I thought I would share my thoughts after switching from Sky+ to Freesat+ in Nov.

I stopped subscribing to Sky about 12 months ago. I was a fairly early adopter to Sky+ (early 2003), and have only ever subscribed to the minimum package - around £20 per month + £10 month Sky+ charge for the first 4 years. I also paid around £250 for the first Sky+ box (20GB I think). For the last year Sky have continued to charge me £10 per month so I can use the recording facility of Sky+ (on a box that I bought......how does that work?)! Anyway, I've now ditched Sky and it feels great!!

I bought a Humax Foxsat+ PVR 320GB for £250. I disconnected my beast of a Sky box and plugged in this rather small Humax box. I don't yet have an HD TV, so used the Scart connections. The install Wizard was simple and within minutes I was up and running.

I've noticed the following good and bad points:

1) Picture quality was much better than my old Pace Sky+ box - much better - sharper and richer.
2) If I press record I don't get a message saying that I need to subscribe!
3) Love the automatic prompt for Series Link
4) Love the automatic suggestion of a repeat (if available) if there is a recording clash
5) Love the skip forward button. I have mine set to two minutes. Most ITV ads are 4 mins, so two clicks of the button and no adverts!
6) Not yet had a failed recording - except we had a powercut and was amazed to see that the part of the programme before the cut had been saved. Sky never used to do that.
7) Love the automatic folders. Makes the Media list easier to navigate.
8) Love you can back up to an external drive (have tried with a memory stick). If my drive ever gets full at least I know I can do this.
9) Love I can watch BBC HD even though I don't have an HD TV - useful for clashes.
10) Think iPlayer is superb. Has been useful once or twice when forgotten to setup a recording. I'm on BT Broadband, 8MB (get around 5MB). Quality on HQ is very good.
11) Manual channels are much easier to add than Sky+
12) Remote is less clunky than Sky remote.

Bad points
1) Remote has to be pointed directly at box for it to work
2) Can't Save a programme that is part the way through and been buffered
3) When recording a programme, but watching live and then pausing live - at the end of the live programme it jumps to live TV even though you might be 10 mins behind. Hope that makes sense
4) No RF out. Had to buy an RCA to RF converter and a remote sender to watch in another room. Sky Magic Eye was easier to install

As you can see, the good points outweigh the bad. The bad points are niggles and I am hoping that future software updates will resolve some of these.

Overall, I don't miss Sky. Even better, I have no monthly Sky+ bill of £10 a month, and am not paying for 00's channels that I never watched.

Solution to this one is simple. 30 sec after recording starts the programme will be in the media list. Play this back in the usual way (chasing playback) rather than using the time shift buffer. You won't lose anything when the recording finishes and you can go anywhere within the material already recorded. Great for watching ITV, start watching about 15-20 mins after recording starts, skip the ads and finish more or less at the same time as the programme

Fortunately its the remote thats rubbish and not the HDR, buy a Harmony multi-remote and its solved.

Thanks, this is what we do now! Your post made me think that I don't think we ever watch live TV anymore. We are usually at least a few minutes behind. If something is about to start live then we usually record that and find something else to watch that has already been recorded!

Have you removed the extra bit of sticky film over the infrared receiver underneath the front panel ?

I know that there are Harmony (& other makes) devotees, but I stuck with the original & happily noticed a big improvement, after the November software update. If it had been as good, at the beginning, methinks a few less Harmonies would have been bought.

My point for jonnyjonjon, is that the HDRs are delivered with 2 or is it 3 layers of plastic protection that preserves the pristine surfaces, but halves the usability of the remote.
Have you removed them? If not then do so & prepare to be amazed !

David

Thanks for your write up Jonny it has helped me decide that when I do leave Sky this is the way to go.

The only reason I keep Sky is for the Rugby Union which, apart from the commentators and incessant instant replays, is very good in HD.

This is a really helpful summary for me. Our Humax PVR9200 is giving up the ghost and I was thinking of getting the Humax Foxsat+ PVR because our new house has a Sky dish. We've never subscribed to it, but it would make sense to use it. It's got the two leads needed for the Humax.

Can anyone tell me though, would I need to adjust the Sky dish to point to a different satellite or could I just plug in the Humax and it would work straight away?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

The good news is - it's not a Sky dish. It's a satellite dish previously used with a Sky box. The basics are that the satellites and channels are the same, it's just that the Sky box can decode some channels that the freesat boxes cannot, and each service broadcasts its own epg.

You can go ahead and just plug in a freesat box and (provided all the connections are still weather proofed) it should just work.