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Sky versus freeview recorder?

18 replies

Chocolatepeanuts · 08/04/2019 19:03

Has anyone any experience of freeview recorder boxes? We are coming to the end of our sky q contract, we barely use any channels that aren't available on regular TV (DC might miss nick jr but theyll get over it!) but i really love the record function, especially series record. Are they reliable and is there something Im missing. Why arent they more popular? I dont think I know anyone who has one.

Thanks!

OP posts:
Katinkka · 08/04/2019 19:08

I’m interested too. After GoT I am done paying Sky £40 a month.

scaryteacher · 08/04/2019 19:33

Had a Freeview recorder whilst in the UK, and used it over here for our Freesat. Loved it.

If you don't have to pay, why do so?

SharkSave · 08/04/2019 19:35

I've got a freesat recording box. It uses the same cables as sky so no need for another aerial if you haven't got one already.
Ours is 6 years old now and still going strong. It's a humax one, cost about £200 initially

MyDcAreMarvel · 08/04/2019 20:30

You can pay £10 a month to sky for freesat and recording /pause features.

Chocolatepeanuts · 08/04/2019 21:33

Sorry i went awol there! @MyDcAreMarvel do i contact sky or freesat for that?

OP posts:
MyDcAreMarvel · 08/04/2019 23:24

Sky ( freesat is free automatically if you cancel sky) just ask sky to cancel all services but you would like to retain record and pause features. It’s the pause and record you pay the £10 for.
It’s then like a freeview box with extra free random channels like true movies.

bookmum08 · 08/04/2019 23:36

I have a freeview humax recorder. We get about 90 channels (although some are a bit rubbish) and can record two channels at once and sometimes watch a third at the same time (it depends what frequency the third channel is on).
We paid about £140 for the box and have had it for about 9 years.
Oh and for the kids there are 5 or 6 different channels I think.

bookmum08 · 08/04/2019 23:38

Oh and you can pause and rewind live tv on the humax and set to record whole series of a programme.

IWantMyHatBack · 08/04/2019 23:40

Freeview plus with plusnet. You can add nick if you want.

You can use the box for now tv as well

bookmum08 · 08/04/2019 23:42

MyDc you get True Movies on freeview. You should check what you are actually paying that tenner for!

MyDcAreMarvel · 08/04/2019 23:45

I am not paying for it, like I said it’s the pause and rewind you pay for. You do get some bizarre channels not on freeview clearly not the one I referenced!
My point was you aren’t paying for the channels because they are bizarre.

PrettyAmazingGrace · 08/04/2019 23:55

You don't need to pay anything for the pause, rewind, record etc. if you have a freesat box and a dish after leaving Sky. No contract, just initial cost f the box. Hundreds of channels, nothing more to pay.

MyDcAreMarvel · 08/04/2019 23:55

You do, they stop working once you cancel.

MyDcAreMarvel · 08/04/2019 23:57

Oh you mean if you buy a box , yes you can buy or box or pay £10 a month and use your existing one.

bookmum08 · 09/04/2019 01:22

But how long have you been paying £10 a month? After a year you will have paid the same cost as buying a freeview recorder box but you have to keep on paying. Seriously I would have a chat with Sky because it sounds like they are charging you for something that should be free.

NewSchoolNewName · 09/04/2019 01:57

We have a free sat box - a humax one. The people who lived in our house before us had Sky and the humax box uses the same cables.

We can pause and rewind live TV with the humax box, and record, including setting up series links to record whole series. Can’t remember how much the humax box cost now, but we’ve had it for 6 years and it’s still working fine.

I didn’t know Sky did a £10 per month thingy to let you pause & record on an existing Sky box, but I think in the long term it’s worth getting a freesat / freeview boxes rather than going for that Sky deal. The freesat / freeview boxes do have an initial outlay but once you’ve bought one there’s no extra ongoing cost.

PrettyAmazingGrace · 09/04/2019 06:42

MyDc, you don't. You buy the freesat box, plug it in, tune it and hey presto, free TV. We have been using it for years. No payment to Sky or anyone else. You're paying unnecessarily, honestly. It's not an anomaly or illegal either - a Sky engineer told us what to do when we closed our Sky account.

RottnestFerry · 09/04/2019 07:06

After subscribing for 20 years, I cancelled Sky around five months ago. We have a BT YouView recording box (bought ofF EBay) and neither of us miss Sky at all. As somebody else has pointed out, when your subscription runs out, the Sky box keeps working for Freesat channels, although you can't record anything new or access anything already recorded.

If you have a modern TV, it probably has built in Freeview and Freesat decoders but it's unlikely to be able to record.

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