Bye Bye Sky : Hello Saorview/Freesat

cabledude

We have decided to get rid of our Sky subscription due to our inability to avail of multi room due to not having a land line.

So we have a few questions that need answering.

1 : Can our existing Sky system be used as Freesat? Is is as simple as just taking out the card? Will we need to realign the dish? Are we better off dumping the set top box and buying a new dedicated Freesat box? I've spoken to two different people who I would expect to know their stuff and have got two different answers from them. One says that the Sky box will be fine. The other says we would be better getting a combi box for Saorview and Freesat so as not to have two seperate STB's and remotes etc.

2 : If we decide to go down the route of buying a combi box what should we look out for. What price should we expect to pay to purchase a good unit that is reliable and easy to use. I've seen bad reviews of Triax units and Ferguson. What are the best brands.

3 : We have a tv in sitting room, kitchen and bedroom. We have one Sky+ box and two magic eyes. How do we get the same set up with Free/Saor system. Will we need STB's in each room?

Thats all our questions. Thanks in advance of any help on this one folks.

DeadSkin

In a similar position to yourself. Going to cancel Sky in the coming weeks, but have concerns over mixed reviews of various combi boxes available.

I want Saorview & satellite in two rooms, sitting room with HD & must be able to record. What I plan on doing is moving the current Sky box & a Saorview box[need to purchase this] into the spare room & put a combi box in the sitting room.

So far, what I have found is Cancelling Sky Upgrade Kit. Add to this I'll need some cable, a quad lnb, a Saorview box & I think an amplifier to send the Saorview signal to both rooms. Think this should do the trick, but still looking into it.

Frank Black

cabledude wrote: »

We have decided to get rid of our Sky subscription due to our inability to avail of multi room due to not having a land line.

So we have a few questions that need answering.

1 : Can our existing Sky system be used as Freesat? Is is as simple as just taking out the card? Will we need to realign the dish? Are we better off dumping the set top box and buying a new dedicated Freesat box? I've spoken to two different people who I would expect to know their stuff and have got two different answers from them. One says that the Sky box will be fine. The other says we would be better getting a combi box for Saorview and Freesat so as not to have two seperate STB's and remotes etc.

2 : If we decide to go down the route of buying a combi box what should we look out for. What price should we expect to pay to purchase a good unit that is reliable and easy to use. I've seen bad reviews of Triax units and Ferguson. What are the best brands.

3 : We have a tv in sitting room, kitchen and bedroom. We have one Sky+ box and two magic eyes. How do we get the same set up with Free/Saor system. Will we need STB's in each room?

Thats all our questions. Thanks in advance of any help on this one folks.

Jesus! That's a lot of questions -did the same myself last year. Yes you can use your Sky box but I'd recommend getting a decent set top box for your main tv, you could use the sky boxes for your secondary tv. There's a large thread in the forum discussing combi boxes, so have a look through there. You don't need to re- align your dish.
I don't know enough to recommend you a particular model, I use a Humax Foxsat for my Freesat and my PS3 for Saorview and I'm more than happy, but unless you have a PS3, it's probably not for you.

Trevord

1. The dish will work. You can use the Sky box but you will lose Irish channels via sky.

With a Freesat box you wont have Irish channels in the same menu. You will need a Saorview or MPEG4 tv as analogue Irish tv will end later this year or else a combo box which gives you the same channels as freesat (called Free to air channels) and also Irish channels.

2. the Ariva 120. It costs about 100 euro online or as much as 150 in the likes of Harvey Norman. See Ariva related posts in this forum for more info. Note: the Ariva 120 does not have a 7 day programme guide and can't do series link and this is the main reason why you might be unhappy with it.

The nearest set up to SKY+ would be given by a freesat+ box (look for the Humax Foxsat) and a saorview tv, but note that even with this you wont be able to record Irish channels.

3. Not Sure about this. A wireless tv sender would work but these can suffer from interference

cabledude wrote: »

We have decided to get rid of our Sky subscription due to our inability to avail of multi room due to not having a land line.

So we have a few questions that need answering.

1 : Can our existing Sky system be used as Freesat? Is is as simple as just taking out the card? Will we need to realign the dish? Are we better off dumping the set top box and buying a new dedicated Freesat box? I've spoken to two different people who I would expect to know their stuff and have got two different answers from them. One says that the Sky box will be fine. The other says we would be better getting a combi box for Saorview and Freesat so as not to have two seperate STB's and remotes etc.

2 : If we decide to go down the route of buying a combi box what should we look out for. What price should we expect to pay to purchase a good unit that is reliable and easy to use. I've seen bad reviews of Triax units and Ferguson. What are the best brands.

3 : We have a tv in sitting room, kitchen and bedroom. We have one Sky+ box and two magic eyes. How do we get the same set up with Free/Saor system. Will we need STB's in each room?

Thats all our questions. Thanks in advance of any help on this one folks.

Cantona's Collars

Sky boxes can be used for fta,problem is that if you have a HD box 99% of them won't revert to the default UK epg when you remove the card.

A combi box will give you both Irish & UK tv,aerial needed for Irish tv and existing dish for the satellite reception.The dish doesn't need to be realigned,Sky/Freesat are broadcast from the same satellite.
Remember NO combi boxes are saorview certified at the moment.Check the terrestrial thread for more info.

You do know that you can keep Sky and connect fta boxes to the dish for use in other rooms;)

If you want to go the freesat route,keep the Skybox for use in another room,some people find using a different system a no-no,so the Skybox is handy as they are familiar with it,simply set the free channels as favourites.

If you have saorview compatible tv's then you won't need a saorview box but will need satellite receivers.

connundrum

cabledude wrote: »

We have decided to get rid of our Sky subscription due to our inability to avail of multi room due to not having a land line.

We don't have a landline but we have multiroom??

Is this a new thing?

John mac

to have multiroom you need a landline (officially)
(or a way of the boxes phoning home)
as the boxes have to phone home every now and again to prove they are at the same address.

some people have had multiroom without phone lines for quite a while.

eventually you may get a letter from sky looking for another subscription.

t c

There are no FREESAT combi receivers yet, you would need a Freesat/dish AND Saorview receiver/aerial for both.

I did this a couple of months ago. Got a Humax Freesat receiver with HD for main room, tv was Saorview compatible.

Secondary room has a Technomate FTA receiver which I already had, and a Saorview box.

I know people want to save money and install a system as cheap as possible, but remember,if you are not paying SKY/UPC €50 or more a month, a decent system would be paid for after 6 months or so.

I have no regrets and smile to myself when I watch a good programme and realise it is costing me NOTHING..:D, except the rip off licence fee..:(

TC

cabledude

t c wrote: »

There are no FREESAT combi receivers yet, you would need a Freesat/dish AND Saorview receiver/aerial for both.

I did this a couple of months ago. Got a Humax Freesat receiver with HD for main room, tv was Saorview compatible.

Secondary room has a Technomate FTA receiver which I already had, and a Saorview box.

I know people want to save money and install a system as cheap as possible, but remember,if you are not paying SKY/UPC €50 or more a month, a decent system would be paid for after 6 months or so.

I have no regrets and smile to myself when I watch a good programme and realise it is costing me NOTHING..:D, except the rip off licence fee..:(

TC

I have a sky dish so I'm covered there. So if I buy a Ferguson Ariva combo for example and a UHF aerial will I be ok? These boxes have input for sat and antenna. No?

So these boxes replace the need for having a dedicated Soarview box and a dedicated freesat box. And only having to deal with looking for one remote!! The only drawback seems to be that I'll have to by a combo box for each tv. Which is ok considering there's no extra subscription every month and we can watch different stations on each tv.

How user freindly are they. Are they as easy to use as the sky system - EPG and record for example. How do you find the humax stb? Expensive?

t c

Do not know about Ariva, there is a large thread on boards on this receiver.

But, it is not Freesat, it is Free to Air, the main differences are that the Freesat receivers have a seven day EPG,(Electronic Programme Guide), and up-date channel changes, frequencies, new channels added etc, and most have a built in hard drive for recording.

The Ariva, as all FTA receivers only has now and next programme guide, have to be re-tuned occasionally for updates, such as when Astra 1N came on line, and most will only record on an external hard drive and not sure if you can watch one record a second station, except Record Satellite watch Terrestrial,
Record Terrestrial watch Satellite.

Of course the advantage is one remote, but not a problem as my wife has mastered two.

My humax Freesat for example, can record 2 other stations while I watch a third. See my thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056531681 where I give a couple of links for Humax receivers. As you say you are saving on subscriptions, so do it right first time.

I installed mine, a 1m dish, 2 fta receivers, 1 Humax an aerial and one Saorview box, got a lot of help and info here, so it is not impossible if you are a bit handy......

gbee

Due to no money in bank to pay the SKY Sub, I'm cut off. And then I see this thread. Grand like.

dowtchaboy

John mac wrote: »

to have multiroom you need a landline (officially)
(or a way of the boxes phoning home)
as the boxes have to phone home every now and again to prove they are at the same address.

some people have had multiroom without phone lines for quite a while.

eventually you may get a letter from sky looking for another subscription.

Have heard of people who didn't get a letter from Sky - just noticed many months too late that their direct debit had gone up to 2 x full subs!

Cantona's Collars

gbee wrote: »

Due to no money in bank to pay the SKY Sub, I'm cut off. And then I see this thread. Grand like.

What kind of Sky box do you have? If it's not a HD box then simply remove the card,plug the box out and in again to get the UK epg with all the free channels.No need to buy another box except for Irish tv unless your telly is saorview compatible-then you just need an aerial.

If you do have a HD box then check the sticky for tuning in the free channels such as ITV etc. The remove the card trick won't work for 99% of HD boxes.

cabledude

zerks wrote: »

What kind of Sky box do you have? If it's not a HD box then simply remove the card,plug the box out and in again to get the UK epg with all the free channels.No need to buy another box except for Irish tv unless your telly is saorview compatible-then you just need an aerial.

If you do have a HD box then check the sticky for tuning in the free channels such as ITV etc. The remove the card trick won't work for 99% of HD boxes.

What channels do you get if you do what you suggested above (card out and re-boot box) do you get the ITV's Chanel 4's E4 etc? Is this the 'default' setting people speak about.? Is this reversible.?

cabledude

t c wrote: »

Do not know about Ariva, there is a large thread on boards on this receiver.

But, it is not Freesat, it is Free to Air, the main differences are that the Freesat receivers have a seven day EPG,(Electronic Programme Guide), and up-date channel changes, frequencies, new channels added etc, and most have a built in hard drive for recording.

The Ariva, as all FTA receivers only has now and next programme guide, have to be re-tuned occasionally for updates, such as when Astra 1N came on line, and most will only record on an external hard drive and not sure if you can watch one record a second station, except Record Satellite watch Terrestrial,
Record Terrestrial watch Satellite.

Of course the advantage is one remote, but not a problem as my wife has mastered two.

My humax Freesat for example, can record 2 other stations while I watch a third. See my thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056531681 where I give a couple of links for Humax receivers. As you say you are saving on subscriptions, so do it right first time.

I installed mine, a 1m dish, 2 fta receivers, 1 Humax an aerial and one Saorview box, got a lot of help and info here, so it is not impossible if you are a bit handy......

So my sky box with the card taken out is Free sat? I thought UK Free to Air was only available in the UK.. Hence the need for us in ireland to go Freesat to get BBC UTV Chanel 4 etc.

NIMAN

I cancelled my Sky subscription after 20yrs earlier this year.

I now am Freesat and Saorview only, and don't miss Sky one bit. Plus saving 500 a year.

Cantona's Collars

cabledude wrote: »

So my sky box with the card taken out is Free sat? I thought UK Free to Air was only available in the UK.. Hence the need for us in ireland to go Freesat to get BBC UTV Chanel 4 etc.

I use 2 standard Skyboxes without cards for fta and have SkyHD as the main box,the missus hates using any other system for fta as she's used to using Sky.

I simply set the 50 most popular channels e.g Channel4,ITV etc. as favourites so I can use the blue button to scroll through them thus skipping all the encrypted channels.

UK tv can be picked up all over Europe,just look at all the Irish bars in Spain showing GAA and Soccer.They simply brought over the boxes from Ireland.

Try it out,remove the card & plug the box out then in again-viola you have all the UK channels albiet they are all over the epg.Simply put the card back in to get your Sky channels back.

Frank Black

cabledude wrote: »

So my sky box with the card taken out is Free sat? I thought UK Free to Air was only available in the UK.. Hence the need for us in ireland to go Freesat to get BBC UTV Chanel 4 etc.

Your box will be Free to Air. It's available in Ireland.

All comes off the one satellite.

t c

cabledude wrote: »

So my sky box with the card taken out is Free sat? I thought UK Free to Air was only available in the UK.. Hence the need for us in ireland to go Freesat to get BBC UTV Chanel 4 etc.

As black francis says. I think you are confusing Free to Air with Freeview which is only available in the UK, (except for a few areas in Irelands SE coast and near the border), It is a terrestrial service via an aerial like our Saorview.

NIMAN

Only thing I would say that I miss about Sky is the useability.

The menu system, the recording, series links etc are all well thought out and executed on Sky boxes. Others are not as convenient for sure.

cabledude

NIMAN wrote: »

Only thing I would say that I miss about Sky is the useability.

The menu system, the recording, series links etc are all well thought out and executed on Sky boxes. Others are not as convenient for sure.

But Freesat boxes can record and series link? Perhaps not as convenient but i'll be €300 per year better off...

ei9go

When you phone up to cancell sky they will do everything to try and put you off.

The only thing to say when they put to through to cancellations is that you are moving to Australia.

Badgermonkey

cabledude wrote: »

But Freesat boxes can record and series link? Perhaps not as convenient but i'll be €300 per year better off...

Yes they can. (not on terrestrial channels though)

The box below can also be accessed online via PC/iPhone/Android to watch live TV, watch shows recorded to disk and to schedule recordings remotely.

Many have mentioned the Humax Foxsat which is great, but the additional 'slingbox' features and price make the box below an attractive proposition.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004S9OT92/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d0_g23_i3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-6&pf_rd_r=1YZN5P262JT8JD9TBCSN&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128453&pf_rd_i=468294

You should also take a look at the Freesat site itself - on the surface a combi box may appear more attractive but for me, running a Freesat and Saorview set-up side by side provides all I require and is a doddle to manage.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Birdie086

ei9go wrote: »

When you phone up to cancell sky they will do everything to try and put you off.

The only thing to say when they put to through to cancellations is that you are moving to Australia.

I found chorus very difficult to cut off a few years when I switched to sky, I have since cancelled sky, all it took was one phone call and the guy I spoke happily told me about the fact I could still use the box t watch the free to air channels. May be got lucky with who picked up the phone.

NewHillel

NIMAN wrote: »

Only thing I would say that I miss about Sky is the useability.

The menu system, the recording, series links etc are all well thought out and executed on Sky boxes. Others are not as convenient for sure.

The Humax Freesat PVR, provides very similar functionality. The big issue is for users who got used to Sky, over a long period. What I use is a Harmony Remote Control which is set up to emulate the Sky remote layout. (The other Hillels still prefer Sky!but at least they actually use the Humax, now. )

NIMAN

NewHillel wrote: »

The Humax Freesat PVR, provides very similar functionality. The big issue is for users who got used to Sky, over a long period. What I use is a Harmony Remote Control which is set up to emulate the Sky remote layout. (The other Hillels still prefer Sky!but at least they actually use the Humax, now. )

I own the Humax and its not as easy to use as the Sky, there's no argument.

But then I did have Sky+ since it arrived on the scene, so probably just got used to it.

But I prefer to save 500 a year and live with a slight bit of hassle.

ronan45

John mac wrote: »

to have multiroom you need a landline (officially)
(or a way of the boxes phoning home)
as the boxes have to phone home every now and again to prove they are at the same address.

some people have had multiroom without phone lines for quite a while.

eventually you may get a letter from sky looking for another subscription.

What about you order Sky and cancel the phone line shortly after. If they call to ask about no signal coming from your box just say you had to cancel the phones as phone line was too pricey. I doubt they would cancel your Sky contract on that basis would they? Having to have a phone line to watch tv is odd. So if you have 3 Sky boxes you need phone lines going to all them rooms!

John mac

every sky box on a multiroom contract needs to be connected to the same phone line.

If they call to ask about no signal coming from your box just say you had to cancel the phones as phone line was too pricey

nope they will charge you full price on all boxes.

(there are people who have got away with it for years too )

Having to have a phone line to watch tv is odd

its in the sky contract .

NewHillel

NIMAN wrote: »

I own the Humax and its not as easy to use as the Sky, there's no argument.

But then I did have Sky+ since it arrived on the scene, so probably just got used to it.

But I prefer to save 500 a year and live with a slight bit of hassle.

So would I, but I was out-voted 3:

cabledude

OK folks thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

This is what I'm going to do.

In the living room currently I have SKY+. I'm going to replace the SKY+ box with an Ariva 220 combo. This gives me Irish and Freesat channels in the living room with record and pause function. This option seems to be the nearest configuration to what I have with SKY i.e. one box one remote 7 day epg and record facilities.

The SKY+ box I have at the moment will go into the kitchen/dining as a FTA box along with an Ariva T60. Same channels but without pause rewind and record.

An older SKY box I have will go into the bedroom along with another Ariva T60.

Job done. Now the only job i have to worry about along with paying for all this is running 3 coax from the LNB on my dish and the UHF down to each room TV point. The original cables in the boxes are singles so I have to try and squeeze down a second wire in each conduit to give my Sat feed and DTT fees.

That should be me sorted.

John mac

7 day epg and record facilities.

Not for satellite.
only now and next epg.

you will need a freesat box for that . such as the humax foxsat.

NIMAN

I have been looking at some of these combo boxes recently for a 2nd room, and was wondering why none of them seem to have a 7 day EPG.

Any reason for it?

John mac

NIMAN wrote: »

I have been looking at some of these combo boxes recently for a 2nd room, and was wondering why none of them seem to have a 7 day EPG.

Any reason for it?

have a read of this one http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056533212

cabledude

John mac wrote: »

Not for satellite.
only now and next epg.

you will need a freesat box for that . such as the humax foxsat.

Ok. Plan thwarted.. Thanks:)

How about the Sagem HD box. That has a 7 day epg but can only record one channel at a time, which will do me.

John mac

up to you but only has 2 stars for feedback on amazon
humax has 4.5 /
.
dont forget you will need a saorview box for rte.

cabledude

John mac wrote: »

up to you but only has 2 stars for feedback on amazon
humax has 4.5 /
.
dont forget you will need a saorview box for rte.

Good point.

Maybe this

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/HUMAX-FOXSAT-HDR-320GB-FREESAT-HD-RECORDER-IPLAYER-/230545986624?pt=UK_ConEle_SatCableFreeview_RL&hash=item35ad9c9440#ht_2537wt_118

cabledude

Is there any box that is

1 : Combo Soarview and Freesat
2 : PVR
3 : 7 Day epg

John mac

Nope not yet , or may never happen..

we can but hope..

have a look at richersounds for the humax John usually has deals going.

just ask for a quote. /

STB

cabledude wrote: »

Job done. Now the only job i have to worry about along with paying for all this is running 3 coax from the LNB on my dish and the UHF down to each room TV point. The original cables in the boxes are singles so I have to try and squeeze down a second wire in each conduit to give my Sat feed and DTT fees.

That should be me sorted.

Why would you do that ? You dont need to run an additional cable to each room. You can combine at source and then split back out with these at each end. (Ideally you would do this with a Quatro LNB and multiswitch but I am guessing you have a Sky mesh dish with a Quad LNB). Your only issue is splitting the UHF signal three times and hoping the UHF signal wont degrade to much.

SATELLITE TV AERIAL SIGNAL COMBINER SPLITTER DIPLEXER UHF F SAT



The cheap combo boxes only do 7 day epg on Saorview and now and next on Sat. Is that a bigger issue than not having the RTEs etc on the one box/remote control.

Also why are you buying the Ariva 220 over the 120 - there are no real differences..... the ariva 120 is €100.

cabledude

STB wrote: »

Why would you do that ? You dont need to run an additional cabe to each room. You can combine at source and then split back out with these at each end.

SATELLITE TV AERIAL SIGNAL COMBINER SPLITTER DIPLEXER UHF F SAT



The cheap combo boxes only do 7 day epg on Saorview and now and next on Sat. Is that a bigger issue than not having the RTEs etc on the one box/remote control.

Also why are you buying the Ariva 220 over the 120 - there are no real differences..... the ariva 120 is €100.

See this is why I came here looking for advice. I did not think you could run sat feed and DTT feed down the same cable. Excellent. That'll save me a hell of a lot of work.

To be honest the record function is more important that the number of remote's we have. I work shift and it's handy to catch up of programmes when I get in from work.

I thought it, the ariva 220, had a 7 day epg and record function along with being a combo. Apparently not. The 120 will do me considering all that. I'm trying to get the new system to work as close to what we have at the minute with sky+

lucernarian

There is a loss of signal suffered by using those combiners so you may experience dropouts on either Freesat or Saorview if you're unlucky.

Pal

cabledude wrote: »

Is there any box that is

1 : Combo Soarview and Freesat
2 : PVR
3 : 7 Day epg

I have an LG brand TV that does both Saorview and Freesat with 7 day EPGs.
Quite neat and tidy. No box at all.
Got it from Richersounds Belfast.

No PVR but you could add one.

Snazzy_Chazzy

John mac wrote: »

every sky box on a multiroom contract needs to be connected to the same phone line.



nope they will charge you full price on all boxes.

(there are people who have got away with it for years too )



its in the sky contract .

John, So if you tell Sky you will pay for the box's Which are free at the moment (multiroom) which is about 60 euro per box afaik. then you dont need to get the phoneline in? That would probably work out cheaper in the long run I would have thought than a phoneline contract?

John mac

what I am saying is if you have multiroom with the boxes connected to the phone line they will charge you €15 per box.

if you are not connected they will charge you whatever your sub is for each box , if your sub is €60 they will charge you €180 per month..

NIMAN

Pal wrote: »

I have an LG brand TV that does both Saorview and Freesat with 7 day EPGs.
Quite neat and tidy. No box at all.
Got it from Richersounds Belfast.

No PVR but you could add one.

What model is that LG?

cabledude

Ok slept on this overnight and discussed with the mrs. today.

I'm leaning towards the Ariva 120 but cannot seem to find the following info.

Does the Ariva 120 have a 7 day Saorview EPG?.

I know it has a now and next epg for freesat, which is fine. Most of the programming we need to record is on Irish channels in any case so we're good on this point.

STB

Yes 7 day epg on Ariva 120 combo for Saorview. You can also load the channel list to the box via USB stick/drive from downloads here (to save you having to order them yourself and then edit what you do dont want). There is a massive thread on them below. Satellite.ie (Tony) and Satworld.ie both sell them. They are supported by Tony here on boards.

@NIMAN - The LG that Pal is talking about is the LF7700 series. They were discontinued 2/3 years ago. The major manufacturers take it in turns releasing Freesat Combo TVs. They only last on the market for a year or so. Kinda limited edition. Samsung have a range out at the moment which are fairly expensive as they also have smart TV functionality.

cabledude

STB wrote: »

Yes 7 day epg on Ariva 120 combo for Saorview. You can also load the channel list to the box via USB stick/drive from downloads here (to save you having to order them yourself and then edit what you do dont want). There is a massive thread on them below. Satellite.ie (Tony) and Satworld.ie both sell them. They are supported by Tony here on boards

Cheers STB. That's my mind fully made up for me now. Cheers. I'll get the stuff bought and installed and then go about tweaking it afterwards.

frankie2shoes

how bout using a humix for most channels (to avail of hi def, 7 day epg and record fns), a saorview box for irish channels and a maybe a harmony one to control everything. you could set 4 buttons to control the saorview box and the rest to control the humix. Would this work? does anyone have/know of a remote that could be programmed in this manner?
the whole thing would have to be ultra user freindly to keep my brood happy!!

gammon_steak

black francis wrote: »

I use a Humax Foxsat for my Freesat and my PS3 for Saorview and I'm more than happy, but unless you have a PS3, it's probably not for you.

How do you use your PS3 for Saorview? Did you buy that PlayTV thing?

You just plug aeriel line into it yeah? Is there a chance you can plug the line from a dish into it as well and get get the satellite channels?

I've been thinking about getting the Ariva 120 but this is interesting.
Play TV costs almost the price for the Ariva 120 anyone so wouldn't I just be better off going with that and having it all combined?

Or do you use it that way because the Humax is a great receiver but only does FTA and not Saorview?

So many options :pac:

cabledude

Looks like I was justified in my decision to leave those a holes at Sky.

I just rang them to cancel my account. My call was answered after 2 minutes and I was through to the payment queries department. I told the guy on the phone that I wished to cancel my subscription. He said that he would need me to speak to a colleague in the cancellations department.

Queue for another 7 minutes.

Finally got a guy on the phone who was without doubt the most ignorant person I have ever had to speak to in my life, and I've met a few. Told him I wished to cancel my sub. and he said, quote, ' shure you're only paying 25 euro per month' I replied that the channels we watched were mostly available on Saorview and Freesat. He then told me that I would have to pay 180 for a new box and the guts of 200 to get it installed. I replied that his figures were all over the place. I told him that I could get a new Freesat/Saorview combo box for under 100 euro and a UHF aeriel for €40. I already have two SKY boxes that I can use as Freesat boxes and two standalone Soarviex boxes at €50 each will allow me to have 3 independent TV's with 3 channels being viewed at once. I then went on to say that I had been asking them (sky) for 4 years to allow me have Multiroom but had been told unless I had a working landline I would have to pay an extra full sub. So I said that to have the system I will have when I do this fit out with sky i.e. 3 tvs watching 3 channels would cost me €75 p.m. with sky. He then told me that I will not be able to record any channels and I corrected him on that also. So I'm going to pay out the guts of €200 all done. Then as it would happen my phone ran out of credit.

10 minutes later I got a private number call on my phone. It was my rude 'friend' from SKY. I apologised for the call dropping and told him my phone credit had run out. Unbelievably he replied ' Well my screen says here that you hung up on me' I told him that I had never hung up on anyone in my life. His reply to this was ' Well my screen here does not lie' He then went on to confirm the cancellation for 31 days time and that my final bill would be for 18 euro. Then HE HUNG UP ON ME !!!!!!!!!! Unbelievable. Not a have a good day, thanks for being a paying customer for the last 11 years. Nothing. He did not even suggest calling them if I was not happy with my new set up to become a customer once again. Hard to believe.

My Direct Debit is due out on the 11th of February for the €18 due. But while I was doing some on line banking just before logging on to post here I cancelled the Direct Debit by accident. Oh Dear. Ooops.