Replacing sky with freeview

Sausage

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I've got sky HD with a basic package but hardly watch tv at all and its a waste of £30 per month so I'm looking at replacing it with a free view box. Is it possible to still use my dish and sky box to receive free view and record? I've bought the HD box so sky won't take it back once I cancel. If it's not got any use which is the best free view box to buy? Any help would be much appreciated :)
 
You can still use the Sky box to watch free channels, FREESAT, but you cannot record unless you pay Sky.
Freesat has most of the Freeview channels (Freeview-digital TV off a terrestial aerial), but not channels like Dave, Pick, Yesterday, Quest. It does allow you to view a number of channels not on Freeview. freesat - Subscription free HD Satellite TV through a Digital Box , Freeview / Home
There are a number of Freesat Recorders available, costs vary on make and recorder size.
You will not be able to get Freeview off a dish, so will need a terrestial TV Aerial. Freeview recorders are available, prices vay on whether they are HD or standard definition, and memory size.
 
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Hi and welcome to the forum.
Freeview is terrestrial digital TV so the Satellite forum was not the right place for your thread.
Your TV should already have a Freeview tuner but you'll need a separate PVR if you want to record.
The dish and Sky machine will continue to provide all the free satellite channels but again a PVR is needed to record.
If you want further information about satellite feel free to post again in the Freesat or Sky section.
 
Do you have a rooftop UHF TV aerial?

If not Freeview is NOT the correct sub-forum for this query despite the Freeview in the thread title (there's a lot on confusion still between Freeview from land-based transmitters and freesat from satellite(s).

If you only want to watch live TV then your existing SkyHD box will provide that feature once your subscription ends and you need spend no more money or time on the problem

If recording is desirable, then you would probably be best with a freesat HD+ pvr which will re-use the existing satellite dish as used for the Sky HD+ recorder. These are discussed in the freesat sub-forum Freesat | AVForums.com - UK Online which (erroneously) has a capital 'f' in its heading whereas the Trade Marked name is lower case 'f'. [I know I'm a pedant, but Sky used the capital F in their 'free satellite' offering so freesat had no choice in order to differentiate themselves]

If you DO have a UHF aerial then the Freeview PVRs are mostly discussed in this sub-forum http://www.avforums.com/forums/pvrs-vcrs/

There is a wide range in facilities, features and prices; so you need to decide what is 'essential', 'nice to have' and - most important - what your budget is.
 
If he doesn't have an aerial he can easily get one and as well as the thread header his comment "I'm looking at replacing it with a free view box" and question "which is the best free view box to buy?" make his intentions clear and the location for the thread correct.
As the sub-forum comes under Digital TV Receivers this seems to be a good place to discuss Freeview PVRs.
 
As the sub-forum comes under Digital TV Receivers this seems to be a good place to discuss Freeview PVRs.
But it's NOT the PVR sub-forum... and although the occasional Freeview PVR thread appears here most detailed discussions of them are over in the VCR/PVR sub-forum moderated by Gavtech. (I also know freesat pvrs aren't discussed there very much).

Parts of AVForums structure is (with the benefit of hindsight) illogical, Logiciel and there's nothing you (or Gavtech) can do about it, easily. :lesson:

Sausage is grateful for our advice :cool:... as to which path he's intending to follow?
 
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Sausage said:
I've got sky HD with a basic package but hardly watch tv at all and its a waste of £30 per month so I'm looking at replacing it with a free view box. Is it possible to still use my dish and sky box to receive free view and record? I've bought the HD box so sky won't take it back once I cancel. If it's not got any use which is the best free view box to buy? Any help would be much appreciated :)

As mentioned above your sky HD box will continue to receive all free channels after your subscription ends including all the Free HD channels like BBC1 HD and ITV1 HD.
As you say you do not watch much tv anyway, may be the best route to take is to wait untill you sky subscription has finished, see what you can watch and then if there is any channels that you can not watch on your present box but available on Freeview via aerial ( theres only a about half a dozen ) you can get a cheap freeview box for these.
 
As you say you do not watch much tv anyway, may be the best route to take is to wait untill you sky subscription has finished, see what you can watch
Very good advice.
and then if there is any channels that you can not watch on your present box but available on Freeview via aerial ( theres only a about half a dozen ) you can get a cheap freeview box for these.
Perhaps - but:
  • Do we know that Sausage actually has a working UHF TV aerial? = No, we don't.
  • Do we know Sausage can get Freeview reception from a main transmitter site (one of the 81, 6-mux sites) post-DSO? = No, we have no idea where Sausage lives. {If Sausage is in one of the relay transmitter areas then the 'half dozen' extra channels on Freeview would be unavailable! Digital UK - Postcode checker might help S.?}.
 
I got a freesat HD box fitted. Many thanks to everyone for taking the time to post and help me out here :)
 

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