Freesat (from Sky) with Sky Plus or HD box

[Fatboy40]

I'm an ex Sky subscriber who's been using my box as a Freesat one for a coupel of years. Just over a week ago I fitted a quad LNB to my dish and ran a few extra cables from it (Freesat now in the kitchen and bedroom). I've got a port still free on my quad LNB so I'm thinking about hooking up a Sky Plus (or HD) box in the living room.

So I've got a few questions for the knowledgeable people here...

# If I get a used Sky Plus off of eBay and hook it up with a new Freesat from Sky card I think that I'll only get the ability to pause live tv + the ability to record whatever channel I'm currenty watching ? (or if I'm not watching anything schedule a programme to be recorded) ?.

# If I want to watch a programme and record another at the same time then after I've bought my Freesat from Sky card I need to then pay a £10 a month sub to Sky for this function ?.

# Buying a Sky HD box... on eBay there are a few of these going for around £150 (off the back of a Sky installers van I suppose ?). I suppose that the above two questions also apply to this ?. The benefits I'll get with the SKy HD box are that I can hook it up to my telly's HDMI port and that I can watch BBC HD ?.

... thanks

[Stephen Neal]

My understanding is that the £10/month subscription is required for any of the Sky+ functionality - including pausing Live TV and recording the channel you are watching. I may be wrong - but I believe that to be the case. AIUI if you don't have a Sky+ subscription the box behaves almost identically to a normal Sky box (with the restriction that you can't automatically change channel from the personal planner on a reminder) - with no sub you don't get any of the hard drive functionality.

If you get a Sky HD box you will get BBC in HD - and I believe C4 in HD (as that only requires a FTV card and not a Sky HD sub) AFAIK the Sky+ subscription works in the same way - so no recording or pausing without a £10/month Sky+ sub.

You should also get ITV HD when that launches with a Sky HD box.

[Starburst]

Overall better to wait and see what Freesat has to offer if the SKY subscription channels are of no interest.

[Broadz]

As Stephen says - you will have no Sky+ functionality (no pausing live TV, no recording the channel you are watching) unless you pay Sky a monthly subscription; either the minimum mix package (£16 for one mix) or £10 for Sky+ with the free channels. Work out whether the £6 difference is worth it for the subscription channels available in whichever mix you go for (20 pence per day).

Once you do get Sky+ enabled, you will be able to record and pause just the channel you are watching if you only have a single cable from dish to box, or record two channels/record one and watch another if you have two cables from dish to box. Note, this is down to the number of cables between dish and box, not down to whether you choose to pay for Sky+ or not. If you don't pay for it (or pay for another Sky TV package) you don't get it, regardless of cables between dish and box.

In terms of Sky HD - yes, the main differences are the extra connectivity included on a Sky HD box (HDMI and component), the extra space available on a HD box (160Gb available for own use as opposed to 80Gb) and the ability to watch the FTA high definition channels (BBC HD, C4HD, Luxe HD).

[Fatboy40]

Originally Posted by Starburst

Overall better to wait and see what Freesat has to offer if the SKY subscription channels are of no interest.

I really want to wait, but it just seems to be constantly delayed.

To be honest I'll be happy to pay £10 a month for just the Sky Plus features on a used box, I find it hard to faulty the Sky EPG and I get the feeling that the Freesat BBC/ITV one will suck ?...

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Fatboy40

I really want to wait, but it just seems to be constantly delayed.

To be honest I'll be happy to pay £10 a month for just the Sky Plus features on a used box, I find it hard to faulty the Sky EPG and I get the feeling that the Freesat BBC/ITV one will suck ?...

Well technically it's still Spring, any perceived delay is due to listening to rumoured launch dates

Well paying the SKY+ charge on a third party acquired box is certainly an option and if you for a HD box then BBCHD, CH4HD and LuxeHD are accessible using your current smartcard which would be upgraded to carry the subscription.