ex-Sky subscriber moving to FreeSat

[M60]

£120 a year recurring charge from sky is not an option, I want to buy a box outright and no monthly bills.

I'm thinking the Samsung box might been the way to go, as there is £30 caskback and richer sounds have the 500gb boxes for £170. It's also a supported model with frequent updates. The Foxsat HDR is end of life and rumoured to be replaced soon.

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I understand where your coming from there, always thought the whole subscription Sky+ thing is a con and the reason they don't allow you to keep it when cancelling is because loads of people continue paying subscriptions just to enable recording from the main FTA PSB's, this was certainly the case with my ex-partner when she was going to cancel!

I hear some very good words about the Samsung STB now, their main issue was releasing the product to the market to early and what sounds like without proper soak-testing, both hardware and software-wise. I guess both Samsung and Freesat have both worked to resolve issues as it does look stylish and apart from a few niggles it's much more smoother to operate now.

In terms of Humax, I emailed their support regarding the EPG delay issue and it sounds like, from their response, they've had a fair bit of grief over it. They told me there's a software update in the pipeline, no imminent date but as tivu and others mention it sounds like it's due fairly soon. One thing about Humax is they do seem to put effort in to ironing out software bugs and whilst there's talk about the Foxsat HDR's eventual replacement I can see it staying around for another 12mths yet.

 

[clashcityrocker]

I need to do something about this in the next few weeks. So today I had a trip to my local currys to endure the clueless and couldn't care attitude of their staff, so could try out both the Humax Foxsat HDR and the Samsung SMT S7800. They were both better than my expectations, and have come to the following conclusions.

The Humax is a pretty decent box if/when Humax sort out the menu "please wait" EPG problems, however the menus are still sometimes sluggish. It has the advantage of "padding" the start and end of recordings.

The samsung seems much faster through the menus, the UI is nicer too (not that the Humax is bad). There is no program padding, so end of recordings could be missed. I have also seen reports of some remaining software bugs (altough most of them are fixed now). If Samsung sort these problems out, it's a no-brainer, it's the superior box.

I'm swaying towards the Samsung for 2 reasons.

1/ It's a newer product and seems to be supported well by Samsung. The Humax, I still haven't received a reply to my pre-sales questions from Humax, the chance of getting post-sales support is clearly even less. It also sounds like Humax are only doing the bare minimum required to support their product, and the slowness to react to the current EPG problems is doing them no favors in this respect.

2/ The Samsung is substantially cheaper £180 from RicherSounds, with £30 samsung cashback deal.

Have I missed anything?

 

[clashcityrocker]

Sorted, £199 for the 500GB Samsung, £30 cashback makes it less than the 320GB Humax. and free delivery from here:

=http://www.purewell.co.uk

(Richer sounds is not very local to me).

The Richersounds deal is actually a bit misleading, as the price already includes the cashback, so it's £199 from Richersounds instore, but no free delivery.

 

[clashcityrocker]

What do I need card wise? It's all rather confusing, will my expired sky card just work as a freesat card, or do I need to get a new card?

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[M60]

What do I need card wise? It's all rather confusing, will my expired sky card just work as a freesat card, or do I need to get a new card?

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The Freesat STB's, whilst having a CA slot, don't accept and won't de-crypt Sky services. If it's to get the C5 bouquet of services then don't worry, these should be FTA and on Freesat within the next couple of Months.

 

[clashcityrocker]

Hmm, confused by all the TLAs.

I was on the understanding that you needed a card even for freestat to stop non-UK households watching stuff like BBC, and I'm sure someone told me once that when you cancelled Sky, the card defaulted back to a freesat card.

 

[Mickha]

All FTA, Free to Air, channels can be viewed on most satellite receivers without any cards, only the FTV, Free to View channels require a card, and that's just a basic card, either an ex-sky card or you can buy one for a one off payment.

Most of the channels are FTA, so don't require a card, taker a look at the list on lyngsat:

http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

You do require a television license, if living in the UK, to legally view any television channels, but this has nothing to do with Sky.

 

[PaulR]

All FTA channels are just that - Free To Air - and require no card. What you fallen foul of is Sky's deliberate muddying of the waters by calling their FTV (Free to View) service Freesat-from-Sky (FSFS or FFS). FSFS uses Sky's ordinary boxes and card which regionalises the BBC and ITV1 channels and also allows viewing of Pick, C5 HD (if it's an HD box), 5 US and 5*. There are also a few C5 and ITV1 regions which need a card as they are transmitted on a Europe wide beam.

True Freesat does not need a card. There are fewer channels available compared to FSFS partly due to the fact that some channels are not prepared to pay for a position on the Freesat programme guide and a few others which are encrypted as above.

Incidentally 5US and 5* are strongly tipped to join Freesat in afew months when Astra 1N comes in toservice with its narrow beam transmission capability.

 

[clashcityrocker]

Sorted, £199 for the 500GB Samsung, £30 cashback makes it less than the 320GB Humax. and free delivery from here:

=http://www.purewell.co.uk

(Richer sounds is not very local to me).

The Richersounds deal is actually a bit misleading, as the price already includes the cashback, so it's £199 from Richersounds instore, but no free delivery.

Actually people might want to think about ordering from somewhere other than Purwell, as so far unimpressed, the receiver turned up today, the box wasn't wrapped up, so it was in the standard Samsung freestat box, no tape on the box either (could have all just slid out), not even a purchase receipt, just slapped a UPS sticker on it and gave it to the man.

I now need to chase them up and get a receipt so I can get the cashback. Useless twats. I'm sure if these muppets can sell them for £199, then others will be too. Shop around.

 

[Analoguesat]

I was on the understanding that you needed a card even for freestat to stop non-UK households watching stuff like BBC,

Not since 2003 when the BBC dropped their encryption.

 

[Lazarus]

And they stop (Not!) non-UK households from watching by using a narrow beam from the Satellite.

Well, narrowish.

Actually, it spreads over a fair bit of Western Europe to some degree!