Freesat box to replace Sky digibox

[kleefarr]

Now that we have actually dumped Sky I am thinking about how to maximise the viewing potential for my dear wife. She misses the pause live tv function and I'm thinking that if I were to get something like a HUMAX+HR we would be able to hook it up to the already existing Sky dish outside.
Or is this going to be a bit more tricky for me living in Ireland?
Would I need to change the dish setup at all?

 

[Mickha]

You shouldn't need to touch the dish, all you're doing is replacing a Sky receiver, with probably, a better quality, receiver.
There are a lot of options, for receiver, with varying degrees of user friendliness, possibilities, and price.

 

[kleefarr]

Thanks Mickha.
Any particular box that would be similar to the Sky one for ease of use for my technically challenged wife? ;)

 

[Mickha]

Quite a lot can be set up to do the job, but I doubt they'll be the same as a Sky receiver.
I think a twin tuner Humax, with an internal hard drive, should do the job, for FTA, Free To Air, channels, on 28.2E, but a lot depends on your needs, price, and future consideration.
Of couse, if you wanted something really special, you could go for a receiver with 4 tuners, even a mix of satellite, and terrestrial/cable tuners, to allow you to record multiple channels, at the same time, and still view others, watch Internet streamed channels, network to your PC, and even turn into a media centre.
Also there is the new 4K technology, at least one receiver has already been released, for the 4K market.

You might want to consider getting the wife a cheap Humax and getting yourself a brand new satellite receiver, with motorized dish, to view all the available channels, on all available satellites.

 

[TJExcalibur]

Quite a lot can be set up to do the job, but I doubt they'll be the same as a Sky receiver.
I think a twin tuner Humax, with an internal hard drive, should do the job, for FTA, Free To Air, channels, on 28.2E, but a lot depends on your needs, price, and future consideration.
Of couse, if you wanted something really special, you could go for a receiver with 4 tuners, even a mix of satellite, and terrestrial/cable tuners, to allow you to record multiple channels, at the same time, and still view others, watch Internet streamed channels, network to your PC, and even turn into a media centre.
Also there is the new 4K technology, at least one receiver has already been released, for the 4K market.

You might want to consider getting the wife a cheap Humax and getting yourself a brand new satellite receiver, with motorized dish, to view all the available channels, on all available satellites.

"""You might want to consider getting the wife a cheap Humax and getting yourself a brand new satellite receiver, with motorized dish, to view all the available channels, on all available satellites"""
That is the best advice you will ever get from anywhere. A separate den is best and you can play to your hearts content.

 

[kleefarr]

Yep ok, I'll start off with the Humax+HD and will possibly think about the rest later. Get most of what I want off the net anyway, not a big TV viewer, sports etc mainly.
Thanks you two.

 

[Tony1A]

I have an Echostar Freesat+ machine that I picked up from a car boot sale a few weeks back complete with remote, power and HDMI cables for £2. Love it. Mind you at that price, what's not to love?

 

[archive10]

Humax make pretty decent boxes.
The hardware is good (although by enthusiast standard perhaps not extraordinary), and the software works reasonably well.
Maybe not the Rolls, maybe not the swiss-army knife, but reasonably advanced, and it works.
Also, and this is something rare in the industry, they do fix (serious) bugs in their software many years after warranty has run out.
Plus, having worked with them on and off professionally for a few years, I can attest to that they are bunch of really nice people, both the guys at HQ in South Korea, and the European sales and support squad.

So, I can safely state that you won't go wrong with the Humax boxes.
There might be something more exciting on the market, but as an all-round thing, they work pretty well.

 

[Archived-1]

The Wetek box would be a good choice.