Freeview or Freesat

[SquareDaff]

Hoping I've posted this in the right forum. If not please accept my apologies.
I know this is nothing to do with cycling...but I've seen similar posts before so thought I'd ask.

Like many on here I've got fed up of paying Sky an absolute fortune and absolutely refuse to pay them £10.25 extra a month for the same rubbish in HD! So I've decided to leave. The decision is which format to go with.

I've pretty much decided to go with the HUMAX HDR Fox T2 - but not sure whether to go with the FreeSat or Freeview varieties. At the moment I'm drawn towards Freeview mainly because it shows "Dave" and "FIVE USA" which I believe aren't on FreeSat and which, apparently, er in doors can't live without!

Any comments/advice gladly accepted.

 

[subaqua]

get the freesat HD so you have it when you inevitably upgrade the telly. maplin do a kit I think

then get a cheapo freeview box (£20 from tesco etc , and thats expensive IMO)

problem solved

 

[marinyork]

You're better off with freesat in the long run - in theory. Freesat isn't as good at present as many had hoped because it's been severely limited by available bandwidth on spotbeam satellites (one). They are actually about to put up a lot more spotbeam capacity so in the long run the number of HD channels available on freesat may far exceed freeview. In April it's four HD channels a piece though. At the moment it's 4 v 3 to freeview. In the future it may be something like 10 v 5 to freesat.

 

[accountantpete]

I'd go with the Freesat and cheapo Freeview option - there's a few CBS channels on Freesat which they seem to be slowly improving upon (great if you like Deep Space Nine).

I was a bit worried about the reception when it rained but it seems fine - and I put the dish up myself so it's not spot on.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Freeview is a pain in the arse, easily effected by bad weather.

I'd go for something with a dish every time.

 

[Crackle]

Well the Humax boxes are excellent, I've a Foxsat and it's superb, a lot better than the Sky menu system. No Dave on Freesat though so if that's a deal breaker then the choice is already made. In my area Freeview is fairly limited and Freesat has a much better choice, including Film4 and CBS and the slowly increasing HD channels.

 

[SquareDaff]

Cheers for the advice. Looks like Freesat it is - and then use the Freeview tuner built into the TV to watch Dave and Fiver/Five USA - altho have heard rumours about these appearing on Freesat soon.

 

[marinyork]

Cheers for the advice. Looks like Freesat it is - and then use the Freeview tuner built into the TV to watch Dave and Fiver/Five USA - altho have heard rumours about these appearing on Freesat soon.

There have been rumours for a very, very long time on Fiver/Five USA and C4HD. It's more believable at the moment as soon Astra 1N is being launched and in a couple of year's time the long term solution for this will be up there and give the solution to the capacity 'problem'. Still wouldn't hold out though. I'd be quietly optimistic about new HD channels, new channels on freesat in the 3-5 year time scale though.

 

[martint235]

I'm now almost certain to ditch Sky due to the cost. However I have a concern about Freesat in that is there a danger it may "die" as Freeview gains more channels including HD ones? After all with Freesat you do need a dish. Any one got anything to reassure me about Freesat?

Also if I do go with Freesat, do I just take the twin feeds from my Sky dish and plug them into the back of the Freesat box? Or do I need to realign the dish in some way?

Cheers

 

[Crackle]

Marin will no doubt have more info on Freesat longevity but yes you just plug in your leads, no moving the dish.

 

[monkeypony]

You get fewer channels with Freesat, which only really matters if you want to watch any of the channels that you won't get!

 

[marinyork]

I'm now almost certain to ditch Sky due to the cost. However I have a concern about Freesat in that is there a danger it may "die" as Freeview gains more channels including HD ones? After all with Freesat you do need a dish. Any one got anything to reassure me about Freesat?

There's always the risk something may die. Freesat is just an EPG and a few other things, in a way it doesn't particularly matter, just manually add channels. Freesat are busy making the second generation specs at the moment to get a few more goodies in.

Freeview has horrendous capacity issues. Someone might look at Digital Terrestrial Television HD post 2012 and think 4/5/6 HD channels on six QAM 64 multiplexs = upto 36 HD channels. It's not as simple as that because you have to fit all the crap like top-up tv on there as well as radio stations, red button and dross channels as well as the SD versions of the other channels. Due to the hardware requirements you can't even convert a bit of a mux, it's the whole or nothing. So at the moment there is one, in the future they may get round to converting a second but it'll create the most almighty uproar when they do.

My guess is in about 5,6,7 or 8 years time that freesat will probably have about 15 HD channels (it'll take a while) but freeview will be stuck on 5/6 and people will be shouting for more whilst plenty of people will resist converting a second mux. Some very brutal stark choices facing freeview in the future.

Also if I do go with Freesat, do I just take the twin feeds from my Sky dish and plug them into the back of the Freesat box? Or do I need to realign the dish in some way?

Cheers

Unless you want a PVR record facility just leave the sky box in and save some money. See how you get on for a few months, can always buy a free-to-air PVR a couple of months down the line when you're a bit more sure. In April Channel 4 HD launches on freesat.

 

[marinyork]

I'm now almost certain to ditch Sky due to the cost. However I have a concern about Freesat in that is there a danger it may "die" as Freeview gains more channels including HD ones? After all with Freesat you do need a dish. Any one got anything to reassure me about Freesat?

Also if I do go with Freesat, do I just take the twin feeds from my Sky dish and plug them into the back of the Freesat box? Or do I need to realign the dish in some way?

Cheers

Don't bother to say thank you!

 

[martint235]

Thanks very much for the advice everyone, it has made the decision much easier.

 

[marinyork]

What you going for? You getting a freesat pvr?