Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

We are considering getting rid of Sky.
Now most our favourite shows have finished, such as lost and 24, I am struggling to justify the outlay.
Also, the customer service is absolutely appalling.
They promised me broadband for £10 a month (no adsl+ line in our area) but were charging us £17.50. I didn't notice it until a few months in.
It took me 4 calls totalling around 5 hours to get somebody to actually go over the original log and admit the error on their bill.
Then they couldn't give me that offer due to no option being on their system, so they decided to work out what the extra was going to be over a year and then credit me instead.

I can get cheap broadband as a customer of o2 and also get line rental through them as well.

So, now we get to the original question. What are freesat recorders like? Any to avoid?

Clarebabes

FIL has a freesat recorder and he thinks it's OK, but not had anything to compare it with. We have a freeview recorder and it's fine. Usually not made by the big names, ours is a HUMAX (!?) which was a refurb from their website.

BTW, we got rid of Sky when we moved to this house 5 years ago and haven't missed it at all.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Got Virgin Media downstairs for football and films etc but gonna hook up a Freesat box to the old Sky dish we still have up outside So she can watch her crap upstairs whilst I have beer downstairs

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Don't think we can get virgin in our area, even though we live on a new development. Then again, we don't really want movies or sport so there would be no reason for us to get Virgin.

Ant

freesat hd is ok, but i would only get the humax box

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I've got a Humax Freeview HD Recorder, not Freesat but the quality is good, the on screen menu's are nice and it's a doddle to record ........

Shaun

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Pretty much why we won't pay the extra subscription charges for it upstairs. For what Nat watches Freesat will do and as we don't have a digital aerial (actually no working aerial at all), the old Sky dish will do nicely if it simply plug and play.

scooby0809

iTrader: (11)

humax is the one, had all sorts of makes over the last year. kept on packing up got the humax one and been fine and very easy to use

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

I've got the Humax FOXSAT-HDR box. Works really well, never had problems. I also think that HD through Freesat is much better looking than HD through Freeview.



http://www.humaxdigital.com/global/p...foxsat-hdr.asp

Best prices here

http://www.humaxfoxsat.co.uk/

Leslie

Still very hard to find the choice of good programmes available on Sky anywhere else I reckon. Certainly as far as sport is concerned.

Les

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

? Hows that when Virgin Media for example has all 4 Sky Sports channels, ESPN included for no extra fee (unlike Sky), then there's the Eurosport Channels and others too. You've lost me on that one dear boy

Ant

Sky does have more hd channels but doesn't make it better.

I pay £12 a month for a full sly package including setanta Ireland for 3pm kick offs on Saturday's

XRS

This looks like a good piece of kit

Echostar HDS-600RS 500GB Freesat HD Recorder and Media Streamer

http://www.johnlewis.com/231218308/Product.aspx

Leslie

Why do people keep complaining about it my dear fellow.

Les

Luan Pra bang

I refuse to pay for sky as Murdoch is evil . Personally I would rather he was taken out than Osama.

Luan Pra bang

Do free sat boxes have space for a card so I can subscribe to sport from other EU countries ?

SPEN555

Nice bit of kit that. Allows you to control the box and watch TV on your mobile anywhere in the world provided you have broadband as well, oh and the phone app.

stilover

I have a Humax. can't vault it. Though it's a freeview box, not freesat

speedking

We have 2 Humax Freeview recorders and are generally very pleased with them.

However one went through a phase of the remote control not working. That was fixed by an OTA software update.

The new one is now failing to record automatically on the buffer so that live pause / rewind is not available. Surprising how we've got used to that feature. I won't format the hard disk so am waiting to see if it will cure itself.

OT. Does anyone know whether these PVRs automatically defrag the disk regularly, or is that not necessary?

pacenote

I use a Spiderbox 9000 HD into which you can plug a USB hard drive for recording. ( I use a 1TB drive ). I have the box hooked up to a motorised dish which gives me access to loads of channels.

info in online shop here

www.alsat.co.uk

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Complaining about Sky Sports on Virgin Media? I haven't as I think it's excellent old bean.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Pretty sure their disks are formatted to the EXT2 or EXT3 file-system, which means they won't need defragging. On the other hand though, if you typically leave yours powered-up for extended periods of time, it would surprise me if the operating system wasn't subject to some memory fragmentation or leaking over time (very few operating systems aren't), so giving it a reboot every few days wouldn't be a bad idea.

speedking

The system is on standby virtually the whole time, for obvious reasons.

Have tried powering down for 24 hours but made no difference.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

There was a thread on here last year, wish I could remember the OP's name. They cancelled sky and requested the 'free' service which is basically Freesat. I think , if you unplug the sky+ box for a while after your subscription has ended it doesn't get flashed by sky so when you plug it back in you retain the recording functions still, thus saving you having to shell out £300 for a freesat box.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

If the system really is operating unusually slowly, it could be that the hard-drive is starting to deteriorate physically. It would be quite easy to check this by transplanting it temporarily into an ordinary PC (perfectly safe if you know what you're doing). PM me if you want more details.

Another possibility might be the PSU going south, although I hadn't heard of this being a problem on Humax kit (the kind of thing that Thomson Sky boxes of a couple of years ago were absolutely notorious for).