Can I use a SKY HD box with no sub to get freesat HD channels?

Timmy C

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I was thinking about getting a freesat HD box to use along side my SKY+ box just for free HD channels but I'm now wondering if I can buy a SKY HD box and watch my regular SD Sky channels as well as any freesat HD channels through the one box without paying Sky an extra HD sub on top of my normal package price?
 
Yes, thats what I do... I don't pay the extra £10 so get

BBCHD
C4HD
Luxe??? HD

And can use the SKY+ function to record off all those channels.
 
At present you will not receive ITV HD on a Sky HD box and you would not receive channel 4 HD on a freesat box, this situation may change later this year and both may work on both boxes.
 
Yes, thats what I do... I don't pay the extra £10 so get

BBCHD
C4HD
Luxe??? HD

And can use the SKY+ function to record off all those channels.
Quite why anybody would want to record Luxe TV is hard to imagine, but a Sky HD box without the £10 a month will not have the record functionality enabled. Nor will you be able to use it to get access to ITV HD when that starts.

Hold your horses and wait for the Freesat PVR box when it appears.
 
Quite why anybody would want to record Luxe TV is hard to imagine, but a Sky HD box without the £10 a month will not have the record functionality enabled. Nor will you be able to use it to get access to ITV HD when that starts.

Hold your horses and wait for the Freesat PVR box when it appears.

If you actually read his post he already has a Sky+ working on a subscription. so he already has the included free recording facility enabled. You do NOT need to pay the extra £10 HD subsciption to record FTA or FTV HD channels such as BBC 1HD and channel 4HD (or ITV HD when it comes to Sky HD).

As far as he is concerrned at present a freesat HD box would have the advantage of ITV HD whilst that remains exclusive or a Sky HD would have the advantage of channel 4HD until their contract with Sky expires and they find space to broadcast from Astra 2D. Both ITV 1HD and channel 4HD are liable to be available on both freesat HD PVRs and Sky HD boxes by the end of this year.

To the OP the choice is really down to whether or not you want ITV 1HD immediately and have two boxes or one box with channel 4HD immediately.
 
Quite why anybody would want to record Luxe TV is hard to imagine, but a Sky HD box without the £10 a month will not have the record functionality enabled. Nor will you be able to use it to get access to ITV HD when that starts.

Hold your horses and wait for the Freesat PVR box when it appears.




True SKY+HD currently needs some monthly payment to enable the DVR functions but the OP already has a SD package so no extra cost required.
Yep at this time ITVHD is invisible to SKY+HD but then again CH4HD is not currently on Freesat, one or both of those will change in time:)


Unless desperate for HD then waiting to compare the cost of a Freesat twin tuner HD DVR against a SKY+HD without HD sub is wise advice.
 
Apologies, I should of said in my post I have a basic SKY sub so get the PVR bit as well. :(
 
I also have the basic Sky entertainment mix (£16), which enables the Sky + facilities. At the moment I've elected to keep paying the hd sub, since there are still the occasional "must see" programs on Geographic, History etc, but I'll certainly be considering Free-sat as an alternative when the relevant pvrs start to appear later in the year.
 
I also have the basic Sky entertainment mix (£16), which enables the Sky + facilities. At the moment I've elected to keep paying the hd sub, since there are still the occasional "must see" programs on Geographic, History etc, but I'll certainly be considering Free-sat as an alternative when the relevant pvrs start to appear later in the year.
Having had the equivalent of (better than!) Freesat (SkyHD for just the FTA/FTV HD channels) for the last year I have just subscribed to SkyHD - and don't regret it.

I cannot see the Freesat PVR being attractive to me as things stand!
 
I had Sky HD for a few months and it was terrible

Took ages for Sky to enable, half the things I recorded were corupted some part of the way through the recording, I got terrible artifacts and picture break-up and found I always needed to turn the sound up higher when watching HD content. It was nice watching the Rugby League in HD but couldn't justify the £10 on top of an already steap price of the basic package, multi-room and sports.

So I took it off and to be honest given that I still get the FTA HD channels I don't miss it at all
 
Thanks to everyone for the replies. Think I'll look at picking up a Sky HD box from somewhere as I plan to continue with my basic Sky sub anyway and it means one less box under the telly than if I go for freesat. I'm happy to miss out on ITV HD for the time being anyway.
 
I had Sky HD for a few months and it was terrible

Took ages for Sky to enable, half the things I recorded were corupted some part of the way through the recording, I got terrible artifacts and picture break-up and found I always needed to turn the sound up higher when watching HD content. .
I have had it for a year and it's excellent!!!!

I can confidently say I have have had NONE of your problems!
 
Just started gathering info on Freesat. Does anyone know if I can take the line from a Sky dish, into a Freesat box? I'm quite keen to get the HD channels on Freesat, but not too happy about the £80 for a bod to add another dish to my wall. :(
 
Just started gathering info on Freesat. Does anyone know if I can take the line from a Sky dish, into a Freesat box? I'm quite keen to get the HD channels on Freesat, but not too happy about the £80 for a bod to add another dish to my wall. :(
Yes, no problem at all if you are replacing your Sky box with a freesat box. :)

If you are keeping your Sky box, you may need to run another feed from your dish (and if necessary replace your LNB with a Quad). Easy to do yourself with basic DIY skills.

Graham.
 
Yes, no problem at all if you are replacing your Sky box with a freesat box. :)

This is excellent news. I'm currently running a Panasonic HDD DVD and a Humax PVR off a split Freeview airel, with the other line going directly into the receiver of the TV.

I'm only using the old Sky box for terrestrial channels through my first HDD DVD, as I still have stuff recorded on that I haven't yet got around to. :) So if I can, instead, run the satellite signal through a Freesat box, that would be ideal.
 
Yes, no problem at all if you are replacing your Sky box with a freesat box. :)

If you are keeping your Sky box, you may need to run another feed from your dish (and if necessary replace your LNB with a Quad). Easy to do yourself with basic DIY skills.

Graham.

Dont some of the freesat boxes have an lnb passthrough so you can keep both boxes running off the same cables ?
 
Has anyone reading this actually purchased a Sky HD box to replace an existing Sky + box to receive the free-to-air HD channels?
I ask because I have a Sky+ setup (£19 per month) and when I spoke to Sky they said I would still need to pay £10 extra per month for HD content. I told them I wasn’t interested in anything but the free-to-view HD content and they still said I needed to pay £10 to initialise the HD box?
Also a guy in Comet said the same. He said you need to pay the extra £10 per month for a year then you can cancel and still receive free-to-view HD.
Is this correct?
 
Has anyone reading this actually purchased a Sky HD box to replace an existing Sky + box to receive the free-to-air HD channels?
I ask because I have a Sky+ setup (£19 per month) and when I spoke to Sky they said I would still need to pay £10 extra per month for HD content. I told them I wasn’t interested in anything but the free-to-view HD content and they still said I needed to pay £10 to initialise the HD box?
Also a guy in Comet said the same. He said you need to pay the extra £10 per month for a year then you can cancel and still receive free-to-view HD.
Is this correct?

If you buy a Sky HD box from Sky, you will have to subscribe to Sky HD for twelve months. Sky won't sell you the box without you taking out the extra subscription. But, if you source the box from elsewhere yourself (i.e. ebay) then you will receive the FTA high definition channels (BBC HD, C4 HD and Luxe HD) without subscribing to Sky HD.
 
Has anyone reading this actually purchased a Sky HD box to replace an existing Sky + box to receive the free-to-air HD channels?
I ask because I have a Sky+ setup (£19 per month) and when I spoke to Sky they said I would still need to pay £10 extra per month for HD content. I told them I wasn’t interested in anything but the free-to-view HD content and they still said I needed to pay £10 to initialise the HD box?
If you buy from Sky direct (or through an agent like Comet) then what they have told you is correct....pricing from Sky is mostly dependent of taking out an HD-subscription.

However buying (new or secondhand) from eBay or, for possibly better support, the likes of satbuyer.co.uk then the SkyHD STB does not to be enabled for SkyHD.

I did it via the eBay route - as have very many others!
 
So if I but just a freesat box I can plug it straigt in to my old sky dish and it should work?? (Single LNB)
 
Hi, Newbie here.
Do the Freesat and the Sky HD boxes push out the same quality signal i.e. 1080P ?
 

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