Freesat vs Freeview?

[Grand Dizzy]

I'm getting Sky+ soon and was wondering about using my old Sky box in the other room to get Freesat. This would only cost me the installation of the 2nd cable to the other room, plus the £20 for the Freesat card. Right?

So I just need to know which is better: Freesat or Freeview? What are the pros and cons?

It seems Freesat has all the channels Freeview has — and more. But are there any disadvantages to Freesat? Do you think Sky might start charging in future or something silly? Is there a quality difference? (I've never been happy with the quality of my Sky Digital signal.)

Also, what about recording? I want to be able to record from whatever I get (Freesat or Freeview). Do PVRs work at all with Freesat, or would I have much better recording options if I went with Freeview?

[hornydragon]

if you keep your old sky card i think you dont need the freesat card (unless old card goes on Sky+ stb) you dont get E4 on free sat the EPG has full sky listings so loads of listings you cant get. PVR's (except tivo) are for Freeview only, none Sky+ Sat PVR's wont work with mediaguard as there is no CAM for media guard (this is skys encryption) you could use a HDD DVDR to give you some featuers (live pause etc) but will you need it with Sky+ in other room.......?

[Starburst]

If you are not going SKY multiroom then I would go for the Freeview (DVR if possible) in the second room. Not only will you get access to many channels that are only PAY on SKY but there is more choice in the hardware. Of course the initial cost of Freeview would be affected by the possible need to upgrade the aerial.

[neilmcl]

Some channels such as E4, More4 are not available via Freesat, only Freeview.

[Grand Dizzy]

Hmmmm... interesting. Does Freesat have ANY useful channels that Freeview doesn't?

Horny, I didn't understand some of what you said (I'm not that techy so please bear with me). What do you mean when you said: "the EPG has full sky listings so loads of listings you cant get"? Oh, and what are mediaguard and CAM?

[Jafferolli]

Hi all, I have Freeview at the moment coming through via a Sony STB, and my neighbour had a new dish fitted last week and I was talking to the installer who said to me why dont you have Free Sat. He rekons it will be alot better quality picture than my Freeview but I have a Sagem 45" DLP TV and the Freeview box which came with it was crap, so after visiting this forum was advised to buy a Sony STB which I did and the picture is brill. Some of the low budget stations are still a little hazy, but the main question is .... is Free Sat a better quality picture or not ? as I dont want to fork out £150.00 for something which is'nt as good.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Hmmmm... interesting. Does Freesat have ANY useful channels that Freeview doesn't?

Horny, I didn't understand some of what you said (I'm not that techy so please bear with me). What do you mean when you said: "the EPG has full sky listings so loads of listings you cant get"? Oh, and what are mediaguard and CAM?

Since you already have a SKY system, remove the card and surf through the channels, the ones that you can watch are FTA (Freesat) then add CH4, Five and SKY3.

I think he meant that the EPG lists all the channels while only a handful are FTA/FTV and therefore can be watched. The SKY EPG is geared towards PAY services although the new EPG due next year should be more user friendly.
SKY use Videoguard and while there are digital STB's that can be used to watch the FTA channels on satellite there is no way to use a SKY smartcard in one of them to watch SKY encrypted channels (PAY or FTV).
Well there is but it's for techies

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Jafferolli

Hi all, I have Freeview at the moment coming through via a Sony STB, and my neighbour had a new dish fitted last week and I was talking to the installer who said to me why dont you have Free Sat. He rekons it will be alot better quality picture than my Freeview but I have a Sagem 45" DLP TV and the Freeview box which came with it was crap, so after visiting this forum was advised to buy a Sony STB which I did and the picture is brill. Some of the low budget stations are still a little hazy, but the main question is .... is Free Sat a better quality picture or not ? as I dont want to fork out £150.00 for something which is'nt as good.

Some channels are better on Dsat that DTT, some aren't.
If you are happy with the SONY Freeview box you have now then stick with it, there are more free UK specific channels on Freeview than Freesat.

[LV426]

One further factor:

If you intend at some point to get a Hard Disk recorder, then the only integrated solution for Satellite is $ky+. And, unless you subscribe to a minimum level of package, or pay $ky GBP10.00 per month, this is a useless piece of hardware.

Freeview PVRs are, on the other hand, totally free to use.

[Grand Dizzy]

Ah... so if I want to use a free PVR (not Sky+) then Freesat is not an option?

[LV426]

You'd have to have

a) as many regular $ky boxes as you want to receive programmes simlutaneously (e.g. if you want to watch 1, and record a different 1, that's 2 $ky boxes)

plus

b) a separate recorder of some type (eg a HDD-DVD recorder, ideally one which can control a $ky box). If you want to record two things at the same time, then two recorders (as well as two $ky boxes).

Having all of this in one convenient box is what I meant by "integrated".

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Ah... so if I want to use a free PVR (not Sky+) then Freesat is not an option?

Not at this time.
There are DVR's for Dsat but CH4 and Five are still encrypted and the EPG's are not all encompassing so it's not an ideal solution. However if the BBC/ITV Freesat system gets off the ground their will be a DVR with a 7 day EPG and in time it will also include (2008 unless they buy themselves out of their contract) CH4/Five family of channels.

[Grand Dizzy]

Okay, so which PVR has the best EPG? Or do they all pretty much use the same data?

[LV426]

There are two EPG sources for Freeview PVRs. Which has which - see here:

http://www.emsee.co.uk/pvr/

and each has advantages/disadvantages. The Freeview EPG is only 7 days, but is updated frequently. The 4TV EPG is a fortnight, but is only updated at best overnight so cannot reflect late schedule changes.

There are also obviously functional/presentational differences between machines, but this is as much a matter of preference and/or getting used to it.