Hi All

I've been a sky customer for a long time and I'm in a position now where our current sky hd 1tb box is slow to respond and glitchy. I'm swapping it and rather than spending £200 on another skybox (plus setup) moving to a freesat+ recorder with various other upgrades.

Our Television is relatively new and comes with digital tuner etc but the aerial on our house is both old and untested (we've always had either cable or sky).

I was planning on going down the freeview+ route until I spotted a thread on these forums pointing out that freesat+ was an option.

My current plan is as follows,

Upgrade my internet connection to fibre broadband and ensure I get my phone line moved across to the provider along with all calls and minutes to bring the package cost down.

Buy a freesat+ Hdr recorder (I'm thinking the humax 1000s 1tb) and swap that for my sky+ box along with cancelling sky.

Buy a Chromecast device to give me access to lovefilm / Netflix on the tv which will be used to replace kids tv and give us access to our favourite shows via boxed sets.

I currently pay over £50 a month in sky subscriptions and I think even with the upgrades and subscribing to netflix/lovefilm I'll be around £40 per month up. On top of this I can put netflix on the kids android tablets and set them to the kids interface giving them the ability to watch their favourite shows without having the age old argument over who watches what on the tv.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any hints or tips to offer about freesat+ recorders, should I consider binning the satellite option and go with a new aerial and freeview+ as it's better long term?

The humax seems to be the popular choice of freesat+ box with pvr. Should I consider alternatives?

Has anyone tried the chromecast device? Does it do what it claims it does?

I don't mind spending a bit of money to move away from sky as I know that long term, if I do this right, whatever I buy now will pay for itself. It's just a case of ensuring I do the research and get the right services.

Any advice, hints or tips would be very gratefully received

Thanks

'Squish

I ditched Sky about 4 years ago for Freesat and don't regret it one bit. I have also just changed my old Humax PVR for the new Humax 1000 1tb free time box and find its superb especially with the free App that allows recording to be set via an iOS device.

Before you do switch just check out what is available on Freesat compared to what you actually watch on Sky. I also use the Now TV box for the occasional sports pass when I need to watch a specific game on Sky.

The Humax box uses exactly the same connections as your Sky box so it's an easy switch over.

Have not used the Chromecast so can't comment on that but most people seem happy with it, again check out the details of what is available and see if it gives you what you want.

Well, as it's only £30 it almost doesn't matter if it's not perfect.

I have Chromecast but so far really only use it for YouTube, so don't know what the other services are like. I don't think Lovefilm is available. It probably never will be, as it's part of Amazon.

Thanks for the advice folks.

'Squish

I'm currently in exactly the same position about to ditch my sky. I would be using my PS3 for lovefilm though so cant comment on the Chomecast.

Another thought I had with this setup was having an external hard drive connected to it so that I could fill it with movies, tv series and peppa pig to keep the little one happy. Does any one know if this would work well with the Humax?

The Humax Freetime boxes will play back Video content from a USB hard drive. Most compatible container is transport stream (.ts). They work with NTFS drives and support 1080p24 content.

We have just cancelled Sky for Freesat and I was surprised by the lack of effort by the Sky CS rep to get us to stay. There was no offers of reduced packages or discounts at all. No arm twisting or veiled threats to send the boys round or passing us on to a dozen different people.

All he said was "As you've been a customer for over 10 years you wont get a deal if you come back......."

Got confirmation letter a couple of days ago to say when our service is due to end.

Also gone for the Humax 1000s as well. £145 (incl postage) from Humax Direct for the 500Gb.

I cancelled Sky TV just over a month ago - it took me nearly 30 minutes to persuade them I really did want to leave. I've had two phone calls since. The last one even asked me how much I would happily pay. Apparently 'nothing' isn't enough! Switched off on Monday and back to my old Humax Freesat HDR which is still going strong (hope that's not the kiss of death). I have a Now TV box for the catch up channels and to watch the last few Game of Thrones episodes.

QUOTE=tim1964;72980628]We have just cancelled Sky for Freesat and I was surprised by the lack of effort by the Sky CS rep to get us to stay. There was no offers of reduced packages or discounts at all. No arm twisting or veiled threats to send the boys round or passing us on to a dozen different people.

All he said was "As you've been a customer for over 10 years you wont get a deal if you come back......."

Got confirmation letter a couple of days ago to say when our service is due to end.

Also gone for the Humax 1000s as well. £145 (incl postage) from Humax Direct for the500Gb. [/quote]

They're refurbs, aren't they??...I looked at them, thought was a little expensive for a refurb
I got a one from RS...£170, 500Gb

howardl,

The price was very good at £139 but they didn't mention the delivery charge until the checkout, (how else am I going to get it as I can't pick it up myself).

Yes, it's a grade A refurb but comes with a 2 year on site warranty.

My unit was still sealed in it's packaging with, what appears to be a brand new remote/batteries/instructions.

I cancelled Sky TV in March and went for a Humax 1Tb Freesat PVR and a Humax Youview+ PVR. I'd had Sky TV since 1990 and in the 3 months without it I can honestly say I've not missed it and turning down the 50% off everything offers to re-join wasn't in the least bit difficult.

The only things I miss about the Sky+ box are the ability to record on-demand content to it to watch rather than stream it, and an Android app to set remote recording, but that's more than made up by the Humax box being faster, will stream video from my NAS drives, and if program recordings clash give the option to record a show at a different time. The Humax Freesat box box also gains from the fact you can delete the channels you don't want from the EPG and the channels are in a much more logical and sensible order than on Sky's EPG where a +1 channel could be anywhere.

I went for both Freesat and Freeview as there's a few channels exclusive to each that I like - Freeview has Dave, Yesterday and Drama, and Freesat has VintageTV, Kerrang, Horror, CBS Action and CBS Drama.

That's the difference between Sky and Humax. The latter replace the HDD and accessories, fix any faults and soak test - hence the 2 year guarantee (as opposed to the 3 month guarantee offered by Sky). A Humax refurb has had more testing than a new unit.

Don't Humax only give 12 months on refurbs?, the two years is on new ones.

I would also doubt they change the HDD unless it's faulty.

Yes that is correct - but looks like a reasonable discount to me.
Why would anyone change a non faulty HD?

So, only four times as long as the Sky?

Bummer!

Not really, there's no basis for comparison - the Humax box is 'graded stock', which normally comes with the same warranty as brand new stock - but in this case they drop it to the standard 12 month warranty.

The Sky boxes are repaired ones for service exchange, not claiming to be 'graded stock', and 3 months warranty is usual on repairs.

I don't know what you're gibbering on about.

The Humax warranty is four times the length of the Sky one. Your wittering doesn't change that.

I know you are obliged (for whatever reason) to respond to any and every post that might make Freesat appear a better option than Sky, but you might at least try and make sense.

I wasn't aware you had problems understanding plain English? - and I'm not trying to make anything look good or bad, merely stating the facts to explain the difference - and why you can't compare completely different things.

If you would care to mention which words you couldn't understand I'll try and explain them for you?.

Wow!

17 Minutes to respond. I hope sky are paying you well for this level of service.

Nigel, I can understand your wittering perfectly well.

It's just pointless and tendentious.

The plain fact is that if your sky box goes wrong after three months and a day you're out of warranty.

On the other hand with the Humax you will still be in warranty for nearly nine months.

That is what is important to the customer. They couldn't give a monkeys about how many irrelevances you, in you utter desperation to defend sky, come up with.

Quite honestly, your frantic clutching at straws is looking just a little bit pathetic.

Just wanted to point out that according to EU law:

So before all the Brussels Bashers and UKIP get their placards out some things coming out of the EU have definitely improved our consumer rights. Whether people pursue their rights is another matter.
It is also worth pointing out that:
so presumably Humax's 'Manager Specials' should also carry a two year guarantee. Has anyone challenged this?

See also: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/consumer...e/index_en.htm
and: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens...s/index_en.htm

The only pathetic person here is yourself - frantically trying to compare entirely different things in a feeble attempt to make Sky look bad. Even to the extent of pointlessly reviving a two week old thread.

As far as I'm aware Humax only offer 3 months warranty on service exchange boxes?, exactly as Sky do - except while Sky offer 3 months OR until the original warranty expires on an in-warranty replacement, I believe Humax only offer warranty until the original warranty expires (as is normal for in-warranty replacements).

So if you're doing comparisons, try and compare like for like - instead of making pathetic incorrect attacks.

Actually the EU directive those links refer to is in fact a version of the UK Sale of Goods Act. SoGA gives consumers rights for up to 6 years (5 in Scotland) to have faulty goods remedied. So SoGA is in that respect better than the EU directive. And has been around a lot longer than the equivalent EU directive.

They are the basic legal rights that every one has in regard to buying goods or services that subsequently turn out to be faulty (which in SoGA speak does not necessarily mean broken or not working).

There is nothing in either the EU legislation or the Sale of Goods Act that compels anyone to offer any sort of guarantee for any period of time. A guarantee is additional to your legal rights not a replacement for them.

So Humax are breaking no law by offering a 12 month guarantee. As the guarantee they offer can only be in addition to the basic legal rights under SoGA. Which they have to comply with regardless.

People posting the same EU rubbish just goes on and on doesn't it , as always it's inferior to UK legislation, and doesn't even apply in the UK (it wasn't ratified).

Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 was transposed into UK law on the 31 March 2003 (15 months after the deadline). This directive was intended to create a level playing-field throughout the EU with a minimum set of common consumer rights on faulty goods within all member states. It forms a basis and national law may exceed the provisions but never be less. This does not mean the EU legislation is inferior just that some national legislation may be superior. In other directives UK citizens have benefited from improved protection compared to the former national legislation.

Are you crazy?, it means EXACTLY that

So you apparently agree that the UK SOGA is 'superior'?, but think that somehow that doesn't mean the EU legislation is 'inferior'? - how can it not?.