have an HD sky box already all you have to do is cancel your sky subscription and tell them you want free sat and the box reverts to free sat, poss with a new viewing card at £25 meaning I can use the 500gb box. Almost correct. Your existing Sky box will continue to receive the Freeview channels (plus a few more over and above FreeSat, but nothing decent) but you WILL NOT be able to use the pause/record features: the box simply becomes a decoder/tuner box. If you want the 'Sky+' / PVR features, you have to pay £10/mth to Sky. I'm in my cancellation period with Sky as they hacked me off over a billing issue. I was thinking of switching to FreeSat anyway, but half hoping Sky would contact me to offer some incentive to stay, but they haven't. The only reason for me staying with Sky is for the football. Other than that, the basic Freeview channels are enough for us. Connected to the tv we have an Apple TV and have signed up to Netflix - to the Apple TV we can stream movies, music, tv shows etc from a networked drive (Mac Mini), AirPlay things from iPhones and iPads etc. By using someone else's SkyGo sign in, we'll watch the football AirPlayed to the TV and Sky can go fūck themselves. It's the Humax Foxsat or possibly the Sling box for me. Anyone had any experience of the Sling FreeSat box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 2 February, 2012 Author Share Posted 2 February, 2012 Remember its ethernet to the box you need not the telly. So does that mean if I want love film through the Internet I just need to keep the Ethernet cable from my internet to the sky box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 2 February, 2012 Author Share Posted 2 February, 2012 (edited) Thanks for the links sev Right didn't realise you couldn't pause etc unless you pay sky, changes things somewhat. Edited 2 February, 2012 by Raging Bull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedg Posted 2 February, 2012 Share Posted 2 February, 2012 So does that mean if I want love film through the Internet I just need to keep the Ethernet cable from my internet to the sky box? Yes. Assuming your Freesat box supports streaming from the net then it will have an ethernet socket on the back. Alternatively there are a number of compact 'stream' only devices out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddog Posted 6 February, 2012 Share Posted 6 February, 2012 I have been thinking about doing this, have normal Sky+ with no HD channels. As i know little about this subject does anyone know if my standard sky satellite dish can receive HD channels? Do sky have to change your dish etc or can any dish pick up HD channels? If my dish can then i can ditch Sky and get the Humax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyboy Posted 6 February, 2012 Share Posted 6 February, 2012 I have been thinking about doing this, have normal Sky+ with no HD channels. As i know little about this subject does anyone know if my standard sky satellite dish can receive HD channels? Do sky have to change your dish etc or can any dish pick up HD channels? If my dish can then i can ditch Sky and get the Humax. When I moved into this place there was an old dish outside. I hooked up my Freesat HD box and it all works fine, so you should be able to ditch sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 9 March, 2012 Author Share Posted 9 March, 2012 Thought I'd share my experience of leaving sky and trying to use virgin's broadband and phone. As per my original post I was leaving sky mainly to cut the monthly bill down and also to get connected to virgins fiberoptic broadband, using my sky box as a freesat. Anyway after cancelling everything with sky and agreeing a price with virgin, including keeping our phone number & setting a date for the internet to come on it dawned on me very quickly that virgin couldn't organise a **** in a brothel! On my second phone call I was told that there was no fiberoptic broadband in my area and they had no intention of ever installing it! After a good old fashioned moan they said there was nothing I could do about it and the router and welcome pack was on it's way.......10 days later there was no sign of said virgin s**t but the phone was on......with a new number & a weird clicking on the line ffs! After 14 days still no hardware so I called them all fecked off like to find out why they hate me so much, only to be told we're so sorry you mug we haven't even arranged for the broadband to be turned on, that'll be another 10 days! Now as you can imagine one ain't best pleased at this moment in time...so was left with no choice but to tell them to stick their service up bransons goatied butt. So after a couple of calls back to sky I happened to mention to them that I only intended to use their box as a freesat and it ended up with me getting quite a result.....unlimited broadband and phone calls, HD, entertainment + and anytime all for £35 per month for a year which IMO is a pretty fine deal. The moral of the story is NEVER go with virgin & to get the best deal out of sky tell them your only going to use their box as a freesat which they have to fund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_Jonny Posted 9 March, 2012 Share Posted 9 March, 2012 Thought I'd share my experience of leaving sky and trying to use virgin's broadband and phone. As per my original post I was leaving sky mainly to cut the monthly bill down and also to get connected to virgins fiberoptic broadband, using my sky box as a freesat. Anyway after cancelling everything with sky and agreeing a price with virgin, including keeping our phone number & setting a date for the internet to come on it dawned on me very quickly that virgin couldn't organise a **** in a brothel! On my second phone call I was told that there was no fiberoptic broadband in my area and they had no intention of ever installing it! After a good old fashioned moan they said there was nothing I could do about it and the router and welcome pack was on it's way.......10 days later there was no sign of said virgin s**t but the phone was on......with a new number & a weird clicking on the line ffs! After 14 days still no hardware so I called them all fecked off like to find out why they hate me so much, only to be told we're so sorry you mug we haven't even arranged for the broadband to be turned on, that'll be another 10 days! Now as you can imagine one ain't best pleased at this moment in time...so was left with no choice but to tell them to stick their service up bransons goatied butt. So after a couple of calls back to sky I happened to mention to them that I only intended to use their box as a freesat and it ended up with me getting quite a result.....unlimited broadband and phone calls, HD, entertainment + and anytime all for £35 per month for a year which IMO is a pretty fine deal. The moral of the story is NEVER go with virgin & to get the best deal out of sky tell them your only going to use their box as a freesat which they have to fund. You should have looked into whether or not Virgin has a fibre optic network in your area. They wouldn't have sold you a fibre optic package if you weren't living in a fibre optic area, you obviously misread / didn't read the bumf. What you should have done is threatened to leave sky in the first place, loads of these companies have retention packages set up to keep customers on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 9 March, 2012 Author Share Posted 9 March, 2012 You should have looked into whether or not Virgin has a fibre optic network in your area. They wouldn't have sold you a fibre optic package if you weren't living in a fibre optic area, you obviously misread / didn't read the bumf. What you should have done is threatened to leave sky in the first place, loads of these companies have retention packages set up to keep customers on. I did threaten to leave sky and the best deal they came up with was £50 which is too high. As for virgin I phoned them to ask what the best deal they could give me was and the first person I spoke to said I could have fiberoptic so didn't think there would be a need to check for myself. Still turned out peachy in the end...£35 is pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedelldays Posted 9 March, 2012 Share Posted 9 March, 2012 Virgin are shyte with their customer services.....never really had a problem with their Broadband/phone/TV (apart from when BB in my area was screwed and it took 3 months for them to fix..)... but their customer service is something else.....I really really cannot stand being put through to bangalore or Mumbai to deal with any problem I have. I too wanted to cut down my bill, and after about 10 minutes of trying to explain this from "john" in india...I hung up and tried again and somehow got through to someone in the UK....and cut the movies/HD and put me from 30mb to 10mb BB in about 1 minute... IMO VM offer a good service (from my experience) unless you have a problem where you need to speak to them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raging Bull Posted 9 March, 2012 Author Share Posted 9 March, 2012 I'll take your word for the quality of the product but why can't they do the basics like turning on the broadband & sending out the hardware.....it really isn't difficult! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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