Freeview Vs Freesat

I binned Sky and got a recordable Freesat box this time last year.

https://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat/set-top-boxes/recordable-4k-tv-box

Not as slick as Sky but I've got used to it now. Does the job and I like to be able to record programmes so I can skip through adverts.

Connecting to old sky dish shouldn't be an issue (does it have two cables coming into the house?). You may have to factor new LNB and cabling if it doesn't work, but that doesn't cost a fortune.

The only experience I've had of a Freeview box was an older Talk Talk one - it was so slow to the point of being unusable.

As above, check the LNB on your dish as that may restrict your ability to watch a chancel and record a different one if you go the Freesat route.

I have a Freeview box and it's a bit sluggish - but it's a few years old and the more recent boxes might be quicker.

Thanks MM, that's the box I'm looking at.

We have two cables coming into the house directly from the dish, they were installed when we had the SkyHD box a few years back, not Sky Q.

One thing I've noted in the FAQs is that you can record 4 programmes at the same time if the "dish has wideband LNB (same as SkyQ)" - does this mean mine probably doesn't?

Would be a deal breaker tbh...

So I guess I need to identify which LNB our dish has?

What are the chances you'll want to record x4 programmes at the same time though? You Should be able to do x2 at a time with existing cables.

And if there's a clash the app/planner shows you later dates when a programme is broadcast so you can record that.

It might be worth a call to a local ariel installer to see what costs are to upgrade should you really need a wideband LNB.

Yes, you need a Sky Q ( wideband ) lnb to record 4 channels at the same time. A Sky Q lnb will usually have 2 outputs on it while the older Sky HD / Freesat type Lnb will have 4. Should be able to see how many without going up a ladder. Sky Q lnbs are peanuts on eBay.

Probably all the overlapping series links my other half will be setting up.

I'll try and ork out what we've got, I know an aerial guy who can help me out if needed.

One thing to be aware of...

...you'll spend about 4 months pressing the wrong buttons on the remote!! 🙂

We’ve had several freesat boxes over the years since we ditched sky. Last one has a hdd in to record stuff on.
However the user experience is pants compared to the Samsung tv with built in freesat we bought about 3 years ago. TV is fast and only needs one remote. Box and tv and firestick needed to get decent streaming- slow, three remotes. Hard to switch between inputs:- unhappy wife, bamboozled mother in law.
We never record stuff as everything can be streamed but I have plugged in an old hdd that came out of a laptop when I upgraded to ssd in order to “pause live tv”.
Wont be going back to a separate box any time soon.

You can use both, I do sometimes as the picture seems better than the YouView tuner.

@cogglepin

Yes, you need a Sky Q ( wideband ) lnb to record 4 channels at the same time. A Sky Q lnb will usually have 2 outputs on it while the older Sky HD / Freesat type Lnb will have 4. Should be able to see how many without going up a ladder. Sky Q lnbs are peanuts on eBay.

Sorry missed this...it looks like it has 2 outputs from what I can see, definitely only two cables plugged in anyway.

Would they still use that LNB even as I wasn't having SkyQ installed (future proofing perhaps)?

I'll probably press on anyway, just waiting for a price off my aerial buddy to swap the LNB over if necessary - from what I gather it won't be cost prohibitive anyway.

Cheers all.

Does your existing TV have Freeview EPG and a usb port it can record to? If so just put a memory stick in that

But I use the USB port to power my Chromecast!

Hadn't thought of that actually, good call cheers.

We have an old Synology NAS which I could probably hook up, it's a bit slow these days but could give it a crack if the USB stick works.

My TV has both built-in, and prefer Freesat, think it was the interface, however things may have moved on in the last 5 years

@Haze get your binoculars out and have a look . It would only have two cables fitted as you only had one Sky box but it will be a quad lnb (4 outputs) if you just had Sky HD and not Q. Your mate will change it in 5 mins and will probably have a wideband lnb spare. If not let me know I’ve literally dozens of them.

Cheers @cogglepin, I tried the binoculars earlier (seriously) but couldn't make it out!

Firestick? lots or random freview apps on there,

Loads of freeview channels, plus
Freevee,
UKTV play,
Iplayer,
ITV player,
channel 4 player,
channel 5 player
loads and a loads of others built in

seems less hassle than buying a box and messing with a dish.

mattyfez
Full Member

Firestick? lots or random freview apps on there,

Loads of freeview channels, plus
Freevee,
UKTV play,
Iplayer,
ITV player,
channel 4 player,
channel 5 player
loads and a loads of others built in

seems less hassle than buying a box and messing with a dish.

Yes Firesticks are pretty good and it's definitely a viable option now but I personally found a Freesat HD box is a better for live TV

-you can record programmes and skip the ads/joel dommett (on a Humax FreeSatHD box, two presses of the >> button skips the exact length of an ad-break!)

-most of those apps you list are unreliable, e.g. All4 and ITVX not resuming the program after playing ads.

-for some reason not all programmes appear on their player app instantly. Example: F1 on C4 often doesn't appear on All4 until several hours after the show aired.

-you can still watch TV if the internet drops out.

Don’t think our TV will dual record either, appreciate you can stream much more content these days but sometimes it’s nice to have it stacked up ready to play.

Plus my experience of Firesticks, admittedly a long time ago, was headaches updating software fairly frequently.