# Is Freesat dead?



## AlanW (26 Feb 2020)

We have had our Humax Freesat box for a good few years but I suspect that it has finally given up the ghost. Not a problem I thought, just go and buy another one, oh....wait a minute, maybe not then?

So what happened, what did I miss?? I know that All4 pulled away from Freesat in around 2018, so I guess that was the start was it?

But the bottom line is no more Humax Freesat boxes unless you get a basic one with no recording function. Seems to be all Freeview now, its seems like going back in time with Betamax and VHS, made the wrong choice as well.....doh!!

Our TV has built in Freeview and I have a USB stick plugged in the rear so that I can record programmers, but only one station at a time, and while its recording I cannot watch another station. So I suppose I need to get a Freeview box now, but with only one aerial lead can I split that and run one lead to the TV and one lead to the Freeview box?

I have a Ethernet cable connected direct to the router, which I assume I can still utilize with a Freeview box?

I also assume that the satellite dish is now redundant....


----------



## vickster (26 Feb 2020)

Get a used one? Try AV forums


----------



## fossyant (26 Feb 2020)

Smart TV ? - catch up (4OD ITV Player, Iplayer). Not used our PVR in years.


----------



## DCBassman (26 Feb 2020)

We have a Manhattan Freesat box, non-recording, and a FireTV stick for catch-up. Covers most bases. And a Chromecast in reserve in the drawer.


----------



## Archie_tect (26 Feb 2020)

Can I ask what is no doubt an ignorant question... I'm sick of paying for Sky- we have an old Sky HD+ box, which has a little wifi gismo that connects to our BtT wifi, plugged into the box but it doesn't appear to do anything, and a sky dish... I'm now paying £48/ month [incl VAT] and we don't have the sports channel or movie channels so it's really just the multiple record, play back and freeze/catch-up that we keep it for... is there a cheaper and simpler solution which doesn't need a load of set-up time and money? how much does a fire stick cost to buy and run [isn't that Amazon though?]

I hear that you can threaten to leave and they give you lots of extras for the same monthly cost but we don't want more things just a simpler system.

Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but it is related.


----------



## Levo-Lon (26 Feb 2020)

I don't have an aerial..cable only.
Cant think why Id need freesat.

Both TVs are smart "unlike the end user I might add"


----------



## AlanW (26 Feb 2020)

vickster said:


> Get a used one? Try AV forums



I did think about that to be honest, but knowing my luck I'd only end up buying someone elses trashed box


----------



## vickster (26 Feb 2020)

AlanW said:


> I did think about that to be honest, but knowing my luck I'd only end up buying someone elses trashed box


The AV forums guys are pretty clued up and honest


----------



## Joffey (26 Feb 2020)

Archie_tect said:


> Can I ask what is no doubt an ignorant question... I'm sick of paying for Sky- we have an old Sky HD+ box, which has a little wifi gismo that connects to our BtT wifi, plugged into the box but it doesn't appear to do anything, and a sky dish... I'm now paying £48/ month [incl VAT] and we don't have the sports channel or movie channels so it's really just the multiple record, play back and freeze/catch-up that we keep it for... is there a cheaper and simpler solution which doesn't need a load of set-up time and money? how much does a fire stick cost to buy and run [isn't that Amazon though?]
> 
> I hear that you can threaten to leave and they give you lots of extras for the same monthly cost but we don't want more things just a simpler system.
> 
> Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but it is related.



Just phone them up to cancel, they will offer you deals on your current package. Or just cancel and use the box to watch the free channels then get a fire stick or something for Netflix / Amazon Prime (or whatever on demand service takes your fancy).

To keep it 'cheap' with Sky you need to be on top of it - when your contract has elapsed you need to be on the phone to get a new deal or discount or you'll just roll on paying far too much. I renew my contract before it expires and they give me cheaper TV, broadband etc and any new offers.


----------



## vickster (26 Feb 2020)

Joffey said:


> *Just phone them up to cancel, they will offer you deals on your current package. * Or just cancel and use the box to watch the free channels then get a fire stick or something for Netflix / Amazon Prime (or whatever on demand service takes your fancy).


Indeed, this


----------



## fossyant (26 Feb 2020)

Firesticks are £39.99 and do most stuff you need. Recording, if you still need to record freeview, then a USB or hard drive will suffice (one chanel at a time).


----------



## Mugshot (26 Feb 2020)

AlanW said:


> We have had our Humax Freesat box for a good few years but I suspect that it has finally given up the ghost. Not a problem I thought, just go and buy another one, oh....wait a minute, maybe not then?
> 
> So what happened, what did I miss?? I know that All4 pulled away from Freesat in around 2018, so I guess that was the start was it?
> 
> ...


We're ditching Sky and going freesat, the official Freesat box is being manufactured by a different company than Humax now, can't remember the name but it's not important cos there's none available at the mo!

We're looking at getting one of these one of these http://www.technomate.com/products/TM%252d5402-HD-M3.html


----------



## Milkfloat (26 Feb 2020)

AlanW said:


> Our TV has built in Freeview and I have a USB stick plugged in the rear so that I can record programmers, but only one station at a time, and while its recording I cannot watch another station. So I suppose I need to get a Freeview box now, but with only one aerial lead can I split that and run one lead to the TV and one lead to the Freeview box?
> 
> I have a Ethernet cable connected direct to the router, which I assume I can still utilize with a Freeview box?
> .



I would recommend picking up a BT Freeview+ box on eBay (made by Humax). This (assuming you have an aerial) will allow you to record 2 programs simultaneously and watch another, plus you have access to most of the catch up services and the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. You do not need to be a BT customer.

To answer your questions - the aerial goes to the Freeview box and then you connect your TV to that (usually HDMI cable). No need to connect the TV to the aerial. Yes, you need an internet connection to the box for the catch up/premium services.


----------



## Milkfloat (26 Feb 2020)

Archie_tect said:


> Can I ask what is no doubt an ignorant question... I'm sick of paying for Sky- we have an old Sky HD+ box, which has a little wifi gismo that connects to our BtT wifi, plugged into the box but it doesn't appear to do anything, and a sky dish... I'm now paying £48/ month [incl VAT] and we don't have the sports channel or movie channels so it's really just the multiple record, play back and freeze/catch-up that we keep it for... is there a cheaper and simpler solution which doesn't need a load of set-up time and money? how much does a fire stick cost to buy and run [isn't that Amazon though?]
> 
> I hear that you can threaten to leave and they give you lots of extras for the same monthly cost but we don't want more things just a simpler system.
> 
> Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but it is related.



For the price of one month get a Freeview+ box as I outlined above. Assuming you don't need the Sky channels Sky 1 then that will give you everything you need. remember you do need an aerial though.


----------



## Archie_tect (26 Feb 2020)

Thanks Milkfloat... I don't know whether Mrs A uses any Sky channels!


----------



## Milkfloat (26 Feb 2020)

Archie_tect said:


> Thanks Milkfloat... I don't know whether Mrs A uses any Sky channels!


I cannot help you there, but you could just look and see what she has recorded in the past.


----------



## Mo1959 (26 Feb 2020)

I cancelled Sky years ago now but still get all the free channels which does me, plus the usual catch up channels through the tv if I miss anything.


----------



## welsh dragon (26 Feb 2020)

I cancelled Sky a couple of years ago. I was sick of spending £60 a month on repeats.

We have Freesat, plus we subscribe to Amazon prime so the programmes are in with prime. 

Best thing I ever did was to get rid of sky. They are just rip off.


----------



## Drago (26 Feb 2020)

If you want cheap Sky then get it through BT TV. The package I have, with movies etc, costs about half what it would through sky, and I don't have to have a trashy looking sieve bolted to the side of my house.


----------



## AlanW (26 Feb 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> I would recommend picking up a BT Freeview+ box on eBay (made by Humax). This (assuming you have an aerial) will allow you to record 2 programs simultaneously and watch another, plus you have access to most of the catch up services and the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. You do not need to be a BT customer.
> 
> To answer your questions - the aerial goes to the Freeview box and then you connect your TV to that (usually HDMI cable). No need to connect the TV to the aerial. Yes, you need an internet connection to the box for the catch up/premium services.



Great stuff @Milkfloat , thats answered all my questions.


----------



## cyberknight (26 Feb 2020)

£10 a month to retain recording facility to sky and you then use your sky box for sky Freesat last time I looked at it


----------



## AlanW (26 Feb 2020)

We had Sky for a number of years, only because we had little choice as we lived in a terrible area for TV reception. 

Thankfully when the Sutton Coldfield transmitter went over to digital signals it opened up a whole new world for us and we were able to kick Sky into touch. As a matter of principle now I refuse point blank to pay for any TV subscription service.


----------



## Mike_P (26 Feb 2020)

Plenty of Humax Foxsat PVRs on eBay including ones newly refurbished


----------



## Milkfloat (26 Feb 2020)

Be aware if you are binning off Sky and switching to a different Freesat receiver then you need to be careful because Sky switched the LNB they were using if you got a Sky Q box and the new LNB (bit in the dish that takes the signal) will not work with older Freesat receiver.


----------



## Smokin Joe (26 Feb 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> For the price of one month get a Freeview+ box as I outlined above. Assuming you don't need the Sky channels Sky 1 then that will give you everything you need. remember you do need an aerial though.


Fine if you get the full Freeview service, we don't and we can lose it completely in bad weather.


----------



## Milkfloat (26 Feb 2020)

Smokin Joe said:


> Fine if you get the full Freeview service, we don't and we can lose it completely in bad weather.


We are the same - bad weather causes us issues, although the 4G transmitter nearby caused the most problems until we put in filters. I have Freesat built into my TV but never really use it as recording on the TV is terrible compared to the BT Freeview box. If Freeview gets really bad I just watch via catchup.


----------



## Gunk (26 Feb 2020)

As I have no aerial on the roof but a dish I have two Humax Freesat boxes, the HD picture on them is better than Sky.


----------



## Shearwater Missile (26 Feb 2020)

Humax boxes are pretty reliable but.... When I worked in the trade the common most faults with the boxes were capacitors in the power supply so it would appear dead. You would see the faulty ones as they bulged (domed) at the top. We also had hard drive problems, you could always disconnect the drive to see if it would work without it. Any HDD would work in a Humax box. The other issue we had was that they could lock up and would need resetting. Hope this helps. There may be life in it yet.


----------



## AlanW (26 Feb 2020)

Shearwater Missile said:


> Humax boxes are pretty reliable but.... When I worked in the trade the common most faults with the boxes were capacitors in the power supply so it would appear dead. You would see the faulty ones as they bulged (domed) at the top. We also had hard drive problems, you could always disconnect the drive to see if it would work without it. Any HDD would work in a Humax box. The other issue we had was that they could lock up and would need resetting. Hope this helps. There may be life in it yet.



A couple of days ago all the recording vanished and it refused to record any of the programmers that were set to record either? Did the usual thing turned it off and back on again, nothing. Turned it off and disconnected the mains supply, plus the two feeds from the dish and left it 12 hours, reconnected....nope still nothing?

However, last night all the recordings were now showing again as if nothing had happened......


----------



## Shearwater Missile (26 Feb 2020)

AlanW said:


> A couple of days ago all the recording vanished and it refused to record any of the programmers that were set to record either? Did the usual thing turned it off and back on again, nothing. Turned it off and disconnected the mains supply, plus the two feeds from the dish and left it 12 hours, reconnected....nope still nothing?
> 
> However, last night all the recordings were now showing again as if nothing had happened......


It sounds that possibly it had locked up. I have seen that symptom before. It could be a faulty capacitor as mentioned or HDD or just locked up. What you could do is : 1st Check that the unit`s software is up to date. 2nd Go into settings and do a reset but make sure that the box for formatting the HDD is left un-checked otherwise you will delete everything. It may of course come to that if a normal reset does`nt sort it out. By the way I say reset, Humax call it " Default setting". You may find that it will work perfectly OK now.


----------



## gavroche (26 Feb 2020)

I never record anything now as I use catch up if I miss something and I don't use a box any longer either as my smart TV has all I need on it: You Tube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, I Player, ITV hub etc....


----------



## DaveReading (27 Feb 2020)

Roger Longbottom said:


> Question if anyone has ditched Sky recently, I was thinking of it a couple of months back and was looking at the "How to cancel" bit on Sky's website. On the page there was a load about sending the equipment back and the various ways to do it.
> Are they now demanding their stuff back if you leave them or perhaps it is a "frightener" to make you think again about leaving.



In my experience - albeit Virgin rather than Sky - it's impossible to persuade them to retrieve their old kit. We ended up taking ours to the recycling depot and bought a Humax for Freesat instead. I can't see Sky being any different.


----------



## Milkfloat (27 Feb 2020)

Roger Longbottom said:


> Question if anyone has ditched Sky recently, I was thinking of it a couple of months back and was looking at the "How to cancel" bit on Sky's website. On the page there was a load about sending the equipment back and the various ways to do it.
> Are they now demanding their stuff back if you leave them or perhaps it is a "frightener" to make you think again about leaving.


I believe it depends on when you tarted your contract, the newer contracts have penalties for not returning the equipment but older ones do not. To be honest, if you did keep it, you would only shove it in the loft and never use it again.


----------



## Mo1959 (27 Feb 2020)

Milkfloat said:


> I believe it depends on when you tarted your contract, the newer contracts have penalties for not returning the equipment but older ones do not. To be honest, if you did keep it, you would only shove it in the loft and never use it again.


Why? I still use mine and get all the normal channels on it. Mind you, I prefer to watch TV series as they come on if I can and just use catch up for stuff I've missed.


----------



## GetFatty (27 Feb 2020)

Roger Longbottom said:


> Question if anyone has ditched Sky recently, I was thinking of it a couple of months back and was looking at the "How to cancel" bit on Sky's website. On the page there was a load about sending the equipment back and the various ways to do it.
> Are they now demanding their stuff back if you leave them or perhaps it is a "frightener" to make you think again about leaving.


If you have Sky Q, you no longer own the equipment but rent it so if you do leave, they'll expect you to return it.

Whilst I'm keeping my Sky Q, I have just cancelled my Sky broadband contract and as well as a request for the router to be sent back they asked me to send back the wifi booster. What wifi booster I asked. The one we sent you in 2014 was the response. I've actually had a different provider in the timeframe so told them I had no idea where the booster was and eventually they said forget it.


----------



## PaulSB (2 Mar 2020)

I moved from BT to Sky 12 months ago. BT had pushed the price to £60-65 for services we rarely used. Moved to Sky, against my principles, for broadband only at £25/month. We haven't missed those services. 

BT asked for the box to be returned. As I had an old one I sent that, the other box still functions as it did before and we use the smart TV for iPlayer.

The sport my wife is interested in can either be purchased for an annual Eurosport package at £79 or Amazon, I forget which package. So far all Mrs P has needed has been available on a one month £7.99 Eurosport pass.

We have Netflix and overall I'd say it offers more TV which I find entertaining than other services I've tried. Sadly that includes the BBC.

Broadband only plus buying services when needed is proving to be by far the cheapest option in this house.


----------



## tyred (3 Mar 2020)

I don't have a TV.


----------



## keithmac (3 Mar 2020)

We got rid of Virgin Media TV and Phone line but kept their cable broadband (unfortunately it's excellent).

We now use Freeview/ Netflix and I've recently been watching YouTube (surprisingly there's lots of proper documentaries etc on there).

Saved £50 a month and no problems.

I was looking at Freesat and most recommended Freeview, luckily our aerial was ok, just had to buy some coax and re-wire it.

Most of BBC ITV Channel 4 etc is available On Demand if you miss it, Freeview Play is linked to internet as well.


----------



## DaveReading (3 Mar 2020)

keithmac said:


> Most of BBC ITV Channel 4 etc is available On Demand if you miss it, Freeview Play is linked to internet as well.



Yes, it's a common misconception that On Demand can be delivered via satellite or your local TV transmitter, but obviously it can't - you need an internet connection.


----------



## NorthernSky (6 Mar 2020)

we have the freesat, i'm sure it's a humax box with recording facilities
it's really sluggish in the menus, would love to replace it but don't use it enough to warrant that for now
still seems to be going strong with the content though,


----------



## DaveReading (6 Mar 2020)

NorthernSky said:


> it's really sluggish in the menus, would love to replace it but don't use it enough to warrant that for now



If you mean the EPG, then the standard workaround for its sluggishness is to press Schedule, then the red button, rather than the Guide button.


----------



## NorthernSky (6 Mar 2020)

yes the EPG, it's god awful slow
i'll try that ta


----------



## Faratid (6 Mar 2020)

gavroche said:


> I never record anything now as I use catch up if I miss something and I don't use a box any longer either as my smart TV has all I need on it: You Tube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, I Player, ITV hub etc....



We find 'catch up' unwatchable (except BBC iplayer) due to endless lengthy adverts which can't be FF through. We record everything we want to watch, FF through ads on everything except BBC. So we watch our choice of TV, rather than being endlessly shouted at by idiots who think I want to watch adverts. We also watch Netflix, again advert free. We once tried watching something on ITV player, but it was 4-5 minutes of programme interrupted by 6-8 minutes of adverts and trailers for upcoming progs. Never again.
We don't get a proper freeview signal here, so will be very disappointed if freesat comes to an end. Which it won't, and hasn't.
Recordable freesat boxes still available.


----------



## NorthernSky (6 Mar 2020)

^ recording and fast forwarding is the way forward 
we recorded and watched that 'masked singer' series, a 1.5hr show was condensed to about 50mins or less when you take all the ads and waffle out


----------



## Mike_P (6 Mar 2020)

Tend to record commercial channels off Freeview as I have a Freeview PVR that has a minute skip button which consequently gets multiple pushes as appropriate (four typicallly)


----------

