Cancelling Sky HD Box

mburke

Guys,

I'm thinking of cancelling the sky+ hd box as sky seems to be mostly repeats at the moment. I can get the Irish chanels via DTT. When the Sky sub is cancelled what will I be left with ?

- Is it possible to get the UK epg on the sky hd box after cancellation or will it remain the Irish epg?

- I assume that any recordings will not be available and that the recording function will be defunct

- if this is the case, should I replace with a previous sky box to get the UK epg as standard.


Finally, any recommendations on a combo box for receiving DTT channels & fta channels with an internal hard drive to record from either at a reasonable price ?

watty

you usually can switch to UK EPG any time
Ignore Insert Card / Error messages

1) Try unplugging mains and reboot with no card. Works for most.

2) Go 501, press red button. wait for interactive to load. Pull out card. Exit back to TV channels.

3) Some boxes stubbornly refuse to load UK EPG. Then you have to use other channels for missing channels.

Yes. The "+" features, even of FTA recording are killed very evil of them. IMO this is dishonest as you own the box and should be able to record/replay FTA TV.

If you want easy use and Recordings consider Humax Foxsat HDR (or any similar "Freesat+ HD" box).

rlogue

The problem with any existing combo box on the Market is that there isn't any out there that officially supports the Freesat and the Saorview specs, so you won't get the Freesat EPG without some dodges.

The box my brother uses is one of the Technomate combos. These can be patched to get a 7 day EPG for Freesat and can receive the Saorview 7 day EPG at the moment.

These boxes are great boxes for enthusiasts.

But the Technomate doesn't support MHEG 5 - this is significant as Saorview will switch to an MHEG 5 delivered EPG at some point.

watty

Lack of MHEG5 is significant if you use BBC Interactive on Freesat. esp. Olympics, Wimbleton etc. The Skybox of course has it's own separate Interactive used by BBC.

The OP wasn't looking for a combo though. We have cancelled Sky box and Irish DTT compatible TV for Living room. Any recording of DTT or satellite is done on PC. The TV can play back via HDMI from PC or via USB Stick or USB HDD. TV is LG 42LD450

rlogue

mburke wrote: »

Finally, any recommendations on a combo box for receiving DTT channels & fta channels with an internal hard drive to record from either at a reasonable price ?

I was answering this point.

STB

I am curious. Which Technomate allows 7 day epg. It would have to a Linux combo. The 8000 ?

rlogue

The 6900 and 7102 series, but the patches have to be found on the usual dark sources...

STB

rlogue wrote: »

The 6900 and 7102 series, but the patches have to be found on the usual dark sources...

Really. Its presumably a linux image ?

The 6900 or the 6900 plus ?

watty

rlogue wrote: »

I was answering this point.

Obviously "out of coffee" error here.

Sorry.

rlogue

No not just the Linux boxes, pretty much any current Technnomate box have patches available but since a lot of these patches are of dubious legality due to what they do they can't be linked to here.

Apogee

rlogue wrote: »

No not just the Linux boxes, pretty much any current Technnomate box have patches available but since a lot of these patches are of dubious legality due to what they do they can't be linked to here.

Are you sure there are patches available for the Technomates which can parse the Freesat EPG? The only non-linux boxes I was aware of that are capable of reading the Freesat EPG are the Fortecs.

watty

Loads of Linux boxes load an EPG from Internet. That is NOT using Freesat EPG. XMLTV and such.

However.
Some patches also use the Internet instead of bothering with Subscriptions. That's actually criminal in Ireland and Dubious legality in UK.

mburke

Thanks for all the advise, does the Humax Foxsat HDR have a digitial receiver to receive Irish DTT as ideally I'd like to get one box to record Irish DTT and FTA satellite channels. It is annoying that sky disable the recording function for fta channels once you cancel your sky sub.

watty

There are no Saorview/Freesat compatible Combo boxes.

There are some boxes that can have Satellite and DTT tuners. Some can record via USB drive. The really really expensive ones have dual DTT and dual satellite and Internal HDD. These are true combo PVRs. But they are NOT Freesat+Saorview. You will not get the functionality of a Freesat PVR on them.

After May 2011, there may be a way to kuldge Saorsat onto a Humax Foxsat HDR. Humax have separate PVRs for Freesat HD (dish only) and Freeview HD (DTT, aerial). There is no UK market for a combo box.

Cantona's Collars

mburke wrote: »

Guys,

I'm thinking of cancelling the sky+ hd box as sky seems to be mostly repeats at the moment.

If as Watty states the majority of people watch FTA channels then which ones show the repeats? FTA has been terrible over the Christmas for repeats,thank God for having a decent movie collection to watch.
Sky tends to be criticised a lot for repeats while people watch soaps etc. on FTA, there is a wider range of channels out there,try them out.
It's everybodys right to go FTA if they want but what happens when they discover the repeats are just as bad.

Anyway back on topic-get a FTV card from Sky for 5hd, ch4hd and more on your sky hd box.The 'certified' saorview boxes are limited to one.When will the powers that be get their act together on this.Without Boards the confusion would be even worse,Watty and the guys are spot on when it comes to info unlike the people who should be giving it to the masses.