After much debate we cancelled Sky to save some money and the result is

[Lilyloo]

Now there is not much choice on tv the kids cannot argue anymore.
I have gone from full scale arguments with ds wanting sky sports , dd1 wanting disney and dd2 wanting nick jr to tiny pop for everyone (on freeview) or no tv.
Wish i had done it ages ago !!!

I want to get rid of Sky but I don't think I can live without Grey's Anatomy on Living

Blimey Kelly, for £100 a month he could probably get a season ticket to go to the actual matches couldn't he?

here you go - cheapest season ticket at Arsenal is £951. You've saved youself £250 and he still gets to watch the footie.

I'm only half joking.

hiya!!

i just got rid of sky as my df was watching all the extra sport on a website called vip stand, i just have to figure out how to connect my laptop to the tv now. any ideas??

You need to buy a special cable. I bought mine from the applestore, as I have a mac.

thanks shrew,
im not as swanky as you, but i am going to investigate today and buy a free sat box as the only con not having sky plus is the pause function.
oh the pro is saving £55 per month.

I have had Sky for 2 years.

I recently switched my phone and broadband to elsewhere as it was a cheaper deal. I have not cancelled my subscription to the sky box.

My Sky box no longer records programmes with series link, there has been a gradual deterioration of the reliability of the recording facility. Now I just get a blue screen if I try to play things that I have recorded.

(I have done all the checking of cables, switching off and restarting etc).

My questions are these:

Do sky boxes usually pack up after about 2 years?
Will it cost a fortune to repair?
Should I just cancel my subscription and go for Freeview?
How easy is it to record things (In advance, whole series etc) and what would equipment would I need to buy?

TIA for any advice. I am not very technical and don't have a convenient child or teenager around.........

Oops - didn't see the whole thread before posting. Wonder how that happened?

Will read all previous posts now.

Yes they usually pack up. Is it an HD box or a normal one? You could look out for a 2nd hand box.

Or I know some people have had success getting a free replacement off Sky when they have said they will cancel rather than pay for a repair.

There are also lots of independent TV engineers that may fix it if possible, but TBH it sounds a bit dead.

We got rid and bought a freeview HD recordable box thing - its great. Swapped phone and broadband to plusnet - no longer paying sky the best part of 100 a month.

I agree Sky is very expensive.

I swapped to Orange for landline and Broadband. I pay £23 pm and my landline calls are free anytime, and the broadband is better.

I am sure there probably are better deals out there if I had time to research them all, but it is less than half what I was paying for Sky phone and BB.

We don't really have time to watch much TV, but the recording series facility was useful (when it worked).

It is a HD box.

I just feel a bit ambivilant about forking out for a new box when I really don't use it that much.

All those channels and hardly anything worth watching.

Pm me if you want to buy our old one It's only sitting in the garage.

I am very happy not to be paying them any more. And I can get Iplayer on the telly with our new box too. The freesat boxes you can also watch ITVplayer and I think 4 on demand as well but I didn't realise that when I choose.

But it has a bigger memory than the sky box too.

I have been watching more normal telly now - been some good dramas on ITV and BBC lately, I mostly watched utter shite off the Sky channels anyway.

That is really kind of you.

I have asked DS1 to have a look at it when he finishes work.

Then I will have a think about what to do.

You can do also series record etc on a dvd recorder. We have an LG hard drive recorder with freeview built in and it's great. I can now set it to record all my fave series.

I bought a 500gb Humax freeview HD box in the end - it has the same functionality as sky+ - rewind and pause live tv, records on 2 channels while you watch a recording, can series link etc. I am really happy with it - got mine from Co Op electricals and went through TopCashback

Would probably have gone for the Freesat instead if I had been a bit less dim! then you just pay a one off £20ish for the viewing card and you still get some free to air sky channels - like Watch. But very easy to use etc.

My two already know that if we move back there will be no Sky.