Hi There,

Currently I have Sky+ Multiroom and my plan is to leave Sky and go to FreeSat.

Sky have told me that my options are cancel all channels and because I have a "white" Sky card it will just get the free to air channels.

I've done a little searching and I think that it is Freesat+ that I need to replicate my Sky experience (but free)!

Can anyone with personal experience please confirm the following for me (so I don't make a huge mistake).

- Can a FreeSat+ box replace my current Sky+ box and connect via my already installed dish?

- Will the Sky card work in this box or do I need to replace this?

- What box would be recommended to replicate my Sky+ experiance (bar the monthly cost) as I am only interestd in free to air channels?

- Do these boxes have the ability to copy to PC?

Many thanks for any help here and a Happy New Year to you all, just trying to make my new year cheaper long term!

Yes.


A Sky card won't work in a Freesat box and you don't need it anyway. Freesat is only for free channels (FTA) and all such channekls don't require a decryption card. There are a few Sky-encrypted channels that are free (FTV), such as Ch4HD, that you won't be able to get with Freesat.


Humax Foxsat HD is the top of the range model, there are also Goodmans, Grundig and Sagem machines, and the Panasonic range of hard-disk/DVD/Blu-Ray recorders. See http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/ and http://www.freesat.co.uk/.

Hi Chris,

Many thanks for your time and reply with regards to this.

All the best.

The Foxsat-HDR is the recording freesat+ model. The Foxsat-HD is a single tuner non recording stb

Recently ditched $ky+ and bought the Humax Foxsat. Despite some people having problems, mine been solid in the couple of months I've had it, not a single missed recording or reboot, which is far better than my Sky+ box was.

Re copying to PC, it has a USB socket into which a flash drive can be used. Not sure if this is true for other makes.

I'm not a Sky user, but other things I have noticed ex-Sky users have commented upon:

1) Watch all your recordings on the Sky box, as they are linked to your Sky card (and encrypted). If they were subscription channels they will not be viewable once the subscription is dead.

2) The Sky box can push the signal out over normal TV aerial cable, allowing other TVs in the house to tune in to what is being watched/played on the Sky box (and use the Magic eye to control the Sky box). There is no such feature on any freesat box. It can be achieved, but requires additional hardware to do it.

A feature the freesat boxes do have (currently only available on the Humax boxes, and still in Beta) is access to BBC iPlayer if you have an internet connection near the foxsat box.

I have had a Humax foxsat- HDR (the two channel, recording version) since they first were available, and not had any problems beyond those bugs/features inherent in the system. It works well.

I used to have Sky and just plugged the Humax Freesat bx in and it works fine.

Likewise, the Freesat Humax box doesn everything I needed from the Sky box. Season links are much better as the box actually finds them and doesnt take about 20 attempts to 'link' them.
Yes, there is a USB port and you can copy to that - doesn't work with HD recordings though as those are encrypted.
I have been very happy with the Freesat service and after being a Sky customer for many years, have been impressed that the box has been stable for over a year. The iPlayer looks like an interesting idea and the beta works well.
Hope that helps.

I love my Foxsat HDR/Freesat+. I appreciate that some people have had problems but I haven't had any problems at all really.

I use a Scart modulator thing to send the picture to my second TV but there is no Magic Eye to control it like Sky had, that's the only thing I really miss.

I can highly recommend Freesat+. I tested out iPlayer for the first time yesterday (the HD stream) and to be honest, after a few minutes, I forgot I was watching a show over the Internet. Now and again the picture and sound reminds you of this fact but it's perfectly watchable.

When you stop paying a Sky subscription none of your recordings can be viewed whether subscription channels or not, You cannot make any new recordings either but the box does still function as a standard Sky box.

To replace magic eye google for "smart eye and blaster" from blue delta. The blaster bit retransmits the ir signal in the room where hdr is - works a dream.

do a search on the sky+ or HD forums and you will find lots of people who simply remove the card(s) for 3 months to avoid the KILL signal and subsequently are able to record and playback FTA channels at no charge

Oh that sounds ideal. Just need a second remote to go with that then! Thanks

Whovian - Plesae note you can now copy-once any BBC HD recordings to an external drive and play them back again through the Humax HDR. However, as far as I'm aware, ITV HD programmes are still fully protected

Didnt know that - thanks