Set top box suggestions

[Marc Berry]

Hi all

my in laws left sky many years ago and dont want to go back into a monthly payment scheme for the extra channels they might want. so i have mentioned  Now tv as an inbetween as i think you can chop and change each month but are there any other suggestions?

freesat any good for example?

ta

[Dave Rice]

It depends on what channels you want https://www.freesat.co.uk/channels

I use a basic £50 Freesat box from Manhattan on the kitchen TV and it does the job. But if you want catch up, on demand, recording and a much slicker Sky like experience get a Humax box

Picture quality wise even the basic box is excellent.

[Marc Berry]

can they use the old sky dish still attached? it’s been unused for ages and i’m not sure if the cables are even still attached.

[The Duke]

If you dont need live TV*, a roku, now tv, amazon tv, Android tv  would all work.

I like roku personally. The wife Amazon tv.

*most platforms and apps offer some form of live TV. Apart form sport, I have not need for live.

 

[Richard]

I suspect that it is clear from the above posts that the subject is quite personal and a matter of personal taste. Unless you know what the person or people really want it is easy to send them off in a wrong directions. I have had an Amazon Fire stick for 12~ 18 months and have yet to find anything to watch. Mind you I find the menu less than helpful and its first up items do not draw me in. Others rave about it so I guess I am wrong, it happens.

The Humax range do give both a wonderful pause and other functions with access to a range of other services beyond the usual Freeview options

However, I do think that the starting point needs to be what do the users want? Then how can that be best served to them? Be aware a high channel count may be as useless as a fish bicycle, most of the channels may only show, e.g. telemarketing sales for most of the time

[Bob Williams]

Here you are Marc, switch the Sky box to Freesat:

https://tinyurl.com/mrd4uhe

PDF of Freesat Channel List:

https://tinyurl.com/m36goea

This is probably one of my choices when I get to the end of my Sky contract. Or a Now TV box. Or both!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Marc Berry]

cheers guys.

they may be willing to stretch to the humax freesat. the old sky dish has been unused for maybe 10 years and he thinks he may have snipped the cable so maybe a new dish and cables will be needed.

[JayCeeDee]

Do they want to just watch or record as well? – makes a difference of £100+ – by all accounts and reviews Humax give the closest “Sky experience”.

They are for sale in Currys/PCworld so get them to go see if they like the box and how it works ( they should have one connected for a demo) but maybe call first. Other than that a quick google should show them a local Home Cinema retailer/installer that almost definitely will.

The NowTV box is great, I’ve had one of the old ones for about three years now and recently got one of their new Smart boxes. They are almost free when you buy 3 or 4 month passes for Movies or Entertainment off Ebay. The codes work fine, just look for very good feedback. The interface/EPG is clunky and a bit slow, after being used to Sky it drives me nuts – it’s a bit like when you ask a very lowly CPU to do some intensive work – it thinks about it for a few seconds then starts it.

 

EDIT – Just buy a new quad LNB off Ebay again and some cable. Unless the dish is very old it’ll still work. My dish is almost 10 years old now, I just bought a new Quad LNB and ran the cable in along the old route. It works fine. The hardest part if he buys a new one is getting it aligned, but an installer might well do it reasonably cheap if the mount is already there.

 

[Marc Berry]

cheers mate.

 

they are the same price at currys and amazon so i would usually get it from amazon due to the prime and easy returns.

the would use the recording abilities a little so i think it would be worth the extra.

[Dave Rice]

If the cabling route is easy by all means DIY, but if you’ve ever tried to get a cable through a cavity wall it can be a total PITA without the proper gizmos that make an installers life easier (and you’ll probably be doing 2 or one double width “shotgun” one).  I always have issues getting the F plugs on too. What I’m trying to say is a pukka installer may be your best option. If you need a new dish then the alignment tool they will have is worth the cost alone.

The Humax EPG deals with catch up TV better than Sky IMO. It has a “backwards”  EPG called Freetime where you can go back 7 days and the Humax automatically fires up the appropriate broadcasters IP service. I wish Sky did this as slickly, you have to go to the catch up TV section then choose your channel and trawl through that. Mostly (with Channel 5 especially) I actually use my Fire TV as it has the full apps that Sky doesn’t. However I can’t comment on how well the Humax deals with >7 days, but having owned Humax products I’d bet it will be good.

[The Duke]

Most local pubs will have a self employed Arial sky installer, that will do it for peanuts.

Pubs are like magnets to Arial fitters and plasterers.

[blacklion1725]

Does it need to be a satellite STB – the Humax Freeview recorders are very nice too if they have a decent terrestrial aerial. Not a huge difference in the channel line up and no need for an LNB or cabling.

For any extras (paid content) they are all covered in earlier posts. The Roku and Fire TV are the most flexible. I’m with Duke in preferring the Roku to the Fire but am actually using both. One thing on the Android boxes, some apps can be fussy with Android over HDMI.

I think Humax make some of the BT youview boxes which can be picked up very cheap on ebay.

[Marc Berry]

these are the front runners i think after showing them their options

and

[The Duke]

If you have an aerial, you could get free view box. Usually cheaper as there is more choice.

There is nothing between free view and free sat. Saves buying and hanging a dish.

[Marc Berry]

The Duke wrote:

If you have an aerial, you could get free view box. Usually cheaper as there is more choice. There is nothing between free view and free sat. Saves buying and hanging a dish.

cheers mate. it seems to suggest something like 60+ channels for freeview (they have freeview built in to their tv anyway) and 200+ channels for freesat. i think that plenty are radio but so would freeview i believe.

[The Duke]

I dint know there was that much diffence. Last I heard free sat was on its way out.

It must of done a big u turn.

I could never get free view, (no reception) and we tried the free sat, that sky gives you when you kill thier service. No one watched it so we can hacked the boxes.

[Bob Williams]

I was really considering a Humax box and Freesat, until I compared Freesat and Freeview.  There really is not much difference. Freesat’s “200 channels” seems to include all the radio stations and the OD services, whilst Freeview just advertises 60+ TV channels, most of which are the same as Freesat and most of which are repeats in fancy dress anyway. The very few added channels on Freesat are dross to me and Freeview actually has more Radio stations, most of which are the local ones. I only listen to a very few radio staions anyway, so no point made there. Therefore Steve’s statement appears to be correct:

” There is nothing between free view and free sat. Saves buying and hanging a dish. ”

I could either sell the dish if Sky don’t want it back, or leave it mounted and remove the cables, coil them up and store them safely, then return to digital antenna reception, Freeview and a NowTV box.

OR in the unlikely event that Sky make me a better offer when contract time is up (October) I could tell them to send a better installation engineer than the first clown and have him feed the cables through the loft. For free, or don’t bother.

Decisions for later in the year… :scratch:  B-)

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

Sky don’t want it back, you paid for it, it’s yours and worth about a tenner.

You don’t need to buy any new kit either as there is also Freesat from Sky which will only cost you £25 for a new viewing card. Freesat from Sky is not Freesat What is Freesat from Sky? – Which?

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for that link and the information, Dave: yes it has more channels than ‘vanilla’ Freesat, but they appear to be variations upon the ‘repeat ad infinitum’ theme, in that there is no appreciable difference in quality of channels, just quantity of garbage.

But interesting that I could get a viewing card for £25 as a Sky customer. Put that together with maybe a NowTV box (which I already blagged free from Currys when buying the TV, Bband, calls and Sky) and I might have a plan. May keep Sky Bband, phone & calls. Have to check out if they let me keep the Q Box.

More food for thought later in the year.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

I agree Bob, the number of channels seems inversely proportional to those you want to watch ?

But the channels you do want to watch are probably the same and the SKY EPG is probably the best I’ve used, with the exception of “roll back” or Catch Up TV as Sky call it. Not a problem that I think £200 needs to be spent on fixing it!

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