After 22 years, I've cancelled Sky TV and I don't think I'm going to miss it.

[PeteXXX]

Giving up live TV wasn’t too hard, but it was funny (=ridiculous) how I then felt less plugged into the world. It was just a habit. Now it’s difficult to imagine going back to rigidly scheduled entertainments

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_jyeDZ3Sg&t=0m7s

and of course, adverts, when venturing off the Corporation’s reservation.

Ahhh... Blasted adverts! I'd forgotten about them as I don't get any 👌
I keep abreast of the news etc on the wireless.

 

[Kempstonian]

I turned my TV on yesterday for the first time since maybe Monday (I forget), surfed all the channels I used to watch regularly and couldn't find a programme I hadn't already seen. I checked out the sports channels with the same result. So I turned the TV off again and did some browsing on my computer instead. Later I played a bit of Fallout 4 and watched some DVDs.

I won't miss it when I dump the TV package. I'll do that in June when my TV licence is due. Then I'll unplu the TV and use it as a 44 inch monitor!

 

[Spoked Wheels]

Yesterday I thought I'd watch a bit of Sky TV before the 30 days notice espires.... I went to channel 113 looking for Universal and Law & Order.... but there's a comedy channel on that location.....I thought the channel had been moved so after searching for it and having no luck, I thought the internet was the place to find out.....the channel stopped on January 27th! It reassured me that I'm not going to miss Sky

 

[vickster]

Yesterday I thought I watch a bit of Sky TV before the 30 days notice espires.... I went to channel 113 looking for Universal and Law & Order.... but there's a comedy channel on that location.....I thought the channel had been moved so after searching for it and having no luck, I thought the internet was the place to find out.....the channel stopped on January 27th! It reassured me that I'm not going to miss Sky

Plenty of L&O (SVU my favourite) on Sky Witness, 5USA and the Sky box sets/catch up

 

[Mike_P]

Freesat and Channel 4 fell out so C4 pulled it's HD channel off Freesat. If you have a satellite dish I would still recommend Freesat over Freeview as the picture quality on SD is better IMO. If you have an aerial as well as a Satellite dish have both.

 

[ColinJ]

Freesat and Channel 4 fell out so C4 pulled it's HD channel off Freesat. If you have a satellite dish I would still recommend Freesat over Freeview as the picture quality on SD is better IMO. If you have an aerial as well as a Satellite dish have both.

Yes, I was mighty peeved when that happened! You can still watch Channel 4 in HD if you switch to non-Freesat mode but I prefer to record programmes and watch them late, and skipping ad breaks so I have to do that in SD now. (No recording when in non-Freesat mode!)

 

[Mike_P]

I have both Free systems so the commercial channels normally get recorded on a Panasonic Freeview PVR (a cheap refurbished example) which usefully has a 60 sec skip button, 4 presses normally kills commercial breaks

 

[NorthernDave]

Another option is NowTV if you have reliable broadband.
I think the basic entertainment pack on $ky is about £25/month now - effectively the same channels are £8.99/month on NowTV if you pay by direct debit (or even less if you buy gift cards from Tesco and the like) and you get box sets, etc as well.

 

[HLaB]

I just have free view and Amazon Prime for Eurosports. Until the lock down the TV was hardly on Eurosports (live cycling) was my favourite, its a bit reversed now

 

[Spoked Wheels]

Sky stopped yesterday and I'm not missing any of the channels but I'm missing the box functionality ie. Pause, rewind and fast forward.

Is there a box I could buy with these functionality?

 

[Gunk]

Look for a Humax freesat box

 

[Gunk]

Something like this, not cheap though 🤑

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Humax-HD...062419&hash=item48e1bab161:g:8sQAAOSwNnZeaL7W

 

[Spoked Wheels]

That sounds like would do the job, thank you.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Sky stopped yesterday and I'm not missing any of the channels but I'm missing the box functionality ie. Pause, rewind and fast forward.

Is there a box I could buy with these functionality?

The Humax box seemed to be generally accepted as the best option, but they stopped making them a while ago now, something to maybe bear that in mind if buying one.

If you've got a terrestrial digital aerial, then you can use a Freeview/Freeplay box like THIS.

I've got the same 'dilemma' in so much as I want to cancel Virginmedia entirely, (TV, Phone & Broadband*), but we are also heavily reliant on the functionality of the Tivo box.
*still need broadband, mainly for TV streaming, but can't be tied into a contract as we want to move, so that's another problem! Might have to see if I can reduce the BB cost with VM without being shackled to them.

I don't have a terrestrial aerial, only an old Sky dish with 3 cables off it, (2 from when I used to have Sky and one for Freesat), and the Virgin cable.
I was going to get a Humax box and that's when I found out Humax had lost/stopped their contract with Freesat. Another company, COMMSCOPE, (formerly Arris), are/were apparently making a new Freesat recorder which was scheduled for launch in March IIRC. They appeared briefly on Amazon then disappeared as quickly as they arrived, so far never to be seen again AFAIK, so don't know what happened there?

Well then - Just looked at a LINK from the FREESAT website to Currys and they now have 3 recordable Freesat boxes available, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, I've not looked for a few weeks so these must be brand new to the market.

I was resigned to getting an aerial fitted and getting a Freeview/Freeplay recordable box, but now I've seen these new ones I think that might be the way I'll go. From what I can gather Freesat offers more than Freeview, but there are pros and cons with both as well.

 

[ColinJ]

Something like this, not cheap though 🤑

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Humax-HD...062419&hash=item48e1bab161:g:8sQAAOSwNnZeaL7W

Blimey - I got mine for £199 new 5 years ago!!! (Obviously, the price has gone up because Humax stopped making them.)