Freesat is of course free - there's a clue in the name! So it doesn't have a subscription option. The Humax FOXSAT does have a CI slot which will allow you to use subscription-based viewing cards for some service providers, but significantly not British ones - they're all foreign.
However there is now an app for the iPhone that goes one better. It replicates the security software currently built into Sky viewing cards, and with a suitable cable to the USB port of a FOXSAT it will allow you to watch many of Sky's subscription channels without the need to sign up with Sky. Obviously it isn't available from the Apple Store! You need to go to www.tsriflirpa.com where you'll also find a number of other apps, admittedly rather dubious ones, available for download.
Getting hold of a suitable cable might be more difficult. The only current supplier was shut down last week by Trading Standards. However the genie is now out of the bottle, as they say, and it probably won't be too long before other suppliers emerge. In fact if you can get hold of a pair of iPhone and USB plugs, you could easily make your own.
Note that it won't work for HD channels because the phone acts like a Sky viewing card and the software isn't as fast as a hard-wired chip. It also means that even in standard definition you'll get interference if you get an incoming phone call whilst watching the TV.
However there is now an app for the iPhone that goes one better. It replicates the security software currently built into Sky viewing cards, and with a suitable cable to the USB port of a FOXSAT it will allow you to watch many of Sky's subscription channels without the need to sign up with Sky. Obviously it isn't available from the Apple Store! You need to go to www.tsriflirpa.com where you'll also find a number of other apps, admittedly rather dubious ones, available for download.
Getting hold of a suitable cable might be more difficult. The only current supplier was shut down last week by Trading Standards. However the genie is now out of the bottle, as they say, and it probably won't be too long before other suppliers emerge. In fact if you can get hold of a pair of iPhone and USB plugs, you could easily make your own.
Note that it won't work for HD channels because the phone acts like a Sky viewing card and the software isn't as fast as a hard-wired chip. It also means that even in standard definition you'll get interference if you get an incoming phone call whilst watching the TV.
