Freesat

[9.3]

Considering ditching Sky and getting a FreeSat box. We don’t have movies, sport or any add ons, just the basic package.
Are the FreeSat boxes any good? Variable reviews as far as I can see.

[NDA]

Is that the same as Freeview?

I don't have Sky any more, but my TV has Freeview built in.

[Teddy Lop]

Have the latest PVR thing, it's a little clunky and glitchy - ponderous menus where everything takes several button presses and could be more slick - but it works.

[davek_964]

I had a couple of humax boxes for years which worked fine

[Scrump]

NDA said:

Is that the same as Freeview?

I don't have Sky any more, but my TV has Freeview built in.

No, not the same.

[the-norseman]

I did the same years ago and bought a Freesat Humax box, it was very clunky. We hardly turn it on now just use streaming apps.

[WyrleyD]

My Sony OLED TV has Freesat built-in so no need for an extra box.

[Piersman2]

WyrleyD said:

My Sony OLED TV has Freesat built-in so no need for an extra box.

Same here, but LG brand.

Works OK but the channel guide is a bit slow so I did look into Freesat boxes when I dumped Virgin. Seems Humax used to be the dogs, but then decided to exit the Freesat market, so the best option now based on google research is the Freesat boxes themselves. They do ones that can 4K, record, etc... and apparently half decent, but I've just kept with the inbuilt Freesat decoder and guide and added a USB stick to the TV in case I ever want to record a show from live. I haven't yet but did test it and it works if I ever need it.

[Doofus]

I have a Manhattan Freesat box, which is fine. It doesn't record, but those are available (from the likes of Humax).

I recently bought a cheapo (£35) box off Amazon because it would take a usb stick for recording but the box is unutterably st.

[Bullett]

We had a Humax box which worked well then dumped that when we got a new TV with a built in decoder (Samsung for us). It has dual connections and will do recording if you plug a SSD/HDD into the USB.
We've not recorded anything for years, it's all on catch up these days.

[Doofus]

Mine's outside the UK, so catch up services aren't available. Well, they are with a reliable VPN, but such a thing doesn't exist.