Decent Freeview alternatives to SKY & Sky Internet
Discussion
Hi all,
I'm with Sky for TV (Entertainment and HD) plus BB (Sky supposed superfast) and pay out £85 a month for the privilege.
On the TV front we rarely watch any sky only channels, mostly mainstream plus we have Apple TV, Netflix & Prime so looking for a decent Freesat box we can use.
We have the Sky Q box with ability to record 3 at once and I like the sky menus/interface a lot - is there a decent freesat box thats as good as/better than the Q box? Can I also use the current sky dish or does that also need replacing?
Onto the internet, we're on Sky superfast fibre but that only gives us about 70mbps plus have to pay for a phone line despite the fact we don't need one other than for the internet.
Are there any decent mobile sim routers available (vodafone and 3 offer them) that can give at least that of Skys current to us and if so how reliable are they?
I'm with Sky for TV (Entertainment and HD) plus BB (Sky supposed superfast) and pay out £85 a month for the privilege.
On the TV front we rarely watch any sky only channels, mostly mainstream plus we have Apple TV, Netflix & Prime so looking for a decent Freesat box we can use.
We have the Sky Q box with ability to record 3 at once and I like the sky menus/interface a lot - is there a decent freesat box thats as good as/better than the Q box? Can I also use the current sky dish or does that also need replacing?
Onto the internet, we're on Sky superfast fibre but that only gives us about 70mbps plus have to pay for a phone line despite the fact we don't need one other than for the internet.
Are there any decent mobile sim routers available (vodafone and 3 offer them) that can give at least that of Skys current to us and if so how reliable are they?
You can use your Sky box and the wires already installed, just need a new box and will probably need the dish pointing in a different direction. There are certainly boxes out there which will let you record 1, maybe 2 channels while watching something else, but not sure about 3 channels.
As for internet, why do you want a mobile router? Plusnet will do 55Mb/s for about £27/£30 per month which is plenty for everything an average user needs. No additional line cost on top of that. Virgin might be installed near you, and they can offer much higher speeds. Mobile routers are fine, but depends on how close you are to the tower and how much you use. They also tend to be higher latency from memory. A friend has one and gets 200Mb/s on 5G, but he can literally see the tower from his house.
As for internet, why do you want a mobile router? Plusnet will do 55Mb/s for about £27/£30 per month which is plenty for everything an average user needs. No additional line cost on top of that. Virgin might be installed near you, and they can offer much higher speeds. Mobile routers are fine, but depends on how close you are to the tower and how much you use. They also tend to be higher latency from memory. A friend has one and gets 200Mb/s on 5G, but he can literally see the tower from his house.
Our Humax Freesat box lets us record 2 channels at the same time, while watching something it's recorded before.
It's over 8 years old now, things may have moved on.
70Mb should be enough for at least 4 simultaneous channels from the web?
A lot of TVs can record to a USB stick. If you still have a terrestrial aerial, which we don't.
Our sat dish has a 4 way LNB, so it can serve 4 channels in theory. We'd have to record additional channels in the other room though.
It's over 8 years old now, things may have moved on.
70Mb should be enough for at least 4 simultaneous channels from the web?
A lot of TVs can record to a USB stick. If you still have a terrestrial aerial, which we don't.
Our sat dish has a 4 way LNB, so it can serve 4 channels in theory. We'd have to record additional channels in the other room though.
No STB will have an interface as slick as Sky's. I have a UK made Manhattan 4k STB (over air, not sat) and its perfectly good, but, not as slick as sky. I don't care ,luckily. You really need to think about wht channels you really want and then decide whether you actually need satellite.
Broadband - I have Three UK 5g, for less than £20 a month, unlimited, and get a rough average of 600Mb down and 50 up. It peaks at over 730Mb down and never drops below 50 up. It is however not as stable as cabled BB. There are times your local cell tower might get swamped when there is a trafic divert (on the roads) or, it might fail to negotiate 5G and settle with 4G wihout warning. This can all be resolved in seconds by rebooting your 5G router - but, mine is in the loft 4 stories up with a directional antenna. So I have a timer plug that reboots it at 7am every morning. Just to be sure. I also overrode the settings and set manual "channels" for mobile networks, SOmething like B1 and N76 - can't remember exactly ,I'm away, but, it means it'll only choose 5G and not 4g.
Its mental fast for small money
Broadband - I have Three UK 5g, for less than £20 a month, unlimited, and get a rough average of 600Mb down and 50 up. It peaks at over 730Mb down and never drops below 50 up. It is however not as stable as cabled BB. There are times your local cell tower might get swamped when there is a trafic divert (on the roads) or, it might fail to negotiate 5G and settle with 4G wihout warning. This can all be resolved in seconds by rebooting your 5G router - but, mine is in the loft 4 stories up with a directional antenna. So I have a timer plug that reboots it at 7am every morning. Just to be sure. I also overrode the settings and set manual "channels" for mobile networks, SOmething like B1 and N76 - can't remember exactly ,I'm away, but, it means it'll only choose 5G and not 4g.
Its mental fast for small money
I got rid of Sky years ago, we had/have a Freesat box but in all honesty its not been turned on in about 3 years. IT does record 2 things at once.
We just use Google TV box now that has access to BBC,ITV,4,Netflix,Amazon,Discovery etc.
Cant help with internet side of things as were on CityFibre 900 connection.
We just use Google TV box now that has access to BBC,ITV,4,Netflix,Amazon,Discovery etc.
Cant help with internet side of things as were on CityFibre 900 connection.
I ditched Sky a couple of years back and found that the alternate boxes either were no longer available else had poor reputations/reviews. I had the old Sky box, not the Q, so at least I had a receiver (you rent a Q so they will probably want the hardware back), however as I could no longer record or access my recordings I ditched that (apparently if you've had your account long enough you would have an older version of the authentication card that would still allow this, but mine was too new). I did connect the dish to my TV but the Sky box must have included some form of booster as the TV worked if the sky was clear, else was useless. Also my TV could not access show listings so I could not use its record function for early hours TV.
Net result I got rid of my dish and cabling as well.
Net result I got rid of my dish and cabling as well.
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