Freesat HD, is it worth it

[BKGarry]

OK so i made the decision to cancel my $ky contract, due to their cost.

 

Since i found myself watching more on BTVision than i did on $ky, (I know i am Sacraficing Stargate Universe when i comes out, buy hey ho).

 

The problem is that my flat is in a converted house with a hill blocking it from the main (Crystal Palace) TV Tranmision Aerial. So Freeview TV reception is a bit cruddy (to put it lightly).

 

So I am looking into getting a Freesat HD box, mainly so I can watch the Freeview TV channels (well except for Dave which is not included on freesat transmissions)

 

I was wondering what peoples views on it are, It would actually set of my TV, even if their are only just 2 HD channels.

 

 

Looking forward to hearing from you all,

[markcuk]

get a dreambox instead SMS The Dreamboxshop official distributors of Dream- multimedia satellite receivers.

[BKGarry]

OK, dummy this up for me, what are the main advantages of getting a dreambox, as there is a hefty difference in price, and some of us cannot afford this type of stuff.

[kevbaz]

I have both freesat hd and sky, only reason for me getting the freesat was to watch the footy on bbc and itv(champs league) in hd, which is stunning by the way. Roll on the world cup

[srochford]

get a dreambox instead SMS The Dreamboxshop official distributors of Dream- multimedia satellite receivers.

 

That is one dreadful website! I can live with the messy layout but I can't find anything which tells me why I might want to buy a Dreambox! Does it just do the equivalent of a Freesat recorder? More? I can see that it supports a "bouquet list" - does this mean I can use it to order bunches of flowers :-)

 

I found a bit more info on Wikipedia but £900 seems like a lot of money for what's described there so I'm guessing I'm just not seeing some special functionality which makes it a "dream box"!!

[markcuk]

have a look at the forum Dreambox General - Satellite TV support forum & Digital TV support forum.

[BKGarry]

half of the features do nothing for me (i do not have a perminant PC at home, just my little Samsung NC10)

 

I would only be able to afford anyone of those after saving for live 10 months, i think i will stick with a Freesat box

[Michael]

In my experience I've found the Freesat boxes comparatively slow to other FTA (Free to Air) boxes. Most Freesat boxes also don't support a technology called DisEqC which allows you to switch between multiple satellites either statically or using a motor. There are many FTA channels across Europe. For example I can watch MTV Germany (which is mostly in English) unlike in the UK where I have to pay to watch MTV.

 

Personally I think going HD is advisable simply because more and more channels are making the change; otherwise you'll end up having to buy a second box in the longterm!

[SteveBentley]

A Sky box with an expired/cancelled card in it should still work for getting the FTA and FTV channels.

[Theblacksheep]

Not tried freesat, I just use a £20 FTA Sat box, plugs into sky disk and pickups up any sat it can see.... With so many encrypted it means about 10,000 BBC channels and millions of others, if only my disk could move.

 

Personally I don't think terrestrial HD is very good at the moment, none of them are 1080p and most boxes de-interlacers and scalers are crap. Mind you they seem to have turned down the bitrate on normal channels to make HD look better than it is.

[BKGarry]

I can confirm that that will happen,

 

Just that it is a standard sky box, nothing fancy to it, so might aswell go for the Freesat HD, i am not looking at getting it till october

[laserblazer]

A Sky box with an expired/cancelled card in it should still work for getting the FTA and FTV channels.

 

Does it get the HD channels? I was playing with my daughter's Sky+ in Portugal and all the HD channes had a "Call this Number".

[altecsole]

I've got Freeview and FreeSAT. To be honest, the only reason I got FreeSAT was for the hi-def content, but I'm a bit disappointed at how little there is. The HD football though, on BBC and ITV, is so much better than Freeview that I think it's worth it. Some of the natural history stuff on the BBC (South Pacific) was stunning in HD. I'm hoping that there will be some more HD content soon.

[Jamoire]

Does it get the HD channels? I was playing with my daughter's Sky+ in Portugal and all the HD channes had a "Call this Number".

 

You should get BBC HD, Channel 4 and Luxe HD free on Sky with a valid viewing card, although obviously you would need a Sky+HD box.

[Michael]

This Autumn I know that Freeview HD is being launched, but it's just going to confuse more people in my eyes. They should just leave Freeview as it is and introduce more HD content on Freesat and Sky.

 

You can pick up a 45cm Sky dish for £20-£30, so it's not going to break the bank and there are guides on the web how to prepare the cable and add F-connectors. It's not that difficult.

[Midget]

I have FreeSat, it's crap and has less channels than FreeView (mainly the channels I actually want to watch like DAVE). When you cancel they'll switch your card over to freesat if you ask.

 

I use tvcatchup which is basically freeview online for all live tv watching these days.

[RabbieBurns]

To get the HD channels you will need a HD satellite reciever, a normal sky box wont work. I use a Fortec Star HD model which was lower price range than the Dreambox I fancied. Got the dish on a disq motor as well, but never quite got it configured properly before I left.

 

It picks up the freeview HD chans no problem, also has 2 CAM slots, and one of the CAMs Ive got accepts a sky card, so can pop that in when I want to watch a sky channel. It doesnt have the sky EPG obviously, and the Sky HD channels dont work withouth an extra tenner a month subscription, even in a HD box - it must be a flag set or something similar to sky+

 

Freesat is basically jut a brand/gimmick. Any HD Sat reciever and a dish will pick up the free satellite channels.

[RabbieBurns]

PS. Ive also got a subscription to ART sports and Aljezeera Sports, which do loads of Scottish, English and Spanish Football, as well as the Champions League etc.

[SteveBentley]

The only compelling reason to go for Freesat rather than Sky is that Freesat has ITV HD.

 

Incidentally if you go into add channels on a Sky box you can add the other ITV regions - Westcountry is a much higher bitrate and resolution than the other versions, which are generally pretty poor.

 

Ironically, the reason for this is that they're using the satellite transmission to feed some of the analogue transmitters now they've closed Westcountry's studios and merged it with HTV (as was) and it wasn't worth getting a proper circuit back to London put in for the length of time those transmitters will be on the air for.

[srochford]

This Autumn I know that Freeview HD is being launched, but it's just going to confuse more people in my eyes. They should just leave Freeview as it is and introduce more HD content on Freesat and Sky.

 

Some people (me??) will be confused whatever happens but I can't see a reason not to put HD on Freeview. As I understand it, part of the reason for digital switchover is to free bandwidth for this to happen.

 

If you live in rented accommodation then it may not be easy to fit a satellite dish but you can often just use an internal aerial for Freeview (although obviously not for the original poster). If this works then it's easy to buy a really cheap (<£30) USB TV Tuner and you can have TV on your computer (and I'd guess most people here have a computer)

 

I don't know how soon you'll be able to get HD Freeview on a PC but I can't see why it shouldn't be possible.

[Michael]

It shouldn't really make any difference with regards to rented accommodation (so long as you have permission), but you are allowed by law to have two satellites. One upto 1 metre in size and a second no larger than 60cm.

 

The quality of a satellite signal is easily better than an aerial and because the difference in price is a matter of pence, it makes sense to go the satellite route. It also means manufacturers need to make yet another box, as no current Freeview box supports HD channels.

 

As I understand it digital offers better visual and sound quality, but the number of available frequencies is far greater than analogue for lots more channels than we have available today.

[SteveBentley]

As I understand it digital offers better visual and sound quality, but the number of available frequencies is far greater than analogue for lots more channels than we have available today.

 

Debatable really, digital can look and sound great, or it can look terrible when the broadcasters try to shoehorn in too many channels so they are each at a very low bitrate. You can either have a modest number of decent quality channels, or a load that look crap.

 

Very much like DAB radio - where several services are in mono so they can cram in more stations.

[RabbieBurns]

Micheal, Interested in more info of that law.. We've got at least 4 dishes

[Michael]

Debatable really, digital can look and sound great, or it can look terrible when the broadcasters try to shoehorn in too many channels

 

That's just it. Digital is definitely better than analogue, but it is ultimately upto the broadcasters what quality they want to broadcast in. In the UK it's generally pretty good overall. One channel that was always poor was Setanta and look what happened to them!

 

Interested in more info of that law

 

Have a look here on page 6. This is for England.

[BKGarry]

Thank you for the comments guy,

 

that is intresting about the Sky Dish thing, I wonder what route i should take, It is a shame about Dave, and I do not get why a Freeview channel is not avaiable on Freesat, probably costs or something, or the way that it is transmitted through the Satalite network.

 

There are, as far as i know, some MPEG-4 HD Freeview boxes being released, but i think Freesat HD is going to be a bit more reliable, but I think is it wrong that Channel 4 only offers their service through Sky