Freeview box question

[Scarletpimpofnel]

My local TV transmitter offers only 53 Freeview channels.

Is there a Freeview box that will use the TV transmitter for these 53 channels but use my local wifi/internet to access the rest? My Wifi is quite slow so I don't want to rely on it 100%

Many thanks

[CubanPete]

We have a cheap android box as we don't have very good reception.

Runs the 5 terrestrial channels, U, discovery. I don't miss Normal reception TBH.

Runs through HDMI, you can get more expensive ones that will input terrestrial and Freesat.

[megaphone]

Another option is Freesat, you'll need a Sky dish. Many TVs come with a satellite input or you'll need a Freesat box.

[Griffith4ever]

Freely sounded promisng but the reviews less so. That's the only "live" streming service I know of. The rest are all catch up.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

megaphone said:

Another option is Freesat, you'll need a Sky dish. Many TVs come with a satellite input or you'll need a Freesat box.

I have a (soon to be redundant) Sky dish. Is Freesat in the same location as the Sky satellite? Will I get all the Freeview channels that way? (I can research the answers myself but if someone knows if it as simple as swapping a Sky box with a Freesat one?)

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Griffith4ever said:

Freely sounded promisng but the reviews less so. That's the only "live" streming service I know of. The rest are all catch up.

I don't think my bband could handle it, flaky at best. Thanks.

[Radec]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

megaphone said:

Another option is Freesat, you'll need a Sky dish. Many TVs come with a satellite input or you'll need a Freesat box.

I have a (soon to be redundant) Sky dish. Is Freesat in the same location as the Sky satellite? Will I get all the Freeview channels that way? (I can research the answers myself but if someone knows if it as simple as swapping a Sky box with a Freesat one?)

You should already be getting all the free/freeview channels then if you leave your dish and skybox in place and don't have a sky subscription.

I think there was a free view sky card for a tenner if the above isn't the case.

[WrekinCrew]

Radec said:

You should already be getting all the free/freeview channels then if you leave your dish and skybox in place and don't have a sky subscription.

I think there was a free view sky card for a tenner if the above isn't the case.

If it's Sky Q you have to return the box. The Freesat 4k box uses the same dish and wideband LNB as Sky Q.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Radec said:

You should already be getting all the free/freeview channels then if you leave your dish and skybox in place and don't have a sky subscription.

I think there was a free view sky card for a tenner if the above isn't the case.

Oh I didn't know that! So you mean when I cancel my Sky subscription the box will just continue to receive all Freesat channels? And I can record too on the Sky box? Gets better and better thanks.

[WrekinCrew]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

Radec said:

You should already be getting all the free/freeview channels then if you leave your dish and skybox in place and don't have a sky subscription.

I think there was a free view sky card for a tenner if the above isn't the case.

Oh I didn't know that! So you mean when I cancel my Sky subscription the box will just continue to receive all Freesat channels? And I can record too on the Sky box? Gets better and better thanks.

If it's Sky+ it was £10 a month for the Freesat card with record/pause/rewind enabled. Not sure they still do it - if not you won't be able to record/pause/rewind.

If it's Sky Q, as I said earlier, you have to return the box.

[rlg43p]

WrekinCrew said:

If it's Sky+ it was £10 a month for the Freesat card with record/pause/rewind enabled. Not sure they still do it - if not you won't be able to record/pause/rewind.

If it's Sky Q, as I said earlier, you have to return the box.

I am not sure how rigorously that £10 charge is implemented.

When I stopped a subscription to them they initially removed all pause/rewind capability. Then they wrote to me reinstating it for a "trial period" they never switched it off.

I disconnected my Sky+ box about 2 years ago. I plugged it in again last week; after signing in to my Sky account with the details from 2 years ago the Sky+ box started working as normal.

[megaphone]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

megaphone said:

Another option is Freesat, you'll need a Sky dish. Many TVs come with a satellite input or you'll need a Freesat box.

I have a (soon to be redundant) Sky dish. Is Freesat in the same location as the Sky satellite? Will I get all the Freeview channels that way? (I can research the answers myself but if someone knows if it as simple as swapping a Sky box with a Freesat one?)

Yes the Freesat channels are more or less the same as the Freeview channels, you'll get more in HD via Freesat.

https://www.freesat.co.uk/channels?srsltid=AfmBOoq...

As others have mentioned, what is your current Sky box? Sky Q or an older HD box? They use a differnt LNB on the dish, you'll need to make sure your Freesat box is the right one.


'Freesat from Sky' (£10 card from Sky) was discontinued to new customers in 2021. You will likely need a new dedicated freesat box to get full record function.

[C n C]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

Radec said:

You should already be getting all the free/freeview channels then if you leave your dish and skybox in place and don't have a sky subscription.

I think there was a free view sky card for a tenner if the above isn't the case.

Oh I didn't know that! So you mean when I cancel my Sky subscription the box will just continue to receive all Freesat channels? And I can record too on the Sky box? Gets better and better thanks.

I've given my notice to Sky a few weeks ago (after being a customer for 19 years - finally got sick of continual price increases), and they've just informed me that I don't have to return the Sky Q box, despite their default documentation saying the box would need to be returned. I guess this is due to Sky Q being quite old, and likely to become obsolete in the not too distant future.

While this might sound like good news, as far as I'm aware, when the contract with Sky ends, you obviously lose access to all the Sky channels, but as I understand it, you also lose access to the free to air channels. Also importantly, you lose access to any recordings you have on the Sky Q box, and lose the ability to record on it.

Instead of using the Sky Q box, I've replaced it with a FreeSat 4K 1Tb recordable box for £260. There are also 500Gb and 2Tb versions available.

It is compatible with the wideband LNB on the Sky dish, so it is simply a matter of unplugging the Sky Q box, and plugging in the FreeSat box and it just works. The FreeSat box also has an ethernet (RJ45) port if you want to connect it via a wired connection to the internet (which I'm using), or it'll connect wirelessly to your wifi. It has free on demand streaming apps pre-installed for iPlayer, ITVx, Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC Sounds, U Stream Free (Dave etc..) and YouTube. It also has Netflix and Amazon Prime apps installed, but obviously you'll need Netflix and/or Amazon Prime subscriptions to use these.

The recording functionality works well, and you can record up to 4 programmes simultaneously.

The free to air channels on FreeSat are listed here
Whilst there is a wide selection (around 100 channels) and significant overlap, it is not the same selection as those available on FreeView (around 130 channels) via a TV aerial (list here) so if there are some channels you are particularly interested in it's worth checking they are available.

I've been using the FreeSat box for a couple of weeks now, and although the interface isn't as nice as Sky Q, it still works well - just takes a bit of getting used to. I'm not missing Sky, and I'm definitely not missing the monthly payments to Sky.


ETA:
Please note that the FreeSat 4k boxes are compatible with the wideband LNB so are a direct replacement for a Sky Q box.

If you have an older Sky HD box, your Sky dish will have a different (narrowband) LNB, so you'd need an older FreeSat compatible box, or to use the newer 4K FreeSat box you'd need to replace the LNB on your Sky dish, which would probably be the better option, as it enables more simultaneous recordings.

Edited by C n C on Monday 14th April 16:49

[OutInTheShed]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

My local TV transmitter offers only 53 Freeview channels.

Is there a Freeview box that will use the TV transmitter for these 53 channels but use my local wifi/internet to access the rest? My Wifi is quite slow so I don't want to rely on it 100%

Many thanks

My Humax Freesat recorder box also has 'smart TV' receiver functionality, when I first got it, we did use it for some internet telly, youtube etc., because we had an older telly at the time. Obviously it gets all the Freesat channels.
I'd imagine the Terrestrial versions of the Humax box do the same?
Mine is maybe 9 years old now, I guess things will do more rather than less?

[Scarletpimpofnel]

C n C said:

I've given my notice to Sky a few weeks ago (after being a customer for 19 years - finally got sick of continual price increases), and they've just informed me that I don't have to return the Sky Q box, despite their default documentation saying the box would need to be returned. I guess this is due to Sky Q being quite old, and likely to become obsolete in the not too distant future.

While this might sound like good news, as far as I'm aware, when the contract with Sky ends, you obviously lose access to all the Sky channels, but as I understand it, you also lose access to the free to air channels. Also importantly, you lose access to any recordings you have on the Sky Q box, and lose the ability to record on it.

Instead of using the Sky Q box, I've replaced it with a FreeSat 4K 1Tb recordable box for £260. There are also 500Gb and 2Tb versions available.

It is compatible with the wideband LNB on the Sky dish, so it is simply a matter of unplugging the Sky Q box, and plugging in the FreeSat box and it just works. The FreeSat box also has an ethernet (RJ45) port if you want to connect it via a wired connection to the internet (which I'm using), or it'll connect wirelessly to your wifi. It has free on demand streaming apps pre-installed for iPlayer, ITVx, Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC Sounds, U Stream Free (Dave etc..) and YouTube. It also has Netflix and Amazon Prime apps installed, but obviously you'll need Netflix and/or Amazon Prime subscriptions to use these.

The recording functionality works well, and you can record up to 4 programmes simultaneously.

The free to air channels on FreeSat are listed here
Whilst there is a wide selection (around 100 channels) and significant overlap, it is not the same selection as those available on FreeView (around 130 channels) via a TV aerial (list here) so if there are some channels you are particularly interested in it's worth checking they are available.

I've been using the FreeSat box for a couple of weeks now, and although the interface isn't as nice as Sky Q, it still works well - just takes a bit of getting used to. I'm not missing Sky, and I'm definitely not missing the monthly payments to Sky.


ETA:
Please note that the FreeSat 4k boxes are compatible with the wideband LNB so are a direct replacement for a Sky Q box.

If you have an older Sky HD box, your Sky dish will have a different (narrowband) LNB, so you'd need an older FreeSat compatible box, or to use the newer 4K FreeSat box you'd need to replace the LNB on your Sky dish, which would probably be the better option, as it enables more simultaneous recordings.

Edited by C n C on Monday 14th April 16:49

My current Sky box is a Sky Q box (blue "Q" in the middle). I'm thinking of seeing if it is left "live" for recording/replay etc after I cancel Sky. If not I'll buy a Freesat box and swap that in. Quite looking forward to getting rid of Sky, have been a customer for 30 years but fed up of the annual 40% increases which then I spend an hour on the phone cutting some deal to get them back to where they were and so on; can't be bothered any more.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts and advice. I appreciate them all and think I know what I am doing now.

[anonymoususer]

C n C said:

ETA:
Please note that the FreeSat 4k boxes are compatible with the wideband LNB so are a direct replacement for a Sky Q box.

If you have an older Sky HD box, your Sky dish will have a different (narrowband) LNB, so you'd need an older FreeSat compatible box, or to use the newer 4K FreeSat box you'd need to replace the LNB on your Sky dish, which would probably be the better option, as it enables more simultaneous recordings.

Edited by C n C on Monday 14th April 16:49

The Freesat 4K box is compatible with the older LNB AND the wideband LNB's
It will simply detect which one you have upon installation.
And if the hard drive fails it is ridiculously easy to put in a new one.
Oh and Freely is a real pain. Bought a TV with it in took it back. It's amazing how the wifi in the house can power Amazon Firecube, Laptops, Phones etc but a TV just about 3 metres away from an access point keeps dropping. It wasn't the hardest return I've ever done but the excuses were pathetic

Edited by anonymoususer on Thursday 17th April 09:24